Japan's famous newspaper is in crisis.

The Asahi Shimbun has 5.16 million subscribers, the second largest in Japan, but it seems to be in a crisis situation financially.

Until now, employees working at Asahi Shimbun were able to subscribe to the company's newspaper for free as a benefit. However, due to deteriorating business conditions, the company is about to switch to a paid subscription.

It appears that this will save 200 million yen in expenses.

In Japan, the older you are, the more likely you are to read newspapers on paper, while younger people just look at free news articles on their smartphones or tablets.

Many traditional media companies in Japan have not been able to keep up with this change in lifestyle, and this case of Asahi Shimbun is one of the results.

The decline in advertising sales and events, partly due to Covid-19, was also significant, but this is a structural problem that is expected to continue to worsen over the next year.

Since restructuring is difficult in Japan due to the law, they are trying to improve the situation by reassigning employees and soliciting voluntary retirement.

It was also announced that the president and CEO would resign in order to take responsibility.

The Asahi Shimbun is expected to post its biggest loss since its inception in 2020.