News Release
28 March 2006
GREENSLADE ON MULTI-PLATFORM PUBLISHING:
“PREACH THE REACH” 
Describing himself as a
revolutionary realist, media commentator
Roy Greenslade heralded the age of multi-media
journalism at the Newspaper Society’s Circulation, Editorial and
Promotions Conference yesterday, and described it as the “only
game in town”.
He said: “One product is no longer
enough... We have to offer a range of platforms… to catch the
audience’s attention. And, to be honest, that means offering
what works – a free issue here, a podcast there, a website here, a
mobile phone alert there.”
He identified the newspaper brand as the central hub of product
portfolios, saying: “For years I refused to call a
newspaper a product or a brand. But I've given in now. In truth,
there's no better way to describe a newspaper title than a
brand.
“In localities and regions across Britain, districts,
towns and cities are served by papers and everyone in that
particular area knows about the brand, even if they don't buy them
or read them. Therefore, the title itself is a fantastically
valuable asset. It is a brand, and to take that further, what we
need to be engaged in is brand development, brand
innovation. We need to use our unique relationship with our
audiences to lock them into the multi-platform offerings built
around the newspaper brand. In the end, it doesn't really matter if
the paper itself has a smaller audience than our websites or, in
the long run, other digitally-transmitted information. The key is
the brand name and to be used.”
He praised the regional press
industry’s commitment to multi-media portfolios, saying “Your
adoption of a multi-platform or multi-portfolio approach is paying
dividends. Through a mix of paid-for paper, free paper, website,
podcasts, mobile phones, and digital TV in some cases, you are
achieving high levels of penetration among your local
audiences.”
He called on the media industry to update its audience
measurement system, encouraging publishers to “preach the
reach”. He said: “We need
to find a way of showing the world what our multi-platform media
companies are achieving in terms of reaching
audiences.”
He highlighted the work of the
Newspaper Society saying: “As you all probably know, the
Newspaper Society has set up a portfolio audience group which is
trying to establish how to measure readership and viewership of
these platforms. That is one of, if not the most, important
initiatives.
“Nearly every owner and chief executive I speak to tells
me about the reach. Many are claiming that their print-web
combination is reaching more than 75% of the local population,
sometimes more. They know because they have installed software to
show how many clicks their websites are getting. They can reveal
the numbers of unique users to their websites. Of course, they also
know how many papers they sell and can verify how many frees
they’re distributing. What they need to do is to find a way of
aggregating all this in order to telling their story to advertisers
and investors.”
Multi-platform portfolios were
evident throughout the day, as delegates were presented with
examples of websites and blogging, Lite editions, podcasts and SMS
alerts, all supporting the main newspaper brand.
Paul Horrocks, editor of the
Manchester Evening News said: “We’re
now in the middle of a 24/7 revolution and it’s one in which the
consumer calls all the shots. Our aim is to make the
Manchester Evening News the widest read product in Manchester,
through a wide range of products. We currently have over 30
products…The most effective thing is to give the consumer choice
about when and where they receive their media.”
And this approach is working. Nick
Turner, deputy editor of the
Carlisle News and Star said:
“Regional newspapers are being read by more people than every
before….Our unique users online have gone up by 130%.”
Chris Pennock,
newspaper sales and marketing
director at Johnston
PressPlc agreed, saying: “The time
has come where we have to understand our audience and our
reach. In those markets where we’ve looked at it closely, or
audience and reach are bigger than they’ve ever been.”
Chaired by Howard Scott, managing
director of Newsquest Southern, the
conference took place on Monday 27 March at the Midland hotel in
Manchester. Other speakers included:
- Matt Harrison, newspaper sales
director, regional newspapers at
Trinity Mirror, on using FMCG tactics to stimulate
newspaper purchase
- David Cooke, senior buying
manager, news and magazines at
Tesco UK, on Tesco’s regional press
strategy
- Martin Lindsay, editor of the
Belfast Telegraph, and
Bob Waterhouse, editor of the
North West Enquirer, who took
part in the editors’ panel chaired by media commentator Alison
Hastings
- Carolyn Mackinnon-Ure, deputy group
circulation director of Northcliffe Newspapers
Group, on demand planning and forecasting
- Mark Challinor, European
president of INMA Europe, who gave the
closing address.
An adaptation of Roy Greenslade’s speech was published in the
Daily Telegraph today (Tuesday 28
March).
Read a
blog of the conference, by the Guardian’s Stephen
Brook.
The Newspaper Society is a member of UK Publishing
Media: a £18 billion alliance of newspapers, magazines and books,
which collectively represent one of the largest investors in the
rapidly-expanding information society.