Media disruption

Having read all four Saturday newspapers in Melbourne – The Weekend Australian, The Saturday Age, The Saturday Herald Sun and The Saturday Paper – the value of competition is obvious. The three existing Saturday newspapers responded to the arrival of The Saturday Paper by rejigging their offers. The move of The Age to tabloid format is the most significant response – though they will say it was happening regardless.

This weekend, Melbourne is better served by its newspapers as a result of competition. I hope it keeps up.

Now, to the products themselves. I’m not going to comment on The Weekend Australian as it is more a propaganda sheet than newspaper – the media section on Monday is excellent and the weekend magazine insert is excellent … the rest is of little interest to me. Nor will I comment on The Saturday Herald Sun as more fluff than news … yes, it is the best selling newspaper in town.

The Saturday Age looks and feels different in part because of the format change and in part because they are feeling the pressure of the new kid on the block for than others.  The Age is thicker, heavier, feeling like it has more substance. Much of its bulk, however, comes from ads – you certainly notice these when you scan it next to The Saturday Paper which has less advertising, what feels like more meatier stories and is printed on better stock. In fact, this page by page comparison reveals a disruption by smaller format display advertising that reflects a real difference between the two products.

While it is considerably smaller, The Saturday Paper looks and feels more substantial to those who buy a newspaper for stories. This is an important point since this is why we buy newspapers today. The days of purchasing a newspaper on Saturday for car, job and real-estate advertising are over. If you are buying a paper on a Saturday for the classified advertising you’re getting to market too late. So, comparing stories how we must compare these products. The first edition of The Saturday Paper is a terrific start. I appreciate the space given to fully explore stories. I would like to read more voices on a broader selection of issues – as the newspaper develops.

I expect that we will see Fairfax tune its Saturday products in response to The Saturday Paper – just as the new newspaper will tune and adjust as it finds its feet. They will respond to consumer interest in a newspaper because of its stories by focussing more on stories. While they say they do this today, I expect they will find ways to feature stories more through design changes.

A newspaper purchase is not the habit it once was. Now, more than ever, the stories in a newspaper will drive sales. The new competition encourages this.

Yes, print newspapers are alive and competing. Good times.

The Guardian has published an excellent piece on The Saturday Paper – it’s good to read more about this exciting launch and the people behind it and why they are bucking the trend and launching a print newspaper.

There is a strong rumour that Fairfax will cut the weekend edition of The Australian Financial Review in the next few weeks. It would not surprise me. Just at it would not surprise me to hear of other daily newspapers cutting print days.

The relentless full-page and double-page ads in News Corp. capital city newspapers promoting digital access with one or two day home delivery are an indicator of the plans of the company. The marketing reads as if the print product is the gift with purchase for the main item – the digital subscription.

If you look at what some newspaper publishers have done overseas, the apparent News Corp. ought not be unexpected. Newspapers are more profitable some days than others. Focusing on the most profitable days makes sense.

I think the ads speak volumes about the focus of News. While the company has not turned its back on print, it is investing considerably in looking beyond the medium.

I love The Onion. It’s satire is cutting edge, very funny. In fact, some see it as a real news outlet and have quoted satirical stories as if they are true. Anyway, the last print edition has been published.  This makes sense since the audience for their satire is more likely wired and getting entertainment online.

The head of the second largest newspaper chain in the US says paywalls are a short term tactic reports Matthew Ingram writing at gigaom. The report quotes Digital First CEO John Paton:

“Let’s be clear, paid digital subscriptions are not a long-term strategy. They don’t transform anything; they tweak. At best, they are a short-term tactic. I have said that often enough in the past. But it’s a tactic that will help us now.”

We don’t hear this from Australian publishers. Paton also need:

‘“Print dollars are becoming digital dimes. But costs are still in dollars and, like most newspaper companies, we are radically reducing those costs. Companies like Digital First Media have to manage the decline of one medium while building for – and in some cases, waiting for – the new revenue streams to grow.”

The article is a fascinating and rare insight into how paywalls are playing our for US newspapers. Australian publishers will say our market is different. Maybe so. However, as a recent spat between News and fairfax on digital subscriptions shows, it’s a challenged space. In the meantime, from a newsagent perspective, all we know is that over the counter sales continue to be challenged.

The Age today has a wrap-around four-page ad promoting subscriptions as christmas gifts. as a retail-only newsagent I’m not keen for a product to be hidden by a promotion seeking to reduce my foot traffic.

The inside two pages of the wrap-around contain the details of the digital-only and print and digital offers for access to the newspaper. Digital is clearly the pitch here. tellingly, there is no print only offer being promoted.

paidContent reports that The Dallas Morning News has pulled down its paywall, saying the strategy failed to generate enough reader interest. This is the second major US newspaper to pull down their paywall.

Gigaom has published a summary of analysis of the purchase of The Washington Post by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. It’s well worth a read for the diversity of opinions reflected.