Newspapers

Even though I don’t read German I picked up a cross-section of local newspapers from Vienna and neighboring European countries. The difference between these and newspapers I saw in London is stark. More news focus. No giveaways, today at least. Less entertainment coverage. I was talking with concierge at the hotel about it and his comment said it all – Newspapers are supposed to be about news aren’t they? yes they are.

I’ve heard that The Age today came out inside a tabloid wraparound for the Melbourne Cup – confusing many customers. Luke from my newsagency tells me:

Dozens (literally) of customers have been confused by this and have been ready to walk out of the shop thinking that there are no Ages. Everyone is confusing them for the Sun and being disappointed. Vice versa, a lot of people are throwing $1.10 at the counter and walking out with Ages.

Some people are excited that The Age has gone tabloid, then disappointed when they open it and it is still broadsheet.

I suspect the reaction encountered at my shop is not dissimilar to elsewhere. It sounds like a Melbourne Cup promotion gone wrong. Newspaper customers are habitual, they like their newspaper just so every day. The Age pushes the envelope – today with the tabloid wrap-around look and other days with their awful post-it type note ads in the middle of the masthead.

I am amazed at how fat London newspapers are on a Saturday and Sunday. Have they been to the McDonalds management school of bigger is better? It’s not, of course. These bulging newspapers are packed with too many sections, recycled content and ads, for my liking – too many ads. A good newspaper does not need to be supersized. A good newspaper needs good news coverage. The London newspapers I have seen seem to think that size does matter.

They are drug addicted as well. Hooked into giveaways because they cannot get the desired circulation without a bribe. The addiction I saw when here a year ago is as evident today. The Mail gave me a DVD of Mrs Santa Claus, The Sunday Times gave me a CD-ROM Family Tree Maker, The Daily Express gave me free Christmas Cards (but I had to go to Superdrug to redeem those) and The Sunday Telegraph gave me free Hybrid Tea Roses – if I send in a coupon and pay the postage.

Yesterday (Saturday) The Times gave me a DVD – Who Do You Think You Are – an episode of the BBC series of the same name.

Tomorrow, the Daily Mail starts a part series of Disney PC Games. How this works is that you buy the newspaper anywhere but can only redeem the coupon for the 12 parts at WH Smith or Eason stores. Given the UK market I can understand publishers limiting redemption to selected branded stores. Looking at this campaign, and considering all the others, one has to acknowledge the deep addiction of publishers to these giveaways in an effort to attract sales. My question is – who is going to stage an intervention and break the habit of the publishers? Certainly in Australia, unless the scale out model of the giveaways gets smarter, intervention to kill the addiction is essential because poor scale out is losing customers, not gaining them. Here in London the problem is more serious – these aren’t newspapers. There are advertising wrap-arounds. If I were a regular consumer I’d avoid them – their covers have little or no news appeal.

But back to London. The newspapers seem to have lost their way, lost their purpose as a respected source of news and analysis. Sure, news and analysis are still there, but in the background.

My simple view is that newspaper publishers need to learn that size does not matter, they need to drop these supersized editions. Smart advertisers will be telling them this anyway. Newspaper publishers ought to consider on working on the product to lure customers rather than negotiating a bribe. Yeah, it’s the hard road. But aren’t they the most rewarding?

The Age today has another stuck on ad. This means more trash in the streets, more trash at newsagent sales counters and more copies of the paper being ripped when part of the front page comes off with the stuck on ad. I wonder if any of the resulting frustration translates to frustration toward Hewlett Packard, today’s advertiser?

Great story in Fast Company about Rob Curley and his leadership in the hyper-local news stakes. Curly understands what local communities want and is using the Internet to deliver on that. He is makes content which is indispensable to its community – like any local newspaper. I reckon that local news is fading in Australia with centralised newsrooms and fewer resources closer to the action to report local events from a local perspective. Compared to what Curley is doing local newspapers in Australia are dinosaurs. The Fast Company article is well worth reading.

There is a newspaper promotion running in one state at the moment offering seven day home delivery for $1.00 a week for twenty weeks. I am told that this campaign is successfully switching customers from long standing direct with the newsagent relationship to a direct with the publisher relationship.

The customer saves around $7.00 a week and is very happy.

The newspaper publisher has a ‘new’ direct customer and is very happy even though they are now subsidising the customer to the tune of around $6.00 a week.

The newsagent delivers the same paper to the same house for around $1.00 a week less and is very unhappy.

The benefit for the publisher is that they now “own” the customer. This helps with print run planning and selling advertising space.

The newsagent has to accept the loss and provide a service as good as before and deal with a new master. Now, they will get a call from the publisher if there is any mistake with the delivery with such a call usually involving more stress than those made direct by customers.

Imagine how a newsagent of many years standing feels when one of their long term customers makes the switch saying that the publisher representative told them that nothing will change. A more truthful representative would have told the customer that the newsagent was going to lose close to 33% of their gross profit.

I appreciate the value of direct customer relationships to publishers. However, it is wrong that they cannibalise the long standing relationships newsagents have with home delivery customers. It is wrong that they offer promotions which effectively cut the gross profit newsagents make by 33%

The home delivery of newspapers is a premium service. In real terms, newsagents make at least 25% less today than they made four years ago. Publishers and customers cannot expect the quality of the service to remain the same if payments to newsagents continue to fall. A better alternative would be to price home delivery as the premium service it is. This makes more available for improving the service and surely this is a better outcome for all.

This current promotion ought to stop. If a publisher wants to do a deal then they need to carry the cost of the deal. To rip 33% of newsagent’s gross profit out of an existing relationship a grossly unfair treatment of a defenceless small business.

We’re giving away another carry bag with The Age today. It’s better quality and has a classier look than the previous bag give aways. It’s frustrating, though, when a customer says “no thanks, Starbucks gave me one with The Age on Thursday.” Sure enough, Starbucks was giving away the free carry bag Thursday with The Age and they still only charged 50 cents for the newspaper.

We were short delivered our usual supply of The Age today. Despite a phone call seeking replacement stock just after 6am replacement stock has not been forthcoming. Now the folks at The Age say they have no record of our call. We have a witness at our end of the call being made. Still, that doesn’t help our customers.

Silicon.com has a report about a screen developed by engineers at the University of Cambridge which can be rolled up as you would a newspaper. Once you have read the story at Silicon.com check out this story at Newspapers & technology about e-paper and a new study: E-Paper Technology, Opportunities and its Impact on Graphic Communications. Ah, change…

Michael Kinsley, writing for Time magazine, asks the only real question people ask about newspapers today: “Do Newspapers Have a Future?” Kinsley, towards the end of the article, lets us know his opinion: Newspapers on paper are on the way out. He holds hope for newspaper publishers but to me and other newsagents that is a separate question.

News Ltd’s Courier Mail has an excellent tribute to Steve Irwin on their website. Besides good content it’s interesting to see News Ltd’s clever use of online reading technology. Given the quality of the content and execution I am surprised that other News Ltd websites are not promoting the tribute.

Based on consumer interest in Steve Irwin tribute magazines I’d expect to see the News Ltd material in a printed form sometime soon.

I found this on the floor of my newsagency this morning. It’s evidence of how newspaper customers react to these post it ads The Age is running on their masthead.

Advertisers need to be made aware that customers rip the ads off and trash shops and the street with these ads. This is not a good look for the advertiser. The newspaper is in the clear because the customer keeps that – the advertiser is seen to be the cause of the problem.

Newsagents are frustrated. Customers are frustrated. Is anyone listening?

The Age again yesterday took money to defile their masthead. They stuck a gaudy Primis Telecom post it ad on the masthead. They also gave newsagents boxes of Primus Internet Phone Trial packs to hand out with the newspaper. This was hard slog in my shop. Less than 10% of the customers accepted the starter kits. Others were annoyed at the intrusion. Many had questions – “what’s an Internet phone”, “who is Primus”, and, “can I use this without a computer”.

As is happening with these stuck on masthead campaigns customers ripped the ad off and left it at the counter for us to trash.

While I welcome the 10 cents paid by The Age to hand out the starter kits, the payment did not cover for the counter time lost explaining the offer to customers. Folks at The Age need to spend time behind newsagency counters and experience the mechanics of these campaigns themselves.

The best place to find customers for an Internet Phone offering is online. Chasing customers offline at a newsagency when someone is buying a newspaper is asking for questions and frustration from all involved.

This is an extensive campaign by Primus. The Age website also ran a banner ad today:

This was placed in the right top corner of their site. Then, repeating the intrusion on the front page of the newspaper, defiling the masthead, they whacked a pop-up:

I hate this type of advertising on websites, especially news sites as it reminds me that the publisher deems the advertiser more important than the consumer.

Given the money Primus were throwing at their Internet Phone Trial, I would have preferred to see them engage with my customers through more of an educational campaign – maybe a DVD for them to play which explains what it’s all about. Handing out some software, earpieces and a microphone, in my case at least, was putting the cart before the horse.

I’ll leave the last comment to one old bloke – “nah, mate, I’ll wait until they give me a computer with paper before I want one of those”.

Tom Mohr has written an excellent piece about newspapers and the challenges they face online for Editor & Publisher. He words are clear.

Newspapers must win online, or face a future of painful contraction.

Mohr’s words are in contrast to those of Australian newspaper executives who, in recent weeks, have told us all is well.

The low rumble of shifting ground is palpable. Not only is the shift towards online; it is, in tandem, a shift away from print. Not dramatic yet, perhaps—but clear. And the impacts continue to ripple.

He eloquently tugs at the ‘mission’ of newspapers and calls all involved into action against the forces challenging newspapers today.

I believe newspapers’ social purpose—the building of civil society in cities and towns across America through the daily output of good journalism—is worth fighting for.

The article is long but essential reading to everyone earning an income from newspapers. Mohr is blunt with his views.

Newspaper industry leaders are frogs in a pot. The water’s starting to boil, and it’s time to jump. Only 19 percent of 18-34 year olds read a daily newspaper; 44 percent of them go to a web news portal. Broadband penetration has reached 57%. The blogosphere is doubling every 5 ½ months. Search provides instant access to the world’s information. User-generated content has turned the authority model of institutional media on its head. Peer-to-peer networks, tag clouds and reputation engines are fundamentally changing how people engage with content and communications.

Australia is a long way from the US. Here, unfortunately, we are not seeing commentary from publishers even close to that from Mohr and others.

Newspapers featuring Steve Irwin are prices high at eBay. Check out ads placed offering the Daily Telegraph – $6.50, the Cairns Post – $42.99, and, the Herald Sun – US$40.00. Even the poster for The Australian – $22.50.

While I respect the right of people to trade what they want, as long as it is not illegal, I would like to see eBay take a stand on this stuff and donate their advertising and Paypal fees to the work of Steve Irwin. It is wrong for them to trade in his death. I know they will have excuses and say that their community are their police on matters like this, the reality i that from every ad for Steve Irwin product they make money. eBay ought to show leadership on this.

When Graeme Baker at newsXpress Macarthur reads a major breaking story online he prints and displays the story at the counter and next to the newspapers. Graeme’s idea is innovative and reinforces his news outlet credentials with his customers. While it’s a low tech solution, it is immediate and personal and that’s what matters in the case of breaking stories like the Peter Brock news yesterday and the Steve Irwin story on Monday. Other newspaper outlets such as coffee shops, petrol stations, supermarkets and cinemas would not take this effort to connect with news. Watch while newsagents follow Graeme’s lead. I will. Yep, Graeme is a news agent.

A newspaper would never, ever mess with its masthead logo for an advertiser.

So says Steve Safran, Managing Editor of the respected The Lost Remote in a post about the ethics of advertising. He needs to see the Fairfax broadsheets, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Both have been carrying post-it type ads stuck on the front page in the middle of the masthead. Customers hate the ads and they cause litter. No upside from what I can see.

The Australian Financial Review today reported that News and Fairfax are talking about working together in some non-competitive areas. It is frustrating that the publishers frustrate newsagents when they seek to work this way. For years, newsagents have sought publisher approval for strategies which would increase home delivery revenue only to be blocked by publishers. For example, newsagents have wanted to include advertising on the packaging used to deliver newspapers. Publishers have rejected this. Newsagents can only make revenue from home delivery based on title cover price (often discounted) and delivery fees. In real terms, millions of dollars have been cut out of the newsagent channel since deregulation in 1999. Had newspaper publishers allowed newsagents to carry advertising and be more entrepreneurial in managing local newspaper circulation fewer newsagents would have got into financial trouble.

I support the discussions between News and Fairfax on non-competitive areas. They ought to allow newsagents to have more control over their end of the business and thereby reduce pressure on delivery fees.

Despite the fact that U.S. newspapers are enjoying a banner year in print classified real estate advertising, that train is about to run out of track, and there could be a rocky cliff below the barricades. Realtors tell us that they’re still buying print – not because it works better than other ad choices, but because sellers expect to see their listings in the local paper as proof that their agents are working for them.

This is the opening to a US$495 special report from the respected Classified Intelligence folks – they specialise in researching classified advertising trends. I have purchased from Classified Intelligence before and found their research to be thorough and conclusions insightful.

The challenge today for newspaper real-estate advertising is that there are now more advertising opportunities which provide better measurement. At realestate.com.au and other sites I can see impressions and visits by day for an ad and this is more useful than readership figures which are obtained in a way I cannot understand.

The challenge tomorrow will be for real-estate agents themselves as online businesses replace many of the services they offer and enable vendors to cut the sales commission from thousands to, maybe, hundreds.

The problem with all this is that I sell newspapers. They are vital to the traffic in my newsagency. At least by understanding that I am approaching a cliff I can try and turn before it’s too late.

David Kirk’s speech earlier this week to the Annual Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association (PANPA) conference has, as is usual for Australian newspaper executives, a bet each way. One the one hand he says their newspapers are very strong and are here to stay, on the other hand he outlines plans for further investment online. The speech has, in my view, not added much to the conversation about the future of newspapers. I found this week’s article in The Economist on a similar topic more enlightening. Kirk’s claim that Fairfax content sets the agenda is a bit of a stretch. I would like to see independent research on this given agenda setting by leading bloggers in Australia and overseas. Indeed, many stories have been broken online in the last year which newspapers either ignored or missed altogether.

Reading the Kirk speech I feel no better informed. I wish a publishing executive in this country would have the balls to tell it like it is, warts and all – but that might being mean making us too informed.

I am a retail newsagent and the success of newspapers is important to my business. I accept that publishers like Fairfax will pursue opportunities online. I wish they would include their retail network in this journey rather than cutting them out entirely as they have done. I also wish they would be more open about projections for paid newspapers in the future. Events in the US, UK and Europe suggest we’re in for a rough ride. If only similar disruption would pass this country by. The reality is it will not. Publishers and their distribution network need to work closer together on the changes to minimise impact and develop other uses for the valuable resource.

The Economist explores this question in its latest issue. It’s good coverage of the challenges newspapers face worldwide. Many will not resonate with Australian readers because our newspaper distribution model and therefore consumption practices are different than elsewhere. The fall in newspaper sales and relevance are not being experienced here on a scale equal to that being experiences overseas, particularly in the US.

While the disruption of the Internet, wireless access and mobile devices have impacted newspapers, one could say that the creation of these devices and the personal content/social media revolution are evidence of natural evolution at work. Maybe people are tired of being told what to think by overbearing publishers or poor quality stories coming from understaffed newsrooms. Maybe newspapers were better when they were run by journalists?

One reason women’s weekly magazine sales are strong is that they are true to their mission. Newspapers have strayed wide from their mission in the last ten to fifteen years and this makes it easier for consumers to look elsewhere.

The Economist report is well worth reading.

More customer anger yesterday at yet another stuck on ad on the front of The Sunday Age. Customers are confused and frustrated with the intrusion. Most of the ads are either left at newsagency counters, thrown on the street or, occasionally, binned. I wonder when advertisers will get that message that this advertising frustrates and even angers consumers. I also wonder how the editorial team feels seeing advertisements stuck on top of the masthead. It’s like the publisher has sold their soul to the devil.

Did the Prime Minister know that the photo being taken would be partially obscured by the IG Markets ad on the front pages to today’s Australian Financial Review? Maybe his two finger salute suggests he had an inkling.

Customers hate these stuck on ads. The ones not ripped off and left at the counter usually end up as street litter.