The folks at the Herald Sun have done a great job making sure newsagents have stock of the Ashes team pins. We were ready with a good process for handling back orders and advance orders. The expected rush didn’t happen. It’s been very well supported in the newspaper so who knows why this one has been soft with consumers. These things are hard to pick.
The publisher of The New Yorker has released their entire archive, February, 1925 – April, 2006, on a palm-sized portable Hitachi hard drive. 4,000 issues. The cost is US$299. While plenty of magazine content has a shelf life, there are some titles which come to mind which led themselves to similar packaging of archives. Even the weeklies could put together packages of content based on a subject. Of course I would like it if such archive packages were available through newsagents.
Source: meika loofs samorzewski
This is a story you won’t read in the newspapers since it’s about newspapers and unsafe workplace practices resulting from often overweight product.
The findings of an ergonomic assessment into the handling of newspapers by newsagents in South Australia make for concerning reading. According to the report, current work practices are unsafe. Newsagents in South Australia are yet to be given a copy of the report and therefore may not be aware that they and their employees may be engaged in unsafe work practices. The key ergonomic risk factors identified in the report exist, in my view, in Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria in addition to South Australia where the research was undertaken.
The professionally prepared report documents unsafe work practices which stem, in part, from having to handle heavy newspapers. Any newspaper above .6 kilogram in weight is considered to be heavy. Consider this quote from the Executive Summary:
The Results section of this report (page 10) has outlined significant ergonomic risk factors associated with the newspaper delivery tasks. These risk factors are particularly related to dimensions of the weekend papers (Advertiser and Sunday Mail) when combined with the repetition, volume and manual handling aspects of the delivery process. In particular, there are significant risks associated with the delivery/throwing of the larger dimensioned and heavier Saturday Advertiser and Sunday Mail newspapers.
The report makes recommendations in the areas of unloading trucks, feeding wrapping machines, the loading of delivery vehicles, the weight of wrapped newspapers and the safe number of newspapers to be thrown by one person each day. But it all comes back to the weight of the newspaper and specifically, the weight of the Saturday newspaper. Section 5.2 of the report goes to the heart of the issue:
Agreement between the suppliers of the newspapers (i.e. The Advertiser) and the Australian Newsagents’ Federation about the safe task demands for the distribution of the newspapers. The current situation, in my view, is unsafe and modifications to the weight, dimensions and volume of papers distributed per person need to be reduced to provide a safe system of work.There are requirements for the performance of safe work by members of the Australian Newsagents’ Federation as per the Handling Procedures outlined in section 8.5 of the Territorial Distribution Agency Agreement where it states a Distributor must ensure that its employees, contractors and agents engaged in the performance of this Agreement, including, but not limited to, the handling, wrapping, strapping or delivery of Publications:
(a) perform their duties in a manner which does not expose them to any risk to their health, safety and welfare;
(b) do not cause any injury to themselves or to others, and There is also, in my opinion, and as outlined in the South Australian Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations (1995) an obligation for the manufacturers of the newspapers, News Corporation in this case, to provide a product that is safe to handle by the members of the Australian Newsagents’ Federation.
The Australian Newsagents’ Federation, which commissioned the report, received it from David Nery four months ago. I understand from the ANF website that it is currently seeking advice from a QC experienced in the OH&S area.
Workplace practices are not something one ought to spend too long thinking about. Either current practices are safe or they are not. If they are not safe, safe practices ought to be implemented immediately and in an economically sustainable way.
Since the weight of the newspaper is at the heart of the OH&S issue here, newspaper publishers will need to be involved in the solution. They control the weight of the product, the contractual terms under which newsagents operate and the fees newsagents may charge for the home delivery service. The fee will be an issue if, for example, what is currently a single wrap and throw for a Saturday Advertiser becomes two wraps and two throws. The fee is equally an issue if heavy newspapers continue to be thrown in one roll but with fewer throws per person per day as recommended in the report. The Nery report recommends that the average daily newspaper throws per person be reduced, because of newspaper weight, from 400-600 to 200-300. This is not economically viable for newsagents under the current delivery fee structure.
The ANF and newspaper publishers ought to provide newsagents with advice this week on how to immediately address the workplace situation. The Nery report contains some excellent and easy to implement advice in product handling. Publishers ought to also advise newsagents about how they plan to address the issue of overweight newspapers in the future to facilitate safe work practices. The solution begins with appropriately informing those who may be involved in unsafe work practices and advising changes which must be implemented immediately to ensure a safe work environment. Advice must also include an appropriate financial solution – ensuring that newsagents are not financially disadvantaged by oversized newspapers.
If newsagencies were unionised this report would be the subject of strike action. You’d be watching stories on TV current affairs shows of unionists picketing publishers in pursuit of a safer workplace. Newsagencies are not unionised. Most of the heavy work is done by newsagents themselves or by people too happy for the pay to be concerned about a heavy newspaper.
Publishers, newsagents and the ANF collectively have an obligation to urgently ensure that newspaper delivery practices are safe. Life is too short to risk injury because of a heavy newspaper.
For the record, I note that this report was not provided by anyone connected with any newsagent association. I make that point because I expect that there will be an accusation that the report was leaked to me by one of the state newsagent associations to get it into the public domain. My source is not under any confidentiality obligation and has given me this material so that newsagents can be informed of the need to improve work practices to better deal with heavy newspapers.
The report has been prepared by David Nery B.Sc. Hons. (Flinders), M.Sc. (London). He is principal of Nery Ergonomic Services. A search on Google quickly demonstrates his credentials in the area of industrial ergonomics.
Courtesy of Lost Remote is this story by Cory Bergman about a smart new service from Google for the US marketplace. When searching for a business you get to connect with them by phone – easily. The service is free for callers and the businesses. Google is on a win win with this. Who needs the Yellow Pages? Who needs flyers in the letter box promoting local businesses? Who needs local newspaper classifieds?
Sales of our exclusive newsXpress calendar are strong. With this calendar offering we cut out a middleman, improved margin, delivered an excellent calendar for a lower price and setup marketing initiatives for 2007 – the calendar includes 24 coupons which customers will bring back to our shop (and other newsXpress outlets) through 2007 to redeem for offers. Being exclusive to newsXpress, means our stores have a valuable point of difference in our calendar offering – rather than relying of suppliers to trim margin, we have, as a unified group, negotiated commercially and with considerable success.
This is a new approach for newsagents – it’s what we MUST do for our future. We need to exert more control over our range, improve margin and branch out into new areas which provide the traffic necessary to deliver a bright future. Our existing suppliers are not going to deliver the growth and margin we need – certainly not with exclusive product. If we don’t want to become general stores we must control more of what we sell. Hence the welcome first steps this month by newsXpress.
Disclosure – I am a shareholder in and Director of newsXpress Pty Ltd
Fairfax shows money is more important than a masthead in Sydney today with this Post-It type ad stuck on the front page of today’s Sydney Morning Herald. The frustration for retail newsagents is that this promotion pushes their customers away, it seeks to convert over-the-counter customers to home delivery customers. How many other channels would see a supplier use its partners to move customers away from them? Such is the lot of a newsagent.
Smart newsagents will remove the Post-It note ads and save their customers doing this at the counter or as they leave the shop.
As I have covered at my Tower Blog, we are close to finalising the Tower Systems 2006 Fast 3 Awards. The Fast 3 are the three fastest growing newsagents using our software. Through the awards we are encouraging newsagents to compete with themselves – to enter they print a report which compares sales over a ten month period in 2006 with the same period in 2005. We measure on unit sales. The three with the most growth win. With over 1,300 newsagents using our software today we are drawing from a considerable entrant pool.
The Fast 3 Awards gets newsagents interacting with their software. They underscore the importance of competing with yourself and reward growth regardless of the size of the business. Entrants are vying for prestige more than a financially rewarding prize as this is more about the process than anything else.
There is no comparable growth focused award for newsagents.
New Idea sales today (up to 6pm) are more than 15 times our usual Friday sales and WHO up 75%. Bearing in mind that WHO usually comes out today and New Idea Monday the results are very good.
Here’s the display we have done in store to support New Idea hitting the market three days early with the Belinda Emmett feature. The sign in the middle announces our 25 cent per copy sold gift to the McGrath Foundation.
Interesting to see the Ashes Action Pin Collection already listed at eBay even though we’re only two days into the Herald Sun promotion.
This is the entrance to the Government owned Post Shop opposite my newsagency. To get to the line to buy stamps or post a parcel you first need to navigate the soft toy speed hump. It’s there right in the entrance. I have been thinking about these soft toys and how the executives at Australia Post con the government that they are somehow connected with providing postal services then it dawned on me – they are the their lucky charms. They bring luck to the house in which they live. By luck, I mean on time mail. Buy one of these Australia Post soft toys and your mail will be on time. This means Express Post will arrive the next day!
WHO, out tomorrow, has a cover story about Belinda Emmett who lost her fight with cancer last weekend. The publishers have announced a donation of 10 cents from every copy to the McGrath Foundation. New Idea is publishing three days early and will be out tomorrow with a Belinda Emmett cover story and 10-page special tribute. Pacific Magazines, New Idea publisher, is donating $15,000 from the New Idea Breast Cancer Fund to the McGrath Foundation. From our newsagency we will be donating 25 cents from each copy of WHO and New Idea we sell to the McGrath Foundation – their focus is in raising funds to fund specialist breast care nurses primarily in rural areas without current access to them.
On September 26 I wrote to, among others, Federal Minister for Small Business, Fran Bailey about Australia Post and the unfair advantage their Government-owned Australia Post stores had and how they were specifically targeting small businesses, specifically newsagencies. In my letter I said, in part:
When farmers talk of the impact of droughts the government steps in with assistance. When auto makers talk of the impact of cheap imports the government steps in and helps. When newsagents talk of the impact of Australia Post the government ignores us.
Australia Post is our drought. For many years now it has been draining newsagencies of revenue.
Yesterday, I received this reply from the Minister. While I appreciate the response, it is meaningless. The letter says, in part:
The Australian Government recognises the importance of newsagencies in our communities and is committed to creating a fair trading environment for all small businesses.
It also makes the claim that Australia Post is permitted to:
…carry on any business or activity that is incidental or relates to the supply of postal services.
This morning I have responded with this letter to the Minister. How can the Government consider Music CDs, Chess sets, Radios, Puzzles and Cookbooks to meet the criteria under the Act? Why will the Government not take steps to have the Australia Post breach of its obligations under the Act investigated?
The Government is conflicted beyond its ownership and regulation of Australia Post. As my letter to the Minister today says:
For decades, newsagents were profitable while they had a monopoly on the distribution of newspapers and magazines. In 1999 the Government facilitated the deregulation of the distribution of newspapers and magazines. As we have lost the benefits of exclusive traffic as a result of this deregulation, Australia Post has increased its range of newsagent type lines and thereby very successfully leveraged its continued exclusivity to more effectively compete with us.
I am not calling for a wind-back of newspaper and magazine deregulation. Rather, I am calling for the Government to get out of the business of competing with independent small business.
I was in a Government owned Post Office yesterday and was confronted with a big display of plush product – soft toys. Where in the Act are provisions permitting Australia Post to enter the soft toy space? Their entry into this category this Christmas season will affect sales in my newsagency.
I am disappointed that the Government will not even for a moment contemplate that they are wrong on this and that the actions of their Corporation are harming a small business channel which is vital to the community.
Yes, Sir Humphrey Appleby is alive and well and writing letters for the Government.
We sent this flyer out to 20,000 houses around of shopping centre as one part of our pre-Christmas marketing strategy. It was delivered with the local newspaper – ensuring it gets into letterboxes. It’s the first time we have promoted our Magazine Club Card promotion using anything other than our over-the-counter pitch. We had to do something since we closed our second outlet for a month while we moved and built an entirely new store. In addition to these flyers we are creating bolder in-store displays and undertaking several other initiatives to reinforce sales in our main shop.
The scratch ticket promotion on the second page of the brochure is working very well. Sales are up considerably. This is in part due to the flyers but more because our employees know they need to offer the up-sell otherwise we give away a free $1 ticket. There is no doubt that a low an up-sell at a newsagency counter costing no more than loose change works well. We tried this a few months ago with pens and also with chocolates. Each time it worked a treat.
The reason we closed our second shop is so we could make way for our new card and gifts shop. Considering margin and the mix of products in our centre we feel we will be better served with a differently branded card and gift shop on the lower level of the centre rather than a smaller version of our newsagency. There will be a short term loss of magazine and newspaper sales – but this flyer campaign and related activity should address that. The move is about the long term of the business.
Via the New York Times comes this story about the closure of a newsstand in Seattle in submission “to the anonymous forces of the Internet and soul-less chain stores”.
Thanks to Rob Curley, speaking at the Beyond the Printed Word conference in Vienna last week, I discovered this quote from William Allen White, Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and publisher, in 1931:
“Of course as long as man lives someone will have to fill the herald’s place. Someone will have to do the bellringer’s work. Someone will have to tell the story of the day’s news and the year’s happenings. A reporter is perennial under many names and will persist with humanity. But whether the reporter’s story will be printed in types upon a press, I don’t know. I seriously doubt it. I think most of the machinery now employed in printing the day’s, the week’s, or the month’s doings will be junked by the end of this century and will be as archaic as the bellringer’s bell, or the herald’s trumpet. New methods of communication I think will supercede the old.â€
William Allen White, April 21, 1931
in a personal letter to Lyman B. Kellogg
White is right. How we access news and information will change. That it is published will not. This is why the goals of publishers do not match those of their distribution network. We are in different businesses. We must understand that if we, newsagents, are to make our own future. Not today or tomorrow but sometime soon our network will lose its value and, I suspect, be cut loose. We must pursue new customer traffic generating models for the future while ensuring the maximum return from the newspaper generated traffic we enjoy in the meantime.
The best connection I can see with the next generation of news and information distribution is through mobile access recharge. These are transactions of fractional value compared to newspaper sales. Today, we make between 18% and 25% on the sale of a newspaper and 5% on the sale of mobile device recharge. I’d expect the mobile device recharge to fall to 3% within the next year. While recharge generates traffic such customers are not loyal and we cannot therefore rely on them for traffic. So, in reality, mobile recharge is no replacement for newspapers.
Core to our challenge is that our channel was created by publishers. For our entire history we have looked to publishers to lead us by providing new products and partnering with us in their own innovations. This cannot continue given that mobile and other non-print distribution models do not require out network. Hence our need to find our own future.
I’ll have more to say on this at a future time. For now, I wanted to share the prescient quote from William Allen White.
Source: Rob Curley, VP New Products development, Washington Post, Newsweek Interactive.
Is this a promotion gone wrong or what? The sunglasses attached to the cover of this month’s New Woman fall off. You put them back on. They fall off again. Soon they crack under the weight of a misplaced shoe or shopping trolley. The only way to hold the sunglasses in place is with some decent tape but the glasses are so heavy they make the magazine lean forward. I love promotions which add value to a product but not when they lead to a negative customer experience. While the sunglasses themselves might be a good idea either they need better glue or they need to make it a counter redemption offer – even though they have a different set of challenges.
Inkfast, our online ink and toner business, is now fifteen months old and consistently generates more sales than we achieve through the entire stationery department of our retail business. For the last two months we have operated profitably without Google or Yahoo paid advertising campaigns – demonstrating that we have, in the fifteen months, created a sustainable ink and toner business. The benefits for our retail business are: better buying – thanks to Inkfast volume; better time management – it is easier to schedule order fulfillment from an online business than retail sales; spreading the risk – by moving from a pure retail play in stationery to an online/retail mix we are growing the overall category thanks to our new online customers.
While not all newsagents can move online as easy as us – since I also own a software company – they can play through the likes of online auction and classified sites. Given the growth of online sales – reports says it has doubled in the last six months – retailers not online are missing out.
Newsagents usually see Christmas sales of cards and related items kick in early in ember. This year, based on data from several stores in three different states, Christmas seems to have started earlier. Cards are the best indicator and in my own shop Christmas card sales are up 35% on the same time last year and we are down one outlet (our second shop is closed – moving to a new location and underground a complete re-fit). The newsagencies I have spoken with are early-adopters – they have seen the commercial by the majors and went out early with Christmas to capitalise on the market awareness. Sales results prose the early (for newsagents) move to be worthwhile.
On the surface it makes sense, Fairfax and News sharing trucks for newspaper distribution. It would be good if newsagents could unlock similar rationalisation so that they too could drive costs down and thereby achieve a better return. For example, it would be good is the rules of the newspaper distribution system allowed newsagents to include other products in a bag delivered to a doorstep with a newspaper.
Newsagents in some states have just been permitted their first delivery fee increase in years – these fees are set by publishers. Data suggests that in real terms newsagent compensation for each newspaper home delivered is considerably lower today than prior to deregulation. With newspaper cover prices – a key determinant of newsagent revenue – showing less than CPI increases, newsagents scramble to make more than a meager income from the delivery of newspapers. Hence the need to unlock their local distribution network for the delivery of other products at the same time as delivering the newspaper. The lack of return is one reason more newsagents are exiting from home delivery than at any time in the past.
It would be appropriate, if the discussions between Fairfax and News proceed further, that the ACCC considers the proposal at the same time as conducting a review of the impact of the 1999 deregulation of the distribution of newspapers and magazines overseen by the ACCC at the behest of the Federal Government.
Prior to deregulation, newsagents operated under a territorial system. Deregulation took that away and while we have an appropriately more competitive environment, newsagents ought to have been compensated by the Government for having their exclusivity unilaterally taken from them.
If newsagents were auto workers, farmers or chemists, the Government would most likely have thrown millions their way as it has done regularly to those industries to facilitate restructuring.
While not wanting necessarily to reopen the deregulation can of worms, there is no denying that newsagents did have something valuable taken from them by Government action without compensation.
Missing parcels of newspapers and magazines is expensive. Here’s how they fix it in Vienna – lockable boxes which drivers and store owners have access to by way of a key. Some are title specific and others for general use. The Kronen Zeitung (large daily newspaper) box was supplied by the publisher. These two are not the biggest I saw it the city. I’m told it addressed the theft of parcels delivered overnight.
Mike van Niekerk, Editor in Chief Online of Fairfax Media, delivered an impressive presentation called Cashing in on Digital Success at the Beyond the Printed Word conference in Vienna which ended Friday. It was impressive not only in demonstrating how to leverage excellent revenue from a popular and respected news site but also in the numbers presented as the table on the left shows. The full slideshow presentation is available online at the conference website. Van Niekerk demonstrated the many ways Fairfax is able to generate revenue beyond the traditional banner ads. He listed examples of rich media, over the page, half page, leader board, TVCs and sponsored links and went on to say that their problem was lack of inventory.
What I would like to see from Fairfax and the other publishers who presented at the conference is the income and net return per employee and by capital compared to the print operation. Given that publishers must be driven by share price it is the return which will guide them to the tipping point where the success of the online model, with a lower cost base, forces significant contraction of the print model. Please don’t misunderstand my interest – I am not wanting to talk newspapers down but rather have a better “heads up†when considering capital expenditure related to the sale and distribution of newspapers.
As publishers like Fairfax continue to drive their online operations, newsagents, too, must aggressively pursue new traffic and revenue opportunities. Every day we continue to perform the same tasks with the same revenue model is another day lost to the changing world and to our more forward thinking competitors.
As the IFRA Beyond the Printed Word conference wound to an end this afternoon in Vienna I was left with more questions than when the conference began. Publishers I talked with see a rapidly approaching cliff in terms of print sales and ad revenue and some are rushing to find replacement revenue. Some openly say that the paid (over the counter or subscription) newspaper as we know it will be dead, in Europe at least, in a matter of years and will be replaced with an entirely new premium print model. They are the early adopters of new models. They are balanced with others who are yet to treat an online presence other than a poor cousin to the print edition.
Back to the questions I arrived with: Is there a common strategy being adopted by publishers to find sustainable online revenue? Who is doing it well? Will online provide the revenue the shareholders in publishing firms are used to? Do the publishers get it that they are no longer newspaper publishers but, rather, media companies? Is there a place for the current distribution system (newsagents) in their thinking about the future? Do publishers really understand the Internet? Is there a revenue model which can work?
In hindsight the questions were naive in that this is all very new and publishers are learning as they go.
I saw heard about some excellent initiatives – Naples News is one, demonstrating what a newspaper with a circulation of 50,000 can achieve. What they are dong is way advanced on any Australian news site. They created this within a year. Core to their success was them taking the online move seriously from the top down and driving change. Check out their restaurant reviews and sports scores – yeah, the sports side of the side is truly amazing. The power available to the reader makes them the expert thanks to smart organisation of data.
The conference is proof that publishers the world over are taking the online challenge seriously and that print circulation marketing today is more about delaying rapid decline than achieving growth. I know there are publisher executives in Australia who disagree with me. Let’s check in in a year, two years and five years and see if I am right. If we follow the US and European examples sales will fall. However, I accept that our marketplace is different so who really knows when the inevitable change will hit. The keys are broadband take up, lower cost wireless devices and peer pressure. My plea to Australian newspaper publisher executives is – don’t get newsagents investing beyond what is absolutely necessary in and chasing paid circulation growth. Newsagents themselves need to ensure that every capital investment is for their future and not just to help publishers tread water.
Newsagents are middlemen. This makes us servants. We are not part of any publisher’s online strategy. I’m okay with that. Publishers need to do what is right for their shareholders. For our part, newsagents need to see the future and act now. We need to break out of being middlemen. We need to get smart about online. We need new revenue streams and they need this now for it will take years to change the habits of consumers.
Just as publishers have come to conferences like Beyond the Printed Word, so, too, should newsagents congregate and discuss their life after print. This is the biggest challenge in the 120 years our channel has existed.
While I am leaving the conference with more questions than when I arrived I have a better understanding of how publishers see the online opportunity and some of the strategies being employed and for that I am grateful.
It’s a brave conference which gets 16 year olds on stage to critique newspaper websites. That’s what happened this morning at the Beyond the Printed Word conference in Vienna. This team of bright 16 years shared their views, warts and all. Here is a selection of their comments:
Ads get in the way of content. They don’t like clicking on a video and having to watch an ad before the video. (You could hear the gasp when they said this.)
Pop up ads are annoying.
Most banner ads are not appealing.
They don’t like sites with too much colour, too much animation or swirling fonts.
Sites need to be easier to navigate.
It is frustrating having to register to get the content you need.
As soon as you are sent to another site, when you click a link, they quit.
Having a dating service on a news site is degrading. It’s useless.
They have a preference for proper news sites as opposed to citizen journalism.
Sites chasing young people should be designed by young people – they can tell when a 40 year old is trying to design young.
Not much interest in using mobile phones to access news. (more mutterings from the audience given many are playing in this space.)
I can’t do the hour long presentation justice here.
Some key take-aways for me were that peer pressure drives site traffic. When asked if they would switch to another social media site most of the 16 year old panel said no unless their friends switched. The big surprise was their strong reaction of advertising and their dislike for paying for anything. This is a huge challenge for any online content site chasing this demographic.
How does this connect with Australian newsagents? Well, we’re chasing this market and since they are buying fewer newspapers than the generation before them, their insights will help determine what we need to do in-store to be attractive to them.
This was an excellent session, most invaluable.
I’m at the Beyond the Printed Word conference in Vienna along with 450 representatives of newspaper publishers from 41 countries. Everyone is here to talk about how newspapers can make money from online plays and retain (and even grow) shareholder value in this rapidly changing world.
Day one has been kind of a show-and-tell event with publishers presenting what they have done. For me, the most interesting presentation today was by Mikal Rohde of Schibsted Sok AS in Norway. In just over a year the Sesam search engine developed and launched by this publisher has become the hit of Norway. In a globalisation sense it gives me heart that there are some who can beat giants. They are playing in a space few other publishers play in yet it is a logical place for a publisher because what is a search engine but an aggregator of content?
From an Australian newsagent perspective, what is most important about day one is what has not been discussed that much – that print is old news. Some people on the floor talk as if print is already buried. No, it won’t go away but, boy, will it go through some changes. Everyone at the conference is focused on moving the publisher brands born in print to the online world and while many speakers discuss how their online strategy is supporting their print model, the reality is that profit will determine how this plays out.
Newsagents need to understand that newspapers will not be the traffic driver to our retail businesses in five years that they are today and even less so in ten years. This is why what we spend on our infrastructure must change not only to draw new traffic but also to de-emphasise newspapers and to not provide them the most expensive real-estate in our stores.
I was surprised at what some companies have achieved with very small teams. Some excellent sites and services have been established with teams of ten or less – in businesses employing thousands in their print operation. I was also surprised that most of the companies so far are talking about almost single online strategies. Okay, these single sites have depth. I would have thought that is they were looking to replace a significant portion of print revenue they would need many online strategies. Connecting with an online consumer is not a once a day event to get the purchase and leave them be as is the case with a newspaper. For many, online consumption is 24/7 while with others it is many times a day through many channels – hence the need for publishers to break out from behind the masthead and connect through these channels.
Back to Norway, I like that Schibsted has created their own search engine. The control this provides will prove invaluable to their future.
Live coverage is available in part as a demonstration of some of the technologies on show.