Saturday, November 11, 2006
Going free or part-free – is it worth it for evening papers?
As papers in general continue to suffer long-term circulation and readership declines evening papers seem worst hit.
The smaller ones still trying to make a go of the publishing model from the early 20th Century (concentrating on the now-freely-available-elsewhere commodity news from the day which is already being reported before the paper hits the streets) are faring worst, hence the move of many to printing earlier, or even overnight (where they haven’t got a morning stablemate they might cannibalise sales from), and switching the content balance to less time-sensitive stories like features, campaigns and other hold-back exclusive material to attract buyers all day.
One bold move, made first by the Manchester Evening News in August and then followed by the Liverpool Echo this month has been to give the paper away free to (often young and commercially attractive) commuters in the city centre.
It’s a simple tactic — making sure they have a copy of the paper in their hands as they go home and, hopefully, reading it. Follow up with market research to prove it and you’ve suddenly boosted the readership among the 18-34 ABC1 group advertisers still have wet dreams about (although other groups have their attractions too – more of that in another post some time!).
It’s certainly a way of keeping advertisers happy and, hopefully, attracting new ones once the research is in.
The click-and-print PDF products offered by The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph have the same point — getting the product into the hands of an attractive group when they have time to read it (as they commute by public transport home, or take breaks at work). Ditto the new London frees thelondonpaper and London Lite.
All of this has been helped by the fact that many such readers are used to receiving quality free papers like Metro, as Alison Hastings pointed out in her Press Gazette column on August 25 this year. So the brands aren’t diminished by being part-free. “Free” (thank goodness!) is no longer a dirty word to newspaper readers — they’re judging the paper by its quality, not its price.
But should all evenings do it?
The simple answer is no. Only those who can clearly, empirically, identify a large enough audience of potential readers attractive to advertisers who work in the city centre and, crucially, have a long enough commute by transport they’re not driving themselves to be able to read it as they make that journey home should consider this. Plus make sure that the distribution network is going to be effective to really get the papers into commuters’ hands.
If you’re a rural evening with a dispersed group of office workers over many small towns who drive themselves home in 15 minutes and don’t spend the evenings reading the day’s news, forget it — you’ll only be cannibalising some copy sales.
On the other hand if you’re publishing in a sizeable town or city with lots of office workers commuting home for more than 30 minutes, give it serious thought as well as perhaps producing a click-and-print product they can print at work and read on the way home (think of the paper, time and distribution savings – they’re printing the paper for you!)
Even though it runs against the gut instinct of editors and commercial managers to give papers away free, it’s likely to be part of the survival solution for evening papers.
At the very least, it’ll make younger readers more aware of your brand and likely to check out its online presence while still at work, or maybe at home. And that medium looks to be the long-term future for most paper brands.
The smaller ones still trying to make a go of the publishing model from the early 20th Century (concentrating on the now-freely-available-elsewhere commodity news from the day which is already being reported before the paper hits the streets) are faring worst, hence the move of many to printing earlier, or even overnight (where they haven’t got a morning stablemate they might cannibalise sales from), and switching the content balance to less time-sensitive stories like features, campaigns and other hold-back exclusive material to attract buyers all day.
One bold move, made first by the Manchester Evening News in August and then followed by the Liverpool Echo this month has been to give the paper away free to (often young and commercially attractive) commuters in the city centre.
It’s a simple tactic — making sure they have a copy of the paper in their hands as they go home and, hopefully, reading it. Follow up with market research to prove it and you’ve suddenly boosted the readership among the 18-34 ABC1 group advertisers still have wet dreams about (although other groups have their attractions too – more of that in another post some time!).
It’s certainly a way of keeping advertisers happy and, hopefully, attracting new ones once the research is in.
The click-and-print PDF products offered by The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph have the same point — getting the product into the hands of an attractive group when they have time to read it (as they commute by public transport home, or take breaks at work). Ditto the new London frees thelondonpaper and London Lite.
All of this has been helped by the fact that many such readers are used to receiving quality free papers like Metro, as Alison Hastings pointed out in her Press Gazette column on August 25 this year. So the brands aren’t diminished by being part-free. “Free” (thank goodness!) is no longer a dirty word to newspaper readers — they’re judging the paper by its quality, not its price.
But should all evenings do it?
The simple answer is no. Only those who can clearly, empirically, identify a large enough audience of potential readers attractive to advertisers who work in the city centre and, crucially, have a long enough commute by transport they’re not driving themselves to be able to read it as they make that journey home should consider this. Plus make sure that the distribution network is going to be effective to really get the papers into commuters’ hands.
If you’re a rural evening with a dispersed group of office workers over many small towns who drive themselves home in 15 minutes and don’t spend the evenings reading the day’s news, forget it — you’ll only be cannibalising some copy sales.
On the other hand if you’re publishing in a sizeable town or city with lots of office workers commuting home for more than 30 minutes, give it serious thought as well as perhaps producing a click-and-print product they can print at work and read on the way home (think of the paper, time and distribution savings – they’re printing the paper for you!)
Even though it runs against the gut instinct of editors and commercial managers to give papers away free, it’s likely to be part of the survival solution for evening papers.
At the very least, it’ll make younger readers more aware of your brand and likely to check out its online presence while still at work, or maybe at home. And that medium looks to be the long-term future for most paper brands.
