Sunday, August 05, 2007
Never mind the snobbery, feel the readership
I’ve been glad to see that the part-paid, part-free strategy being pursued by the Manchester Evening News is working for them both commercially and editorially — http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,,2135371,00.html
The brave move to take one of the best-known regional media brands part-free flew in the face of the conventional wisdom about not doing anything to erode an already-declining circulation. Particularly making the paper free in some areas – something the snobs in our industry look down on.
But they did it knowing they had more to gain than lose — through gaining exactly the kind of young ABC1 readers who weren’t buying the paper, simply by giving it to them. Short and medium-term, they’ve gained them as readers of the free print edition and successfully delivered these valuable eyeballs to their advertisers.
Long-term, they’ve gained something far more valuable — they’ve established a brand relationship through a regular habit-read with the long-term readers of the future, whether that be of the print or Web editions (or whatever other new medium comes along in the future).
Now they’ve got them appreciating the quality local journalism their brand can supply, they should, as long as they keep meeting their needs, continue that relationship for many more decades.
And as long as they can do that with them and the future generations coming along, they should maintain a healthy, and maybe even growing, readership.
Most other quality brands can learn a lesson from the MEN’s experience. Not least that the traditional editorial focus on circulation as some kind of macho totem has to be dropped in favour of a realistic focus on total readership, whether they be through the free or the paid-for.Why? Because your advertisers don’t care whether they’ve paid for the paper or not – they just want to have their messages exposed to them.
And keeping them happy by delivering big readerships (including through multimedia) will be at the heart of the successful media business models for the foreseeable future.
The brave move to take one of the best-known regional media brands part-free flew in the face of the conventional wisdom about not doing anything to erode an already-declining circulation. Particularly making the paper free in some areas – something the snobs in our industry look down on.
But they did it knowing they had more to gain than lose — through gaining exactly the kind of young ABC1 readers who weren’t buying the paper, simply by giving it to them. Short and medium-term, they’ve gained them as readers of the free print edition and successfully delivered these valuable eyeballs to their advertisers.
Long-term, they’ve gained something far more valuable — they’ve established a brand relationship through a regular habit-read with the long-term readers of the future, whether that be of the print or Web editions (or whatever other new medium comes along in the future).
Now they’ve got them appreciating the quality local journalism their brand can supply, they should, as long as they keep meeting their needs, continue that relationship for many more decades.
And as long as they can do that with them and the future generations coming along, they should maintain a healthy, and maybe even growing, readership.
Most other quality brands can learn a lesson from the MEN’s experience. Not least that the traditional editorial focus on circulation as some kind of macho totem has to be dropped in favour of a realistic focus on total readership, whether they be through the free or the paid-for.Why? Because your advertisers don’t care whether they’ve paid for the paper or not – they just want to have their messages exposed to them.
And keeping them happy by delivering big readerships (including through multimedia) will be at the heart of the successful media business models for the foreseeable future.
Labels: free, newspapers, strategy
