Thursday, September 27, 2007
Good strategy, bad implementation.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,,2178438,00.html
http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,,2176188,00.html
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=38959
So, the Evening Standard has given up the fight to be a purveyor of today’s news in London (how can you compete seriously on ‘commodity news’ with print deadlines and distribution delays versus the Web and other live media?) and decided to concentrate on being about quality comment and good news.
Good — it’s the first bit of proper strategy they’ve done since the thelondonpaper arrived on the scene and they launched their own defensive free.
Strategically, it’s a proper shift from trying to be all things to all readers to being a niche product you buy for a set thing. And one they already have an established and leading core competence in.
So why are they proposing to have 'latest news' screens on vendors' stands?? It’s like reminding their readers of the stuff they won’t get in the paper AND that there are other sources of news and comment and a whole lot else.
I just don’t understand why they’re doing it. Someone high-up seduced by the technology perhaps? I’d love to know. Whatever, it doesn’t fit the strategy. They should be showing headlines of stories in the paper.
That at least would be marketing something readers will be paying for – not reminding them of something they’re not getting.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,,2176188,00.html
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=38959
So, the Evening Standard has given up the fight to be a purveyor of today’s news in London (how can you compete seriously on ‘commodity news’ with print deadlines and distribution delays versus the Web and other live media?) and decided to concentrate on being about quality comment and good news.
Good — it’s the first bit of proper strategy they’ve done since the thelondonpaper arrived on the scene and they launched their own defensive free.
Strategically, it’s a proper shift from trying to be all things to all readers to being a niche product you buy for a set thing. And one they already have an established and leading core competence in.
So why are they proposing to have 'latest news' screens on vendors' stands?? It’s like reminding their readers of the stuff they won’t get in the paper AND that there are other sources of news and comment and a whole lot else.
I just don’t understand why they’re doing it. Someone high-up seduced by the technology perhaps? I’d love to know. Whatever, it doesn’t fit the strategy. They should be showing headlines of stories in the paper.
That at least would be marketing something readers will be paying for – not reminding them of something they’re not getting.
Labels: newspapers, strategy
