Wednesday, June 04, 2008
End of the Emperor’s Clothes for Tim and JP
Tim Bowdler has finally lost his relentless optimism for newspapers in print. Given recent events at Johnston Press it’s hardly surprising.
Where once they preached the doctrine that life was local and implied that 30% margins were oh so easy if only you knew how to centralise back-office and serve your local readers with local content they wanted, now he’s finally had to admit, in a speech to the World Association of Newspapers, that the harsh structural problems affecting other papers are also hitting JP. Immune no longer then.
For the first time he talked about the media landscape changing and that “changes are ubiquitous. It is an irreversible tide”, going on to list the growth of alternative media "all competing for the attention of our readers". Previously he was a doubter – saying that the problems were cyclical, not structural.
Mea culpa over, the man who helped make JP what it is thanks to strong strategic thought and vision came to the fore, advocating change to transform the business from a product-focused one into a customer-centred one. That’s the future, he said.
Yup, I couldn’t agree more (see my post in February 2007). I’ve been saying that for some time to an industry full of deaf dinosaurs.
So maybe someone will finally listen.
Where once they preached the doctrine that life was local and implied that 30% margins were oh so easy if only you knew how to centralise back-office and serve your local readers with local content they wanted, now he’s finally had to admit, in a speech to the World Association of Newspapers, that the harsh structural problems affecting other papers are also hitting JP. Immune no longer then.
For the first time he talked about the media landscape changing and that “changes are ubiquitous. It is an irreversible tide”, going on to list the growth of alternative media "all competing for the attention of our readers". Previously he was a doubter – saying that the problems were cyclical, not structural.
Mea culpa over, the man who helped make JP what it is thanks to strong strategic thought and vision came to the fore, advocating change to transform the business from a product-focused one into a customer-centred one. That’s the future, he said.
Yup, I couldn’t agree more (see my post in February 2007). I’ve been saying that for some time to an industry full of deaf dinosaurs.
So maybe someone will finally listen.
Labels: Johnston Press, newspapers, strategy, Tim Bowdler
