Transformation for the Future

GMG Regional Media CEO Mark Dodson, speaking in a session on ’transformation for the future’, said that the innovative introduction of a part-free, part-paid model had catapulted the Manchester Evening News from a dying paper into the UK’s largest regional title today.

The transformation had been necessitated by dwindling circulation figures and advertising revenue and the growing challenge from other media, he said.

In 1996, Dodson said his company decided to take a bold leap into the new digital era.

“The renaissance of Manchester acted as a catalyst for the wholesale diversification in the way we delivered products to Manchester,” Dodson said.

Part of this was handing out free copies of the flagship Manchester Evening News in the city centre, while retaining paid-for subscriptions. The daring model proved hugely successful, he said.

Other strategies included “systematic diversification” such as the acquisition of a local tv licence and the growth of the resulting station, channel m, into one of the most successful in the United Kingdom, and heightened communication with stakeholders.

Ed Greenspon, Editor-in-Chief of Canada’s Globe and Mail, spoke about how changing the culture of his organisation had been critical to its success in the new digital era.

“You’ve got to be willing to experiment: that’s a culture you’ve got to create. You must be confident to take risks”, he said.

Examples of this experimentation were bold and surprising front pages and a focus on “the whole reader” including their roles as individuals and family members, Greenspon told delegates.

While the coverage of news events remained a vital function of newspapers, he added, there needed to be more emphasis on the question: ‘what does it mean?’

This question represented the competitive advantage that newspapers had over other platforms.

Session chair Trevor Ncube, the chief executive of M&G and President of the Newspaper Association of South Africa told delegates: “One of the great things about this conference is hearing about things that work and that don’t work”.

South African Finance Minister Calls for Balanced Reporting

The media should focus more attention on those who lose out in the process of globalisation, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said today.

Addressing a World Editors Forum lunch in Cape Town during the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) conference, Manuel urged editors to cover not just the countries and institutions that had triumphed in a globalising world, but also to question the margin of victory and consider the fate of the vanquished.

“Without a more balanced report on both the winners and the losers, especially those trapped by history, we will not have the basis to improve on the way in which the world functions, the manner in which institutions function and the way in which globalisation plays itself out across the globe,” Manuel said.

“And, if we cannot fix what is so obviously imperfect, then losers from globalisation will either shout more loudly, or they will disengage from the process - either way the struggle for a more equitable and fairer world will be vanquished.”

Manuel was questioned on a range of topics by the international and local media.

He was critical about the process currently underway to appoint a new governor of the World Bank and confirmed that 220,000 businesses had applied for tax indemnity in the recent process.

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool also spoke at the lunch and told delegates of his recent trip to the World Islamic Economic Forum.

Rasool said there was a feeling among Islamic nations that while their money was welcome in some countries, they themselves were not.

This opened opportunities for countries like South Africa to provide an investment home for Islamic capital, Rasool told delegates.

One of the great paradoxes with which the world needed to deal, said Rasool, was how to build societies based on cosmopolitanism while avoiding confining immigrant communities to ghettos.

GMG Regional Media CEO Mark Dodson, speaking in a session on ’transformation for the future’, said that the innovative introduction of a part-free, part-paid model had catapulted the Manchester Evening News from a dying paper into the UK’s largest regional title today.

The transformation had been necessitated by dwindling circulation figures and advertising revenue and the growing challenge from other media, he said.

In 1996, Dodson said his company decided to take a bold leap into the new digital era.

“The renaissance of Manchester acted as a catalyst for the wholesale diversification in the way we delivered products to Manchester,” Dodson said.

Part of this was handing out free copies of the flagship Manchester Evening News in the city centre, while retaining paid-for subscriptions. The daring model proved hugely successful, he said.

Other strategies included “systematic diversification” such as the acquisition of a local tv licence and the growth of the resulting station, channel m, into one of the most successful in the United Kingdom, and heightened communication with stakeholders.

Ed Greenspon, Editor-in-Chief of Canada’s Globe and Mail, spoke about how changing the culture of his organisation had been critical to its success in the new digital era.

“You’ve got to be willing to experiment: that’s a culture you’ve got to create. You must be confident to take risks”, he said.

Examples of this experimentation were bold and surprising front pages and a focus on “the whole reader” including their roles as individuals and family members, Greenspon told delegates.

While the coverage of news events remained a vital function of newspapers, he added, there needed to be more emphasis on the question: ‘what does it mean?’

This question represented the competitive advantage that newspapers had over other platforms.

Session chair Trevor Ncube, the chief executive of M&G and President of the Newspaper Association of South Africa told delegates: “One of the great things about this conference is hearing about things that work and that don’t work”.

South African Finance Minister Calls for Balanced Reporting

The media should focus more attention on those who lose out in the process of globalisation, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said today.

Addressing a World Editors Forum lunch in Cape Town during the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) conference, Manuel urged editors to cover not just the countries and institutions that had triumphed in a globalising world, but also to question the margin of victory and consider the fate of the vanquished.

“Without a more balanced report on both the winners and the losers, especially those trapped by history, we will not have the basis to improve on the way in which the world functions, the manner in which institutions function and the way in which globalisation plays itself out across the globe,” Manuel said.

“And, if we cannot fix what is so obviously imperfect, then losers from globalisation will either shout more loudly, or they will disengage from the process - either way the struggle for a more equitable and fairer world will be vanquished.”

Manuel was questioned on a range of topics by the international and local media.

He was critical about the process currently underway to appoint a new governor of the World Bank and confirmed that 220,000 businesses had applied for tax indemnity in the recent process.

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool also spoke at the lunch and told delegates of his recent trip to the World Islamic Economic Forum.

Rasool said there was a feeling among Islamic nations that while their money was welcome in some countries, they themselves were not.

This opened opportunities for countries like South Africa to provide an investment home for Islamic capital, Rasool told delegates.

One of the great paradoxes with which the world needed to deal, said Rasool, was how to build societies based on cosmopolitanism while avoiding confining immigrant communities to ghettos.