Maintaining Print Dominance

The Gulf News, based in the United Arab Emirates, faces a daily dilemma: in a region that allows no free political discourse, how does it win the hearts and mind of a smart, engaged and expatriate audience?

Mr Matthew’s presentation showed how the newspaper overcame this dilemma to become the region’s newspaper of record, and how it maintains the dominance of print in its market.

If you can’t discuss politics, focus on other issues that mean something to your readers, says Mr Matthew - environment, schools, standing up for the underprivileged.

You can also run high-profile campaigns geared to readers’ interests, he says. The Gulf News recently ran successful ‘Go Green” campaigns against the use of plastic bags, and a “Wipe Out Waste” campaign that dealt with the impact of the global recession.

“We have earned our readers’ trust by covering topics vital to their interests and daily concerns,” he says.

Only 15 percent of the UAE’s population are native, and the population has doubled in 15 years. Competition, especially among the English language press, is strong. Here are some other elements of the Gulf News strategy for attracting and maintaining audience:

 Include readers. The Gulf News has established a Readers’ Desk as the single point of contact - it handles readers’ e-mails, calls and other communications, and it channels comment and news into print, online and radio editions. A dedicated readers page was started six months ago.

 Maintain relatively large reporting staffs. “We have reporters to cover our stories. We have news editors and chief reporters who think about what we want to cover. We develop our own news agenda, stories and content. We have the institutional capacity to think about what is important to the country and our readers. We stay relevant to people. Others cannot do this and they simply quote the morning newspapers with yesterday’s news.”

The importance of knowing your audience

The Daily Sun grew to become South Africa’s largest newspaper in just five years, with a circulation of 500,000 and its success demonstrates the importance of market study and knowing your audience intimately.

“We knew there were a lot of people who were not reading newspaper, so we set out to find out why they weren’t reading, and addressing the reasons they weren’t reading newspapers.”

What the company discovered was an underserved audience of working class, young black citizens with rising incomes. “They came of age right at the time of freedom but what they didn’t have was a newspaper, and for us that meant they didn’t have a companion to help them deal with this new world they inherited,” says Mr Sampson.

The newspaper was conceived “to play a part in teaching stuff that people needed to know in their lives,” says Mr Sampson.

No newspaper knows its audience better than The Daily Sun. It is read almost exclusively by working-class males. It is not an intellectual publication, but the newspaper revels in its market position: it has made new newspaper readers out of millions of citizens. “It does not try to be all things to all people. It does not include anything that wouldn’t interest its people. The formula is dictated by the market and the needs of the market,” says Mr Sampson.

Getting people to talk about your paper

Once the mouthpiece of Stalin, and later perceived as a Kremlin propaganda machine, the English language Moscow News is being remade as a lively, provocative and independent newspaper.

Mr Wall describe how the weekly, owned by the Ria Novosti news agency, is being transformed - through coverage of issues like gay rights, long taboo in Russia, interviews with controversial and fringe figures, culture and nightlife - and sex.

It was, in fact, the “Sex in the City”-type column “that got people reading the Moscow News before the political stuff,” says Mr Wall.

Here are some of the elements of his approach:

 No banned subjects. In a city where gay protesters are often beaten by police, extremists and even little old ladies, the newspaper has tackled the issue head-on and editorialized about how the attacks hurt Russia’s image.

 The sex column focuses on relationships between Russians and foreigners, which are a constant source of controversy - a natural subject for an English-language publication.

 Articles that make Russian culture accessible to a foreign audience. The paper often runs previews of cultural events - “A lot of newspapers have reviews of events, but we think it’s much better to give them previews because they can go out and see the events and decide for themselves whether they like it or not,” says Mr Wall.

Trends in Product Development

Ms Stone coined two terms to describe trends she sees through her research into newspaper product development - “smart publishing” and “hyper-niching”.

And while she readily admits the terms may not be elegant, the trends are likely to have a strong impact on the future of the industry.

She defined smart publishing as “developing and marketing targeted print and digital publications to expand audience and earn incremental revenues.”

Hyper-niching is “one facet of smart publishing that establishes a portfolio of ultra-targeted products, and charging high CPM rates for advertising to targeted markets similar to direct marketing.”

“Advertisers don’t ant to just reach 50 percent of your newspaper audience, they want to reach a qualified audience,” says Mr Stone. “We are answering the demands of advertisers and advertising agencies by creating these niche products that are tailored to go to audiences that they want to reach directly.”

Ms Stone said the industry “is just at the beginning of the journey” to smart publishing and hyper-niching. Her presentation included case studies of some companies that are already using the concepts in product development, portfolio expansion, distribution, market research and other areas.

More on the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Project can be found at www.futureofthenewspaper.com.

Finding a new business model for newspapers

With a US $873,000 grant from the Knight News Challenge Project, the Bakersfield Californian has set out to develop a new business model for newspapers that foresees a future in which local media are digital/print hybrids.

The “Printcasting” project, which will be rolled out nationwide this summer, makes it possible for anyone to create a printable PDF publication online, whether or not they have their own content, or even publishing skills. Using content from bloggers and news sites with RSS feeds, customers can choose content, layout and frequency. Local businesses can create and purchase ads online. Since these are niche products, prices are affordable. The PDF format publications are sent to subscribers by e-mail, who decided if they want to print them or not.

So bicycle shops can create their own pdf magazine to keep customers apprised of the latest bicycle news. Real estate agents can create their own information letters. Libraries can produce a local publication about books And local publishers - including newspapers - can create niche publications using their own, underutilized content.

“New advances in print-on-demand and digital inkjet printing create a compelling picture for on-demand, personalized and niche publishing,” says Mr Pacheco.

“Local printed products that people find at coffee shops, car washes, businesses and racks are picked up and read, assuming they’re relevant to the audience, “ he says. “If you increase relevance and choice in print, it can be as compelling as content found online.”

More on printcasting can be found at http://community.printcasting.com/

How to talk to kids

If anyone knows how to attract young readers to newspapers, it is Francis Dufour, the founder of three popular age-specific newspapers for children in France (7 to 10, 11 to 13 and 14 to 16-years old). He presented ten things he’s learned about what young readers want. Here are a few of them:

 Kids like news. But not adult news. News of interest to young readers includes environment, sports and entertainment. And they ask questions: features like, “five questions for understanding cloning” are attractive to younger readers.

 Kids like news in their age group centres of interest. Make sure you know their obsessions.

 Kids like to read 10 minutes a day.

 Kids like small formats, full colour, and no dirty ink in their newspapers.

 Don’t forget that parents like to read their kids’ newspapers (this sustains the subscription figures).