The 2004 World Editor and Marketeer Conference & Expo

Sheraton Lisboa Hotel, Portugal
Thursday 25 and Friday 26 November 2004

470 participants from 75 countries

Daily News

Summaries of all presentations from the World Editor and Marketeer conference will appear here during the conference Please check back for updates.

Quotes from the Conference

Making Newspapers Easier to Read

Ole Munk, Managing Director, Ribergaard & Munk Graphic, Denmark

"Easy to read" is a mantra for newspapers aiming to attract new readers. But "easy to read" means different things to different people.

To some people, the German picture newspaper Bild is easy to read. To others, so is the text-rich Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"What’s the right look for your newspaper depends on who you are, what you want to say, to whom you want to say it, and where and when," says Mr Munk, who nevertheless offered 15 design tips to entice readers. Here are a few of them:
  Don’t be afraid to use long headlines. "They can be a description of the story. In some cases, it’s all you need to read and it saves time. They’re a good service to readers."
  Provide all major stories with multiple entry points. "You want to provide lots of potential hooks for the reader to get started."
  Tell your readers why your stories matter to them.

Print & Web: the Quest for New Readers

Didier Brun, Senior Vice President, International Herald Tribune, France, and Founding Member, Online Publishers Association, Europe

As a newspaper executive, Mr Brun has a rare combination of responsibilities: he oversees both the circulation and web departments and is one of the few executives that has complete control of the two seemingly disparate departments.

"It’s not just a question to look at the Web as a way to increase traditional newspaper readership, but to look at print and web as two units that share, or SHOULD share, the same goal: to broaden our reach and get our content into the hands or onto the screens of more readers around the world," he explains.

Mr Brun’s presentation focused on the online marketing tactics adopted by the International Herald Tribune and its parent company, the New York Times.

"It goes without saying that our own online properties are our best assets and offer by far the best opportunities for generating print subscriptions," says Mr Brun. "So don’t hesitate to blanket your site using banners, end-of-article links, navigation bar link - if possible above the fold -, bottom of page link, home page fixed button position, emails to registered users etc. Your own sites will by far outperform any other sites, so make good use of it!"

Pitfalls for Publishers in the Mobile World

Sang-Jun Kwon, Manager, Strategic Planning Office, JoongAng Ilbo, Korea

Korea has one of the most advanced mobile cultures in the world: three-quarters of the population use mobile telephones and 70 percent of them use mobile internet. The telecommunication industry is worth US$ 14 billion annually.

As the Korean market is so advanced, the experiences there could have future implications for publishers everywhere.

The JoongAng Ilbo is one of the leading providers of news content for this market. But its experience is by no means a "success story" -- at least not yet. While there is money to be made for publishers, it isn’t what it should be -- telecommunication operators and content syndicating companies are taking far more revenue, at the expense of content providers.

Mr Kwon said the structure of the mobile market is clearly not favorable to content providers -- but there are reasons for publishers to be involved anyway. Mobile content is still growing and evolving. A presence in the mobile world provides brand exposure, especially among younger people. It fills readers’ news needs while they are on the move. And, unlike the internet, publishers can charge for news content on mobile. Finally, it provides a good marketing tool to see print and web-based products.

Creating Loyalty with Weblogs

Stéphane Mazzorato, Editor & Publisher, lemonde.fr, & Loïc Le Meur, Executive Vice President, Europe, Six Apart, France

Many western newspapers are encouraging their journalists to supplement their regular work with on-line diaries, or webologs, to establish a dialogue with readers. The French quality daily Le Monde has taken this idea further -- it is providing weblogs to the subscribers themselves.

Through an agreement with Six Apart, the leading weblog technology provider, more than 80 Le Monde subscribers have joined some of the newspaper’s journalists and launched weblogs.

"We want to create a club of bloggers," says Mr Mazzorato, who hopes the offer will increase the loyalty of readers and make them become active participants. "The reader is a partner, not a passive audience," he says.

Some 50 subscribers launched their blogs on the first day of the offer.

Getting the Newspaper to the Reader, at the Right Time and in the Right Place

Neil Jagger, Circulation Director, The Daily Mail, United Kingdom

To make sure The Daily Mail is getting to customers where they want it and when they want it, a circulation field team of 80 people is divided into three separate areas, says Mr Jagger -- wholesale, mulitple retail and independent retail sales.

His presentation focused on the responsibilities of each group.

In the UK market, which has 54,000 retail outlets, the main role of the wholesale team is to ensure that every retailer receives their newspaper supplies when they need them -- and particularly to ensure that retailers carrtying out home deliveries receive high priority (700,000 of the Daily Mail’s 2.4 million copies is home delivered).

The multiple retail team focuses primarily on newspaper display. "Until recently, UK supermarkets displayed newspapers terribly," says Mr Jagger. "We decided enough was enough and designed new display units that showed the whole of the front page and had a spring-loaded mechanism that allowed for a large number of newspapers to be displayed at any given time."

The retail team works with independently owned retailers, which account for 60 percent of sales. These retailers employ an army of newsdeliverers. In addition to guaranteeing that these retailers get their newspapers on time, the sales team also carry out activities to encourage more people to take home delivery, including telephone canvassing, door-to-door canvassing and newsagent leafleting.

New Products and New Sales Through Better Distribution

Rosie Cassidy, Director, Circulation Operations & Technology, Gannett Co. Inc, USA

Newspapers in the United States reach eight of 10 adults at least once a week. But once a week isn’t enough; increasing the frequency of readership has become a major challenge, says Ms Cassidy.

"The strategy is to build frequency among the occasional readers who are inclined to turn to their local newspapers for news and information -- a tool they can use in their daily lives," says Ms Cassidy. "But, unfortunately, they are not reading and using the newspaper with the regularity we need to post circulation and readership gains. This brings the focus onto a strategy that includes making the daily newspaper more available through merchandising efforts while continuing to aggressively market home delivery sales."

Distribution systems are a key element of this strategy, she says.

"The daily newspaper’s distribution system is considered by many to be one of our industry’s most understated assets. The foundation of all our marketing imperatives is an effective, supportive distribution system. Our ability to respond to our advertisers’ increasing demands for finer zoning capabilities depends of the strength of our distribution infrastructure. The question we face as circulators is how to leverage this strategic asset to ensure a competitive advantage in our markets."

Ms Cassidy presented many examples of how US newspapers were using distribution centers and other infrastructure to generate new revenue -- many by using their distribution networks to deliver publications from other companies. New technology allows complex deliveries of multiple products.

Secrets of Circulation Success

Aura Iordan, Business Analyst, World Association of Newspapers

Why do some newspapers enjoy circulation success while others in their markets decline? Ms Iordan, a researcher for the WAN Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project (www.futureofthenewspaper.com), presented some of the reasons.

Ms Iordan’s examined some of the world’s fastest-growing newspapers and analysed the common strategies that led to their success. She also presented an overview of some of the megatrends in the newspaper industry. Here are some of the findings:

  Circulation winners are popular with women. In a medium that has a predominantly male audience, some of the newspapers in the circulation study appealed more to women than to men. Therefore, editors and publishers must ask themselves if the balance of their content is correct, and if its presentation is geared toward both men and women. They should ask if their integrated promotions strategy appeals equally to men and women.

  New media models are emerging because of changing lifestyles and preferences -- free newspapers and compact newspapers among them. WAN estimates that the new free commuter dailies have a combined circulation of 14 million and a readership of 30 million. And WAN has identified more than 50 titles worldwide that are in the process of changing to a smaller format.

"Circulation Winners" and other strategy reports from the SFN project are available by subscription here.

Making Life Easier for Readers

Walter Bier, Circulation Director, Zero Hora, Brazil

The Brazilian regional daily Zero Hora has seen its circulation rise 5.2 percent since 2001, from 168,018 copies to 176,770 today. And it did so at a time when the overall circulation in Brazil dropped nearly 20 percent.

Mr Bier’s presentation provided some of the reasons for this circulation success.

"There is no magic here," he says. "We’re working in four areas: innovation, service excellence, editorial quality and the relationship with the reader."

Mr Bier presented ten key points for obtaining circulation success. Here are two of them:

  Investing in content. "No product will sell unless it is a good product," he says.

  Flexibility in delivery, subscription options, products and billing. Zero Hora will follow its subscribers wherever they go -- including to holidays at the beach. It offers seven different subscription options -- even a "sports" option of Saturday, Sunday and Monday only. And it recently introduced "Zero Hora Light", a smaller version of the main paper that has half the pages and is 30 percent less expensive (and now accounts for 18 percent of sales).

Fighting the Circulation Battle

Peter Allen, Group Editor, Fairfax Community Newspapers, Australia

Fighting and winning the circulation battle is the most important task for editors and marketers, because our circulation figures are "the neon lights that tell us whether or not our readers think we are doing our job properly," says Mr Allen.

Mr Allen’s presented many of the ways in which Australian newspapers are winning that battle. Here are two examples:

The Sunshine Coast Daily, where circulation has risen 17 percent in two years thanks to an editorial revamp that grew out of research to identify the main "streams" of interests in the community. Editor-in-Chief Peter Owen assigned reporters to each stream of interest and instructed that, whenever possible, the paper should publish at least one story a day from each stream.

The Ballarat Courier in Victoria, which has enjoyed four years of steady circulation growth after re-positioning itself to become more involved in its community. The Courier set up a permanent fund to raise money for local charities and published, free of charge, a two-page Ballarat City survey which asked questions about future growth of the area.

Mr Allen gave many other examples, covering such areas as events marketing, giveaways, lifestyle and entertainment, magazines and add ons, ideas that last, sport, and humanitarian projects,.

"Readership and circulation building requires dedication, perseverance, focus and a lot of hard work -- but it is not rocket science," he says.

Providing Something for Everyone

Bernt Olufsen, Editor-in-Chief, VG, Norway

In one of the world’s most crowded newspaper markets, VG stands out.

It is Norway’s largest selling daily -- 380,000 copies on weekdays, and 483,000 on Sundays. Not bad for a country with 4.6 million people and 148 newspapers -- nine in Oslo alone.

Mr Olufsen provided a case study of the newspaper’s rise. He offers this simple formula:

"I think it is a great challenge to edit a newspaper for all different kinds of people. It is the same, no matter where you are in the country. We want to inform our readers about what is going on in the country and we want to entertain them at the same time. I see no conflict in giving priority to political news and, at the same time, to entertainment news and sports."

Mr Olufsen emphasized that product development was an important, daily task that involves everyone at the paper.

"Our policy is that product development should be part of everyday work," he says. "We are therefore working with evolution, not revolution. We allow editors and journalists to try ideas in the daily newspaper."

Getting a Degree in Circulation Science

Jim Chisholm, Director, Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Project, World Association of Newspapers

Mr Chisholm presented a one-hour "master class" in which he provided a multi-step guide on how to build and implement a successful circulation strategy. This included simple, low-cost research tools for developing a clear understanding of newspaper customers, markets and sales processes.

"I do not think we spend enough time on understanding our readers," he says. "Too few newspapers understand who their readers are, what they want, and what is their value to us. Newspapers too often fail because they don’t know who their audience is and what they want."

Mr Chisholm’s class showed how developing a clear definition of readers can be used to attract those who are most valuable to the newspaper. For example, the information can be used to focus content, position marketing and determine distribution.

Participants in the class will be given access to a web-based template that will help them conduct the research suggested by Mr Chisholm. The presentation, along with case studies presented at the conference and other information, will form the basis for "Circulation Science," the next Strategy Report in the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper series from WAN. For more information on SFN, click here.

Shaking Up the German Newspaper Market

Marc Zeimetz, Manager, Projects and Newspaper Strategy Division & Klaus Madzia, Editor-in-Chief (News), Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, Germany

Traditional German newspapers are too old, too expensive, too big, too slow and too rigid, says Mr Zeimetz, in introducing the strategy that has led to new, youth-oriented newspapers like Von Holtzbrinck’s 20 Cent and News.

"Having identified these problems, we now have opportunities," he says. "We want to be young, inexpensive, fast, streamlined, practical and convenient, and flexible."

The presentations by Mr Zeimetz and Mr Madzia included case studies of the recently launched German newspapers, which are already attracting young readers who never read newspapers on a regular basis before.

20 Cent, named for its cover price, is a young, quick information newspaper with a big entertainment section, targeted at 14- to 39-year olds. News, which Mr Madzia described as a "newszine", attempts to combine hard news and information with more in-depth magazine-like reporting and increased utility. It also includes interactive elements like SMS options and web links. It sells for 50 euro cents.

Strategic Design

Eduardo Danilo, President & Co-Founder, Danilo Black SA, USA

Some people see newspaper design as a tactical application -- simply helping to bring content to the readers.

But others, including Mr Danilo, say design also has strategic applications.

"It is strategic when it deals with market concerns and opportunities," he says.

Mr Danilo’s presentation included several examples of his company’s "holistic" approach to strategic newspaper design. He says much of this process grows out of the emergence of "editorial marketing".

"Marketing practices have begun to arrive in the newsroom," he says. "Editors are more aware of who they are speaking to."

One result of this is to give different sections of the newspaper different design elements depending on their audience. This might mean organising each section with different colour codes and different typographical spaces so the reader feels a different "mood" for each section of the paper -- sports more lively, finance more reflective, entertainment with a magazine feel.

Welt Kompakt - A New Product for New Readers

Jan-Eric Peters, Editor-in-Chief, Die Welt, Welt Kompakt, Berliner Morgenpost, Germany

At first glance, Welt Kompakt might seem to be smaller version of the Germany quality broadsheet Die Welt. But it is something completely new, and completely different.

"It is not just a new concept for newspapers, it is part of a unique world-wide journalistic model," says Mr Peters. "We’ve not only increased quality, but we cut costs. Name me a publisher in the world who would not want such a model."

The new model began when Axel Springer’s quality national Die Welt and its regional sister publication, Berliner Morgenpost, combined their editorial staffs -- going from 300 journalists each to 350 for the two publications.

Although the cuts were severe, Die Welt benefits from the regional competencies of Berliner Morgenpost, while the Berlin paper benefits from the national competencies of Die Welt, says Mr Peters. And when Welt Kompakt joined the mix, it benefited from both.

Launched in May 2004 in Berlin and seven other German cities, Welt Kompakt is not a substitute for the broadsheet, but a different offer aimed at new readers, particularly younger readers who don’t have a lot of time but want quality journalism. The tabloid sells for 50 euro cents.

Making Readers Loyal

Jacob Elkær-Hansen, Circulation Sales Manager, Politiken, Denmark

It isn’t reasonable to think that a subscriber who signed up for two-months of Sunday delivery at half price will suddenly buy a year-long, seven-days-a-week subscription.

But it is reasonable to try to move him up to Saturday and Sunday delivery, and, later, Friday through Sunday. From there, perhaps you can convince him to take full delivery for a longer period of time.

That’s the thinking behind the subscription strategy of Politiken, which offers subscribers incremental increases in the hopes of increasing their loyalty and reducing churn.

"We try to get five-day readers to take the full week so the price increment of moving upwards is relatively small," says Mr Elkær-Hansen.

Politiken offers many subscription possibilities -- up to six combinations of days, at contract lengths of two months, three months, six months and one year.

"We move them by small increments to more loyalty and more copies," says Mr Elkær-Hansen.

Finding the Market Niche

Danai Kramgomut, Executive Vice President, Business Development and Investor Relations, National Multimedia Group, Thailand

Kom Chad Luek, which means "Sharp", "Precise" and "Depth" in the Thai language, became the country’s third largest daily only three months after launch.

Its success didn’t come as a surprise to the company. For one thing, market research showed there was a demand for a new general interest daily in a market dominated by few players, with little competition and innovation.

For another, an award-winning marketing campaign made sure that the easy-to-remember title (at least for Thai speakers) would be well-known.

Mr Kramgomut’s presentation focused on that marketing campaign, which took advantage of the Nation Group’s assets to promote the new title. Even the name of the newspaper is related to that of a successful television show, so brand marketing didn’t have to start from scratch.

Mr Kramgomut said the key success factors were clear product differentiation, leveraging existing assets, and a comprehensive marketing program.

Building Circulation With Good Works

Siddharth Kothari, Director & Executive Editor, Rajasthan Patrika, India

"The ultimate purpose of a company is the enhancement of society," says Mr Kothari in an inspiring presentation about his newspaper’s "good works" -- aiding earthquake victims, getting out the vote, providing clean water, planting trees, feeding famine victims.

And building circulation -- from 3.16 million readers in 1999 to 7.2 million today. Though making money isn’t the ultimate goal, success is a strategic imperative to fulfill the long-term social goals, says Mr Kothari.

"Short-term economic gains are necessary," he says.

Mr Kothari’s presentation focused on the social and environmental projects carried out by the paper. And though company policy prevents using these works in marketing campaigns, it is clear that the newspaper’s reputation has led to its circulation gains.

For example:

  In the run-up to a state election last year, Rajasthan Patrika turned voting into a mass issue and shifted the focus from the personality of candidates to the issues. Mobile vans established contact with 200,000 people, educating them on good governance, while sessions on democracy were held in 1,700 schools and other institutions, attracting 600,000 people. Turnout on election day was more than 67 percent, the highest ever and 4.2 million more than voted in the previous election.

Mr Kothari said he hoped his success would lead other newspapers to follow his lead.