Gannett's new drive to boost Sunday print circulation is standing the company's web strategy on its head. Rather than emphasizing web exclusives such as video and blogs, some papers are taking the opposite tact. Today's example:
The Indianapolis Star, which is promoting on this morning's Page One a "print exclusive" story in Sunday's edition. (See detail,
above. Bigger view of entire front page.) That story is a follow-up to the paper's
recent tale about Brent Jones, the teen-age "kid who doesn't exist."
Earlier: In Phoenix, Sunday subscription push intensifies
Do print exclusives conflict with Gannett's digital-first strategy, as established with the Information Center business model? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
I don't believe Gannett's concept is "digital first," at least not any more. The suits have come to the conclusion that the newspaper Web sites cost more than the revenue they bring in. They keep them up and running so they can tell Wall Street they're on the cutting edge, but they're all about maximizing profit, and print is still the way to do that ... at least for a few more months.
ReplyDeleteAs long as the vast majority of people refuse to pay for content they get on the web, newspaper web sites will never be hugely profitable. Why shouldn't a newspaper company emphasize its print product? You know, the part of the operation that actually earns the lion's share of the profits.
ReplyDeleteThat print exclusive looks like a feature. If this is going to work, it has to be more investigative. An exposure of government corruption or some old-time shoe-leather reporting.
ReplyDeleteThis is clearly a deliberate decision corporate has made that newspapers drawing their audience in smaller metro markets will never produce enough money to finance newsrooms, and so returning to emphasize print is the path to the future. I would not be surprised to see corporate unplug some local sites from the Web completely to preserve GCI's monopoly. This only applies to community newspapers, not USA Today, whose future is solidly with the Internet.
Jim, you should know about Sunday print exclusives. The San Francisco Chronicle has been touting them for several months and they usually involve enterprise reporting. At least one Chronicle sportswriter now has his Sunday column print-only.
ReplyDeleteSan Francisco reports that they aren't seeing results of their print exclusives, but that they aren't really trying to quantify success anyway. Typical newsroom thinking: "We don't know if it's working, but we're doing it anyway,"
ReplyDeleteJim knows about leather reporting.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Gannett is the lack of focus on anything. All I see, day-to-day, is chaos. The company is trying to run two businesses, online and print, with a reporting staff that is overwhelmed and given conflicting marching orders.
ReplyDeleteOne day, the priority is getting every fender bender car accident online ASAP. The next, Gannett suddenly cares about investigative reporting.
A co-worker and I were comparing notes yesterday in Phoenix and he said, "Repeat after me, It's so f*cked up, it's fabulous!"
ReplyDelete3:16 -- You hit the nail on the head. The main reason Gannett is doomed to fail is that nobody seems to know what the F*** is going on, and it changes every day.
ReplyDeleteCorporate starts a new initiative that's supposed to save the company, gives it two months and then moves on to the next big thing. In the meantime, the readers who bought into the last big thing are pissed because it's disappeared.
You are exactly right about the way were doing things. One day we were supposed to be reporting about every pothole on every street in every community. Then, it was decided that more generalized stories were better. One day everything from bake sales to explosions are supposed to be posted online the minute we hear about them. The next day, none of that matters because we're all supposed to be working on Sunday enterprise packages that will never make the Web.
The amazing thing is that readers have stuck with this company's products as long as they have.
I believe it's tack and not tact?
ReplyDeleteGosh, and I'm one of those dreaded marketing people who wonder why news folks are so snooty. Love the blog, either way.
Same philosophy now at the Westchester/Rockland Journal News. Sunday specials..
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have any figures on how this is impacting Indianapolis? Is it working, and if so, how are they defining success?
ReplyDeleteMy paper has been doing print exclusives for several months. When we have a true enterprise story, it definitely impacts single copy sales. But about half the stories are crap about crap nobody gives a crap about. Those don't drive any single copy sales.It's all about the content, pure and simple. And it really wouldn't matter what day of the week it is, it's still about content, and most of the time the content sucks.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have any figures on how this is impacting Indianapolis? Is it working, and if so, how are they defining success? ...
ReplyDeleteI'm just going to keep asking until one of the chuckleheads in Indy speaks up. My guess is that they aren't even trying to quantify it. Now that's what I call 'innovation'.
What's with the hating on Indy, 2:29? Not cool. At least they're trying something different. What have you done?
ReplyDelete