Once again the confusion sets in: is print dead or is one size fits all dead?
Read this.
(go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/17/newspaper-abcs-websites-internet-news)
From the guardian.co.uk
We thought the internet was killing print. But it isn't
There is no clear correlation between a rise in internet traffic and a fall in newspaper circulation. Some papers are growing in both formats, others are succeeding in neither, according to new research.
by Peter Preston, The Observer
The woe, as usual, is more or less unconfined. September's daily newspaper circulation figures, as audited by ABC, are down 5.31% in a year: Sunday totals are 6.7% off the pace. And, of course, we all know what's to blame. It's the infernal internet, the digital revolution, the iPad, laptop and smartphone taking over from print. Online is the coming death of Gutenberg's world, inexorable, inevitable, the enemy of all we used to hold dear. Except that it isn't.
A fascinating new piece of research this week looks in detail at the success of newspaper websites and attempts to find statistical correlations with sliding print copy sales. As one goes up, the other must go down, surely? These are the underpinnings of transition.
But "in the UK at least, there is no such correlation", reports the number-crunching analyst Jim Chisholm. "This is true at both a micro-level in terms of UK newspaper titles and groups and at a macro-level comparing national internet adoption with circulation performance. Indeed, the opposite case could be argued: that newspapers that do well on the web also do better in print… Understandably worried traditional journalists should know that the internet is not a threat."
Chisholm's aim is to prod British publishers into renewed web action – citing the Guardian, Telegraph and Independent particularly for producing the highest ratios of monthly unique visitors to their sites when compared against print circulations. (The Guardian, with a 125 unique-visitor-to-print ratio, is far higher than any other European paper he can find, and also generates over three times the number of UK page impressions relative to its circulation). Moreover, UK national papers as a whole score well on such tests, clear top of the EU league and walloping German performance nine times over.
Could they, and British regionals, do better, though? Indeed they could. "The issue is not one of total audience, but of frequency and loyalty – and online, as in print, newspapers are great at attracting readers from time to time, but they don't attract them often enough, and they don't hang around."
At which point, perhaps, it's time to look at the flipside of Chisholm's findings. If the name of one game is frequency and loyalty – via investment, innovation, constant linkages and promotions – might that not also be an answer to drooping print sales as well? If you reject the net as an agent of newsprint doom, then reverse scenarios also apply.
Go back to ABC circulations before newspaper websites really began – say September 1995 – to make the point. One, the Daily Star, is doing better than 15 years ago with no net presence to speak of: 757,080 copies in 1995 against 864,315 last month. The Daily Mail, at 2,144,229 this September against 1,866,197, is well up, with a website growing by more than 60% a year. Some – say the Mirror, down from 2,559, 636 to 1,213,323 – have suffered direly. See: no correlations?
The Guardian, Times and Telegraph are all down by around a third, and the Sun has lost more than a million: but again there's no mechanical relationship here. Price matters. It always does. But investment and innovation matter as well. They always do. And you can't help by being struck how little of that goes on in print these days. A pull-out section vanishes, and comes back. Single-theme front pages come and go at the Indy. The Telegraph still looks for somewhere else to put its features. Nothing much changes. Another researcher (at Enders Analysis) calculates that papers have lopped 20% of the pages they put in a decade ago in order to bulwark sharply rising cover prices.
No correlations here, either? Nothing to prove that the more effort and talent you put in, the more you get out? More, more, more ... and more research, please.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Prospering in Chicago
I've had several requests from blog readers to follow up with more details about the Chicago Tribune Direct's purchase of a Kokak Proper press for direct mail and potential niche publications use (see blog entry "Flatfooted No More" Sept.29, 2010).
Following up with Tim Street (director of Tribune Direct Marketing), here are a few more details about their plans.
Although they have purchased the Kodak Prosper 1000 they expect to have the 5000Xl in place hopefully by Q1 2011.
They have had a lot of success in the past few years with Kodak presses in their direct mail business, which has grown 100 percent, although they have visited with and analyzed many of the other digital presses available on the market.
Now they want to follow their recent success into new opportunities for their customers, including the ability to print on multiple substrates and go as quickly as possible, in the 650 feet per minute range. (Tribune Direct is strictly a digital printing company with no offset presses.)
When asked about reference to potential "niche" publications, Street deferred to Paul Lynch (senior manager/quality/commercial printing, Chicago Tribune) as someone who is more focussed on such solutions, but Street posited that possibly Tribune Direct:
1. Could use the Prosper pressed to print publications with tiered advertising directed at different audiences.
Or
2. Could, for instance, print publications for attendees at events at McCormick Place with targeted offers for the attendees such as local restaurants.
Speaking of events at the McCormick Place, Tim pointed out that during Graph Expo 2010, starting on Sunday, the Kzone will live stream discussions of the Tribune developments including from 10:30-11 a.m. Central Time on Monday, Oct. 4 this program, called "Owning the Competition with Digital Print":
The gloves are off. And Tribune Direct is taking it to the competition with the Kodak Prosper Press platform. How? By bringing new, exciting direct mail capabilities to its customers nationwide. Learn how the revolutionary combination of quality and variability at the speed of offset is helping Tribune Direct knock out the competition.
Moderator
Dave Zwang, Zwang & Co.
Panelists:
• Lou Tazioli, President, Tribune Direct • Tim Klunder, Vice President of Sales and Client
Relations, Tribune Direct • Ronen Cohen, Kodak
Visit http://www.Kzonelive.com for the discussions.
Following up with Tim Street (director of Tribune Direct Marketing), here are a few more details about their plans.
Although they have purchased the Kodak Prosper 1000 they expect to have the 5000Xl in place hopefully by Q1 2011.
They have had a lot of success in the past few years with Kodak presses in their direct mail business, which has grown 100 percent, although they have visited with and analyzed many of the other digital presses available on the market.
Now they want to follow their recent success into new opportunities for their customers, including the ability to print on multiple substrates and go as quickly as possible, in the 650 feet per minute range. (Tribune Direct is strictly a digital printing company with no offset presses.)
When asked about reference to potential "niche" publications, Street deferred to Paul Lynch (senior manager/quality/commercial printing, Chicago Tribune) as someone who is more focussed on such solutions, but Street posited that possibly Tribune Direct:
1. Could use the Prosper pressed to print publications with tiered advertising directed at different audiences.
Or
2. Could, for instance, print publications for attendees at events at McCormick Place with targeted offers for the attendees such as local restaurants.
Speaking of events at the McCormick Place, Tim pointed out that during Graph Expo 2010, starting on Sunday, the Kzone will live stream discussions of the Tribune developments including from 10:30-11 a.m. Central Time on Monday, Oct. 4 this program, called "Owning the Competition with Digital Print":
The gloves are off. And Tribune Direct is taking it to the competition with the Kodak Prosper Press platform. How? By bringing new, exciting direct mail capabilities to its customers nationwide. Learn how the revolutionary combination of quality and variability at the speed of offset is helping Tribune Direct knock out the competition.
Moderator
Dave Zwang, Zwang & Co.
Panelists:
• Lou Tazioli, President, Tribune Direct • Tim Klunder, Vice President of Sales and Client
Relations, Tribune Direct • Ronen Cohen, Kodak
Visit http://www.Kzonelive.com for the discussions.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Breakthrough
Now here's a press announcement worth remarking: The Chicago Tribune has bought a Kodak digital inkjet press in order to do variable data printing. That means that the personal newspaper is not logistically, technologically plausible.
Visit: http://newsandtech.com/dateline/article_27a441e8-ca63-11df-a1f2-001cc4c03286.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
From a News and Tech magazine twitter:
The Chicago Tribune’s Tribune Direct Marketing unit put into operation a black-and-white digital press from Kodak for its direct-mail and niche printing, becoming one of a handful of U.S. newspaper publishers to deploy digital printing within their operations. It plans to upgrade the press to a full-color model next year.
The Tribune’s Prosper 1000 is part of Kodak’s family of digital presses. The line, introduced earlier this year, is driven by the vendor’s Stream Inkjet technology, which uses air deflection and silicon nozzles to produce sharp images at speeds of up to 650 feet per minute, Kodak said.
“We believe the Prosper press will be a game-changer for our industry,” said Lou Tazioli, president of Tribune Direct, in a statement.
In addition to direct mail pieces, Tribune Direct will use the press to produce niche publications and other highly targeted printed materials, Tribune said. It will upgrade the platform to a full-color Prosper 5000XL, capable of producing magazines and inserts as well as direct-mail, next year.
Other U.S. publishers with digital printing presses are Investor’s Business Daily parent O’Neil Data Systems, which last year ramped up an HP Inkjet Web Press at its Los Angeles facility to print direct-mail pieces, and Newsworld, which produces a number of international papers for distribution in the New York region on a Screen Truepress Jet520.
Visit: http://newsandtech.com/dateline/article_27a441e8-ca63-11df-a1f2-001cc4c03286.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
From a News and Tech magazine twitter:
The Chicago Tribune’s Tribune Direct Marketing unit put into operation a black-and-white digital press from Kodak for its direct-mail and niche printing, becoming one of a handful of U.S. newspaper publishers to deploy digital printing within their operations. It plans to upgrade the press to a full-color model next year.
The Tribune’s Prosper 1000 is part of Kodak’s family of digital presses. The line, introduced earlier this year, is driven by the vendor’s Stream Inkjet technology, which uses air deflection and silicon nozzles to produce sharp images at speeds of up to 650 feet per minute, Kodak said.
“We believe the Prosper press will be a game-changer for our industry,” said Lou Tazioli, president of Tribune Direct, in a statement.
In addition to direct mail pieces, Tribune Direct will use the press to produce niche publications and other highly targeted printed materials, Tribune said. It will upgrade the platform to a full-color Prosper 5000XL, capable of producing magazines and inserts as well as direct-mail, next year.
Other U.S. publishers with digital printing presses are Investor’s Business Daily parent O’Neil Data Systems, which last year ramped up an HP Inkjet Web Press at its Los Angeles facility to print direct-mail pieces, and Newsworld, which produces a number of international papers for distribution in the New York region on a Screen Truepress Jet520.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Hear hear
How about hearing your newspaper, instead of reading it? Would that personalize the experience for you. Check it out. It's already happening.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LI24Df04.html
The full text from the Asia Times:
Adventure of the talking newspaper
By Raja Murthy
MUMBAI - As with over two million others in India, I got a shock on Tuesday morning when I opened my daily newspaper and heard a voice from within its pages. I dropped the newspaper in surprise, and the voice stopped. On opening it again, a male voice bleated about German engineering.
It was my eerie moment of history, the era of speaking newspapers had dawned, with no advance warning, and I had become part of all its attendant wonderful and nightmarish possibilities.
Using a small, ingenious, light-sensor activated, voice-recorded device glued to the newspaper page, the Times of India and The Hindu carried an audio advertisement launching a new Volkswagen car model on September 21. The two leading Indian
dailies, both over 100 years old, became the world's first multimedia newspapers of a kind perhaps never imagined by Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press in around 1441.
The talking paper launched the Vento, a premium entry-level sedan and the latest offering from top-selling Volkswagen India Group that markets the Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen brands. Volkswagen India reported growth of 120.7% in its latest sales figures for January to July 2010.
The newspaper audio continued Volkswagen India's reputation for innovative marketing - such as "Roadblocked" last November, when it took over the entire advertising space in all of the 16 Times of India editions across India, for its Polo hatchback model.
Volkswagen releasing the first-ever audio page in print media opened up a Pandora's box of ideas: will the next James Bond movie have newspapers singing out the theme? Will cash-rich political parties be demanding votes through talking newspapers next elections? Worse, imagine sitting inside a train or an aircraft with a babble of audio papers.
Given the responses the next day, on September 22, there may be a hundred other duplicate ideas of yakkety-yak magazines and newspapers. But now that it is known that paper can be made to speak, that first pristine moment of utter astonishment has passed. Memorable, though, is the inaugural experience of what I had never thought of before: a newspaper talking.
For a few seconds, I had rarely been more bewildered than on hearing a voice coming from the newspaper in the early morning. My first confused thought was that somehow a cell phone had found its way into the pages by mistake - but then, even cell phones can't start talking by themselves, and I don't own a cell phone. When I saw what the voice was, I couldn't help smiling: a full-page car advertisement on a back page, with a two-inch black rectangular box glued to it doing the talking.
The astonishment was more because there were no advance warnings or teaser advertisements in days leading up to the caper. The edition with the voice carried a small note to "Our Readers: The Times of India and Volkswagen have created four pages of content as a sort of a special media innovation. Don't miss reading and listening to this 'speaking newspaper'!"
But I found this message only after looking for it.
"Best in class German engineering is here," announces the male voice. "The new Volkswagen Vento. Built with great care and highly innovative features, perhaps that's why it breaks the hearts of our engineers to watch it drive away. The new Volkswagen Vento, crafted with so much passion, it's hard to let it go. Volkswagen. Das Auto."
The message repeats itself, until the news page is folded sufficiently to block the pinhole-sized perforation on the black audio box through which lights travels to sensor to trigger the recorded disk.
Varied, colorful responses were reported across India to opening a newspaper and hearing it talk. They ranged from frightened children to a Mumbai police bomb squad rushing to investigate suspicious noises coming from a litter-bin near S L Raheja Hospital in suburban Mahim - some irritated reader had chucked away the black chatterbox, which can continue talking for nearly two-and-a-half hours.
A startled housemaid reportedly picked up the talking newspaper and screamed "ghost", an understandable reaction given the stories I heard as a kid about ghosts violently slapping people opening the front door at dawn - probably as grouchy farewell before the spooks vanish at sunrise.
Hundreds of messages about the morning newspaper experience flooded social networking sites like Twitter. "The Volkswagen talking ad in today's TOI [Times of India] scared the hell out of me!" tweeted one. "It's both funny and weird."
More proof of how the astonished mind can produce any thought came with one startled reader revealing he had thought the wall behind his newspaper was talking.
Not everyone was startled or impressed. Bangalore resident Rani Venugopal scolded the Times of India for creating an environmental problem with all the plastic that will be thrown away with the newspaper.
The bearded, bear-like Prahlad Kakkar, a prominent Mumbai-based advertising filmmaker, complained of an intrusive, unwelcome advertisement before breakfast. "When a man gets up in the morning, he wakes up with the newspaper and this is the only time of peace and solace in the day," Kakkar told a Times of India reporter. "The voice box intruded into this space and I did not know how to stop it."
Even so, I bought an extra copy to relish again the childhood habit of dismantling fascinating toys to explore the innards. The two-inch, featherweight, hollow rectangular "voice box" contained two button cells wired into a disc about an inch wide that produces the repetitive message.
I thought it was lighter pressure of fingers or of folded newspaper pages that activated the voice - but the Times of India declared the next day that a light-sensitive device worked the moment the pages were even half open.
The iPod-sized gizmos with the speaker, chip and batteries are made at a Volkswagen factory in China. Mumbai resident and Volkswagen India manager Lutz Kothe said his 14-year-old niece, Beatrix Madersbacher, gave him the idea during a business trip to Munich.
Beatrix may have had a brainwave or seen the idea on the Internet. In early 2009, Lalit Pahwa, director of a small Mumbai-based publisher, Pioneer Book Co, had talked about a pre-recorded audio chip embedded in a newspaper or magazine page. It would start playing when the reader opened the page and stop when page was turned. But Pahwa could not implement the idea for the two women's magazines he publishes.
The German connection though was appropriate in enabling the world's first speaking newspapers. Apart from Gutenberg, another German, Johann Carolus (1575-1634), published the first-ever generally acknowledged newspaper - his "Relation", or Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien (Collection of all distinguished and commemorable news) was published from 1605.
It took nearly six months of working logistics for the September 21 edition of the Times of India and The Hindu to carry the talking page - 2.5 million copies of the edition were selectively distributed in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.
The copies had become collectors' items in Mumbai by the next morning, the concluding day of the city's biggest annual festival of Ganesha, the charismatic god of enterprise and adventure.
(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LI24Df04.html
The full text from the Asia Times:
Adventure of the talking newspaper
By Raja Murthy
MUMBAI - As with over two million others in India, I got a shock on Tuesday morning when I opened my daily newspaper and heard a voice from within its pages. I dropped the newspaper in surprise, and the voice stopped. On opening it again, a male voice bleated about German engineering.
It was my eerie moment of history, the era of speaking newspapers had dawned, with no advance warning, and I had become part of all its attendant wonderful and nightmarish possibilities.
Using a small, ingenious, light-sensor activated, voice-recorded device glued to the newspaper page, the Times of India and The Hindu carried an audio advertisement launching a new Volkswagen car model on September 21. The two leading Indian
dailies, both over 100 years old, became the world's first multimedia newspapers of a kind perhaps never imagined by Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press in around 1441.
The talking paper launched the Vento, a premium entry-level sedan and the latest offering from top-selling Volkswagen India Group that markets the Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen brands. Volkswagen India reported growth of 120.7% in its latest sales figures for January to July 2010.
The newspaper audio continued Volkswagen India's reputation for innovative marketing - such as "Roadblocked" last November, when it took over the entire advertising space in all of the 16 Times of India editions across India, for its Polo hatchback model.
Volkswagen releasing the first-ever audio page in print media opened up a Pandora's box of ideas: will the next James Bond movie have newspapers singing out the theme? Will cash-rich political parties be demanding votes through talking newspapers next elections? Worse, imagine sitting inside a train or an aircraft with a babble of audio papers.
Given the responses the next day, on September 22, there may be a hundred other duplicate ideas of yakkety-yak magazines and newspapers. But now that it is known that paper can be made to speak, that first pristine moment of utter astonishment has passed. Memorable, though, is the inaugural experience of what I had never thought of before: a newspaper talking.
For a few seconds, I had rarely been more bewildered than on hearing a voice coming from the newspaper in the early morning. My first confused thought was that somehow a cell phone had found its way into the pages by mistake - but then, even cell phones can't start talking by themselves, and I don't own a cell phone. When I saw what the voice was, I couldn't help smiling: a full-page car advertisement on a back page, with a two-inch black rectangular box glued to it doing the talking.
The astonishment was more because there were no advance warnings or teaser advertisements in days leading up to the caper. The edition with the voice carried a small note to "Our Readers: The Times of India and Volkswagen have created four pages of content as a sort of a special media innovation. Don't miss reading and listening to this 'speaking newspaper'!"
But I found this message only after looking for it.
"Best in class German engineering is here," announces the male voice. "The new Volkswagen Vento. Built with great care and highly innovative features, perhaps that's why it breaks the hearts of our engineers to watch it drive away. The new Volkswagen Vento, crafted with so much passion, it's hard to let it go. Volkswagen. Das Auto."
The message repeats itself, until the news page is folded sufficiently to block the pinhole-sized perforation on the black audio box through which lights travels to sensor to trigger the recorded disk.
Varied, colorful responses were reported across India to opening a newspaper and hearing it talk. They ranged from frightened children to a Mumbai police bomb squad rushing to investigate suspicious noises coming from a litter-bin near S L Raheja Hospital in suburban Mahim - some irritated reader had chucked away the black chatterbox, which can continue talking for nearly two-and-a-half hours.
A startled housemaid reportedly picked up the talking newspaper and screamed "ghost", an understandable reaction given the stories I heard as a kid about ghosts violently slapping people opening the front door at dawn - probably as grouchy farewell before the spooks vanish at sunrise.
Hundreds of messages about the morning newspaper experience flooded social networking sites like Twitter. "The Volkswagen talking ad in today's TOI [Times of India] scared the hell out of me!" tweeted one. "It's both funny and weird."
More proof of how the astonished mind can produce any thought came with one startled reader revealing he had thought the wall behind his newspaper was talking.
Not everyone was startled or impressed. Bangalore resident Rani Venugopal scolded the Times of India for creating an environmental problem with all the plastic that will be thrown away with the newspaper.
The bearded, bear-like Prahlad Kakkar, a prominent Mumbai-based advertising filmmaker, complained of an intrusive, unwelcome advertisement before breakfast. "When a man gets up in the morning, he wakes up with the newspaper and this is the only time of peace and solace in the day," Kakkar told a Times of India reporter. "The voice box intruded into this space and I did not know how to stop it."
Even so, I bought an extra copy to relish again the childhood habit of dismantling fascinating toys to explore the innards. The two-inch, featherweight, hollow rectangular "voice box" contained two button cells wired into a disc about an inch wide that produces the repetitive message.
I thought it was lighter pressure of fingers or of folded newspaper pages that activated the voice - but the Times of India declared the next day that a light-sensitive device worked the moment the pages were even half open.
The iPod-sized gizmos with the speaker, chip and batteries are made at a Volkswagen factory in China. Mumbai resident and Volkswagen India manager Lutz Kothe said his 14-year-old niece, Beatrix Madersbacher, gave him the idea during a business trip to Munich.
Beatrix may have had a brainwave or seen the idea on the Internet. In early 2009, Lalit Pahwa, director of a small Mumbai-based publisher, Pioneer Book Co, had talked about a pre-recorded audio chip embedded in a newspaper or magazine page. It would start playing when the reader opened the page and stop when page was turned. But Pahwa could not implement the idea for the two women's magazines he publishes.
The German connection though was appropriate in enabling the world's first speaking newspapers. Apart from Gutenberg, another German, Johann Carolus (1575-1634), published the first-ever generally acknowledged newspaper - his "Relation", or Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien (Collection of all distinguished and commemorable news) was published from 1605.
It took nearly six months of working logistics for the September 21 edition of the Times of India and The Hindu to carry the talking page - 2.5 million copies of the edition were selectively distributed in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.
The copies had become collectors' items in Mumbai by the next morning, the concluding day of the city's biggest annual festival of Ganesha, the charismatic god of enterprise and adventure.
(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Long time coming
It's been a long time coming. But it's here. The first local website to become a local print publication that I've heard about. Why has this been so hard to see? Targeted print publications have always had the same DNA as websites, so why hasn't this happened many times before. Why have the creation of websites from print publications come in droves, in millions, in billions, in zillions, before a local print publication from a website. It should have been a two-way street from the beginning, but I guess the construction crews arbitrarily -- or rather the culture police arbitrarily -- decided it was a one way street.
To see the full story visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2010/sep/16/hyperlocal-blog-hu17-beverley-paul-smith-print
Or here it is:
Hyperlocal blogger expands into print publishing
Website publisher launches full colour weekly
A hyperlocal news site owner has launched into print with a low cost advertising weekly for Beverley.
Paul Smith is known to many bloggers for campaigning to clear his name after the Hull Daily Mail accused him of activity in the porn industry and questioned his fitness to run the website HU17.net in high-profile coverage in the area.
But several stressful months on – and with a partially upheld PCC complaint against the paper behind him – Smith has stepped up his local publishing venture by launching in their backyard.
He told me how the new venture was progressing:
"The first edition was just sport with no other editorial, it was more as a promotional idea though has evolved since then. Now it is 28 pages in full colour on A4 pages.
"It is for everyone in the town though it seems to appeal to those who are out and about – ie who use the shops, bars and or play sport in the area".
Competition
The newspaper competes for its readers, and advertisers, with the Johnston Press's Beverley Guardian as well as the Hull Daily Mail's own Beverley Advertiser.
Cover Photograph: Paul Smith/guardian.co.uk
What Smith calls his "magic formula'' is a mixture of pictures capturing local events under the strapline 'it's all about Beverley' and low cost advertising - £5 per week for a good sized advert.
"I am told people like to see who is in it, I think it also helps that the content is exclusive and very niche. Having an established web site has helped, people know the brand too."
The print version hits the streets each Tuesday and is distributed to drop off places in Beverley such as bars, barbers and social clubs.
"Local shops have been very supportive with many signing up to advertising package that is realistic and very affordable, something that was certainly needed in the area.
"We still only make a limited number up to 100 copies but each one gets seen by lots of people."
HU17 can also be accessed online at HU17.net and on Facebook.
To see the full story visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2010/sep/16/hyperlocal-blog-hu17-beverley-paul-smith-print
Or here it is:
Hyperlocal blogger expands into print publishing
Website publisher launches full colour weekly
A hyperlocal news site owner has launched into print with a low cost advertising weekly for Beverley.
Paul Smith is known to many bloggers for campaigning to clear his name after the Hull Daily Mail accused him of activity in the porn industry and questioned his fitness to run the website HU17.net in high-profile coverage in the area.
But several stressful months on – and with a partially upheld PCC complaint against the paper behind him – Smith has stepped up his local publishing venture by launching in their backyard.
He told me how the new venture was progressing:
"The first edition was just sport with no other editorial, it was more as a promotional idea though has evolved since then. Now it is 28 pages in full colour on A4 pages.
"It is for everyone in the town though it seems to appeal to those who are out and about – ie who use the shops, bars and or play sport in the area".
Competition
The newspaper competes for its readers, and advertisers, with the Johnston Press's Beverley Guardian as well as the Hull Daily Mail's own Beverley Advertiser.
Cover Photograph: Paul Smith/guardian.co.uk
What Smith calls his "magic formula'' is a mixture of pictures capturing local events under the strapline 'it's all about Beverley' and low cost advertising - £5 per week for a good sized advert.
"I am told people like to see who is in it, I think it also helps that the content is exclusive and very niche. Having an established web site has helped, people know the brand too."
The print version hits the streets each Tuesday and is distributed to drop off places in Beverley such as bars, barbers and social clubs.
"Local shops have been very supportive with many signing up to advertising package that is realistic and very affordable, something that was certainly needed in the area.
"We still only make a limited number up to 100 copies but each one gets seen by lots of people."
HU17 can also be accessed online at HU17.net and on Facebook.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The beat goes on
Individual news venture
debuts at SXSW
As reported this morning by News and Tech at
http://www.newsandtech.com/whats_new/article_44b9118e-35dd-11df-9c6d-001cc4c002e0.html:
London-based startup Newspaper Club brought its concept of individually produced newspapers to the United States last week when its backers created newspaper prototypes at a SXSW new media seminar in Austin, Texas.
The firm, whose Arthr software allows anyone to create up to a 12-page newspaper, handed out papers that were printed by the Austin American-Statesman, according to a blog posted by Fast Company magazine.
Once the papers were handed out to seminar attendees, Fast Company wrote that Twitter user @mattb reported, “The newspapers are passed out and the quiet sound of typing sounds to the white noise of paper rustling.”
Newspaper Club is currently only available in the United Kingdom, where users can generate their own newspapers, either in color or black-and-white, or have Newspaper Club produce one for them. Prices range around $500 for 300 black-and-white editions to $2,200 for 5,000 full-color copies.
debuts at SXSW
As reported this morning by News and Tech at
http://www.newsandtech.com/whats_new/article_44b9118e-35dd-11df-9c6d-001cc4c002e0.html:
London-based startup Newspaper Club brought its concept of individually produced newspapers to the United States last week when its backers created newspaper prototypes at a SXSW new media seminar in Austin, Texas.
The firm, whose Arthr software allows anyone to create up to a 12-page newspaper, handed out papers that were printed by the Austin American-Statesman, according to a blog posted by Fast Company magazine.
Once the papers were handed out to seminar attendees, Fast Company wrote that Twitter user @mattb reported, “The newspapers are passed out and the quiet sound of typing sounds to the white noise of paper rustling.”
Newspaper Club is currently only available in the United Kingdom, where users can generate their own newspapers, either in color or black-and-white, or have Newspaper Club produce one for them. Prices range around $500 for 300 black-and-white editions to $2,200 for 5,000 full-color copies.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Forrester Research presentation at paidContent 2010
Here's the one point I want to make before you check out this SlideShare Presentation. The newspaper subscription used to pay for access to the content, so the theory is consistent, that people don't pay for content they pay for access:
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