MRG Conference: By Using Mass Brand Management, The Age of Mass Media Isn’t Over

Martyn U’ren outlined, to Wednesday afternoon’s MRG Conference, how News International are continuing to provide massive audiences by pursuing a policy of co-existence between paper and digital media for their newspaper brands.

He quoted Rupert Murdoch as saying that consumers want their content delivered “when they want it, how they want it and very much as they want it.”

With TouchPoints already providing an insight into which platforms are used to consume news content throughout the day, News International’s InFocus research sought to determine what drives people to a certain brand and which platform is most appropriate for which content through the use of online focus groups.

Amongst its findings was that trustworthiness was far less important than entertainment to Sun readers, for example, and while readers expect news to be broken in the paper, they’ll go to the website to get additional material.

News International saw the impact of breaking news online and then driving traffic to their website most notoriously in the case of putting Lady Macca’s “early film work” on the Sun’s website, resulting in 1.1 million page impressions from 180,000 paper copies. The group now talks about a “Sun Session” which could include readership of the Sun, a visit to the website or receiving a text.

Although readership of the paper copies has undeniably dropped, U’ren argued that News International are still reaching 20 million people, as they did in 1996, albeit via different platforms. In addition to equal audience reach he argued they could now also use online communities to find out more about their audience and in some cases, such as online Bingo, drive revenue.

He concluded that the challenge ahead was is in delivering brand connection and for the conference delegates to work together in achieving this.

News International: 020 7782 3922 www.newscorp.co.uk