Strong newspaper brands have a big future, according to leading figures in the publishing industry, who were speaking yesterday at MediaTel Group’s Future of the National Press Seminar in London.
Dave King, executive director of the
Telegraph, said that newspaper groups with powerful brands would move forwards as converged multi-media groups, with a focus on multiple platforms such as podcasting and mobile devices.
“These very strong brands have a big future because they engage with the readers, listeners and watchers, they engage with advertisers and they work,” he said.
However, King said that this did not mean the Telegraph Group would switch the focus away from its flagship newspaper. “We’re not going to take our eye off the core part of our business – that would be a strategic nightmare. A lot of our investment will be with the existing product,” he said.
Stuart Taylor, commercial director of Guardian Newspapers Ltd, added: “This is a profoundly complex time we’re all working in. The rules and channels of distribution are all converging. Strong trusted content brands will not only survive but thrive going forwards.
“Everything we do includes online and increasingly mobile and other platforms. [We have to be] multi-media because that’s how our customers are trying to consume us and we’ve got to be there otherwise we’ll lose them.”
He also admitted that the internet was a huge opportunity for GNL, but expressed concern over finding a way of measuring online accurately, in order to make it meaningful for users and advertisers.
There is a 28 page report on the future of the press available from MediaTel INSIGHT www.mediatelinsight.co.uk/reports (free to all INSIGHT subscribers), which includes long-term trends for national newspaper circulation and readership, as well as the latest advertising revenue and circulation forecasts and an analysis of current marketplace dynamics.
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