Ashley Highfield is the latest to call up platform neutral magic
Raymond Snoddy says it may be economically impossible to sustain daily publication of small regional papers but the jolt from daily to weekly is an abrupt one and it is a gap that may not be adequately met by online…
There is something quietly seductive about the phrase “platform neutral”. It exudes common sense, rationality and even fairness – the technological equivalent of Switzerland.
In the digital age executives who trumpet the importance of platform neutrality can sound as if they are gathering together the wisdom of the ages.
Ashley Highfield, the former head of BBC Technology and an acknowledged digerati, now chief executive of Johnston Press, is the latest to call up the platform neutral magic to justify quite radical changes at the challenged local newspaper group.
The Highfield version of a platform neutral publishing strategy is defined as local, social and mobile, with iPad apps on the way.
The reality at least for now is the moving of five of Johnston’s smaller dailies such as the Halifax Courier to weekly publication combined with the closure of local offices.
Several more of Johnston’s remaining daily titles are expected to follow the same weekly route after redesigns. Only Johnston’s main morning titles The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post are specifically exempt from what amounts to a partial evisceration.
Of course any sensible person trying to find a way forward for local and regional newspapers would have to pay attention to the importance of local news, the rise of the social media and the opportunities offered by mobile.
And no-one can accuse Highfield of coming in to Johnston with a ready-made digital plan and imposing it thoughtlessly on the organisation. In fact Highfield, who was appointed in July, was initially roundly criticised for not producing instant solutions.
Instead he toured the Johnston Press empire to try to find examples of best practice and implement them across the group.
In February a layer of divisional management was removed, which left nine executives, including Michael Johnston – the last member of the Johnston family in the group – “discussing” their futures.
So far so good. Flatter management structures are inevitable when companies are fighting for ultimate survival.
Then this week came the great platform neutral strategy unveiled, appropriately, by Highfield via an internal video message to staff.
It is commonplace to say that a newspaper group should use all available technologies and platforms to reach its audience, always assuming of course that it makes economic sense to do so.
In that sense platform neutrality is a truism. But the concept of platform neutrality, if it also carries the connotation that neutral means equal – and it often does – is at best a euphemism and at worst a dangerous delusion.
All platforms or channels are not equal and never will be. The more that television channels multiply endlessly the more the relative importance of the main channels are highlighted, except at the margins.
Online is not the equal of print in its social and political impact – and not least in the ability to attract advertising revenues.
The Daily Mail and General Trust said this week that its online revenues from a remarkable 100 million page impressions a month had risen by 69%. It is far from clear how this admirable percentage rise translates into revenues.
Overall the online revenue of the publishing group that owns the Daily Mail said it was heading towards online revenues of £100 million a year, though most of this comes from stand-alone property and job search businesses.
As for Johnston there does appear to be a number of glaring questions exposed by its new strategy.
Highfield wants Johnston to be the natural home for local, social media communities and the best guide to “everything that’s happening locally”.
It is not obvious how those aims will be best served by closing district offices and making reporters redundant. News is not the same as social media chat and which bands are appearing in what pubs.
Ian Robinson – a blogger on the Highfield plan – commented: “This would be well and good if the internet was able to provide anything near the amount of local coverage that newspapers do. I can read the same article about Simon Cowell on millions of sites but if I want to know what’s happening in my own town there’s barely anything.”
At the same time the Johnston chief executive plans to increase the price of most of his local papers. Yet that will only work if the content is good enough.
Local councillors, businessmen and MPs are already lamenting what they are about to lose in places such as Halifax, Peterborough and Scarborough.
Axing the role of editor at flagship titles such as the Yorkshire Post is naturally not about cutting costs but about “creating operational excellence”.
It may be impossible economically to sustain daily publication of small regional papers but the jolt from daily to weekly is an abrupt one and it is a gap that may not be adequately met by online.
Was a move to bi-weekly not worth a shot given that local weekend sport is important to many communities?
The Johnston executive acknowledges that print is becoming a smaller part of the mix but has he got the pace of transition right or imposing platform neutrality a little prematurely?
The Highfield plan also envisages new “vertical content” businesses, bringing together output from all of Johnston Press’ titles in a single site with the hope of creating a national success like Mumsnet.
There would, says Highfeld, be an aggregation of similar topics such as football, business and events. Maybe, but it is not clear that an aggregation of local information from all over the country would add up to more than the sum of the individual parts. Most football fans are not fans of football but fans of a particular team – usually their local team.
Highfield hopes that he can double digital revenues within three years and that by 2020 digital revenues will equal revenues from print products.
Everyone in the local newspaper industry will wish him well. It will be a great achievement if he can pull it off. But leaving neutrality aside for a moment – the odds are against it and in the process much will have been lost.