The ability of newspapers to benefit from their online offerings is one of the big challenges facing the industry, and a select panel debated this and other topics at today’s MediaTel Group seminar on the ‘Future of National Newspapers’.
Panellist Dominic Carter from News International said: “The reality is that we are learning all the time how better to monetise our online inventory. At the moment, are we as profitable as we’d like? No. Are we learning how to make more money out of our consumers? Absolutely. It’s a question of not just looking at advertising but looking at revenues and looking at what consumers are prepared to pay for.”
He added that a strong online product can have great benefits in other areas of business.
Carat’s Dominic Williams, also on the panel, said that the combination of print and digital together has great appeal for agencies.
He said: “I’m really encouraged with the platforms that newspapers are offering us. What we need to do as agencies is deliver audiences and sales to our clients, and any opportunities that newspapers can give us, any angles you can give us in terms of reaching this audience is spot on and cross-platform is the way forward, and it has to be.”
Carter added that despite online’s prominence, newspapers should not be taken for granted. “What we’re very good at in newspapers is reaching a lot of people in a short space of time, and that can’t be matched by digital in the same way yet,” he said.
“The combination of print and digital and mobile is very important to all of us because we invest in our content and because we invest in our brands.”
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