NewsLine Column: Pushing Print
Following the recent flurry of activity in the press sector, Nik Vyas, associate director at Zenith Optimedia, explains why the print market is one of the most dynamic and forward thinking of mediums when it comes to creating, nurturing and developing brands…
Press is boring and lacks innovation.
These are a couple of the criticisms I hear levelled against the print medium and its brands more often than I would like. Thankfully however, these and other censures don’t bear up to scrutiny and it’s actually people’s jaded perceptions of the medium and the brands that need to be refreshed.
In the past few months alone there’s been a massive amount of investment in both newspapers and magazines. The Month launched at the end of August in The Sunday Times – a truly groundbreaking addition to an already substantial package, the CD Rom allows readers to watch, listen and interact with a large amount of topical content such as music, movies and games. Crucially for advertisers and suppliers a couple of clicks of the mouse and you can purchase those very same products, book tickets etc.
We’ve also seen the Independent launch a tabloid sibling. The UK’s first national quality tabloid has been very successful for the paper, adding c17,000 additional copies each weekday as struggling commuters realise they don’t need to grapple uncouthly with a large piece of paper in a crowded carriage anymore if they require quality news in the morning. In the sincerest form of flattery, every other broadsheet is now rumoured to be looking seriously at downsizing.
The magazine market has been equally active and there have been more launches and announced/rumoured launches recently than at any time in recent years. This week we saw the launch of Olive, an upmarket food magazine from the BBC. A few weeks ago there was Delicious, another food magazine and Star, Richard Desmond’s latest foray into the celebrity sector, this time in an A5 guise. This is on top of recent arrivals such as Dare, a new teen girl title and Sour Mash, a humorous men’s magazine. Coming up we’ve got the world’s first weekly men’s magazine from Emap (codenamed Project Tyson), the first general interest magazine for teenage boys, Sorted and even a Songs of Praise Magazine.
It’s likely that not all of these titles will go on to become unqualified success stories but at least publishers are attempting to capture the prevailing zeitgeist and produce magazines that find resonance with current cultural, demographic and social trends.
The most valuable thing media owners are able to offer agencies and advertisers is access to their audience. When we look beyond broad-brush socio-demographics we can see that audiences are constantly evolving, along with their needs and interests. These challenges and changes are clearly being anticipated, monitored and met by publishers through investment and product innovation.
The print medium/brands are in a unique position whereby they can respond relatively quickly to environmental changes. Importantly they are brands that readers trust and have a strong affinity to, often viewing them as badges of membership to a particular community of interest.
All the recent activity in the market demonstrates that the print market is one of the most dynamic and forward thinking of mediums when it comes to creating, nurturing and developing brands. If it retains the current level of innovation it will remain so for many years to come.
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