Despite recent pessimistic forecasts about circulation figures and the bad news emerging from Trinity Mirror yesterday, newspaper industry figures are still upbeat about the future.
Panellists at MediaTel Group’s ‘Future of National Newspapers’ seminar, held today in London, concentrated on ways the industry can move forward and improve advertising revenue and circulation figures by focusing on the consumer.
Dominic Carter, panellist and trading director at the Times, said: “There are growth opportunities for newspapers – certainly if you continue to produce high quality editorial and you market appropriately and you understand the consumer – and you are relevant to that consumer – then you can grow circulations.”
He added that although it is a challenging time for the newspaper industry there are opportunities to invest in content and good editorial to help attract and keep readers.
Commenting on Trinity Mirror’s announcement, Carat’s press director Dominic Williams said: “I think newspapers are going to have a tough 18 months – I read yesterday that Trinity are down 25% and they are, but if you look in more detail at the regional side of Trinity they are holding themselves in good stead.”
He added: “What newspapers need to do now is invest in content.”
Rich Mead, managing director of Metro Newspapers, agreed: “It’s going to be a challenging couple of years but if you look at the market there are some strong brands there – there are some brands which have invested heavily in creating good products, with content that is targeted at its audience and they are the brands who will hold up well in this market.”
Alex DeGroote, analyst from Panmure Gordon, also said that the trading update from Trinity was not all bad but added: “The backdrop here is one of a really weak UK macro-economic background, which is unlikely to pick up in the near term, certainly not through quarter three or probably quarter four this year – so the near term advertising outlook for national newspapers is not healthy.”
Commenting on the current economic turbulence and how newspapers and other media are affected, managing director of City AM Lawson Muncaster thought there were positives to be taken from current market conditions.
He said: “You can be brave and be innovative – you have got to be reactive and proactive in recession.”
Panellists were in agreement that growth in the newspaper industry is possible with innovation and consumer focused products, with Carter adding: “There is an appetite to read newspapers but you have to get to the consumer – the big opportunity in newspapers is for us to do just that.”
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