Online is an important part of a multi-media solution, which will work together with newspapers rather than replace them, according to the executive director of the Telegraph, Dave King, who was speaking at MediaTel Group’s seminar yesterday.
“[Online] has to be part of the media group, which encompasses newspapers. So it’s not just two newspapers with some online product – it’s a media group that happens to have two newspapers, that’s the kind of future that we’re moving to,” he said.
However, he did express concern, saying “my slight worry is that there’s a mini dot com boom happening at the moment because of the [large amounts of money] that are being paid and the lack of synergistic reason to put these companies together. That’s the dilemma that we face.”
He also admitted that the Telegraph was commissioning its own research looking at the relationship between newspapers and online, and whether a paper print version of a title drives readers to the web. King said the research is being carried out because there is no substantive information on the accountability of online.
Mike Rowley, classified and digital ad director at the Evening Standard, said that new research has shown that one in four adults in the UK visit a DMGT website, and that the next generation of change is beginning to kick in. However, he also expressed concerns, saying “the underlying problem is that [online] is a less profitable business.”
Stuart Taylor, commercial director of Guardian Newspapers Ltd, believes that online complements the print audience, but some of the audience are the same people choosing to behave in a different way.
He said that GNL had seen 90% growth in its online classified business. “We’re not replacing the print with the online but it’s getting close,” he said.
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.
