On importance of good cooperation between editorial and marketing departments
October 2, 2008 by marek.miller
Grzegorz Piechota and Jerzy Wojcik spoke about how important is the content of the newspaper and how it can be sold with the help of marketing departments.
Jerzy Wojcik (left) and Grzegorz Piechota
Both speakers are the editors of Poland’s “Gazeta Wyborcza” and have been involved in the editorial innovation projects that resulted in circulation and online traffic increases.
Some history
The first issue of “Gazeta Wyborcza” was published in 1989. It had only 8 pages. At that time, the Solidarity party needed an independent newspaper which would be free of communist influences. That is were the title came from – “Gazeta Wyborcza” means “Newspaper for elections”. The first free elections in Poland was the time for this newspaper, but it lasted till today and is in a very good shape (app. 450,000 sold copies daily on avarage). All the goals the newspaper had set ahead at this time were achieved. Among those were:
- free elections
- free economy
- rule of law
- equality of opportunity
- security (NATO)
- development (EU)
Since then, new goals had to be set. The newspaper itself, as Grzegorz Piechota admitted, focused more on circulation, promotion, marketing etc. After several years of promotional and marketing activities, the marketing department turned to the editorial office for new ideas.
Common language
Finding a common language between the marketing department and editorial office was the most difficult part in “Gazeta Wyborcza”. This happened due to the different goals of the two departments at the beginning. What marketeers wanted from the editors were:
- plan
- guarantee of schedule
- result in numbers
- cost effectiveness
On the other hand, the editors also had their requests toward the marketing department, and those were:
- more space
- trust in story choices
- taking risks
- consulting of ads (to find another ways to sell books, DVDs, and another ways to sell stories)
Leaders must not be afraid to experiment
As one of the leading dailies in Poland, “Gazeta Wyborcza” was not afraid to experiment. One of them was a full front page advertisment of the story about the kidnapped son of one of the richest people in Poland who was kidnapped and trapped for 678 before the ransom was paid and he was found dead. The new approach to this story (while every newspaper in Poland based on the police reports, “Gazeta Wyborcza” chose to speak to the family and neighbors of the kidnapped boy) helped the newspaper follow the story for a much longer period than its competitors.
Why has “Gazeta Wyborcza” chosen to serialize its features? Because they:
- can be planned
- allow to easily to see the results (features published day by day – could be seen on the sales and circulation figures)
- help to easily calculate the costs (paper, promotion, etc.)
- make journalists proud
Another experiment of “Gazeta Wyborcza” was to drive features about Lech Walesa, a former president of Poland. A couple of months ago, Lech Walesa was accused by two Polish historians of cooperating with communist secret services. The newspaper, despite their criticism during Walesa’s presidency, decided to defend him. “Gazeta Wyborcza” ran a series of features concerning the “7 choices of Lech Walesa”. It also asked the readers to help write a biography of Lech Walesa (entitled “My Lech Walesa”) based on personal opinions and ways he inspired readers’ lives.
These two experiments prove that it is possible to attract the readers to the newspaper for a longer period of time. Not only the circulation of “Gazeta Wyborcza” was stable during the week as people wanted to read more, but it actually started growing by the end of the week.
Better cooperation between the two departments
The two experiments helped the marketing department and the editorial office of “Gazeta Wyborcza” cooperate better. The newsroom understood the marketing department is not only thinking about money and figures. They understood they had:
- common values
- shared success
- recognition (single authors were promoted by the marketing department, their names were mentioned in the promotion materials, so more and more authors started contributing to the projects)
- more impact (“Gazeta Wyborcza” managed to prolongue the life of the news)
Also the marketing department could notice that deeper cooperation with the newsroom is profitable for the newspaper. Marketeers learned the paper again, they saw on the circulation numbers that editorial content can attract the readers. What was important from the marketing department’s point of view was the fact that promoting content is a relatively cheap mean of promotion. And that this content can grow a strong recognition of the brand.
Treasure hunt
Worth noticing is also the tremendous success of “Gazeta Wyborcza” with its school of photography (carefully described by Grzegorz Piechota earlier, on Forum4Editors). The newspaper managed to receive 141,000 photographs from 25,000 readers.
The action taken by “Gazeta Wyborcza” reminds the well known game called treasure hunting. While recognizing the strong sides of the newspapers, the editors reminded themselves about the photographers, who were perfectly ’sold’ by the marketing department. The photographers became the mentors and teachers to the readers who wanted to participate in the newspaper’s school of photography.
Now “Gazeta Wyborcza” plans to go further. Slawomir Idziak, the polish cinematographer ( “Black Hawk Down”) is teaching now readers how to take photos and films with the cell phone. The results of the action will be soon to follow.
Take aways
There are some important thoughts the listeners of the speech of Grzegorz Piechota and Jerzy Wojcik should bare in minds, if they want to suceed on the :
- print is not dead
- cooperation is a must
- any success empowers
- focus on ideal society
- embrace the community
Tagged: Case studies, INMA, Marketing, Outlook 2009
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