Bridging the gap between newspapers and the market

Anna Serner, the CEO Tidnings Utgivarna, The Swedish Newspaper Publishers’ Association spoke today during the INMA / OPA Outlook 2010 conference about how important it is for newspapers to innovate within their own brands and in their relationship with their readers/consumers .
There is a market out there willing to pay for bottled water. Even in countries where the tap water is both free and drinkable. The consumers and advertisers are used to paying for the brands they trust. Yet the trustworthy business of newspapers cannot find its way to a similarly profitable business model in the digital market place.

The newsmedia publishers should be able to answer two questions: do they know the market, and who they are waiting for. They have to know the market, know the reader, and then give him what he wants.

Younger generations are the ones who are growing now in times, when everybody is talking about the death of newspapers. According to the Swedish Newspaper Publishers’ Association’s latest research in Sweden:

• 68,5% absolutely want a free subscription.
• 53% believe that the paper will exist in 50 years
• 16% believe that the paper is the most important media.

Anna Serner suggested that young people today have three features publishers should focus on mostly:  style conscience, individualism and experience orientation. Therefore newsmedia companies should:
1. Concentrate on style. As a great example, the speaker showed two different way of selling books online. One online bookstore does it this way:

Google does it differently:

Google does a lot of things publishers may not like, but there’s always chance to learn from Google’s mistakes. All pages do not necessarily have to look the same. Innovation and creativity are the keys.

2. Individualize. Many companies do it already. Time is experimenting with individual weekly, Niiu in Germany is trying to publish personalised daily. It is important for a newspaper to represent the same features as the reader has.

3. Experience. Maybe the solution is to look into other markets and study how the successful consumer brands act? Anna Serner showed the example of award winning marketing campaign of Diesel, that 2 years ago through viral advertising, integration with web 2.0, adaptation of the user generated content, dialogue and branded content, created an incredible buzz around its brand. It became one of top 10 YouTube videos, gained almost 35.000 new google search results within 24 hours. Below is the movie telling more about this action:

Will newsmedia companies dare?

More recent stories

Integration is a neverending process

Agora’s (Poland) Sport.pl Group is one of the leaders of the Polish Internet ‘Sports’ category. After merging its various sports newsrooms into one, Sport.pl attracts 3.5 million users monthly. Marcin Gadzinski, the editor-in-chief of... 

Agora will support innovative internet entrepreneurs

12,5 thousand Euro in cash plus advertising campaign worth 25 thousand Euro – this is the main prize in Startup Fest – a competition for independent internet entrepreneurs organized by Agora. The publisher of the largest Polish daily “Gazeta... 

Photography in the age of tablets

Two editors went to Arles in France not only to watch pictures at the famous photography festival, but also to talk with the world’s best photographers about their pictures. Les Rencontres (“Encounters”) is one of the most important... 

How to monetize online niches, local sites and blogs

Poland’s Agora partners with two European entrepreneurs to take the middle man out of buying advertising, selling simple ads directly through web sites. Is AdTaily.com the future of online advertising? In August issue of the INMA Ideas magazine... 

Newspapers can help schools to enter the digital age

Today’s pupils are the first generation that does not remember the world before the Internet revolution. But our schools got stuck in the “chalk age”. What newspapers can do about it? This May twenty five reporters of Gazeta Wyborcza,... 

What drives Daily Telegraph, El Pais, Le Monde and New York Times to Krakow?

80+ delegates from 35 different European newsmedia companies have already registered to the INMA/OPA Europe Conference in Krakow, Poland (Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2010). Among those who took advantage of the first deadline for early bird rates and registered... 

Newspaper challenged by an amateur blogger

Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza believes it helps to build an open society by providing platforms for debates and inspiring readers concerned with a common good. Sometimes readers take an opportunity and start competing with their own newspaper. That morning...