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‘We are committed to daily newspapers’ says Highfield

Johnston Press chief executive Ashley Highfield has spoken of his desire to give regional dailies “renewed longevity” in an interview with HoldtheFrontPage.

Speaking to the website on the day he set out his detailed vision for the future, he defended his recent series of daily-to-weekly changes saying he remained committed to daily newspapers.

Ashley, left, also responded to questions about the recent departures of some of his most senior editors, saying it was not about individuals but about creating a simpler structure.

And he confirmed that most of the remaining paid-for broadsheets within JP would convert to compact format as part of the ongoing relaunch of all the paid-for titles, although he made a specific exception for the Yorkshire Post which has already undergone a redesign.

Ashley spoke to HoldtheFrontPage publisher Paul Linford yesterday lunchtime after delivering his strategy presentation to investors.

Here are some key extracts from the interview.


PL: To begin with, can you answer the burning question which a lot of our readers have been asking over the past week – namely what you mean by the term “platform-neutral?”

AH: It’s a bit of a clunky phrase.  It’s possibly a sign of our times that there isn’t a better phrase out there.  It means being able to write once and publish many times, to think of a story not in terms of its media distribution but in terms of what you are trying to convey.  The audience is using a number of different devices, and we are trying to reflect that in the way we write and the way we publish.  It’s about not being fixated on one medium.

PL: You have spoken about striking a balance between print and digital but you have also spoken about a ‘digital first’ strategy. Is there a potential conflict there?

AH: I don’t necessarily see a dichotomy between the two.  You can have a balance but because of the frequency of digital it will almost always be the first medium to cover a story, although there are certain circumstances where you may want to run a story in print first.

PL: Although you have ruled out taking any more dailies weekly in 2012, your strategy presentation to investors states that there will be ‘few’ daily print products by 2020. Do you believe regional dailies are finished?

AH: I don’t think they are finished. I have been clear that we have no plans to move any further newspapers from daily to weekly, I can’t say we won’t ever do that because change in the market happens, but we are committed to daily newspapers. I hope and expect that with the relaunches of our paid-for titles we can give them renewed longevity.

PL: What were your criteria for selecting the five existing daily titles that are going weekly next month, given that they are not the worst-performing in terms of circulation?

AH: We didn’t look at it from that negative perspective.  We looked at it from from the point of view of which of those titles would thrive well in an environment where you have a bumper weekly edition and a daily iPad edition.  We put a lot of time and energy into looking at it.

PL: Do you think it is unfortunate that there is no longer a place for journalists of the calibre of John McLellan and Simon Reynolds in a company like JP?

AH: This is not something I intend to see happening as a trend going forward.   I am investing in journalism.   There will always be some restructuring and I don’t want to get into the individual cases but those were decisions not made against individuals.  They were made on the basis of making a simpler, flatter organisational structure.

PL: You also spoke in your strategy document about a greater proportion of content being user-generated.  Does this inevitably entail fewer journalists?

AH: It doesn’t inevitably entail that, no.  But I think we have got to continually look at the macroeconomic climate and that will inevitably mean a smaller JP than what we have today.

PL: You talk about a smaller JP.   Might you consider selling off any part of the business?

AH: We don’t have any plans to sell off any parts of the business.

PL: What about The Scotsman?  Some commentators would say that acquisition has brought the company nothing but trouble.

AH: The Scotsman is a tremendously valuable brand.  We have got to work out how to exploit that brand.  It’s got a tremendously loyal base, it’s got a tremendous website and unique user base, it’s got a strong international diaspora.  What we’ve got to do is work out how to strengthen that brand.  It is going to be at the vanguard of some of our development.

PL: In terms of the ongoing relaunch, will all the remaining broadsheets become tabloids, and will all the relaunched titles be getting cover price increases?

AH: Most of the broadsheets will move to compact but there may be exceptions.  Most of the paid for titles will see cover price increases but again there may be exceptions in one or two markets.   It is unlikely we will relaunch any newspaper as a broadsheet, but a broadsheet like the Yorkshire Post will stay a broadsheet with its current design.

PL: There is reported to be much dissatisfaction among editors about the plans for more centralised design templates.  What if any progress has been made in trying to resolve this?

AH: Good progress.  I met with our editorial review group yesterday and went through how we make sure we have the optimum balance between local editorial control and the investment we are making in design.  The important thing was for the editors to see what the new designs are looking like and the reaction was incredibly positive.   People are hopefully going to be surprised and delighted by the designs.

PL: And if they aren’t?

AH: They will be.

30 comments

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  • April 26, 2012 at 8:22 am
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    The last sentence says it all really.
    Even my opinion is under threat.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 8:55 am
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    Forget the rest of the interview – that last, chilling, comment says it all.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 9:10 am
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    Well, if Mr HiPad thinks towns like Northampton have thousands of “community media consumers” who can afford iPads, he’s talking cobblers.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 9:36 am
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    “user-generated content” used to mean people ringing in to a newspaper or dropping by the office to let you know about a story. Now they’ve got to write the bloody thing as well. Northcliffe’s papers recently adopted a new website across its papers, which is designed to encourage “user-generated” content. Basically readers are able to post stories, in exactly the same way as reporters. The only difference is that the reporters have got the not-entirely-clear “Trusted Source” icon above their work. While this hasn’t led to an avalanche of libel suits, it hasn’t taken off at all. On our paper, the only people who post content are a couple of amateur photographers, one of the messageboard loons, colleges and the local council.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 9:40 am
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    I am looking forward to being surprised and delighted. I know I will. I’m sure I will. (…or am I?). Yes I am.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 9:44 am
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    I’ve not seen the designs but I’m informed they’re very good, better than expected.

    But regardless of what the papers will look like, everyone I know is incredibly unhappy with losing so much control of their papers.
    Simple things like using InDesign to make a nib box a bit bigger/smaller may be possible (at first, anyway), but highly frowned upon.
    Reports will have to be written justifying every minor change in InDesign.

    So stories will be padded out to fit boxes.
    When Atex was first rolled out, “right first time” was the mantra.
    All reporters were expected to produce clean, tight copy to size, every time, without the need for any copy subbing.
    Nonsense, of course. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.

    I think staff like Highfield’s digital plans, but he’s putting his credibility at risk by showing a lack of understanding of the printed product.
    Editors and deputies in particular have been massively undermined by this.
    They have been listened to a little bit, but the concessions are small and the message, like that final sentence, is do as you’re told or you’re out.
    The lack of respect JP shows its senior editorial staff depresses me.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 9:55 am
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    “Does this inevitably entail fewer journalists?
    AH: It doesn’t inevitably entail that, no. But I think we have got to continually look at the macroeconomic climate and that will inevitably mean a smaller JP than what we have today.”

    Hmm. How can the company inevitably be smaller and yet it doesn’t inevitably mean fewer journalists? Where are the cuts going to come from then? Advertising? Management? I find it highly unlikely that there wouldn’t at least be some cuts to reporting staff in a smaller JP. Mr Highfield appears to have contradicted himself within the space of two sentences. Surprised HTFP didn’t pull him up on that.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 9:56 am
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    ‘… it’s not about individuals, it’s about creating a simpler structure’. Is he working towards a simple structure with nobody in it?

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  • April 26, 2012 at 10:21 am
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    I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg faced so many regressive detractors when he told them they should make the ‘The Facebook’ – a paper-based High School year book – entirely digital?

    Mind you, that idea really fell flat on its face, didn’t it?

    Idiots.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 10:21 am
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    At least he took the extremely rare step of agreeing to be interviewed, even if what he had to say sounded worryingly like the doctrine of an autocrat.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 11:06 am
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    What happens when you are forced to fill templates as sent but because of a shortage of journos you dont have the exact pic shape or copy to fit? I gather JP intend to be a lot more strict about this, with no tweaking.
    Do you sit there all day waiting for something to come along that fits the box while production workers seeth.
    The new designs could well be excellent. But they will be nightmare to fill unless some flexibility is built into the system.
    And there are fears local papers will lose their individuality as JP makes them all look the same.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 11:08 am
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    Whatever AH said, what an excellent interview, getting him on-the-record on so many issues. Good work, Paul.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 11:22 am
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    “I have been clear that we have no plans to move any further newspapers from daily to weekly.”

    Can we really have a u-turn before the plan has even started?

    Will the unfortunate five papers which were randomly selected to go weekly now just be left to drift as this plan is swept under the carpet?

    Also, in the presentation on the JP website, it said the company would ‘change the mix towards freelancers and citizen content’ – is that how JP is going to save money, by getting rid of the few remaining journalists it has on its books?

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  • April 26, 2012 at 11:26 am
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    Dunno what “Real World” you’re living in Binary Boy, but it sure ain’t one that publishes local newspapers.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 11:35 am
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    As noted in several comments, that last line says it all.
    It takes me back to something I heard at a chapel meeting during the 1977-78 NUJ dispute at North of England Newspapers (Westminster Press) in Darlington (anyone still around to remember it?)
    Someone stood up and said: “We must remember that Westminster Press only employ journalists because other newspapers do.”
    JP’s treatment of journalists is a disgrace and, with UGC rearing its ugly head, the future is bleak.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 11:37 am
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    JG – If you actually read the interview you will see that those five papers were not ‘randomly selected’.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 12:38 pm
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    “Right first time” does not work.Some reporters can do it but most can’t. Checking their work without InDesign will be more complicated and the result will be more mistakes – ridiculous ones and legally troubling ones.
    And yes, stories will be padded to fill the box – quite a lot of that goes on already.
    The fear in the newsrooms is that as these changes take place (many of them welcome in their own right), JP will seek to cull the workforce again on the back of it. Goodbye to more editors and deputies, goodbye to anyone who might still be considered a “sub”, goodbye to specialist reporters, goodbye to photogs….I have seen nothing to suggest otherwise and “JP Journo (until they tap me on the shoulder)” accurately sums up the feeling in the newsrooms with his/her very name.
    That’s all I have to say about that….except a message to Binary Boy. Go stick it where the sun don’t shine.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 12:38 pm
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    I was at JP when Atex came in and we were told to fill the boxes as due to our short numbers etc we could not spend time changing them.

    We were tabloid size.

    I sat down to write a lead into the PIC LEAD template. Out of curiosity i copy/pasted a press release into the box just to see how long the word count was for the box….. it was 600.

    300 more than our standard lead length.

    People who design the templates need to be editorial minds not people who are worried about fitting ad shapes onto a page then making copy fit.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 12:51 pm
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    Paper Boy, I have read the whole thing. Ashley says: “We looked at it from from the point of view of which of those titles would thrive well”

    So yes, not random at all. A wonderful explanation which makes perfect sense. Panic over!

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  • April 26, 2012 at 1:01 pm
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    Paper Boy, sorry, you’re right, it wasn’t random, the five papers were chosen “from the point of view of which of those titles would thrive well”

    Clearly a well thought out plan.

    Maybe they’re in the UK’s hot-spots for iPad pourchases or just the papers in JP which are best able to cope with the change.

    Certainly not Guinea Pigs though, no way.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 1:26 pm
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    Sorry, I’ve been out of JP for quite a while . . . but I understood they’d not long since switched to Atex for their template-filling. Have they now got another new (inDesign) system? No wonder they have to keep borrowing money.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 1:40 pm
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    Binary Boy totally misses the point.
    Ashley HiPad says print has a future. It currently makes most of the company’s money.
    He is explicitly saying it’s not digital or nothing, but the best of both.
    The problem is many of his employees are not digitally minded, having come into the industry long before the internet existed.
    Mr HiPad has a big mission ahead to educate them.
    Training will become a huge issue.
    But the sad truth is that unless they adapt, they’ll die out just like the dinosaurs did.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 1:50 pm
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    Templates and “pic lead boxes” are a symptom of the apparent total lack of trust this company is prepared to invest in its editors, designers and subs, not that there are many left by the sound of it.
    JP of course is not unique in this. It just seems to be the worst. For now.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 3:47 pm
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    Losing InDesign will be utterly disastrous. Page design/layout etc is all about flexibility, i.e. changing things around when necessary, re-sizing things when needs be, adding and taking away boxes and so on.

    To have to stick to a totally solid template is ridiculous. I don’t care how marvellous the papers may look – if the content is affected in whatever way then they’re asking for trouble.

    The lack of understanding of how journalists put papers together is alarming. How people up high can make calls such as this when they have no practical idea of the damage it’ll do astounds me.

    I’m all for embracing the digital age, that has to happen, but for crying out loud don’t mess too much with the printed product and in particular how it’s put together otherwise it’ll be a disaster.

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  • April 26, 2012 at 4:13 pm
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    Speculation abounds on how the new templates can possibly work. Including the possibility that, while editors may get the push, a small subeditor team will remain in place to do the final, very necessary, tweaking.
    Trust me, if it’s completely templated then papers like the Yorkshire Post and Scotsman will become a laughing stock, like many of the locals. Witness what happened when Atex came in – stories running out halfway or being chopped mid-sentence, and most noticeably, pictures cropped and stretched to almost comedy effect (missing heads were rare, but plenty of impossibly tall and thin or short and squat schoolkids, to the ire of their normally-proportioned parents)

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  • April 26, 2012 at 4:57 pm
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    hmmmn packaging over product and style over substance.
    I’m not convinced that the purchase is style driven – few would argue that the E&S is a style icon yet it’s still UK’s biggest selling daily.
    Metro appears to have been a success story and you cannot get much more templated…….so are all these gripes more about internal politics than customer focus?

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  • April 26, 2012 at 5:37 pm
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    I got out years ago because I could see which way it was going. Nothing since has surprised me, but it has saddened me.

    What is clear is that rigid templates ignore all the basics we were taught as trainees. Basic news values ignored…to fit a box.

    Pics used…only because there is a pic box to fill.

    A page lead thrown away as a downpage…because of wordcount or pic considerations.

    These are basic values. Content is king. Readers will leave if you have rubbish content.

    The idiocy of bosses never ceases. I used to have one who observed that all webpages looked the same (err…) and so why couldn’t newspages look the same. I prevailed on that account, but he kept coming back.

    Journalism is the loser. Good luck to those of you remaining.

    Binary Boy is a clown. A message to him: I don’t think anyone disputes that the printed page will lose out long term to the net. The point is that so long as paper pages remain, they should be done well. It is still the paper pages that generate most of the income…

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  • April 27, 2012 at 2:46 pm
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    The history of taking newspapers weekly is that they cease to be newspapers, and exist only to carry car/estate agent/classi ads, or they close down within five years. Highfield isn’t committed to newspapers, let alone dailies.
    To be fair to him, the damage was done at JP long ago, when the workplace was deskilled. Unable to produce contentious stories, the papers saw their readership go through the floor. Since then, the skills situation has got worse, with the beancounters taking no notice of warnings from their editorial staff.
    His idea that we’ll get our news from iPads is so laughable as to be pathetic; fewer than 1 in 25 working people has an iPad, and people over 60 and under 16 have virtually none. All these people are, under Highfield’s plan, condemned never to find out what’s going on in their council.
    And that’s the reality; local authorities across the land must be rubbing their hands with glee, because there’s no longer anyone to dig into their grubby affairs and unearth the scandalous way in which ratepayers’ money is spend.
    RIP journalism. It was good to know you when you counted for something

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  • April 30, 2012 at 5:15 pm
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    UGC does not work. Full stop.

    See you in two years when you are trying something else, Mr Highfield.

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