The commercial director of regional publisher Local World has delivered an upbeat assesssment of the industry’s prospects in the coming year.
Blanche Sainsbury, left, says digital revenues are currently growing at 25pc and claimed some centres are already at the “tipping point” where growth in digital is replacing lower print revenues.
In an article for MediaTel, she claimed local newspapers remained the most trusted news medium as well as the most effective for driving consumer action.
In addition to her LW role, Blanche is also chairman of Local Media Works, a new industry-wide marketing body designed to promote the local press to potential advertisers and media agencies.
She wrote: “Working in the local media industry has never been more exciting than it is today. The explosion of digital technology in recent years has afforded us a vast array of new ways to connect with our audiences who rely on us for trusted news and information, regardless of how it is delivered.
“Now, a local press campaign that previously could have taken months to come to fruition can be won in a matter of hours as a result of our journalists using social media and other digital tools to instantly communicate trusted information to their audiences.
“Yes, we are still the most trusted medium. Yes, we are the most effective for driving consumer action. Yes, we can boost SMEs like no other media can. But now we are doing these things across many different platforms rather than one.
“That’s tremendously exciting for us as publishers and we are starting to see significant benefits at some of our businesses.”
Blanche cites Advertising Association figures showing digital revenues for local newsbrands rose by a quarter over the last year with digital display growing at 36pc.
“We, in the local media, are already seeing tipping points at a number of our centres where the growth in digital is replacing lower print revenues,” she added.
“This won’t happen overnight but I am confident that, as an industry, we are on the right path – growing our share of digital ad revenues and audiences while working hard to stabilise the print side of the business.”
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Yes, yes, but I think Local World’s digital income is less than 9% of its total revenue so the percentage growth figures given are vague. To what base point is the 25% applicable, for example? It’s heartening to hear such a positive message but the last par of Blanche’s comments seem to imply a proviso to the elation – “This won’t happen overnight…” Well, it certainly hasn’t happened in the last 15 years. And “we are on the right path”… so where were we before?
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Congratulations on the enthusiasm, but please, this is utter nonsense.
I’m sure if Blanche was the commercial director of a small heritage railway in a Welsh valley she’d be prepared to say they were looking to take on Virgin Trains next year.
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Do I get the prize for spotting today’s gushing use of the word “exciting”?
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Ah, the old JP/LW ‘tipping point’ growth/revenue conflation.
Still haven’t had an answer to my question(s) ‘what does the tipping point actually mean?':
Digital revenue is growing faster than print revenue is growing?
Digital revenue is growing while print revenue is declining?
Digital revenue is growing at a faster rate than print revenue is declining?
Or – and I would like to see some figures here – has digital revenue actually overtaken print revenue?
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Bless her, I think shes forgetting Google and Facebooks ability to boost SMEs like no other media can….if indeed they are to have a chance, Blanche needs to understand the salary’s paid to sales people are the same as regional were paying 15 years ago. Then press was first choice media and an easy sell. LW need the best talent if they really believe they can crack digital growth.
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Good grief. Sad, isn’t it?
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File under fiction
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Talent that can spell and punctuate, perhaps?
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Quote: ‘In an article for MediaTel, she claimed local newspapers remained the most trusted news medium as well as the most effective for driving consumer action.’
Then why the lemming-like rush into digital?
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Norfolk Boy, please learn where to put an apostrophe, and how plurals work. It’s painful to read.
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“The emperor shuddered, for he knew that they were right, but he thought, “The procession must go on!” He carried himself even more proudly, and the chamberlains walked along behind carrying the train that wasn’t there…..”
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Why doesn’t Blanche name some of the centres that have reached the tipping point?
Why doesn’t Blanche name some of the campaigns that have presumably been won in hours
Her article lacks hard facts.If she was on Dragon’s Den In think the investors would want more than waffle before parting with their money.
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Any other Local World employees fed up of this endless spin? It’s not exciting. It is a real struggle, mainly because there aren’t enough staff to cope with the workload.
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The LW sites are littered with the ‘high-impact’ digital advertising formats from national advertisers that other publishers reject or at least run sparingly. And the other source of digital revenue are those godawful ‘promoted content’ links. I counted 8 on a standard LW article page.
It’s a way to make money from the web, albeit largely discredited & redundant as a result of mobile dominating usage, and entirely at odds with a desire to drive response for local advertisers / SMEs.
Maybe I’m missing something in LW’s digital strategy but it really doesn’t make sense.
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I stopped looking at the news websites Local World publish in my area the day I was reading a story about the death of a local and suddenly a pop-up ad obliterated the screen…displaying a Mutant Turtle Grim Reaper. Absolutely shameful and indicative of the ‘sell any ad, anywhere on our sites’ approach which will, of course, bring in cash short term, but stop customers like me ever returning.
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Dear me.
It’s like the captain of the Titanic saying he’s sure the overwhelming torrent smashing through the bulkheads will only add to his ship’s stability.
Well, not really, but you know what I mean.
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“Working in the local media industry has never been more exciting than it is today” – I have been working in the industry for 42 years Blanche, and I can assure you it’s not.
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Rolls eyes and Observer – Thanks for the nitpicking. How we miss subs.
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She looks rather too young to be a prophet, but at least she has optimism of relative youth. Let’s hope she is right, though contact with real working people on shop floor tells me she might not be.
As has been said before many times on HTFP no one wants to say what percentage of their ad income is digital. Forget percentage increases, selling two oranges instead of one gives you an impressive 100 per cent increase. But you have still only sold two oranges!
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“Tipping Point” is that not a tedious daytime TV programme watched by all redundant Local World journalists?
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And Norfolk Boy, when someone tells you to stop putting bloody apostrophes in plurals, it’s not nitpicking. Pay attention to him and learn to write English.
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Well said, Idle Rich.
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When someone is contributing to a media website they should try and get their English right.
I thought I had read through my comment carefully, yet there are two mistakes in it, but then I am an old retired git.
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I love the comments on here. Everyone is so negative about everything and always quick to judge, without having anything positive to say. The sad thing is, that perhaps if the people on here who leave comments had done their jobs right in the first place, the industry would be in a much stronger position. But then I guess they will say, ‘it’s not our fault guv, its managements fault’.
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Well said, Bryn.
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Very unfair, Mr Williams. I’ve known many people who were excellent at their jobs being shown the door as part of a cost-cutting exercise.
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Hi, Bryn, and welcome. As you’re new to HTFP you may not have realised that it tends to be used by people who work, or have worked, in journalism, but if you’re keen to find out about the industry – perhaps you aspire to join it yourself one day, assuming it still exists by the time you’re old enough – you’ll find this a good place to start, as those who comment have years of experience, most of it unpleasant. You may also be able to find useful information at your local library or careers office. Good luck.
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Many of the comments are quizzical, Bryn, rather than negative. Blanche is putting a typical salesperson’s spin on an area we all know is problematic but is nevertheless crucial to the industry’s future and the jobs it offers us. In contrast, the posts here are mainly from journalists, whose primary function is to uncover the uncomfortable truth, an activity often at odds with selling. If Blanche can back up her optimistic claims with hard facts and figures (forever conspicuously lacking in the online debate) I’ll raise a glass and toast her health.
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Bryn Williams – I wonder how many comments there would be on here if they were all to be positive: how much good news is there in the industry? Nor do I accept your judgement that people commenting here may not have ‘done their jobs right in the first place’. Speaking as one of many ex-JP staff that lost their roles due to outsourcing and cost cutting due to past mismanagement, I take exception to your comment. I can assure you that I did my job much better than I see is being done today.
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So Bryn Williams, you put the dire state of the regional press and it’s rapid decline down to people not doing their jobs right in the first place?
In over 30 years in the regional press I have seen many conscientious, hardworking and proficient people shown the door for reasons of ‘re structuring’ ‘ streamlining’ and other such management speak for dumbing down, all of whom did their jobs very well indeed and at a time when quality and professionalism were core standards in the industry and at a time when journalists were well known and respected within the communities in which they worked.
Your comment is insulting and naive to say the least and leads me to ask whether you actually working in the regional press?
is the company you work for thriving?
If not then clearly you are not ‘doing your own job right’ and the state of the company you work for is your fault entirely , no one else’s
Or just maybe you are one of the managers who have mis managed the business and a nerve’s been hit by the comments made on HTFP?
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Reading all the above comments I felt the need to add my views. Before I start, I would like to point out that I am dyslexic and not great at structuring paragraphs so request you don’t judge.
I worked within a media sales environment for many years and worked up to a reasonable level before I jumped into recruitment 8 years ago.
The problem most media houses faced 15 years ago are the same ones they face now and in my opinion none of the large media houses have got it right.
The reason they keep reducing headcount and shaving costs is because they are still working to the old model.
The printed product still produces the largest slice of the revenue cake and if they did grasp digital properly they would harm this. My guess is if you were a fly on the wall at any of their Board meetings the conversations would be the same.
I am not privy to the numbers so please allow me some artistic license.
Yr 2000
Paper add revenue per week £80,000
Digital revenue per week £300
Totals £80,300
Staff
Editorial 5 (1 Manager)
Sales 5 external 5 internal
Sales Management 3
Admin 4
Costs
Print and distribution £25,000
Salaries £27,000
Building £3,000
Cars etc £2,000
Profit Per Week £23,300
Yr 2014
Paper add revenue per week £30,000
Digital revenue per week £9,000
Totals £39,000
Staff
Editorial 2 (1 Manager)
Sales 3 external 2 internal
Sales Management 2 (1 selling)
Admin 1
Costs
Print and distribution £12,000
Salaries £12,000
Building £2,000
Cars etc £2,000
Profit Per Week £11,000
Now whilst the numbers are fictitious I believe they are close to reality for publishers all over the country. You can see the dilemma they face.
If they evolve (I believe they should off done years ago) they will potentially turn the small profit into a loss very quickly.
The trouble is if they don’t change the ever decreasing cycle of shaving cost soon they won’t have a budget or profit line to save.
Selling in this space is harder than it was 15 years ago and businesses no longer attract the best in market. Whilst I am confident in the quality of editorial teams in place sadly the same can’t be said for the management and sales staff.
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I agree with Bryn. He wrote wot I wrote out for him brilliantly.
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So Dai, what would you do? Are you saying we shouldn’t find (at the very least) the smallest of positivity in our industry? She does quote credible sources to back the figures. Absolutely agree with Bryn, easy to mock positivity and success, truth is those people that put their energies into a negative slagging off are those people that didn’t make it in the industry themselves. Times have been tough in the last 10 years. Only the people in the industry who could adopt the cultural change survived. I’m with Bryn.
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Ken,
The point is that while we would love to hail positivity, you have to be able to back a positive story when it genuinely is so.
The problem with Blanche’s offering is that it clearly isn’t anything more than a hopeful spit into the breeze. It’s based on nothing other than a bit of feeling that sounds awfully like someone attempting to spin a bit of PR and convince herself into believing it.
Show us the money and we’ll show you positivity.
SG.
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I believe every media house with a strong local presence face the same challenges.
Even though print revenues are down the increase in digital revenue does not plug the gap. If you did push more focus on to digital the print revenue would decline quicker.
You are therefore left with very few options other than to reduce cost and only hope the quality of the offering and service isn’t affected too much.
My guess would be that paginations are down but the split between advert and content is greater making it even less of a product for the local consumer to want to read.
Many people far brighter than me have been focused on this for years but nobody seems to have come up with a plan that looks like it may work.
I only hope that Blanche and LW are on to something
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I want to believe Blanche but her statements worry me. I left LW because of this utter tosh being forced down the throats of employees on a daily basis. Experienced and talented journalists were smacked into submission until they exclaimed a live blog full of mindless, flippant ‘content’ is more important than a hard-hitting exclusive all to “drive digital revenues.” Reporters took on the extra workload while managers sat back with no change in their job routine in the belief they were doing the right thing. But no proof of climbing digital revenues was ever shown. Yes the internet is another realm for media now – but if it’s so important invest in a strong, digital media team alongside your print journalists so both can thrive properly telling readers what they really want to know.
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Bryn. Are you a management toady? Many experienced and highly skilled hacks and subs left the industry because they could not stand the decline in standards. Others were sacked to save money.
You seem to imply that only the good ones are left. Well, I will give them the benefit of the doubt, but I do know a lot would get out if they didn’t have kids, bills, mortgages etc. Not because they can’t adapt, but because they don’t want to be pushing out crap. I know some brilliant, hard working youngsters in their 20s who quit because of this.
You should note what the observers say. Many are still in the heart of the industry, and everything that appears on HTFP week after week proves them right.
The people in boardrooms don’t know what to do next. Having killed the goose they are putting whatever eggs remain in one basket. Digital.
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Oh dear.
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Ken Simms – I don’t think anyone here is mocking positivity or success; but many here have or had been in the industry for many years and bear witness to the rapid changes, but not to better products. To say that “those people that put their energies into a negative slagging off are those people that didn’t make it in the industry themselves” will be insulting to many. I spent over 25 successful years in the industry, and adopted to many a change! At the risk of being shouted down though, I see: more errors in print, a reliance on UGC and awards to maintain readership, at the expense of probing journalism, poorer photography and design, a reduction in the quality of advertising creativity. I agree with Skipperless – management doesn’t know what to do next, and they have made it more difficult for themselves because they have lost so many staff that knew the business. To be able to adapt is necessary, but to know the newspaper industry is key.
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Skipperless / Bryn… don’t know if it is implied that only the good ones are left but my view (and it’s a sweeping generalisation, sorry for any offence caused) is that the ones still left in are those who couldn’t get a job anywhere else (either useless or lack of other skills) or are closing on retirement and are pretty well stuck.
Anyone with a bit of sense and a spark and a bit of creativity has got out already or is making their way out.
At the place I’ve just left – voluntarily – it’s frightening how poor the managers are right across the board. And yet the papers still win awards, which speaks volumes for what a dire state the industry is in.
It’s very sad but very true and perhaps there is no fix to all this, perhaps anyone who truly cares about journalism, holding people to account etc, is going to have to be a lone ranger and work out their own ways to earn money from it.
I don’t believe there is a fix. And I certainly don’t believe the people left in newspapers know how to fix it. If they had the sufficient skills set to fix it, they wouldn’t even be in the industry, they wouldn’t be that stupid.
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