A regional daily has launched a new business magazine in e-edition format.
The first edition of Business Echo, produced by the Northern Echo, has arrived in subscribers’ inboxes and features video clips, infographics and animated pages as well as articles.
It covers industry, commerce and innovation across the North-East and North Yorkshire, and is edited by Echo business editor Steven Hugill.
The first issue of the e-edition, pictured below, has 68 pages, and it is set to be produced on a quarterly basis.
Said Steven: “I was really keen to create something that would showcase the innovative people and brilliant businesses we have in the area. There are lots of business magazines in the market, so we decided to produce something that stands out.
“Business Echo, with its interactive content, videos and animation, brings business stories to life. It is free to download onto your tablet, laptop or mobile phone, which makes it easy for the busy business executive to dip in whenever they like.”
The launch comes after Toby Granville, Newsquest’s editorial development director, told the Society of Editors Conference in Cambridge that print was still the publisher’s “big innovation.”
Northern Echo editor Andy Richardson said: “Toby is correct. Newsquest are still trailblazers in print. Here in Darlington, we recently brought the Despatch back into production more than 30 years after it stopped being printed because we believe there is still a market for quality regional newspapers.
“But digital products offer us new opportunities to connect with our audience and we are very excited about Business Echo.”
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Looks good. Interesting the way they’re using linked-in as the route to reach the audience.
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Well done Steve, well done Andy.
The magazine market can be a successful one and there’s no reason why the Northern Echo shouldn’t enter it – especially with an innovative online version offering something different.
And good luck with the revived Despatch, a much-loved paper in Darlington which hopefully will take root again.
If print and digital are going to combine to work for the local news industry, then this twin-pronged approach might be the way forward.
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I’m sorry but it’s just another pointless page-turner.
You can already put interactive content on websites. That’s what they’re for. You can also include the option subscribe to receive all business news by other means, if you like.
The page load times due to volume of content being loaded are slow and you have to do a lot of pinching, swiping and scrolling on a mobile device to be able to read the content. This leads to a poor user experience and, undoubtedly, poor engagement.
However, at least they didn’t opt for an app, creating another barrier for both the user and marketing strategy.
When will local newspapers start focusing on delivering their content to their relevant audiences directly rather than messing around with gimmicks which still heavily lean on the printed product? We sell news, not print!
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