The editor of the Northern Star in Lismore, Dean Gould, describes his readers as the poor, the old and the idle.
He was talking to a conference of editors and others organised by the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association last weekend.
Lismore has some unfortunate statistics. It has the highest unemployment rate, the highest rate of old people, the lowest income and the lowest education of anywhere in NSW.
Gould’s journos, though, are completely different. For a start they all have jobs. Most are young and all have well above the average income. Gould argued that the journalists were becoming too detached from their readers. Their talk of holidays in Europe and Thailand was alien to readers struggling to get a couple of weeks in the Evans Head Caravan Park.
He did something about it. He got his journos on the street talking about Lismore issues like law and order. And his circulation increased.
Similar stories came out of Newcastle and Wagga. Falling circulations. Difficult markets. Editorial change.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Newcastle Herald, John McCluskey, told of how his paper’s circulation had plummeted from high 60s to low 40s (thousands) in 15 years. They researched. They found their readership was dying on them and the youngsters were not picking up the paper.
They decided to go tabloid, with some trepidation. They figured on losing more than $1 million in advertising revenue, mainly from full-page name advertisers. These are advertisements that say Telstra is wonderful or Qantas is wonderful and little more. The advertiser wants a full-page hit, not caring it is a broadsheet page (like this paper) or a tabloid page (like the Canberra Chronicle). Trouble for the paper is that the tabloid page is half the size and half the revenue.
The Newcastle Morning Herald is in a very difficult market. It is being nibbled at from both ends. The Sydney Morning Herald threatens its AB (high education and high income) market and the older market, while the Daily Telegraph threatens the young, less education and poorer end of the market. Both the competitors, moreover, are NSW publications, like the Newcastle Herald. This meant a high proportion of their news – all that relating to NSW Government and NSW institutions – was directly relevant to Newcastle Herald readers.
McCluskey, in fact, did not “”go tabloid”. He went “”compact”. He had to reassure the older market that the smaller size did not also mean the horrors of the British (or even Sydney) tabloid press: Page 3 girls; screaming headlines; less depth in stories and so on. He did this by keeping serif types and a lot of the old typography of the paper and told his reporters not to write any differently. The total editorial space stayed the same.
The paper did go more local. The story count increased. And reporters wrote shorter sentences and shorter stories. Circulation went up. But they lost a few of the AB market to the Sydney Morning Herald while taking some from the Telegraph.
The Daily Advertiser, Wagga, has also had a circulation boost. Its Group Editor, Michael McCormack, has been fortunate enough to get a big boost in editorial staff. He has also gone unashamedly local. He, like his colleague from Lismore, pointed to the odd day when the paper led with a national or international story. Result. Circulation on that day fell. McCormack explained how he had sent his reporters out to cover funerals of people who had died in tragic circumstances. Toddlers hit by trucks, and the like.
The message was clear. In the words of McCluskey, “”Do not compete with the metro dailies, you will get killed.”
Where does this leave The Canberra Times, I mused? There were clearly some lessons here.
Go local. Go tabloid. Is this the answer?
McCormack and his Wagga colleagues, however, see The Canberra Times as the very metro daily they should not attempt to compete with by running national and international stories.
I had to admit to the gathered editorial people at the conference that, unlike their circulation experience, The Canberra Times gets a big lift from things like federal and ACT budgets and elections. And that the circulation on those days eclipses even Raiders’ grand final victories.
The Canberra Times is in exactly the opposite position from Gould in Lismore. The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us we have the highest employment participation in Australia; the highest education; among the highest incomes; and the youngest population.
In fact, that high employment participation is a difficulty for us. ABS statistics show people in employment are working longer. It means they have less time to read newspapers. We are competing for people’s time as much as their money.
Sunday’s paper is an example. Fifteen years ago Sunday was our worst circulation day. Now it eclipses some weekdays. People have time to read.
And yet the Sunday Canberra Times has the toughest competition from interstate. The Sunday Telegraph and Sun-Herald do better in Canberra than their weekday counterparts.
Do we take Sunday tabloid, local and down-market to match them? You would have to be careful about it. The Canberra Times has a 42 per market penetration in Canberra. The Sunday Telegraph has just a tad less penetration in its total NSW market.
The lesson is horses for courses. You cannot be all things to all people, but there is a danger in reaching for one market and losing a better existing market.
I have an open mind on whether the paper should be a tabloid. The Australian Financial Review is a tabloid. It is quality. It does not shout a single beat-up story with large headlines on Page 1.
But I am convinced of the importance of assessing reader requirements and meeting them: whether that is funerals in Wagga, law and order in Lismore or the Prime Ministerial housing arrangements in Canberra.