December 8th, 2009 by Rebecca Gregory

On the issue of charging for newspaper content and self-important email addicts

Last week I went to one of the very useful Gorkana Breakfasts – allowing PRs to put questions to editors of key publications. This time it was a chance to hear from the Wall Street Journal Europe’s renowned Patience Wheatcroft (Ed-in-chief) and Iain Martin (Dep Ed).  After talk about the structure of the paper, its audience, content and global capabilities (drawing upon Dow Jones and Financial News) the last 15 minutes was a freestyle Q&A allowing their more subjective opinions to come the fore.

Unsurprisingly, the topics of charging for newspapers came up. The overriding view was that charging for Sunday papers in particular would not generate revenue; with a big question over what value they can offer readers to justify a subscription fee. This led nicely into the Murdoch vs. Google debate and it was interesting to get the viewpoint of journalists on a subscription based publication.

Patience and Iain raised two good points: it’s not unreasonable for newspapers to ask money for the content that they put a lot of time, effort and money into generating; and, if good journalism is to continue, there has to be a compromise.

I can’t help but agree with the latter in particular. I for one won’t want to pay for easy, quick news; content that adds little to my existing knowledge. But I would certainly consider paying for intelligent analysis, properly researched and investigated articles that provide an insight I wouldn’t otherwise be privy too.

However, in this offline and online age, there are many types of reader. Those loyal to one paper alone, dutifully reading it everyday and no doubt happy to pay a subscription as they know they will access it regularly enough to make it worthwhile. But, what about those online readers (me) that like to dip in and out of two or three newspaper sites – picking and choosing articles to read. It will be interesting to see how the subscription models accommodate each type of reader.

On a completely separate note, I noticed that many of the suited & booted PRs who had taken precious time out of their day to come and learn useful information from Patience and Iain who had, in turn, taken precious time out of their day to impart this useful information, couldn’t tear themselves away from their beloved blackberries and merrily emailed their way through the breakfast. I ask; if you are so important that you can’t spend 45 minutes without tapping away, then why bother going at all? I don’t care if you say you can multi-task; it’s just plain rude and self-important.

Posted in BizComms
Tags: , ,
1 Comment »
emailSave to del.icio.usAdd to del.icio.usDigg This!Share on FacebookStumble It!
July 10th, 2009 by Rebecca Gregory

118800 – what comms strategy?

no cold callsFor the past few weeks BizComms has been following with interest how the 118800 story has panned out in the press, ultimately noting (objectively, of course) a complete lack of crisis planning.  118800 allows people to contact the mobile numbers of people they don’t already have – 118800 contacts the target on their behalf  for a price (£1) asking permission for the requester to call them direct, but not actually giving out the mobile number.

The comms strategy (nay, the entire business concept) was fated to struggle 18 months ago when the mobile operators refused to provide lists of mobile numbers, despite the threat of legal action from 118800. Ignoring this fairly strong signal that the service might (just a thought) be received badly 118800 continued with plans to launch the service which, impressively, seems to fill absolutely no gaps in the market (apart from that of aggravating human rights campaigners).  Telesales companies surely can’t afford the £1 per contact that is unlikely to convert into a phone call, let alone a sell.  On a personal level, if it is an angry ex or the freak from school who thought arson was fun, you’re hardly likely to accept a call from them are you? And, let’s face it; it’s not going to be the guy you fantasised about at school who has been trying in vain to contact you ever since – Facebook and twitter would have done that already.

To make matters worse for the 118800 comms team, on top of having to manage responses to backlash from press, rights campaigners and mobile operators about the privacy implications, the entire service crashed at its launch and 118800 was (allegedly) unavailable from comment apart from a canned statement.

What is interesting here is that the mobile operators appear to take privacy rights of its customers seriously and, that despite a proliferation of forms of instant online communication, people tend to treat personal mobile numbers as just that – a very personal means of contact that we choose to give out to the lucky few, not the highest bidder.

Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment »
emailSave to del.icio.usAdd to del.icio.usDigg This!Share on FacebookStumble It!