Competition is rising because the council newspapers have grown in numbers in the past few years, at the same time as local newspapers have suffered a severe rejection form the public.
The concern is due to the amount of council publications that were branching out into non council related topics. The council’s publications are usually free of charge and sometimes exceptionally engaging. Not only that attracted the readers but it naturally resulted in increase in number of advertisements inside of the councils publications. Given the state of the economy the independent local newspapers and magazines publishers are obviously not happy to see the risk of being undercut on their vital business.
A CIPR pride award and excellence award gold winner 2010 Dacorum Digest is a Dacorum Borough council’s residents’ tabloid newspaper is a free local authority publication. Containing material that represents the interests of all diverse communities and age groups.
Imagine that, in the approximate population of 137,799 the Borough of Dacorum the 79’000 free exemplars of the councils newspaper are being send out to residents’ regularly + anyone who is not receiving it can apply for the copy at any time.
The larger percentage of content and new improved design for made the publication so popular amongst the local residents that 74% of Borough’s Citizens’ named Dacorum Digest as one of the most effective methods of finding out about borough news and life and many other things, more than local papers or local radio. What is more, Dacorum Digest achieved £7500 income from advertising so the council can offset some of the costs and further increase the publications quality.Research has shown that “The vast majority of people in the UK rely on their local councils paper to keep them informed...” The Newspaper Society's Lynne Anderson
So my question would be, what is there left to do for the other non authority publications, who are struggling to be better, in order to get more readers, partnerships and at the end of the day earn more money.
What are your thoughts on the topic? Would you call it “the unfair competition" posed by local authority publications to commercial newspapers?
While both council newspapers and local papers compete for the same advertising space, I don't think the neccesarily have the same market.
ReplyDeleteThe big difference other than the style of writing is that anything published by the council isn't going to include anything that makes the council look bad, and even negative events are going to be given a positive light. A council paper might be informative and interesting and it's not news, can't replace proper journalism.
The future of local newspapers has been questioned for many years now, and it's going to continue for some time to come, but I don't think these guys are in direct competition with council magazines anymore than they are in competition with people watching the BBC local news for free every evening.
I absolutely agree with you Rob, plus you should really know what are you talking about as far as i remember you used to do journalism for last two years in university...
ReplyDeleteI think like you said in your prsentation that the magazine was being distributed in public places around the community is one of the big strengths. This is because if for example I didn't have the Metro to read on the train, any other magazine that would be placed on the tube station would be good for me as just a pick up.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the fact that they were trying to relate the magazine more to the community meant they could have done the first copy a special feature. This could have had interviews with the local shops asking how business is going for them or something along those lines because thats something that people from the area can def relate to. You know like in the
Other than that, the results they got are impressive. Also if they keep up the good work, it means they will get more and more advertising space where the money gained from that can bring lots of profit to sustain the magazine.
P.S Good work on the presentation!!
I think they achieved great results! It seems very interesting and that's why citizens read it - it keeps them informed and what's more it's accessible! In my opinion that's what keeps people's interest! Well done!
ReplyDeleteIf I don`t have anything else to read around I actually enjoy reading councils newspaper. I really cant be bothered to go online and look for anything related to local council so I think these kind of newspapers are interesting. Even better if they get delivered at home.
ReplyDeleteCouncil newspapers although free of charge are going to have some sort of bias when it comes to what they are publishing in their articles. A more balanced view is likely to come from local newspapers.
ReplyDeleteI personally prefer local newspapers over council newspapers as they are more critical of events and wont gloss over anything negative about the community as much as a council paper would.
I guess you get what you pay for. The Times and The Guardian are 40p, the newly-launched I is 20p and The Sun is 20-10p. Essentially the pricing represents the quality of the information you get. You could obviously argue that The Sun is just as informative as The Guardian, but you can't deny that The Sun is also openly biased. Although I guess majorty of its readers choose to look past it. But all of that it actually beside the point, as I guess the quality of the information is quite secondary for most give the current financial climte. 40p a day isn't much but if you look at the big pciture, it works out to be 2 quid a week. Which als is your four cans of Heinz beans or two drinks at a local student pub. And, granted, students would rather go for a free newspaper because well... it's free and it's aniother 2 quid saved. Good reason to go out, eh. Anyway, I personally read Metro just because it's convenient and I pick it up on the way to work. But then I make up for it by going on guardian.co.uk and pinching my colleague's I whenever I can.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much guys, some really good ideas in here. Wish me good luck on the report! ^_^
ReplyDeleteI personally don’t ever read council publications – this probably sounds awful, but I guess out of habit and upbringing I reach for the local paper. Having said this, if my local council brought out a publication like the revamped new one Borough council did I would possibly read it, especially if it contained a lot of local news as well. Taking into account what Adam said, if it was bias and only included one side opinions I might not real so inclined.
ReplyDeleteI do really like what they did in the campaign though and think they deserved gold because of how successful it was in the local area, 74% of people saying that is what they turn to first for local news isn’t bad at all. Finally I think the improved design was a great approach as it offered the chance to ‘rebrand’ itself so to speak gaining attention and interest.