Print media: How to survive

Global media consultant Juan Senor, a strong proponent of the power of print media, believes the sector is poised for a strong comeback if it stops being a purveyor of commoditised content.

Speaking at Times Media Group’s Future of Media event. Senor said the news business had to focus more on “caviar content” to guarantee long-term survival. He said 80% of its output was based on churning out material that was too similar to its rivals and homogenised. It’s become a case of “voyeurism versus journalism” and where print media companies had become too focused on selling space to brands rather than selling audiences.

Senor’s company, Innovation Media, has helped many print-led media companies rethink their strategy and redesign newsrooms to create seamless output across all platforms. Among the new key drivers they should be focusing on are the staging of events; creating bespoke and authentic content for brands; and offering strong marketing ideas to advertisers. Print media companies should also differentiate their offerings so that in-depth high-quality journalism in newspapers and magazines is marketed and sold as a prestige product, and digital media content is aimed more at a mass market.

Senor has sage advice for media companies that battle with their “digital misadventure”. In the digital space they need to obsess more about time spent with content rather than measuring the number of clicks on content. They also need to adopt a “mobile first” strategy as more and more content is being seen on smartphones. Short-form video content has become a critical tool of media consumption.

Media houses should not be afraid of adopting a “freemium” model, where basic content is provided free of charge while more advanced features are paid for. “Editors and publishers need to always ask: ‘Do I have anything worth paying for?’.” In-depth audience engagement has become critical to the success of a media brand, he says, and print media in particular need to identify and then deliver to specific audience franchises, with which they can build a relationship.

With regard to a mobile-first strategy, Senor says that by 2018 almost a quarter of all advertising will be on a smartphone and advertisers and media companies need to understand how consumers engage with the devices. Behaviour is defined by “I want” moments where consumers use smartphones for a specific purpose such as commerce and “Me” moments where they wish to be entertained.

Senor believes print naysayers are wrong. “No medium has ever fully replaced another and print is eternal. But newspapers are no longer the record of the day; they have to become must-read content and ideally specialise in monographic single story issues.”