Would you launch a new newspaper brand today?
Newsprint is dead, or so we keep hearing. So what do you do if your business is Newsprint? This is the kind of challenge lots of brands have. What do you do when your whole category is heading south? How do differentiate and engage new audiences? The normal business solution seems to involve a race to the bottom, scrambling for brand engagement while burning brand value through discounting and ‘me too’ sales campaigns, all which achieve little before the brand implodes, think Dick Smith. So what do you do? One refreshing idea comes from the most unlikely markets of English tabloids.
The New Day is a new, pay-for tabloid being launched in England by Trinity Mirror, the group that owns The Mirror, People and hundreds of other local publications. It is launching without a website as it’s focus is on a more digest form of news that doesn’t need to compete in the stop press mentality of it’s peers. Drawing from the Mirror and Press Association the content the tabloid will publish will be much more considered. Optimistic and upbeat, aiming at a 35 to 55 audience, it will apparently be ‘a ruthless edit of the day with balanced analysis, opinion and comment’ while remaining politically agnostic. The brand seems to have a clear idea of it’s brand essence and how it’s personality should be communicated, it is not a redtop screaming slogans, it’s bright clean teal banner and font choice are the herald of a deeper reporting style.
I think it’s refreshing to see a business like this rethink what it does, find a solution that works to it’s strengths and role out a disruptive and differentiated product that could reveal a new direction for the whole category. At a time when media outlets are battling their users to turn off ad blocking and their value chain is crumbling, we have quality papers like The Age turning their home page into a soup of click bate chasing our eyes and Google dollars, here’s a printed paper I might believe in and buy, and that’s saying something.
When’s the last time you considered how you could be doing business differently?
While creating brand value and lasting engagement? Give us a call and lets talk about it.
Derek Carroll
Creative Partner