Comments on: PAPERS WITH NO VOICE, NO AUDIENCE, NO BUSINESS

By: Internet: ¿asesino de periódicos? | El Rincón Digital

Internet: ¿asesino de periódicos? | El Rincón Digital — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:08:25 +0000

[...] En este caso concuerdo con Javier Antonio Giner de Innovations in Newspaper al decir que es un mal producto, solo es de ver los datos de circulación presentados en este articulo del Financial Times para [...]

By: Juan Antonio Giner

Juan Antonio Giner — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:36:15 +0000

Dear Marc,

This is nothing personal.

I am sorry for you and your team, but it seems that your current owner, the Trinity Mirror Group, is not ready to invest more money in a print product that has not enough readers and advertisers to stay in business.

I know very well your paper and, thank you, you don’t need to send me any copies.

Your recent redesign was excellent (Ally Palmer and Terry Watson have redesigned newspapers for some of our clients).

But perhaps the strategic editorial direction to focus the paper on “the wealth creators and policy makers of the West Midlands, the traditional manufacturing heartland of the UK” has failed, and the good numbers are not in your side.

I read today in your website the story about the new Jaguar and for me the most interesting part was this comment from one of your readers published a few days ago when you reported that “Jaguar Land Rover made a loss of £281 million in the first 10 months after it was taken over by Indian firm Tata Motors”

“JLR are producing cars that nobody wants to buy in sufficient numbers to make any sort of money.

What Jaguar need right now is a small quality premium car that will fit in between the BMW 1 & 3 series category, with low emissions and running costs.

But what are they about to launch?

A £50k XJ that very few people will want.”

Oh boy, you must have a few readers, but they are smart.

Yes, many print newspapers still have the feeling that the “eat your spinach, it’s good for you!” approach works.

Perhaps like Jaguar, you are producing an excellent newspaper “that nobody wants to buy in sufficient numbers to make any sort of money.”

By: Marc Reeves

Marc Reeves — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:57:27 +0000

“Because is a bad local paper” (sic)
Yeah, thanks, Juan, for your insight. Do you genuinely think the Post is a bad paper, or do you have a theory that only bad papers are challenged at the moment, and therefore the Post must fit into this category?
Perhaps you could ‘be serious’ for a moment?
I’d be interested in your critique of my paper’s quality, please. What’s your view on our content, our design, our relevance to our target audience?
Let me know if you’d like me to send you some copies.
Regards,
Marc Reeves
Editor
Birmingham Post