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 - Chapter 5 -
Create A Multi-Newspaper Newsroom
INTRODUCTION
The daily newspaper is traditionally a ‘one-size-fits-all’ product: among its numerous sections, there is a little something for everyone. But in today’s newspaper scene, as in other consumer markets, ‘something for everyone’ has given way to products that cater to specific interests. Newspapers need to diversify their offerings while simultaneously honing their focus in order to remain competitive in a fragmented economy.
 Holland: Young readers flock to cheap, quality daily
In March 2006, the Dutch evening paper, NRC Handelsblad took a gamble with an experimental, economical, morning paper aimed at a younger crowd. Not really knowing if it would work at launch, by the end of 2006 the daily was pleasantly surprised to find that the cheaper, earlier edition, NRC Next, had surpassed expectations, signifying that perhaps young readers are willing to pay for a newspaper after all.
Free papers have adapted to changing reader habits
In November 2006, the international free daily Metro was declared the ‘World’s Largest Global Newspaper’ by Guinness World Records. Metro is both the world’s largest and fastest-growing newspaper, with 70 editions in 100 major cities, in 21 countries and 19 languages, across Europe, North America and Asia.
The main reason for Metro’s success, as well as that of other freesheets, is that it has honed its format to the modern, busy reader that rarely takes the time to finish a 1,000-word piece.
Infographics are about telling stories
“When we talk about the death of newspapers, we are talking about the death of a certain culture – not of newspapers necessarily.” The ‘culture’ referred to here by futurist John Naisbitt is that of reading text. At the January 2007 Digital Life Conference in Munich, Naisbitt made a case that did not sound at all like good news for newspapers, a medium mostly based on textual information: “The word side… is going down. Newspapers… have to reinvent themselves, as people are reading less, especially young people.”
But is it possible for newspapers to reinvent themselves to be more visual, less textual, and still convey the information they have always presented, necessary for society?
CONCLUSION Jan-Eric Peters is a happy man. He left the chief-editorial team of Die Welt on December 31 2006, after four years of continuous reorganization and results that many other editors-in-chief would envy. The 270,000 daily sales of the paper in December 2006 are the best results ever since its creation sixty years ago. In 2005, the newspaper sold about 250,000 copies, which represents a two-year growth of 8% in a market where the paid-for press is on the decline.
What are the causes of such success? In a way, Peters invented the multi-newspaper newsroom.
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