A year ago, the regional media pundits were not in cheerful mood – predicting job losses, title closures and multi-million pound losses.
And what happened? Well, 2021 saw a mass of new launches, expansions and a ferociously competitive journalistic job market blossoming for the first time in years. Regional publishers have been headhunting, setting up sign-on bonus schemes, launching into new uncharted territories and completely rethinking the model. When the going gets tough – and yes, it’s very tough – the only choice is to innovate.
When Covid came along in 2020, the hopelessly optimistic (me included) thought it would ‘all be over by Christmas’. But as it’s looking more like a five-year ordeal, we need to deal with it – both as a threat and an opportunity.
The ad market will remain volatile as the uncertainties of lockdowns, restrictions and god-knows-what’s-next come and go. On top of that, the ever-rising price of newsprint will seriously squeeze print paginations. Energy prices will stabilise eventually, but probably not, say the experts, until 2023. That hurt will be felt both in the soaring costs of producing things like newspapers and in the pockets of our readers who, seeing the cost of everything go up, will need to derive more value from their local media.
Now is the time to understand our audience and what they want – and where and when they want to read it. Peoples’ work patterns have changed, probably forever and that means ‘life is local’ (the old slogan of Johnston Press) could now be more relevant than ever. A drop in daily commuting, although bad news for the printed likes of the Metro will present a significant opportunity for the locals, in print and online, as readers rediscover the local life. The crucial part will be giving them the right mix of local news and increasingly leisure-based content in what could be a very different blend to the traditional.
Smart local publishers have realised this isn’t just a volume game – it has to be about loyalty and trust too. Getting great, authoritative content isn’t cheap, so innovation will come from forming partnerships as we have already done with the BBC, Facebook and Google, as well as exploiting new tech such as algorithmic-based content services. We’ll need to learn new data-journalism skills and visualise data for readers in highly engaging graphic formats and use more and more video.
Lastly, we should all be worried about the increasingly over-loud minority of people who have abandoned reason and are prepared to believe any old nonsense, abusing genuine journalists when they don't validate their prejudices. The regional media’s commitment to impartiality, objective reporting and keeping a cool head will continue to be our trump card.
Smart local publishers have realised this isn’t just a volume game – it has to be about loyalty and trust too.
This article was first published in the Publishing Partners Guide (PPG) 2022, which is published and distributed by InPublishing. You can register to receive InPublishing magazine here and view the digital edition of the PPG here.
