Few in the advertising community will mourn the passing of Today, which
lost its battle for survival last Friday, although many benefited from
its arrival.
Today revolutionised national newspaper publishing in the 80s. It
brought on-the-run colour and broke the vice-like grip of the print
unions. It was young, loud and proud and it promised to bridge the gap
between the popular and mid-market tabloids.
It never lived up to that promise in circulation or advertising terms.
TMD Carat deputy managing director Neil Jones says: ‘It never reached
critical mass. It was always a peripheral title that picked up leftover
money at the last minute rather than being something you planned in from
the start.’ CIA Medianetwork non-broadcast director Richard Britton
agrees although, like Zenith group press director Faith Carthy, he
believes that any reduction in the choice of advertising media is
ultimately bad news for advertisers.
Carthy is concerned that the money spent in Today may disappear from the
press market with its demise. Hard-pressed retailers who favoured the
title may simply see it as one less vehicle in which they have to
advertise their short-term price promotions, she says.
‘The heart of the problem was that it had so many different editorial
focuses over the years that you never knew quite what you were getting,’
comments Britton.
True, Today had more image changes than Madonna. Its politics were pale
blue, yellow (at one stage it had the highest proportion of Liberal-
Democrat readers), green, and finally pink. It had donned power suits,
followed by Jesus sandals, indulged in a celebrity makeover then shed
its pretensions for good honest journalism.
Launched by regional newspaper publisher Eddy Shah in 1986, Today was
bought by Lonhro the following year, which also failed to stem its
losses and sold it on to Rupert Murdoch’s News International in 1987. By
1991 there had been two revamps in two years and it was simultaneously
believed to be going up-market, down-market, newsier and more magazine-
led.
In the 80s it caught the designer coat-tails of yuppiedom and lured
young readers with articles on sex, love marriage and money. Under
editor David Montgomery, its emphasis was on lifestyle and consumer
affairs. In 1989 it was labelled ‘the jackdaw’ by the Daily Mirror,
which launched a swingeing attack in a half-page article that claimed it
was the least-popular of all the papers and as original as a photocopy.
At least one of those claims was then true.
When the caring, sharing 90s dawned, Today espoused ecology. By January
1991, it had been forced to shed 48 of its 179 journalists. Two months
later Montgomery ordered a relaunch. He promised to be softer - not
carping but not toothless either. Muck-raking was out and so was Edwina
Currie with her ‘She Speaks... Britain Listens’ column.
The relaunch issue failed to meet regional distribution deadlines so
nobody outside the capital received their copy and Montgomery was forced
to issue a two-page apology to readers. Many media buyers wrote off the
relaunch as too magaziney and insufficiently different. It no longer
looked like a newspaper, they said, it looked more a tabloid supplement
with no real news.
A new editor was installed the following month and he immediately
revamped it away from its Hello style and back to its original form.
Martin Dunn eschewed salaciousness and sensationalism in favour of
straightforward journalism and, after less than a year-and-a-half, he
had increased circulation to 551,800 (August 1989, up 18.6% year on
year). His success is particularly noteworthy considering that in the
previous 18 months the paper had haemorrhaged 22% of its daily sales.
July 1991 saw the appointment of dedicated directors for advertising
sales, promotions, circulation, finance and production. The move was
designed to promote the NI papers as separate brands but, as analysts
said at the time, branding comes from the bottom, not by inserting extra
layers of management.
In November of that year Murdoch invested in a 20% pagination increase
plus 12 more journalists and promised that Today would retain its
‘independent’ stance in the run-up to the election. A week later it
began to turn editorially pink.
Richard Stott, the latest in the long line-up of Today editors, who
joined in 1993, took the paper further to the left and presided over two
issues last year that broke the magic million sales mark. However, Today
could not retain the momentum. Its circulation hovered at the half-
million and, with rising paper costs, Murdoch had no choice but to turn
off its life-support machine.
Its tabloid competitors immediately began feasting on its carcass,
offering their readers a bounty for recruiting Today readers, who have
been swamped by cut-price deals. Ironically, they are probably chasing
their tails: only 35% of Today readers were solus buyers, 37% already
buy the Sun, and the Mirror claims a further 28%.
The closure has intensified speculation that Rupert Murdoch is now
eyeing the Daily Express and Sunday Express - but regulations on cross
media ownership would still stand in his way.
Today’s contribution to News International’s market share was virtually
negligible. The company’s share of total newspaper circulation was 37%
including Today and fell less than 2% to 35.2% without the title. The
Express titles would, by contrast, lift News International’s share to an
unacceptable 43.7%.
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