Recent weeks have seen a step change in the way regional newspaper players approach digital. Associated Newspapers is rethinking the way it runs its This Is network of local news sites. In the past two weeks, the publisher has devolved more commercial and editorial power to local sites at the same time as it has restructured AN Digital and Northcliffe Media.
Meanwhile, Johnston Press and Guardian Media Group are readying some innovative web moves in the pre-Christmas period.
So why is this activity happening? Put simply, while online ad revenue is a potentially vast income source for regional press, it remains small fry.
The latest Newspaper Society Annual Regional Press Survey revealed that online accounts for a measly 2.5% (£71m) of ad revenue for regional press. This is despite the number of regional press websites increasing from 828 to 1,102 during the past year.
The Newspaper Society's figures suggest that commercial ingenuity in regional newspaper players' online activity is not yet widespread. Online is now a major revenue stream for national titles, but how can regional publishers get more out of the internet advertising boom?
Vertical sectors
Mike Rowley has moved from AN Digital to Northcliffe Media to relaunch the publisher's This Is network and has spent the past 12 months integrating vertical sectors into the network. Online partnerships with Jobsite, Findaproperty.com and Motors.co.uk have delivered valuable revenue streams across the This Is network, but Rowley now wants to make individual titles more local.
"It's important to be fleet of foot," he explains. "If you want to stay close to your customers you have to have the ability to be both reactive and proactive at a local level."
The relaunch of the This Is network will be Northcliffe's biggest move yet, away from what started as a network of template sites. Content, advertising, look and feel will be determined by research in local markets, according to Rowley.
Tim Bowdler, chief executive of Johnston Press, does not regard ploughing money into individual sites as the way to evolve. Instead, he has invested £10m in bolstering Johnston Press's central command centre in Peterborough, which now boasts 60 staff.
"Three years ago we were reluctantly embracing the web offering at local level, but things are different now," says Bowdler. "We're trying to achieve having embedded local websites just like our newspapers. They have to be seen as part of the local option and local community."
With print-based advertising revenue in recession, it is no wonder that regional titles are turning to digital. Unique users on Johnston websites increased 31% to 7.9 million a month in the first half of 2007 and digital revenues grew by 33.5%.
Regional press' high growth rate in digital is encouraging, yet indicative of how small online revenues are. Instead it is often national titles that are heralded as online success stories. Guardian Unlimited is acknowledged as one of the best newspaper sites, but has this success meant that Guardian Media Group's local titles have been overlooked?
Ruth Spratt, GMG Regional Media's digital and broadcast director, says: "It's up to us as a department to make sure we're up to date with everything. We need to be constantly aware of what people want and need online because if you look at the online marketplace it changes every day."
Video challenges
GMG's Manchester Evening News is more advanced than most regional news players' sites. A lot of that is down to autonomy granted to local divisions, according to Spratt.
"The next big area for us is video," says Spratt. "There are three challenges: where does video fit within the sites? Where does the content come from and where does the revenue come from? We've got one of those questions answered in that we have our own TV channel and we're working on the other two."
Robert Ray, marketing director at the Newspaper Society, argues that local newspapers do not lag behind national titles when it comes to digital and there are examples of regionals leading the way (see box).
Organisational culture has started to change. The quicker this change happens, the quicker digital can grow from 2.5% into a major revenue generator for regional press.
REGIONAL SITES THAT ARE PIONEERING ONLINE
- Independent News and Media's Belfast Telegraph (www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk) was one of the first newspapers to launch an online TV news service (Belfast TV)
- North Wales Newspapers' Evening Leader (www.eveningleader.co.uk) has a branded presence on Facebook and MySpace
- Kent Messenger Group (www.kentonline.co.uk) has digital editions of 22 papers
- Archant's Norwich Evening News (www.eveningnews24.co.uk) has a geotagging feature that allows readers to prioritise their news depending on where they live
- Johnston Press's The News (www.portsmouth.co.uk) enables readers to create their own announcements online via iAnnounce
- Newbury Weekly News (www.newburytoday.co.uk) has webcams around the town
- Johnston Press's The Scotsman (www.scotsman.com) has an online golf channel that allows browsers to look at about 3,000 courses across Europe.