Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Protecting print from online

This is a long running discussion. It rarely flares into argument because the evidence has not been conclusive either way, and the progressive lobby within media organisations (apart from News) has at least been able to persuade execs that brand awareness, the need to chase young audiences - indeed any audience - is paramount, and online is the way to do it.

Those arguments are still true, but there is an increasing awareness in some quarters that cannibalisation of print sales is real.

Enter one of Scandinavia's larger newspaper organisations, Verdensgang. On the back of a 3.9% decline in circulation they have decided on some new rules of publication:

1. Feature stories will not be published in the online edition.
2. Consumer-interest stories will not be published online before after lunch.
3. The front pages of the paper and online editions will have different expressions.
4. Columnists will write exclusively for the paper edition.

via Poynter

No comments: