OPINION: Red Tops Must Hone Web Strategies to Stem Decline
By David Crow, The Business, London
Mar. 10–The decline experienced in the newspaper industry has been most severe for the “red top” tabloid newspapers. Quality titles, such as the Guardian and the Times, have been able to develop online strategies that will generate a new source of income and hopefully ensure their long-term survival and success, but the red top market — including titles such as the Daily Mirror, Rupert Murdoch’s Sun and News of the World and Richard Desmond’s Daily Star — has been far too slow to follow.
Circulation figures for paid-for-red tops show they are continuing to slump. In January, the Daily Mirror was down 6.17 percent on its 2006 figure while the Sun took a 3.06 percent hit. On the face of it, therefore, it was good news that the Mirror quietly launched its long-overdue new website (www.mirror.co.uk) last month.
MGN Digital, the online division of the Mirror’s parent company Trinity Mirror, was responsible for the redesign. It follows a similar, but failed attempt to bring all of Trinity Mirror’s national and Scottish websites up to date in April 2005.
The new Daily Mirror website is built around an embedded video player which features news clips, celebrity gossip and sports headlines. There are also blogs from Daily Mirror journalists and message forums designed to make readers feel more involved.
But the new website is plagued with serious problems and is a big disappointment. The decision to use tiny thumbnail pictures alongside the headlines is unwise, especially as images are so important in the printed product; current broadband speeds in Britain mean most internet users can receive large pictures with ease.
Most damaging of all, the clips in the online video portal are ill-suited for the Mirror’s market. Instead of providing bespoke content for the website, Trinity Mirror has bought all their video clips from America’s Roo Media which in turn sources from international news agencies such as Reuters and Associated Press.
Most of the clips focus on global news such as the Russian President’s diplomatic trip to the Middle East — hardly what Mirror readers would expect to see prioritised in the printed product. None of the content is labelled with a date or time and the titles of videos are confusing. One clip is entitled “Mayor in assassination attempt”, but does not mention that the event took place in Colombia.
Another clip is seriously out of date, reporting the spate of shootings that happened in London last month as though it were a recent event. Clearly aiming at a global audience, the Reuters reporter explains London is the capital of England.
MGN Digital has made a serious but common error in buying a broad-based third-party solution. There is nothing wrong with buying content from another source but it needs to be carefully edited for specific audiences. ITN offers a short video clip service for websites that would be much more appropriate for Mirror readers.
Rupert Murdoch’s News International, which owns a 5 percent stake in Roo Media, also uses its portal for all their titles, including the SunOnline and TimesOnline. The decision to use one-size-fits-all video content for their websites is representative of everything that is wrong with Murdoch’s online strategy. Internet consumers want material that is specifically designed to suit their needs, not a generic one-channel source of content.
However, although SunOnline’s video content suffers from similar problems to the Mirror’s site, its overall offering is much better. Alongside Roo Media clips, it offers bespoke content from their agony aunt and interviews with page three glamour models. This will not be to everyone’s taste but there is a big market for this kind of content.
Another impressive feature of SunOnline, relaunched in September, is MySun, a social networking site. Users can create their own profiles, upload pictures and videos, and make new friends. Crucially, it allows readers to become part of the news gathering process by encouraging them to send in their own stories, videos and pictures.
What the Sun understands better than the Mirror is that its brand can be used as an umbrella for other online ventures. The Sun’s internet dieting programme has been a success and their bingo site generates several million pounds a year. SunOnline’s stable of websites is now one of the fastest-growing news and entertainment sites in the UK.
Red top titles will always find it harder to succeed online than quality newspapers because much of the content which is popular in red tops, such as celebrity gossip and football rumours, can be found on rival sites. However, at least British tabloids remain ahead of their global competitors. The web versions of American tabloids such as the New York Post and New York Daily News have little or no rich content, merely text, small pictures and a handful of blogs.
Video content will be increasingly important to the success of any online news venture. If Murdoch doesn’t go back to the drawing board and devise another video solution for the Sun (as well as for the New York Post), his newfound online success could soon begin to wane.
But he will take pleasure in that Trinity Mirror’s problems are far worse. The last thing the Mirror, a paper stuck in a slow and seemingly irreversible decline, needed was a botched new website. Unless it is urgently revamped, the new site will sink without trace, further accelerating the demise of a once great newspaper brand.
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