London: How 24 Hours Can Make Such a Difference!

Philip M. Stone July 7, 2005

When London learned yesterday at 1245 local time that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had chosen the British capital to host the 2012 Olympic Games, the Evening Standard expanded its print run for its remaining editions by 100,000. That Olympic decision was probably the best medicine that the Standard and UK national dailies had tasted in a long time, and they badly needed it. And then came the horror of the London bombings today.

A couple of days before the Olympic decision, taken by the IOC at a meeting in Singapore, 10 national newspaper editors had signed a joint advertisement that appeared in the International Herald Tribune saying, “As editors of the UK’s national newspapers we wish everyone involved in the delegation to Singapore the very best of luck in their presentation to the International Olympic Committee. We are hoping to be able to report on a victory for London and the whole country on 6th July and look forward to an unforgettable Olympic and Paralympics Games in London in 2012.” So as not to run foul of IOC rules, the ad did not appear in the Singapore or Swiss (home of the IOC) editions.

Apart from trying to demonstrate that even the unruly British press was united in the Olympic bid, the nationals very much needed a big “Feel Good” story that has legs – about seven years of legs. For otherwise 2005 has not been a happy year for Fleet Street (the term still persists to describe the national press even though no national UK newspaper or news agency resides there any longer).

In the short run the “Feel Good” story takes second place to the horror of fatalities and injuries as a series of coordinated terrorist attacks hits London. The Olympic bid team had expected to fly back from Singapore in triumph, but now that euphoria has disappeared.

But on a purely media basis, while London’s attention for the next few days will be fixated on the bombings, and newspaper circulations will certainly spike upwards as they did during the Asian Tsunami coverage last December, it is still the Olympics story that has the legs, and the UK national newspapers will be depending on that in the long run to boost readership and advertising.

Even the staid broadsheet conservative Daily Telegraph gave its entire front page to a picture of the British flag overlaying pictures of jubilation with just the Olympic rings at the top and “London 2012” emblazoned across the middle of the page. The Telegraph had been at the forefront of promoting the London bid.

The Fleet Street mood has not been good of late. Cost cutting continues as circulation numbers still don’t impress, and the advertising market remains difficult. Most newspapers have recently embarked on a variety of strategies to repair the rot, and occasional stories like a royal wedding and, yes, terrorist bombings, spike circulation, but it is a solid long-lasting story like the Olympics coming to town that will surely be milked for absolutely everything it can provide. It may very well do what King Canute could not: turn the tide.

As a example of the malaise affecting newspapers the Evening Standard is as good an example as any (admittedly it is not a national but it is the only PM in the capital). With its circulation spiraling downwards management six months ago started producing a free Standard Lite newspaper, giving away some 75,000 copies around the lunch hour. It’s really a complete newspaper in itself, but the hope was that it would tease the readers to buy the full newspaper later in the day to read features and later news and sports copy the Lite edition did not carry.

Many thought that the Lite edition would instead take a chunk out of the full newspaper’s circulation, but it seems management knew what it was doing. The latest circulation figures show the numbers for the full Evening Standard up by 6,000 in May. Printing an additional 100,000 copies on the Olympic announcement – which included 10 pages of Olympic coverage -- and planning a 16-page supplement the next day gives a small example of how important the Olympic bid is seen to be to circulation’s bottom line.

Now management is tinkering with its ThisisLondon.com web site, removing business news entirely and keeping many of the print edition’s main news and sports stories off the web. The web site, which has about 2.7 million unique visitors monthly, instead is increasing its coverage of film, theater, restaurants and other entertainment subjects.

The tabloid circulation-leading Sun has also tinkered with its web site. The Sun, perhaps most famous for its page 3 nude woman, has cut back on the Page 3 section of its web site.  Rupert Murdoch, the Sun’s owner, admitted earlier this year that he believes the free Metro newspaper in London may have accounted for at least a 40,000 drop in the Sun’s circulation, ands there was talk then that an internal battle was raging on whether to cut back material from the web site.

But it appears just tinkering with the web site to bring readers back to the print edition did not do it for the bottom line. The Sun has now announced a £2 million cost cutting exercise that includes eliminating around 20 editorial jobs and also reducing various editorial pay allowances. A year ago in a cost cutting exercise the Sun closed its major regional bureau in Manchester.

The Sun is not alone in cutting jobs. The Daily Telegraph, bought recently by the Barclay Brothers, cut 90 positions and closed its City business bureau. The Express Group, and the Observer have all cut back, too.

And Murdoch possibly may get into the “If you can’t beat them join them “ game in London when it comes to free newspapers like the Metro. News International has registered an interest with city officials on publishing a free newspaper to compete with the Standard Lite and full Evening Standard and is awaiting details from authorities on distribution details at subway stations etc.

There is a feeling in London that Murdoch may pass on the free newspaper game there, but he has upped the stakes in Australia where just this week News Ltd. started giving away in the Sydney business district a 28-page color tabloid called mX. It is the second mX in Australia with the first launched in 2001 in Melbourne. It has yet to turn a profit.

The Sun’s main tabloid rival, The Daily Mirror has been hard hit by decreasing circulation and advertising. Advertising was down 7% in the first half of the year and in the past 12 months circulation has dropped 3.5% although the paper had a very good May. But whereas the Standard, owned by Associated Newspapers, and the Sun are cutting back their web activities the Mirror Group is taking an opposite tact. It intends to launch new web sites such as job listings and revamp existing sites, having already relaunched mirror.co.uk in April. The company’s digital division currently serves about 20 million ad impressions monthly and the goal is to get that up to 30million next year.

The Times and the Independent, both of which went compact last year, have enjoyed circulation increases. The Independent, the first to switch, is up by some 20% and the Times is up by about 5%, both year-on-year. But while the Independent seems a genuine success there is still a question mark for the Times, which has relied very heavily on very expensive promotional CD/DVD giveaways.

The Guardian has announced it is switching to the Berliner format – smaller than broadsheet but larger than compact -- a year earlier than scheduled. The switch involves an investment in new presses worth around £50 million.

When all is said and done The Daily Telegraph may end up a the UK’s only national broadsheet.  It has rolled out a 12-week campaign aimed at media agencies to show why a broadsheet ad buy is a better buy than a compact.

And at the Financial Times, where two years of losses have just been stemmed and much attention is being paid to integrate its web site with the print edition,  it is now out with its own one page  afternoon letter-sized giveaway to financial institutions providing brief updates on the day’s financial news and promoting the next day’s paper.

The only thing the FT may want to reconsider is one of its cost-savings moves: it eliminated its sport coverage, but now London has won the Olympic 2012 bid …