Look and Feel

I’m told that, the head honcho of a newspaper house – which has re-launched their flagship paper with a brand-new design - has gone on record to say that, “it (the new design) is as best as it can get”. I have no intention of taking him on that point - not b'coz he is known to take serious umbrage at even mildly critical comments in inconsequential bolgs such as this one, but because I - for one - genuinely like the new design ( tho’ I have heard mischievous critics quip, “it is “DNA four years too late”). But for me what’s more interesting to debate – is that eternal question of form (design) vs. content.

Surely look matters. Especially on first appearance. And, beauty is certainly not necessarily only skin deep when it comes to a ‘thought product’ like a newspaper. Great content can be made to look even more attractive by intelligent packaging and ease of navigation is sure to please even an old school die-hard reader.

I believe research indicates that, in a digital age – a newspaper even in its printed form must have a digital look and feel – especially if it wishes to attract new (and obviously) younger readers. And, Garcia is a master of 'digital' design. So far, so good. But, how does an older paper go about re-inventing itself for a younger audience.

The challenge to my mind is not about ‘turning off’ older readers by replacing a layout which they had gotten used to over the years with a new snazzy layout that can appear to be too much of a discontinuous change. The fears on this score – I think – are grossly overstated. But, for a ‘digital design’ to really work – one has to also re-engineer and completely over-haul the content – almost to the point of changing its DNA (no pun intended). It is here many publications fall-flat – because the risks of alienating the traditional readers are too high. And without doing much to the content, changes in design remain largely ‘cosmetic’.

New publications have a clear advantage here. They have the luxury, as it were, to marry content with design – to have a total offering that also reflects the personality of the paper. And, if the 2 (content and design can match up to each other – you do have a winning proposition. In the near past, MINT did this masterfully and DNA too was very successful in its attempt to differentiate with existing products. The Telegraph and Asian Age had done it in their own times. More recently, Forbes India has worked hard at doing the same in the Business Magazines genre and, in it's own modest way, OPEN can be another good example (tho’ I am yet unsure about its chances of commercial success).

MINT went a step further. It was planned truly as a multi-media offering for the future and its design and content delivery seamlessly transitioned across platforms – print, web, phone and even video-steaming.

But, only too often – do we have a new offering in the market – which looks smart but fail to deliver on its content.

The job is decidedly tougher for an existing newspaper – especially the larger and more established ones. Here, I liked the ToI formula – which follows, I suspect, the more classical (and, perhaps, conservative) route. Both for ToI and ET – they first went about incrementally and imperceptibly changing the content (which – detractors popularly called “dumbing down”) and then tinkered with the design. So, when DNA and HT were launched in Mumbai – ToI’s response was not to the drawing board and a new designer – but, instead, they invested heavily on content to make it – arguably – the best newspaper in the country. The same was, I believe, the brief of The Hindu to Garcia when he came to work on it a few years ago. But, then there are also wagging tongues – who say that these are also the 2 terribly designed newspapers in the country.

Even the staid Deccan Herald and the New Indian Express (down South) have also tried a change of wardrobe – but I’m not sure what it has done to their circulation and readership numbers.

Change with continuity seems to be the name of the game. It is surprising how many publications tend to clone their print format even in the digital (web) rendition. There must be some logic to that as well.

The Tribulations of a Regional Giant

While passing thru Chandigarh last week (the thumbnail on the side is the official logo of the city-state, for those of you who have been wondering), I saw the imposing landmark of The Tribune at the junction of Sector 29 on Purv Marg and wondered if it would meet the same fate as that of once the pride of Chowrighee square in Calcutta – The Statesman House. In essence, I was thinking – what’s the future of regional newspapers with the large national players spreading their tentacles across the country.

I asked this question of a senior functionary of the paper – over coffee in the lawns of his lovely red-bricked bungalow, taking in a bit of the delectable early November sun with the first hint of winter. At first, he scoffed mildly with a smile (without any arrogance, I must add ) – “HT and ToI have declared that they are going to kill us or wipe us out several times over in the last few years, but we have managed to survive”. He then went on to admit rather candidly, that - while circulation and readership have remained largely unaffected and so has local advertisement – ‘National Ad’ Revenues have suffered. Typically, HT & ToI offer Chandigarh as an “add-on” in their national “package” at almost next to nil rates. This make media planners and advertisers re-think on the need to spend additionally on a local paper given the relative size of the market and the incremental reach it would provide. But, still they haven’t managed to cut-off the life-blood of the paper. Besides – The Tribune’s circulation revenues (which is largely at full cover price – unlike HT & ToI which sell practically all their copies on deep-discounted schemes) are healthy – which is also generally true of other regional biggies like The Telegraph and The Hindu.

So what should be the strategy going forward ? The Tribune has chosen one of creeping regional expansion – pushing the circulation boundaries beyond their traditional strongholds of Chandigarh, Punjab and HP. Now they have started crawling into parts of Uttaranchal, neighbouring patches of Rajasthan and spreading across Haryana – short of the NCR (Gurgaon and its catchment areas). Coupled with region specific customization of content – this has boosted circulation and geographic reach – which, apart from providing greater value to national clients, make them a more attractive proposition for Regional Brand players from Punjab and Haryana.

While this may hold the decline in the short and medium term – would it work in the long run. The answer to my mind, would be in fierce or ferocious localization of content – increasing interactivity and deliver across media platforms (Web, Mobile etc..) This would improve and thereby increase reader loyalty and customer stickiness.

By trying to play the game by the rules set by the competition and cloning them – it would end up becoming poor second cousins of ToI and HT – diluting its original character and also – in the process – losing its traditional constituents. In trying to work counter national predators and incursions by the web - many regional newspapers in the US have ended up going even more local with good effect. I was quite encouraged to hear from an young journalist in Shimla – how a voluntary initiative by some of them in starting a very local news web-site called “My HP” is beginning to gather momentum.

For marketers seeking to increase penetration – the ‘carpet bombing’ strategy of big newspapers won’t work beyond a point. When it would come to targeting the last consumer standing – a strong regional player would do a far better job.

In some ways – the coming few months could actually prove to be an opportunity for the likes of The Tribune. With newsprint prices skyrocketing and advertising revenues slowing down, the biggies might be forced to cut-down cheap unproductive circulation in less profitable markets. That’s when a strong regional brand can strike back with vengeance.

But that would mean a serious re-engineering of content, which may not be easy given The Tribune’s old guard editorial and conservative Board of Trustees at the helm of affairs.

So, I can only wish my friend luck !!