Is Britain Ready for the Berliner - Research Paper Example

Marketing Assignment: Part News media s across the world are always pressed with the two opposing imperatives. On the one hand is the upkeep of brand value through reliable, balanced journalism. On the other hand is the pressure to achieve commercial viability. The news media in the United Kingdom is no exception to this rule. The Guardian Media Group (GMG) and its management strategies will be the focus of discussion in this essay. The marketing strategies of GMG’s flagship product, namely the Guardian newspaper, will be scrutinized and evaluated in detail through references to appropriate scholarly sources. The Guardian is one of the oldest newspapers in Britain, which celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 2007. From a historical perspective, the Guardian has witnessed and reported the suffragette movement, the two World Wars, the war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, the Margaret Thatcher era and the resurgence of the New Labour under the leadership of Tony Blair. In this sense, the Guardian is an integral part of the British socio-political discourse over the last century. Throughout this period of time, the newspaper had built its own brand of reportage and opinion. As far its editorial position is concerned, the Guardian has come to represent the Leftwing point of view. Along with the Independent, the two newspapers form the core of Leftwing print media in Britain (Mcnair 2000). In order to properly understand the rationale behind the newspaper’s managerial decisions, it is important that they are studied from this politico-ideological background. Moreover, the content of Guardian is as much driven by its readers as it is by its owners: “The Guardian is the newspaper of teachers, lecturers, social workers, middling government employees. Its pages bulge with government job advertising on which it has a virtual (and indefensible) monopoly. Is it really feasible for it to continue to appeal to its traditional readers while stretching out its hand to members of the establishment--mandarins, lawyers, the higher clergy, senior businessmen and the like?” (The Wilson Quarterly 2006) In the early years of this decade the readership figures for the Guardian started showing signs of stagnation and decline. This was a period when radical transformations were taking place in the news media industry. The so-called tabloid wars between previously broadsheet newspapers were redefining the newspaper market. It was then believed in the media industry that by producing its tabloid versions the Independent had gained a significant advantage over its competitors including the Guardian. The Guardian on the other hand was accused of having fallen behind in the race, and some commentators have even suggested that the paper is heading toward bankruptcy (Kuttner 2007). Even as major competitors from across the political divide were adopting the tabloid size, the Guardian top management remained unresponsive to the changes around them. This might at first appear to be complacency and over-confidence on part of the Guardian. Some people even felt that a strategic opportunity is being lost by the management. But in reality the Guardian had sound reasons for persisting with the broadsheet format, even when the Independent was set on downsizing its product. This is why: “To a great extent, the contrasting approaches reflect the ownership structures of the respective papers: The financially strapped Independent is one part of the portfolio of Irish businessman and former H.J. Heinz and Co. Chairman Tony OReilly; the Guardian, on the other hand, is freed both from the designs of a mogul and from the demands of shareholders by the financial support of the Scott Trust, whose stated mission is "to maintain the journalistic and commercial principles" of one long-standing former editor, C.P. Scott. So the Independent pursued the ideas it can afford, while the Guardian can afford to pursue its ideals.” (Sellers 2006) The trend that was set off by the Independent soon caught on with other major newspapers. The most shocking of these conversions to tabloid was that of The Times of London - for two centuries the very model of "the billowing, luxurious, upper-class broadsheet, with its sweeping view of the world". But there is more to the story than business strategy, for in the perception of media analysts “this was only the latest chapter in the once-hallowed newspapers sad quarter-century descent into mediocrity under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch” (Platell 2001). But in the case of Guardian the motivations for change are not business driven. The Guardian’s brand is built around its sophisticated reporting and understated opinion pieces. Its management believed that diluting its brand image for the sake of short term boost in readership is a poor strategy overall. As a result, the newspaper persisted with its broadsheet format even when every other paper was taking the tabloid route. Opinion polls conducted in the UK reflect the validity of this assessment. For example, a recent poll taken among newspaper subscribers found that two out of every five of them do not regard that private lives of celebrities is of importance. That means, there are nearly 44 million adults in Britain would prefer a media that is devoid of sensationalism and celebrity watching. In the same poll, 85 per cent of respondents said that disclosures about alleged celebrity flings should not have been published. Yet, the coverage David Beckham gets on a regular basis equals that of Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister. Surely the proportions are wrong here. In this aspect the Guardian’s strategy of staying course is not as imprudent as it is made out to be. (Kuttner 2007) Eventually, toward the middle of 2004, the Guardian announced its plans for reformatting the paper. In a way it is a compromise on its original stance of staying loyal to the broadsheet format. But the National Readership Survey (NRS) figures for the six months ending 4 March, 2004 made Alan Rusbridger (the chief editor) to rethink the strategy. The survey showed that “not only has The Independent increased its readership by 30 per cent overall compared with the same period a year ago, it has added an astounding 40 per cent more readers in the 15-44 age bracket with which advertisers are obsessed” (Wilby 2005). In this scenario, it is commercially imprudent on part of Rusbridger and his team to remain obdurate and inflexible. The challenge for the management at this juncture is to reformat the Guardian without compromising on its core values – the set of journalistic ethos that is behind the newspaper’s success for a hundred years. The following months were the most challenging for Rusbridger and his team. They have to strike a delicate balance in order to maintain a significant presence in British print media. The Guardian’s answer to turn around its fortunes is the Berliner Morgenpost format. Rusbridger had some sound reasons for choosing the Berliner format, for “the Berliner Morgenpost is a quality tabloid which is only marginally wider than the British standard tabloid size but several inches longer. The Guardian management believed the extra space will allow for more original and imaginative quality tabloid layouts and a bigger story count on the front page”. (Neil 2004) The transition to the smaller format, also referred to in the Guardian offices as the "Morgenpost Strategy" was hampered by technical issues. Most other British dailies which down sized to tabloid format had a relatively smooth transition. The delay in implementing the new strategy was because “there was virtually no printing press capacity in Britain capable of producing this size. The Guardian had to invest in new capacity or adapt existing presses. Given the capital cost of doing that, there are strong voices in the company who wanted its Sunday sister, The Observer, to also move to that size”. (Neil 2004) Such sweeping changes make sense when seen in light of the costs incurred. For example, the new printing facilities cost the Guardian Media Group an estimated 50 million pounds sterling since the previously used “presses can produce either a broadsheet or a tabloid form but not a Berliner” (The Evening Standard, 2005). This led Guardian to many penalties for withdrawing from its pre-existing printing contracts prematurely. But in retrospect, the strategy seemed to have paid off. At the same time that Rusbridger opted for the Berliner format, the top management made a concerted effort to strengthen the brand in electronic mediums of communication. As Rusbridger saw it, the motto for Guardian should be “selling news” as opposed to “selling newspapers”. Hence newer mediums of communication including the Internet, podcasts, mobile phones, etc were explored for viability. What began as an experiment five years ago has now turned into a great success. The paper’s circulation has not crossed 400,000 in this period, but its website Guardian Unlimited (www.guardian.co.uk) attracts 13 million unique visitors every month, attracting sizeable advertising revenue in the process. The website also won the Webby Award for the best newspaper in 2006. The management’s willingness to adapt new features from one version to the other is what makes them both successful. For example, “The Guardian is using its experience online as the foundation for new web like features in the printed paper as well as on its site. It not only keeps its readers abreast of whats going on in the blogosphere, it has a regular ‘Response’ column, which offers those who have been written about in the Guardian an opportunity to reply" at greater length than in a letter; it has a travel guide, ‘Been There’, written by readers for readers; and it runs obituaries of ordinary people written by those who knew them.” (Sellers 2006) With impressive consolidation of readership for both print and electronic formats the Guardian Media Group has started to look for acquisition opportunities to expand their business. Already, with the success of Guardian Unlimited in the Internet the GMG has established a worldwide loyal readership. In fact, of the 13 million visitors to its website each month, more than 4 million are from the United States and another significant portion from outside Britain. In this way, the GMG has now become an international brand. Add to this their presence in the radio space – the GMG owns the West Midland radio station Smooth fm. The inclination to acquire smaller businesses comes on the back of impressive profits in the financial year 2006-07, when the GMG posted pre-tax profits of pounds 97.7 million, an increase of 30 million pounds from the previous year. Simultaneously, the group managed to minimize its losses in the Guardian’s Berliner venture, which boosted the overall profits. In this scenario, it makes good business sense for GMG to consolidate their market position. Toward this end the GMG has made initiatives in the last two years to acquire other businesses that have the potential to give GMG strategic advantage over its competitors. For example, toward the end of 2007 the group was looking to acquire parts of Emap’s business, when the latter announced that it may break-up its business. Explaining the rationale behind this move, Chairman Paul Myners asserted that “the group is embarking on its acquisition trail after raising around pounds 674 million from the sale in June-2007 of a 49.9 per cent stake in its Auto Trader arm, Trader Media Group, which was bought by private equity group Apax Partners” (Kuttner 2007) . It also made sense for the Guardian Media Group to invest heavily in the radio segment for likely long term gains. This strategic move to improve its standing in radio is especially relevant when seen in light of the following facts: “GMGs radio business improved full year underlying operating profits by 30 per cent to pounds 3.5 million. Total listening hours stood at 46 million a week following the acquisition of QFM, Century FM and Smooth Radio. GMG said it was on track to be the third most listened to radio group in the UK by the end of 2007, with new station launches planned in its Smooth network set to boost listening figures.” (The Birmingham Post 2007) Amid all the speculation surrounding the tactical and strategic advantages that these initiatives would fetch, attention is being diverted away from the Guardian’s unique selling proposition. As Alan Rusbridger once remarked to an audience, “the Scott trustees do not demand the sort of returns many big media organizations are used to.... Trustees understand that serious public service journalism isnt always compatible with enormous circulations or huge profits" (Mcnair 2000). Seen in the light of this remark, it is all the more important for the Guardian to maintain the journalistic standards that it is known for. Even from a business point of view, making efforts to keep up its core values would prove to be strategically more beneficial in the long run. The common framework of journalistic ethics that is being adopted by the Guardian group is a fair and balanced one. Having said so, adhering to such guidelines are not without challenges. One of the basic tenets adopted by the Guardian journalists is to compile their reports after thorough fact-checking. In other words, they test the accuracy of the information being reported and take efforts to make sure that no mistake is incurred due to oversight. In reality however, there are systemic challenges to adhere to this principle. Given that most of the media coverage revolves around information released by government spokespersons, the veracity of the information given cannot be easily verified. For one thing, it is implicitly accepted that any message from government sources is an authentic and accurate one. To question or suspect elected representatives and authorities is not natural to many journalists, including those from the Guardian. Hence, there are practical difficulties in implementing their core set of ideal journalistic practices. The leadership in the Guardian should focus on addressing this issue. (Mcnair 2000) Furthermore, the Guardian should also strive to separate the two distinct functions of its enterprise, namely editorial opinions and factual news reports. The former is an area of subjective judgment and opinion while the latter is supposed to be objective and factual. While this dichotomy is more relevant to the print media, it is also applicable to the radio and online news media as well. Maintaining this dichotomous separation is easier said than done. What one finds in reality though is the imprint of the editorial policies on the process of selecting stories to report. A factual report is not in and of itself a neutral and objective one. Editorial pressures usually decide which stories are picked and which are left. Hence, under the apparent disguise of objectivity and factuality there can be an ideological thrust, which can serve against the interests of the common consumer of the particular news media, be it radio, online or newsprint. Almost every major newspaper in Britain is biased toward one side or the other of the political spectrum and the Guardian is no exception to this rule. Hence, in terms of consolidating its market share the Guardian management should look to improve standards of fairness and objectivity in their news reports. Not only will this ultimately improve the bottom line but also fulfil the founding principles of the Scott Trust. References: "Guardian on the Acquisition Trail after Solid Results; PUBLISHING." The Birmingham Post (England) 2 Aug. 2007: 25. "Im Glad We Didnt Follow the Times; Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger Is Changing the Papers Format, but He Thinks the Arguments about Size Miss the Point." The Evening Standard (London, England) : 53. "Is Britain Ready for the Berliner? Alan Rusbridger, above Launches His New Format for the Guardian on Monday. His Mission? to Dominate the Centre Ground of National Dailies." The Evening Standard (London, England) 7 Sept. 2005: 44. Kuttner, Robert. "The Race: Newspapers Can Make It to a Bright Print-Digital Future after All-But Only If They Run Fast and Dodge Wall Street." Columbia Journalism Review Mar.-Apr. 2007: 24+. Mcnair, Brian. Journalism and Democracy: An Evaluation of the Political Public Sphere. London: Routledge, 2000. Negrine, Ralph. Politics and the Mass Media in Britain. New York: Routledge, 1994. Platell, Amanda. "Did Rupert Murdoch Get It Wrong? Will the Guardian Outlast All the Other Broadsheet Newspapers?." New Statesman 17 Dec. 2001: 37. Sellers, Frances Stead. "Embracing Change: British Dailies Are Trying a Variety of New Approaches in an Effort to Survive and Thrive in a New Media Landscape. Are There Lessons Here for U.S. Papers?." American Journalism Review Oct.-Nov. 2006: 54+. "The Tabloid Solution." The Wilson Quarterly Wntr 2006: 76+. Neil, Andrew, "Why Theyre Changing Shape at the Guardian." The Evening Standard (London, England) 12 May 2004: 43. Wilby, Peter. "The Media Column." New Statesman 19 Sept. 2005: 11. Read More