Evening standards
the Evening Standard remains the paper of choice for upmarket, influential Londoners who need to know what London's thinking, whether it be in the business, political or cultural spheres. The Evening Standard is a British tabloid regional newspaper published and sold in London and surrounding areas of southeast England. It is dominant as a London local daily paper, with a strong City (i.e. financial) emphasis as well as carrying national and international news.
Critical evalution of evening standards:
Evening standrads as it is one of the leading news paper for londoners are in a worring sitaution following a fall in net circulation.
The latest figures show a 6.11% drop in net circulation from March to 263,312. The title is also down 1.01% for the six months from November to April, year-on-year. Of the circulation total about a third were given out as "bulks" in April.
As for as the author thinks these are the main issues
The main issue is their price as compare to other news paper like metro and lite. Their competitors either they are charging very low price or distributing newspapers for free.
Secondly they don't have much attraction for teenagers and kids as some of the newspapers they have seaprate section for kids . ideally they should introduce a seaprate section for next generation. We will disuss in detail later on how can they overcome this weakness. Also by conducting SWoT analysis we come to know that how these current issues or weknesses can be converted into strengths of this newspaper organiation by adopting sound marketing stategy.
Another issue is this that newspaper is not enough classified although there are some improvement has been seen e,g. HOMES and Properties is good addition in the classified side of the newspaper. But unfortunatly this is prematured and not been marketed properly.Author believe that there is huge room for imrovement.Next stage of the current essay will discuss some of new ideas can be highly effected to bring messive improvement in this side of the newspaper.
Local market or communities have not been properly focused or targetted.Although they have their needs that can be fulfilled locally might be on the door steps but they have to search one of their needy goods or services among thousands of adds from whole london areas. Does it more complecated way for the reader? Yes is the right answer. You can find some very good examples of this which are doing by the cometitors.So this is another aea which needs some serious attention.
Place and distrbution is another factor. Compatitors have taken some serious steps on distribution. as a result of these steps their product is easyly accessable to the general public, while to get this news paper you have to make up your mind and might be you have to spend some extra time and money.Suggessions are discussed in the following sections.
"If it had invested in developing the product two or three years ago, it probably wouldn't find itself in the situation it is now; it left itself open for a mugging. Having said that, better late than never, and I do think this is encouraging and should move the Standard more upmarket. However, I don't think this will translate into significant circulation increases; the market has moved too far away from I"t. (Nick Walker, managing partner, Walker Media)
"NO - In the short to medium term, yes; in the long term, no. The new initiatives seem designed to achieve two things: to make existing customers proud that they still pay for their evening newspaper and to collect vital data about purchasing patterns. In the longer term, I doubt it will address the fundamental generational and struct-ural shifts in media consumption due to the internet and free printed content".( Howard Nead, managing partner, PHD)
(http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/743340/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH)
Importance of information
There are following three kind of main questions which should be cleared with solid answers before making any strategy.
- Where are we now?
- Where we should be?
- How can we go there?
Where are we now?
SWOT analysis is the best tool to measure or judge existing position of the firms because we come to know about our all potential STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS.
STRENGTHS:
- Evening standard is one of the oldest news paper of the UK established in 1827.
- Good bunch of news for all part of activities.
- Popular among the business and professional people
- Attracts local population of the london
- News published in news paper based on realiability
- Their distribution channel is vast and covering all UK.
- Homes & Property magazine is distributed free with the Evening Standard every Wednesday.
- Evening standards also launched six part TV series on ITV London designed for home and property business.
WEAKNESSES:
- Price is very high as compare to many other news papers like metro and lite as most of them are distributing them for free.
- There is not much interest for teenagers and new generation has been ignored.
- Not much promotional stuff or offers for readers.
- Distribution channel is not well organised as compare to competitors.
- Not easily accessable to the readers
OPPERTUNITIES :
- They should adoptE-commerece and e-business strategies.
- They should work with telecommunication companies like orange andt-mobile.
Internet satellite technology.
The London Evening Standard is said to be exploring a new distribution model, in which it plans to hand out copies of the paper - normally priced at 50 pence - free or at heavily discounted rates at key locations in the city.
A new mobile site, iStandard, is also about to launch, essentially as a version of the main site re-formatted for mobile browsers that will also provide roundups of travel, weather, sport and City news on the site and via text message.
Evening Standard trying to mobilise its news content as part of its new digital strategy.
THREATS:
- They are using too much paper not concentrating much on enviromental issues
- Rising paper price:The price of paper is a significant expenditure relating to the company's print products and direct, paper prices are increased and increasing at the end of 2007, and in 2008 respectively.
- Increasing competition:The newspaper publishing industry is characterized by intense competition. In theUK, the market share is highly concentrated, with the top 20 players controlling major market share.
- Economic slowdown: The UK economy is forecast to contract by 4.1% in 2009, when compared to the GDP growth rates of 3% in 2007 and 0.7% in 2008, signifying recession.
- Economic downturn in the UK would cause reduction in spending for advertising and other media related activities by the clients
E-BUSINESS STRATEGY:
The major driver in many business domains today is the use of internet-based technologies to open new market opportunities, deliver improved services to customers, and streamline internal business processes. The internet has profoundly altered today's business environment by redefining business processes and changing the dynamics of relationships with customers, partners, and suppliers (Wargin and Dobiey, 2001). E-business is defined as the 'use of electronic networks and associated technologies to enable, improve, enhance, transform or invent a business process or business system to create superior value for current or potential customers (Sawhney and Zabin, 2001). E-business is really all about new business models, strategies, and tactics that are made possible with the capabilities of the internet and related technologies. E-business is changing the competitive landscape of virtually every industry (Sharma and Gupta 2001, Sharma and Gupta 2003a, Sharma and Gupta 2003b).
In the present phase of e-business, companies and organizations are moving beyond integrating their various processes to sense and respond to fluctuating market conditions in real time (Boulton, Libert and Samek, 2000).
To cope with those changes, business firms have to be responsive, focused, flexible and resilient. E-business technologies are a collection of technologies, such as web sites, browsers, electronic procurement software, desk-top video conferencing tools, intelligent database search engines, computer supported co-operative working packages.
As organizations adapt their business processes and models to compete in the e-business environment, e-business strategy is recognized as a critical imperative for success.
Companies like Amazon.com., Dell.com, and Cisco.com have adopted the right kinds of e-business strategies and have been dominant players in the e-business market.
(http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.wales.ac.uk:2048/ehost/pdf?vid=10&hid=104&sid=b7fd425d-dcb0-485d-9195-ab81d75e4ac8%40sessionmgr111)
E-BUSINESS STRATEGY OF EVENING STANDARDS:
MoMac, and its fully integrated mobile publishing platform GoMedia, has been selected by London's Evening Standard to mobilise its news content as part of its new digital strategy.
MoMac will build the mobile portal, repurpose news content and fully manage the service so that Evening Standard readers will be able to browse and read the latest London news headlines.
The service will be populated with advertising served by the mobile advertising module of MoMac's GoMedia platform, GoSell.
Ad sales will be brokered by mobile advertising ad-sales specialist, 4th Screen Advertising, making it completely ad-funded and free to end users.
The mobile portal will initially be made available in the direct to consumer environment and will also be made available to operators via MoMac's on-portal 'Newsagent' service that is currently available to 3 UK and 3 Eire customers.
Newsagent takes content from MoMac's portfolio of premium UK publishing partners including national newspapers such as The Guardian, The Express and News of The World, as well as magazines from Bauer (FHM and Heat) IPC (Marie Claire and NME) Future (T3) and Dennis (Men's Fitness and Auto Express.
(http://www.netimperative.com/news/2009/may/evening-standard-picks-momac-for-mobile-ads)
Last week the Evening Standard promised us some "significant, innovative" changes on Standard.co.uk. What do we get? A new logo, a spring cleaned homepage, a mobile site and a new Twitterfeed. It's part of new editor Geordie Greig's re-launch of the title in print and online but longstanding observers of the almost constantly changing Standard site should feel a little underwhelmed by the new regime's attempt at change online. The site has been redesigned to "provide clearer navigation" but at first glance it looks more cluttered than the old site,
The frontpage now has a 'most read' section and a new entertainment channel. A new mobile site, iStandard, is also launched today, essentially as a version of the main site re-formatted for mobile browsers that will also provide roundups of travel, weather, sport and City news on the site and via text message.
(http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-evening-standing-web-re-launch-is-that-it/)
LONDON - Associated Newspapers is launching a website for the Evening Standard's weekly Homes & Property magazine, as part of a wider multi-media extension of the brand.
The website, aimed at the AB demographic in the capital, covers topics including architecture, show homes, design, shopping, luxury, DIY and gardening.
Content will also include property news, video clips, a "your space" section, "find an expert" and a comprehensive homewares shop.
The Homes & Property brand is also being made into a six-part TV series on ITV1 London, titled with the same name, to be launched on Thursday May 24 through talkbackThames -- which also produces Channel 4's 'Grand Designs'.
The half-hour show covers several design features, including the best places to live in London, the five best and worst buildings in London voted by readers, and an 'Amazing Space' segment, which allows viewers to look around unusual properties and meet the owners.
Architectural designer Charlie Luxton and property expert Sunita Shroff will present the show, while the Evening's Standard's Alison Cork will present a segment called 'Luxury for Less'.
Andrew Mullins, managing director of the Evening Standard, said: "This is part of our classified vertical brand extension strategy moving print-based properties across multi-media platforms to strengthen our advertising offering and make us unique in the marketplace."
Homes & Property magazine is in its eleventh year
