Newspapers unite to defend print
UPDATE 10.15am: The nation's four biggest newspaper publishers will today launch an industry-wide brand campaign to encourage advertisers back to print.
The Influential by Nature campaign, created by Sydney-based agency The Hallway, aims to remind advertisers that newspapers get results - not just for businesses but for the wider community, too.
It uses real-life examples of newspapers making a difference - including The West Australian's Pledge for Nate campaign and boxer Danny Green's Coward Punch campaign, which was run by both major papers in NSW.
Influential by Nature is the biggest advertising campaign to be undertaken by The Newspaper Works, the industry body that represents APN News and Media, Fairfax Media, News Corp Australia and Seven West Media, owner of The West Australian. It comes as newspaper readership figures in Australia, in line with the global trend, have been shrinking.
The Newspaper Works chairman Michael Miller told WestBusiness a collaborative industry approach to the challenges facing publishers was the best way to help grow newspapers share of total advertising revenues.
"At the moment we have 20 per cent of the total media pie coming to newspapers, which isn't a small amount but that has been challenged," he said.
"Part of the timing is to re-challenge advertisers' current behaviours to reclaim and grow some of the share that we typically enjoy."
Mr Miller, who is also chief executive of APN News and Media, said the campaign's proposition - that newspapers are influential by nature - was about reclaiming "what is an inherent truth and benefit of newspapers". He said arguably the campaign was overdue but the publishers were now united in the belief such "a key point of difference" needed to be communicated effectively to advertisers.
"Newspapers are trusted and believed through their brands - which in many cases are more than a century old - their columnists, journalists, and through being topical, current, relevant and local," he said.
Mr Miller said that influence flows through the other platforms that newspapers now have, such as websites and apps.
The campaign will roll out over the next few weeks across print, digital, social, trade publications and direct marketing channels.
Figures to be released by The Newspaper Works today will show total newspaper readership remains steady, with 92 per cent of people reading newspaper across platforms - with 80 per cent of the population still reading a printed paper. It will also show more than three million Australians view newspaper content on their mobiles or tablets each month.
