A Fond Farewell to The Independent

For those not in the UK the Independent titles were launched in 1986 the daily and 1990 the Sunday Both have been in decline with print sales dropping to an estimated 58000 daily and 97000 Sunday The daily at one stage sold around 400000 copiesI bought the first copy of the daily paper and continued to buy it until 7 or 8 years ago I havenamp8217t especially missed it even though I admire much of the paperamp8217s journalism I still buy a printed newspaper every day just not that oneSo what went wrong Because whatever the brave front of the press releases the fact is you cannot hide those sales declinesThe digiterati as always have the answer A sign of the times a precursor of whatamp8217s to come an inevitability no future for print The Indie will fly online we were right all along and so onIamp8217m not so sure Will The Indie fly online And what of Trinity Mirroramp8217s commitment to print The Independent is certainly free of the cost of having to print copies and no doubt of many members of staff who will lose their jobs But just being there online isnamp8217t enough There are many great online news sites from The Guardian and The Times here to The New York Times and The Washington Post in the USA and a host more inbetween Even if The Indie is equally good why should anyone read it Or indeed advertise in itThe thing about the papers Iamp8217ve mentioned above and many others is that theyamp8217re great brands that have by definition been built offline Theyamp8217re consistent They have excellent journalists They have moved to extend their presence via the wonders of online in amongst impressive digitalonly competitors while maintaining their core brand valuesThe Independent may have some excellent journalists but is it a great brand Does it have the foundations on which to build a commanding online presence Has it built up a degree of consistency Iamp8217m not sure that it has certainly the many owners editors and redesigns over its comparatively short life havenamp8217t helpedThe Independent has certainly run some memorable marketing campaigns The launch line amp8220It is Are youamp8221 underpinned one such but hasnamp8217t been seen for many a year which with hindsight looks like a lost opportunityThe core thought of editorial independence from any owner I guess the current owners the Lebedevs donamp8217t see themselves in that light could have been extended Admittedly there was the odd brilliant execution amp8220Rupert Murdoch Wonamp8217t Decide This Election amp8211 You Willamp8221 an idea that prompted the hilarious threatening visit to the paperamp8217s newsroom in April 2010 by James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks but such flashes of inspiration were all too rareMaybe as Ray Snoddy pointed out if the owners hadnamp8217t spent so much time and money chasing the illusion that is local TV with London Live they might have had the cash to allow them a good shot at building a famous brand to support a strong productTo far too many people The Independent recently was neither one thing nor the other It was and indeed is amp8220fineamp8221 Weamp8217ll see whether amp8220fineamp8221 is good enough or if the paper can indeed build a role for itself online It will be harder without the foundations thatamp8217s for sureMeantime what to make of Trinity Mirroramp8217s print only The New Day Early days by definition but a brave idea that seems to straddle news and chatty magazine formats Trinity Mirror is doing the smart thing by aiming to build the brand offline before no doubt taking it online in due courseWhat is encouraging is that there is one newspaper publisher prepared to try something new I expect there will be many in News UK Associated and the rest who will be watching The New Day with great interest and I suspect quietly wishing it wellThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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A Fond Farewell to The Independent

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Brian Jacobs

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 6) - By Carl Mayer

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