Stuart Elliott: Goodnight, Sweet Print?

It39s been a particularly tough few weeks for print a medium that let39s face it has been under pressure for quite some time Newspapers both old the Tampa Tribune founded in 1893 and new the New Day founded 10 weeks ago were shuttered Tribune Publishing and Gannett are embroiled in a nasty battle as the latter fights to take over the former the dispute has given reporters a chance to rehash the foulups missteps and blunders that have made the struggling Tribune the epitome of how far the mighty print media has fallenThe New York Times made plans to close some operations in Paris that traced their roots back to 1887 And a Cincinnati TV station WCPO started a snarky campaign to persuade readers of the Cincinnati Enquirer to quotdrop the paperquot in favor of the station39s digital contentIt39s reached a point that Zoe Harris group marketing director of Trinity Mirror the British publishing giant behind the New Day wondered whether quotthere is a sense of 39printism39 at play in the way that people are talking down about print more than they need toquot which she fears is hindering efforts to find innovative ways to keep print relevantquotThere are still millions of people going out of their way to buy a print title every dayquot Harris told the trade publication the Drum quotThis sense that it is all over for print is really unfair on all of the print titlesquotDespite the gloom and doom print is trying to bounce back Four of America39s biggest newspaper companies have formed Nucleus Marketing Solutions a consortium meant to help bring together national advertisers and local shoppers The Times is seeking nontraditional sources of revenue teaming up for instance with a firm called Chef39d for meal kit deliveryHearst has revived a fondlyrecalled magazine Metropolitan Home and has signed agreements with a lengthy list of partners including the actress Elizabeth Banks centered on WhoHahacom her new comedy website Facebook Live Snapchat and the actor Channing Tatum for his upcoming quotMagic Mike Livequot show in Las VegasHearst announced those partnerships last Wednesday during its firstever presentation as part of the annual Digital Content NewFronts sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Seven of the 39 NewFronts presentations scheduled from May 2 through 13 are being hosted by legacy print media companies among them in addition to Hearst and the Times are the Economist National Geographic and PlayboyThe Hearst presentation was firstrate with a surprise appearance by Tatum a performance by a young London MC named Elf Kid lobster sandwiches served from food bikesamp160and a pair of donut walls each outfitted with pegs holding 196 of the tasty dessertsIt also took 45 minutes for the word quotprintquot to be uttered when Michael A Clinton president for marketing and publishing director of Hearst Magazines took the stage toward the end of the presentation quotYou saw some 15 great new conceptsquot he told the audience quotAnd yes even print can workquotThe paucity of print references is not entirely startling because the IAB requires that a company presenting at the NewFronts quotmust create original content in video format that is available onlinequot In other words if your roots are in magazines or newspapers your NewFronts event has to concentrate on your digital offeringsFine say most legacy print firms which are scrambling to remake themselves for digitalfirst consumers They39re eager to showcase how much they39re changing and how far they39ve come Thus the host of the Hearst presentation billed as a NewFront House Party was Hearst Magazines Digital Media rather than Hearst MagazinesquotPrint is a very key business for us today tomorrow 25 years from nowquot David Carey president of Hearst Magazines said to me after the presentation which he attended but didn39t take part inquotThe digital Upfront marketquot with its emphasis on video and the print ad market with its quotprintcentric ideasquot are quotreally different marketsquot he addedHearst is making plans to stage in the fall its fourth annual MagFront an event devoted to innovative print ad ideas Clinton told me after the presentationquotWe39re the only ones who do a MagFrontquot he added quotThe NewFronts market is video only at the MagFront the ideas come from our editorsquotIt39s unrealistic to expect publishers with roots in print to wave banners festooned with the pword during the NewFronts What I39d like is for them to be more assertive on this point Advertisers ought to consider doing business with them instead of their new media rivals because of the expertise in understanding and delivering what readers and advertisers want that was built up during decades of publishing successful newspapers and magazinesIn other words don39t ignore or run from your print past embrace itThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers amp160amp160

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Stuart Elliott: Goodnight, Sweet Print?

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