One customer commented to me today that they are not buying the paper for the news as they’d read that already. They wanted one of the lift-out sections. They said they were more up to date on the Abbott leadership woes than they paper could be – holding up their phone to illustrate the point.
Following the hashtag #libspill you can be served news, gossip and opinion in a stead stream of tweets, some of which have links to more in-depth reporting and analysis. Print newspapers can’t keep up with such a fast moving and multi-faceted story. Their best opportunity is at analysis, as is the approach of The Saturday Paper. But even analysis is readily available on mobile devices and from people not previously published in mainstream news but getting attention as commentators of interest.
This morning over breakfast and using my iPhone I was able to get a more up to date and diverse perspectives on the #libspill stories and opinions than I could have got reading two or three newspapers.
Timely relevance is an extraordinary challenge for the old print medium. This is where promotions play a crucial role to reconnecting people with the habit-based purchase. It is also why we need to embrace change to drive our own relevance.