Publishers focus on regionality

The pressure on publishers from internet giants and news aggregators such as Google, Facebook & Co. is great. Many newspaper publishers are responding to this with regionality. As part of a think tank, the Zeitungs Marketing Gesellschaft (ZMG) surveyed 33 specialists and managers from the newspaper industry on the topic of digital potential. According to the survey, playing to regional strengths is seen as the most important factor for future success.

New orientation necessaryIn addition to regionality, publishers also see the continuous development of new digital products and a stronger focus on reader interests as key success factors. However, cooperation with other publishers and cross-financing from other business areas are not very important, and some publishers see a threat from the online giants. Around a third are of the opinion that the increasing exodus of readers cannot be stopped and are working on corresponding counter-strategies. However, just as many are certain that their current content is attractive enough to survive alongside the international online publishers.Stable range, but room for improvementFor most publishers, reach is not currently an acute problem, although none are resting on their laurels. Two thirds consider their reach to be stable but expandable, while five of the 33 respondents consider it to be insufficient. A shrinking reach is only a problem for one respondent, and publishers are very active on social media channels to expand their website reach. Here, too, regionality plays an important role. The majority of respondents are pursuing a strategy of making their web offerings so regionally relevant that they become daily must-reads and retain readers in the long term. In addition, the activation of print readers is an important topic for building online reach. News aggregators, newsletters or the exchange of links and content with partners are less important for those surveyed.