by Herman Manson (@marklives) It’s been a tough year for the news print operations of Times Media Group (TMG), which is wholly owned by Tiso Blackstar Group — revenue has been down, as has circulation. Yet it’s managed to maintain its revenue share, even as advertising in print has declined, and has continued to dominate selected market niches, says Trevor Ormerod, TMG GM group sales and marketing.
To stand out in a tough market, its newspaper brands have set about innovating advertising solutions, including full-page wraps, middle strips and T-shaped ads, or borrowing from their magazine counterparts, including selling pages two and three in their papers.
Welcomed by advertisers
According to Ormerod, the new display sizes and wraps have been welcomed by advertisers wanting to stand out from the usual newspaper clutter, and that the majority of readers have embraced innovation at the titles.
The group’s media operations has seen revenue falling by 4%, as shown by group financial results (downloadable PDF) for the six months ended 31 December 2014. Advertising market share has, however, grown by three percentage points over the past three years. Revenue at TMG’s flagship Sunday Times has fallen by R67m, according to a report in TMG-owned Business Day. Ormerod maintains its market share remains positive.
Both Business Day and the Financial Mail seem to have been turned around and are once again operating profitably. Business Day especially was hurt, following a change in rules which previously forced JSE-listed companies to publish their financial results in newspapers.
Ormerod agrees that the business press has also been susceptible to a shift in ad spend toward digital properties. Digital revenue growth is good but off a low base. Circulation at Financial Mail has dipped more that Ormerod would have liked, and TMG is relooking its distribution in a bid to address the matter.
Minor part of revenue mix
Overall, digital revenue remains a minor part of the revenue mix at TMG’s newspaper titles, even as TMG’s digital division grew revenue by 30% for the six months ended 31 December 2014.
The group continues to investigate paywall options. The group, says Ormerod, is employing consultants to assist it on its digital growth path; they are currently investigating global trends and strategies among newspapers and news properties. He expects a semi-porous paywall to be adopted by the group.
TMG recently announced it would make changes to its newsdesk model, which will involve massive internal training and re-engineering. This includes a super desk that consists of what a TMG presentation calls the Radar desk (breaking news), an Echo desk (social team), and a business super desk (marketing, IT and sales team), as well as analytics and SEO desks. The redesigned newsroom also means physical relocation in the near term — the company is currently looking at new office space.
Ormerod reports a return to print advertising by financial and telecoms groups, something he says will fundementally change the newspaper division’s revenue position. To encourage further growth, rate increases for the next financial year will be conservative.
New magazines launching
TMG has several sales teams in place across its newspaper division: a national team, a direct team (dealing with smaller ads), a retail team and a team focused upon selling to government and parastatals. A digital team works closely with the other teams across the board. Government spend in TMG papers has remained solid — especially in the recruitment section. They are also attracting more government and parastatal brand advertising.
The publishers will be launching a number of new magazines using the massive circulation base of its newspapers. These, essentially newspapers supplements, will go to TMG’s 120 000-strong subscriber base, with the hope of cornering the media and marketing trade segment, business and automotive sector this way.
Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com. He was the inaugural Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year in 2011 and has, over his 20-year-plus career, contributed to numerous journals and websites in South Africa and abroad, including AdVantage magazine, Men’s Health, Computer World and African Communications.
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