How are county magazines adapting to the demands of online and socially networked worlds when their USP is about closed clubs and exclusivity?

2. County magazines: lost in
cyberspace?
Clare Cook, Senior lecturer in Print
and Online journalism, Uclan
@cecook
Catherine Darby, Course Leader MA
Magazine Journalism, Uclan

3. County magazines are
bucking the trend
CHAMPIONING PRINT
OVER DIGITAL
STEPPING INTO LOCAL
NEWS TURF
TRANSLATING FROM
THE COFFEE TABLE
TO DIGITAL

4. County: top of the pops
Under researched yet...
Leisure (421 titles)
Sport (283 titles)
County, Town and Local
(277)
Women’s interests (227)

5. Vital statistics
160000
• Lancashire Life
140000
120000 50:50 £3995
100000
• Lancashire magazine
80000
60000 55:45 £2200
40000 Circulation
• Cumbria Life
20000 Readership
0 65:35 £2600
Lancashire Mag
Cumbria Life
Carlisle Living
Lancashire Life
Live Ribble
• Carlisle Living
75:25 £1850
• Live Ribble Valley
30:70 £895

6. County content is...

10. Aspirational

11. Filling the local news gap on their turf
Campaigns
Human interest
Education
“boring news in
newspapers”

12. HYPERCOUNTY
distribution

13. Cashing in on the printed format
Positive dual product
Commercial beasts
Accountability

14. Can county print translate online?
Print Digital
Selectivity Generality
Kudos
Timelessness
v Mass conversation
Instantaneous
Targeting Mass drivers
Tactility Virtual

15. Shop windows
Shop window
Potential for added
value
Photo competition
entries
Touch points

16. Dipping toes in social

17. Negative: content
Resisting publishing online
Herd mentality
Bolt-on or by-product
Shoe horning
Print first strategy
Cannabalising print Resourcing
Commercial uncertainty
Physicality

18. Negative: relationships
Suspicious and nervousness
Protecting content
Managing adverse comment
Damaging the club
Lack of understanding

19. Luxury hero Online limited
brand puts scope
print first Scarcely resourced
teams
where
accountable v Conservative
leadership
advertising News page CMS
clubs and Free online
content
kudos cannabalising
win print

20. Prospects
• Data capture
• Extending brand
interactivity
• Alternative business
intiatives

21. @cecook
www.clarecookonline.co.uk
cecook@uclan.ac.uk
Find me on Linked in, Flickr, Paper.li, Delicious, Foursquare, or in a nice
Thai restaurant!
CLARE COOK

22. http://www.phil-rose.co.uk/blog/?p=609
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Image credits to Lancashire Magazine, Lancashire Life, Carlisle Living, Northern Life, RW Media