At the end of a few days in the UK prior to the World Publishing Expo in Berlin, I am continually amazed and encouraged by the diversity and strength of print media there.
My stay has included a spell in the boat-obsessed south coast town of Lymington and included a visit to the Isle of Wight – two markets with strong and idiosyncratic local newspapers – as well as time in London.
In the pub in Lymington, a cheer went up as the US America’s Cup defender crossed the line – against the odds and some accusations of cheating – thanks to the efforts of local tactician Ben Ainslie (knight bachelor) who appears to have rescued the team late in the campaign.
The result was perfect timing for the front page of the Lymington Times, an oversized broadsheet which caught my attention as much for its time-warped format as its content. Locally owned – with the New Milton Advertiser – it appears to have switched to dry offset in the 1990s and the black-only product and tight hotmetal-style make-up suggests there has been no move since then. Notwithstanding that, my hosts tell me it’s essential reading… even if the coverage of each and every local drama can be overpowering in its detail. Some poor woman who failed to get to the maternity hospital in time found the paper had shared her ‘happy event’ – right down to her dilation diary – with its readers.
Across the Solent, the Isle of Wight County Press – which recently installed new Miles 33 editorial kit – looks the thoroughly modern county paper by comparison, and seems to have fought off the challenge from mainland dailies such as the Portsmouth News, which took me there as a trainee in the 1960s.
Cover prices for both – 40 pence for the 40-page broadsheet Times – look good value in this age.
I’d just come from Bangalore, where most Indian publishers were able to relate value to ‘pages-per-rupee’, and about four rupees (about six cents Australian) was par for the course. When I had left, national daily the Australian had been having a go at Fairfax metros The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald for putting up their weekday cover prices by 30 cents to $2.30, making a comparison with the $1.20 of News’s tabloids in those cities, without dwelling on its own relatively lower value.
In London by comparison, you’re spoiled for choice and value. Both Metro and the (now also free) London Evening Standard were hefty reads, and it’s hard to go past the 20 pence (34 cent) value of i, the exceedingly handsome compact version of the Independent.
Beyond that, you seem to get what you pay for: The Berliner-sized Guardian is another thoughtful good looker, and was sporting 48 pages plus a stitched G2 feature section and eight pages of travel offers for £1.40 (about $2.40 at today’s slightly inflated exchange rates) today, while the Daily Mail – 80 pages plus an eight page Mail Shop supplement and a free CD – was less than half that at 60p. ‘Serious’ competition comes from the Daily Telegraph, while Express Newspapers publishes the eponymous daily and red-top Daily Star.
News’ contributions for the day were a turgid-looking Times, 80 pages including a page two-three and back wrapper presentation for £1, and a Sun which doesn’t seem to have moved on in decades – either in typography or taste – at 40p for 64 pages.
All of which left me wishing (justifiably) ‘newspaper of the year’ The Age had been a shade more adventurous with its tabloid redesign, and that the obsessive Murdoch press would give other print publishers a break so that some real creativity might emerge.
Peter Coleman.