page views
need to get the page views, that is the way we sell advertising blocks, and advertising blocks deliver revenue. “We don’t talk about engagement and quality. We do, but it is not in the trading report.” However, according to Shipton, the strategy to generate online advertising through increased page views has failed. “If you look at Reach’s annual accounts, they still make three-quarters of their revenue from print, even though there have been massive declines in circulation. So they are absolutely desperate to come up with a business model where they will be making up for lost revenue in print and increasing revenue from digital, and they’ve been trying that for years, but it just isn’t working.” In January, journalists at The Daily Mirror were given
individual page view targets from 250,000 to one million a month, which US digital marketing guru Glenn Gabe described as “a news publisher version of The Hunger Games”. Mirror editor-in-chief Caroline Waterston defended the targets by insisting “Mirror journalists are the best in the business”. However, although the British Association of Journalists rather than the NUJ is recognised at the Mirror, Mirror bosses agreed to modify their position following representations made by the NUJ.
Factory farm Newsquest and Reach have been accused of treating journalists as ‘battery hens’ by rival National World, which publishes The Scotsman and The Yorkshire Post. National World says it relies on publication-wide rather than individual page view targets. Shipton argues that page-view targets are damaging
journalism and local democracy by forcing journalists to focus on trivial stories rather than holding those in power to account. Morley observes: “What is clear is that a regime of hard
individual page view targets has been something members have been prepared to robustly challenge collectively.”
Alternatives out there With the dramatic decline in print sales, newspaper owners have struggled financially. However, high-pressure page view targets are a panicked response to this, much like redundancies.
They encourage reporters to chase trivia, something readers themselves recognise and dislike. At the same time, there is limited evidence that page view targets are boosting revenue in the way companies like Newsquest and Reach desperately want. Alternatives are out there, such as focusing on publication- wide page views, social shares and time spent reading online articles to demonstrate the value of digital advertising. There is also evidence that readers are willing to pay for quality journalism. For example, the News Statesman reached its highest circulation in 40 years in 2021 following a 75 per cent increase in digital subscribers over 12 months with combined print and digital subscribers rising by 31per cent, The Spectator averaged 77,564 sales in 2021 with only one in four subscribers being digital only and The New European (now The New World) has attracted 20,000 print sales a week and 28,000 subscribers. Surely this is the path to follow; otherwise, journalists will lose even more respect from readers and the wider public.
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We don’t talk about engagement and quality. We do, but it is not in the trading report
theJournalist | 15
HOWARD MCWILLIAM
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