Background
In early 2008, we received one of our most challenging briefs. The Newspaper Works, the industry body for Australia's major newspaper publishers, required a PR program that would address key objectives including:
• address any misconceptions in the media about newspapers in Australia
• generate accurate stories about newspapers in Australia
• ensure The Newspaper Works achieved the right exposure in the right media at the right time
• gain the right publicity for The Newspaper Works' core activities
• communicate key messages to the right audiences
The Newspaper Works was formed in 2006 by the major newspaper groups in Australia - Fairfax Media/Rural Press, News Ltd, APN News & Media and West Australian Newspapers - at a time when most senior media commentators were forecasting the demise of printed newspapers.
With well-documented crises facing the UK and US newspaper industries, Australian newspapers were perceived as following that terminal decline when, in fact, their performance is robust.
We were charged with correcting negative views among the Australian media and to reverse the pessimistic - and all-too-often inaccurate - media reporting of the newspaper industry.
At the same time, we have been using PR to position The Newspaper Works as a valuable and meaningful resource for media agencies, advertisers and publisher sales forces. We have done this by educating key media about The Newspaper Works' program of activities, and the ways in which the organisation supports the ad industry by helping it understand how to connect with consumers through advertising in the medium.
Results
When we were engaged, an analysis of media coverage showed a negative picture that was founded on inaccuracy and misperceptions, rather than the facts. Even newspaper journalists themselves wrote negative stories about their own medium, resulting in a mood of gloom around the industry.
In the first half of 2008, the majority of media coverage of the Australian newspaper industry was negative.
One of our first projects in July 2008 was to launch Part One of a landmark, three-part research study called "Newspapers Today" commissioned by The Newspaper Works.
The study focused on the print medium and how readers and advertisers interacted with it. It came as a big surprise to the majority of our key target media writers to learn that the status, popularity and respect for newspapers among readers was extremely high, especially compared with other main media.
As a result of being presented with this ground-breaking and robust research, the media's coverage of "Newspapers Today" was overwhelmingly positive.
We also achieved the hitherto unthinkable: an interview with then Fairfax CEO David Kirk appearing in News Ltd's The Australian, and an interview with News Ltd CEO John Hartigan appearing in Fairfax's Sydney Morning Herald - on the same day.
The "Newspapers Today" project effectively set in motion, through our PR messaging, a new direction in the tone of reporting about newspapers in Australia.
We have continued to consistently dispel the ‘myths' surrounding newspaper circulation and advertising revenue and the tide has begun to turn.
We conduct media coverage analysis every month for The Newspaper Works.
For the past nine consecutive months, positive reporting has exceeded 50%, demonstrating our efforts have been effective in clearly redressing the balance, even in the face of ongoing negative publicity eminating from both the US and UK.
Media commentators are now more actively seeking out the views of The Newspaper Works chief executive Tony Hale, and have a much improved grasp of the health of Australian newspapers.