The aggressive UK newspaper market has embraced online news, making developments quick to stay ahead of the game. Editors Weblog has spoken to top executives at two quality and two tabloid newspapers to try and garner the key themes and learnings from potentially the most competitive newspaper market in the world. Over the course of four pieces of analysis, we compare the approach of all four newspapers towards logistics, content, staff and financials.

Part 1: Logistics Matter
Part 2: Let readers lead your content
Part 3: The web provides opportunities to show content on more than one platform. Use it wisely.
Part 4: Don’t forget your staff, or the bank balance

Use video and multimedia to attract different audiences and create attention

One of the most noticeable changes to the four sites recently is the inclusion of video to the front page. In fact The Mirror has plans to put video on every page.

As bandwiths are becoming greater, there is more opportunity to make sites richer in content. Video enables newspapers to give visuals they weren’t able to do before and introduce audio. The majority of clips are short and sharp (under 5mins), rather than fully-fledged TV programmes – reflecting online users habits of wanting concise information online.  

Most newspapers are now training journalists to provide nimble reporting in a variety of methods. Video is the most popular course. What journalist wouldn’t want his or her stories presented prominently on the front page?

A few recent examples show how effective video can be as a way of attracting people to a site such as The Sun’s video of British forces hit by ‘US friendly fire’ in Iraq, killing a soldier.  Pretty much every UK newspaper carried the story and almost every other newspaper site linked to the content. Traffic to thesun.co.uk soared on the day it was released. This is also a great example of collaboration between print and online - stills on the front page directing readers to the website for the entire video clip.

Another good example is when the Times got a video of the hijackers and Osama Bin Laden pre 9/11 and it doubled traffic.

Video functions can be relatively simple to set up (see here) and don’t need a huge amount of expertise or content to begin with. There is one company name that crops up time and time again in this arena, Roo. It offers a video solution that can provide syndicated content if needed plus allows the custom wrapping of advertising around individual clips.

Other media have been met a somewhat mixed response. Podcasts have proved more popular among the quality dailies than the tabloids. Both the Times and Telegraph actively promote audio content in parallel to video.

BUT be careful with the content provided. The Mirror received bad press for their new video service as the coverage was mainly American for the first week. Apparently there were a few rights issues with Reuters that took a week to sort out.

Create and use unique content

It is possible to buy in and use content from other sources, as the Mirror has done, but both News International newspapers, The Times and The Sun, warn that unique content is key to future success. Anne Spackman, Editor Times Online, believes that there is no USP if wire services are used too extensively. The Iraq video mentioned above is a testament to this.

War coverage has been covered extensively with video and many foreign correspondents are armed with videos in addition to standard journalists tools. The Times has also created a number of video and podcast series originating from its London office:

- Times OnlineTV, an online video channel produced in house includes coverage of Iraq, film premieres and major world news amongst other stories.   

- Cool in your code is a video diary about places to go and hot property spots in specific postal codes in London

- MBA 30minute podcasts downloadable free of charge though iTunes

Whilst podcasts have been believed to be relatively ineffective, they have proved a hit amongst Times readers. Some of the services have been proved incredibly successful including ‘Learn Chinese which made it to the top of the iTunes chart.

Unique content alone isn’t always enough to attract new people to the sites. The Times has found that using big names to draw people initially helps no end (although how much new readers stay and explore the site in the initial session isn’t known). It bought in a popular comic duo to commentate on the World Cup last year – a true differentiator to the usual sports commentators.

As all of the four newspapers recognize and promote the need for original content to be different to competitors, how can the additional time and expense be justified?

One of the benefits of unique content, says Anne Spackman, Editor of Times Online, is that even after 2-3 days, old news is still alive, particularly with multimedia. Perhaps this desire, or indeed need, for unique content could reverse the trend of newspapers cutting back journalist numbers.