Virus Catching

I think that I may have got a dose of the Green Room Virus (GRV). So my apologies for the lack of blog post updates over the last week.

It is quite a debilitating infection that causes a type of chronic fatigue that affects your work, your output, your eating and your sleeping patterns. The first symptom of course is a lack of writing and blog posts.

It seems however that I am not the only one who has received a dose of the GRV. Fairfax and Rural Press have got a terrible dose of it which is causing not only fatigue but consternation, indecision and delusion.

Do you remember when Fairfax management proudly announced last year that they would be reducing the size of the Sydney Morning Herald to a more practical size, using the Financial Times broadsheet as a model?

It's now a year later and it appears that the whole idea has been scrapped, to never be mentioned again.

Instead, Fairfax and its owner Rural Press have stalled over the change... in fact they have stalled over any changes at all.

But the stakes are high and out of pure desperation Roy Morgan has been brought in to help lift the lid off the truth of the Herald's readership and all their thoughts on the Fairfax paper.

One of the problems that has come up is the fact that Herald readers (who also happen to be a little environmentally aware) are starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with the whole bulky size of the Saturday paper. If you happen to be like me, not looking for a job or a car or a house, you end up throwing away three-quarters of the paper... not a good feeling at all.

One section editor suggested that maybe a solution to the problem would be to put recycle bins in every newsagency where the Herald is sold. That way, the customers could offload all the bits they do and don't want. They’re really tackling the problem of decreasing newspaper sales down at Darling Park aren't they!

(I should point out that this problem isn't just within the doors at Fairfax, with The Daily Telegraph also losing ground in sales. But Fairfax is a more fun example.)

Roy Morgan also did some research on the sections of the newspaper and the readership demographic.

One of the problems that the Herald has is that there are too many sections that are similar that could be merged into one liftout. Think Metro/Spectrum/Good Weekend/Sydney Magazine all rolled into one with quality journalism and features and planted as a direct competition to the new Time Out magazine.

But of course no section head is going to suggest a merger with another section... unfortunately the Kamikaze mentality hasn't really taken off in Fairfax just yet.

Even more surprising for some of the editors is finding out exactly who reads their section. None were more surprised than those than run Friday’s music and entertainment lifout - Metro.

Apparently, readers of Metro typically go to the opera or ballet once a year (70% plus) and over 50% never go to the pub.

Ironic, considering that Metro never writes about the opera or ballet and always writes about pubs. The people they are trying to target are unfortunately reading the street press paper Drum Media and finding out all they want to find out five days before Metro comes out.

It has suddenly dawned on Metro that there most common reader is probably over 50 and lives in the Eastern Suburbs or the North Shore. Which is possibly why they put a ballet feature on the front cover last week. Watch this space for more high art and less pub culture..

And of course the Herald is ignoring that big fat elephant in the room. Broadsheet vs Tabloid.

Why they are stalling a decision is beyond me. For goodness sake, just do it. Change the size of the paper and go the way of the UK's Independent. You won't lose any readers but you might... just might gain some more.

It's certainly a better idea than putting recycling bins in newsagencies.