David Montgomery: We will start charging for local content on the web

This interview with Mecom chief executive David Montgomery originally appeared on the forum4editors website. An edited version is reproduced here with permission. The interview was conducted on 30 September at the INMA/OPA conference in Krakow, Poland.

Mecom owns Polish media group Media Regionalne, which publishes a series of regional newspapers in the country, and a share of newspaper publisher Presspublica. The group also has divisions in Norway, consisting of Edda Media, Denmark and the Netherlands.

You have announced you will leave your position on January 2011, after a majority of Mecom shareholders forced you to resign. Does it mean your departure from the media industry?
[DM] I'm working just as normal. The Mecom plc board has endorsed our strategy, and I am working to pursue that strategy.

How do you see the development of Polish publishers in terms of print and online products, in comparison with Europe?
I'm really impressed that Media Regionalne [where Karda and Krawczk are directors of online content development] has successfully rolled out online products across the country. You have achieved a significant position ​in online and you've done it with local content. I believe that the combination of print and online will be our future. That really is the essence of the future of the local content business.

Regarding print newspapers development - in Poland it is not similar to other parts of Europe. Newspapers in Poland tend to be smaller in terms of circulation, but we should not give up on the print side. I believe that we as Mecom group have to consider making further promotion to support the newspapers themselves. The circulation depression elsewhere in our group is relatively moderate. Among our newspapers we have an increasing tradition of continuous product development. Investment in newspapers can't be merely to promote activities for the readers. Investment also has to be in the editorial side of the product. I suppose, we need to examine the resource process of restructuring editorial: introducing new content, new sections for readers and advertisers, and promoting those reconfigured newspapers aggressively.

Aren't you afraid that when we start constant relaunch of our newspapers, we could lose our traditional readers in our print products?
My evaluation is that when you make the newspaper better and you give better value, you will keep your readers and you'll find new readers. I am not talking about changing layout and the visuals of the newspaper, but constant editorial development. I think we should be much swifter in developing products and we should take away things that don’t work properly. We should also be courageous in trying new things in print. Maybe we should not call it a relaunch; we should call it enrichment of content. I believe that the more successful you are in online content, the more you can stimulate the sale of print if you've got the right newspaper.

How might media houses manage product development while having to reduce staff?
I know that employees are worried about the print circulation all over Poland. It's in huge decline: an ​​​​almost 10 per cent fall in print circulation this year. People are challenged with how to balance this on one hand and the need to develop our new products. We have to manage this double challenge.

You have to make constant refreshment of the portfolio and therefore we have to have a very flexible staff to be able to move from one product to another. It's about structure and it's about increased responsibility for individuals. The traditional newspaper business has relied far too heavily on collecting content through too many pair of hands. We simply can't do that anymore.

You see publishers as collectors of free content [e.g. user-generated content[ and at the same time you want them to charge for content. How can you remedy these two objectives?
The sources of content that I mentioned, are very often from people who want to publish something. They want professional content managers to organise their content, so they offer it for free. What we want to sell is an expertise. Our expertise is to highlight content, to package it and to organise it in a way that is valuable to the readers. I don't have the recipe yet for how we will do that, but I do have some thoughts: first of all, it's necessary to educate the public that the local content that they get is valuable whether it's delivered in print or online as package.

When people see that they are getting a package of content coming from those different sources, they will more likely recognise that it is the content that they are paying for. The uniqueness of content is what people are paying for.

We are very pleased that there is still a local newspaper business, because no one generally does what we do and no one is likely to come along and replace local newspapers. In terms of setting up new newsrooms, it is most unlikely. We need to exploit that monopoly and educate readers that the content which is seen on the screen has to be paid for in some form - not all of it, but the richer elements of it.

We have an innovation group in Mecom which is going to do this. One of the targets is that Mecom will develop fully paid-for products. Some of them will not work, but only by experiments we will get progress in this particular area. It's quite simple really, our industry has always depended on two sources of revenue: from content and advertising. Those two revenue streams are necessary for the future as well.

I think the potential is in local content and making sure, that we secure our position as the main provider of local content in all communities that we serve. Getting loyalty from our brand audience is the number one priority. This all depends on our rich experience with the audience in print and in online. When you are successful in doing that, advertising and paying for content will follow.

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).