Audio from #wmf: The generalist news business is dead; the Mirror's future is niche, says digital director

Mirror Group will launch more niche websites following the success of its spin-off football and gossip websites, Matt Kelly, the group's digital content director, said yesterday.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk following an event at the Westminster Media Forum, Kelly said the publisher has tried to make its generalist news website, Mirror.co.uk, "more engaging and characterful" to distinguish it from the rest of the newspaper market. But he said he does not think that more generalist news websites will be how the group develops online.

"There will always be a place for a newspaper-based website that reflects the values and content of the newspaper that's been really popular in the past. Whether or not I think generalised news websites are the way we'll be progressing forward as a company, I don't think they are. I think we see more power and commercial potential in the deeply engaging niches. That all springs from the fact that the consumer finds them more engaging," he said.

"We had two products with football and 3am that probably deserved a wider audience than the newspaper gave it. What's good about digital is that it frees you up to be entirely true to that vertical. You're not constrained by the fact that it's part of a bundle. If you look at 3am online, the reason it's much snarkier, bitchier and funnier to a particular audience than it can possible be in print is that in print you have to be very mindful to the rest of the audience. Online, all bets are off."

In a speech echoing his argument at the World Association of Newspapers' annual congress in 2009 that newspaper websites should end an obsession with SEO and chasing traffic, Kelly said newspapers had abandoned their core values and distinctiveness in a form of "editorial prostitution and long-term commercial suicide".

"The reason newspapers have traditionally been so successful in commercialising or, to use the internet lingo, monetising our audiences is that they were so deeply engaged with our content and the values we represent (...) But it's a fact that being a newspaper business isn't enough any more. We have to find a way of translating the deep engagement our newspaper readers feel towards our printed products into our online products because that what our commercial partners and advertisers want from us - an engagement with the customer," he said. The full audio of his speech is available below.



Kelly added that the Mirror Group is developing 28 different revenue streams to support is journalism online, "not all will lead to big business, but we are working them very hard". Niche websites, such as Mirror Football and 3am, will allow the group to "recoup investment from a well-defined deeply engaged audience".

"It's something of a crime when a newspaper with rich, long-established values decides to chuck those values overboard in favour of a massive disengaged audience. I think it's editorial prostitution and long-term commercial suicide, because in the longer term our businesses, without those powerful values online or in print, are worthless.

"Can we charge successfully for general news? Not a chance. Not with the BBC pumping it out by the barrel-load free of charge. General news isn't enough. The general news business is dead and if all you've got to peddle is general news, then rest in peace. But can we find ways to recoup investment from a well-defined deeply engaged audience? Of course we can, but we have to be more creative and we have to be prepared to diversify," he said.

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