http://www.pr-consultant.co.uk/men-lite-fails-so-manchester-evening/ Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:28:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.pr-consultant.co.uk/men-lite-fails-so-manchester-evening/comment-page-1/#comment-40 Steve Wed, 26 Apr 2006 05:30:00 +0000 http://www.pr-consultant.co.uk/2006/04/men-lite-fails-so-manchester-evening.html#comment-40 About ten years ago, when Time Out launched in NYC, the venerable and brilliant Village Voice freaked out (to use the correct business term) and went <I>free</I>. The paper's never been the same since and, of course, Time Out is still there and so are half a dozen new freesheets plus, of course, Craig's List.<BR/>The local newspaper business is thrashing (another technical term) - innovating in an arbitrary (not to say desperate) way - and attempting to deal with the kind of competitive challenge they never expected to touch them.<BR/>Local newspapers were pretty sure their privileged position, deeply embedded in local communities and economies, was essentially unassailable. The logic was that no one had the resource to rebuild local media provision from the ground up so - even through the dot.com boom and crash - local newspapers were the golden media sector. Even two years ago the local press in Britain was sailing along on cushy 30%+ margins. Not any more, though. Oh dear. About ten years ago, when Time Out launched in NYC, the venerable and brilliant Village Voice freaked out (to use the correct business term) and went free. The paper’s never been the same since and, of course, Time Out is still there and so are half a dozen new freesheets plus, of course, Craig’s List.
The local newspaper business is thrashing (another technical term) – innovating in an arbitrary (not to say desperate) way – and attempting to deal with the kind of competitive challenge they never expected to touch them.
Local newspapers were pretty sure their privileged position, deeply embedded in local communities and economies, was essentially unassailable. The logic was that no one had the resource to rebuild local media provision from the ground up so – even through the dot.com boom and crash – local newspapers were the golden media sector. Even two years ago the local press in Britain was sailing along on cushy 30%+ margins. Not any more, though. Oh dear.

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