Thisisexeter has referred readers back to their newspaper – the ‘new look’ Express and Echo – for news of the Exeter Northcott theatre going into administration – a story which broke on the web yesterday.
You’d expect Exeter’s only daily to be all over the story – which it apparently is, with reports of ’1,700 words about the Northcott Theatre closing’ (the Exeter Northcott isn’t closing, not yet anyway – despite the handy, worn-in phrases like ‘it’s curtains for the Exeter Northcott’ flying around).
The story seemed to break with a combination of the sister paper to the Express and Echo, the Herald Express’s Jon Paul Hedge and the Guardian’s Lyn Gardner. The Herald Express even managed to put a short story on its site – nearly as long as the Express and Echo’s offering a day later.
Then the bigger pieces started to pop through – The Stage, the BBC, the People’s Republic of South Devon… so you can ‘read all about it’ a day before the newspaper – which doesn’t go far to support their hackneyed claim that their Save the Northcott campaign from two years ago was what won the day when the theatre was faced with Arts Council cuts.
But a major regional theatre going into administration is where it can underline its brand (as those marketing types would say), and call on a legacy of stories, images and association to bring each varied angle to a news story – and use every channel at its disposal to do it.
The Express and Echo has done this before, the website directed people to buy the paper for its story for the story of a spat between MEPs over Miss Gibraltar that had just one added paragraph.
It’s a major problem with the notion of a paywall – unless there’s something unique behind it, why pay? We’re sure there’s plenty of unique stuff in the Express and Echo (cough), so why direct people to the paper for an already aging story?
It’s not like Northcliffe (which runs both papers – part of the Daily Mail Group) isn’t making a success of its web presence.
Hold the Front page said yesterday (Thursday, February 25): “Northcliffe Media’s network of ‘thisis’ websites saw monthly unique user numbers rise overall by 34.9pc with none of the 12 individually audited sites posting a decrease in users.”
There is a problem with dealing with news and the internet in Devon. Some aspects of the traditional news machine seem to have a difficulty handling its potential.
The Tindle newspapers (Mid-Devon Advertiser, Dawlish Gazette, Totnes Times et al) put stories behind their paywall on the internet, which they deliver for free in a different form, usually through people’s door (propping up an undisclosed circulation, anyone?) – kooky or what?
It’s not all doom and gloom – the Plymouth Herald leads the way in web coverage, it holds online web chats, its reach 10,000 Twitter followers, and set up its own social network. It doesn’t just bandy formerly trending phrases like hyperlocal, Twitter stream or Flickr around – it goes out there and does it. Trouble is, this could soon be disbanded as a new electronic broom sweeps through the Northcliffe operation.
(All local papers had falls in circulation according to the latest ABC audited circulation figures.)
• Has internet news coverage reached its nadir? Will monied self interest grab it back for itself? Comments below please!
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Come and enjoy Devon – book a hotel and get away!
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