View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
June 22, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 7:54pm

Stop offering free content, Sorrell warns press execs

By Press Gazette

The head of one of the world's biggest advertising companies has warned regional newspaper executives not to give their content away for free.

WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell told the Newspaper Society Home Truths conference this week that he has "always had a problem with free content".

"I think media owners do not charge enough for content," he said. "I remember going up to see the Glasgow Herald in the early '90s. It was one of the first newspapers to charge for online content.

"I asked the editor why he did that and he explained: ‘If there are Glaswegians in Buenos Aires, they are willing to pay for the Glasgow Herald online rather than wait for the banana boat to deliver it.'

"I think if the consumer values the content, you should charge him or her for it," Sorrell added.

The advertising company chief also warned newspaper bosses that they would not be able to change quickly enough to adapt to the internet.

"The people running traditional companies do not move rapidly enough," he said. "It is impossible to change a company rapidly enough in this era of technological change."

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Sorrell predicted that something significantly better than Google will come along before many people realised.

"Given that there are 1.5 billion people in China, there has got to be five or six people as clever as [Google founders] Sergey Brin and Larry Page," he said.

"There are ex-Stanford graduates who will come up with a form of technology that will make what we see today obsolete."

Johnston Press chief executive Tim Bowdler countered Sorrell's argument that the traditional media were unprepared for the future. He said he believed that local newspaper publishers were completely capable of keeping abreast of the changes.

Bowdler also pointed to the effectiveness of local newspapers and their multiple platforms such as freesheets, websites and digital editions, which "provide a communications mix which is unrivalled in the level of local market access which is achieved".

Predicting a rosy future for the regional press, he added: "Local newspapers will continue to have a central place in the local media and communications mix for years to come, but only as one element in a broader range of channels which will include a variety of print and digital publications, all available from the local newspaper publisher."

Bowdler said he believed the difficult trading conditions plaguing the regional press were merely cyclical rather than structural.

"At Johnston Press we monitor our local market shares in print as well as online and we have seen no evidence of any significant migration," he said. "The fact that the decline in recruitment volumes started in the Southeast and took some months to reach the many parts of the North of England and Scotland does not suggest structural change."

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network