Local news publisher Tindle is “right at the start” of its digital subscriptions journey after investing in tech over the past year.
Tindle Newspapers has long been profitable and its revenue is primarily still coming from print circulation and advertising, although its digital ad revenue has “grown considerably” in the last couple of years.
Managing director Scott Wood told Press Gazette: “Every year brings another challenge, cost control. But we’ve still got lots of ambition. Part of that is why we’re investing in this subscriptions strategy, because we want to still be here. We want to provide a business that is sustainable and serves the community.”
Tindle’s newspapers operate largely in market towns and villages in the South West and South East of England and Wales, as well as the Isle of Man. Following the death of founder Sir Ray Tindle in 2022, the business is owned by his son Owen and also includes four local radio stations and a property portfolio.
Wood, who leads the publishing side of Tindle, said they are currently assessing what type of online subscription bundle could work for their community-focused titles.
He listed various possible elements including newsletters, extra videos and other exclusive content, apps and ad-light websites.
So far some Tindle websites have added registration walls asking people to sign up but the paid-for experiments have not yet begun. Tindle is currently in discussions with tech providers about what it will do next.
Wood said: “We’re right at the start of this, but we want to build a subscription model. That’s where we want to go, and whether that be paywalls, metered paywalls, paid-for newsletters – we’re exploring all those options.
“I don’t have the view that it’s going to be one silver bullet that is our opportunity, and it might vary by market, but we want to create a bundle.
“So a bundle for a local consumer that says, okay, I subscribe to the Tavistock Times, and for that, I’m going to be getting a daily newsletter, some additional content, access to video content that I might not have previously seen, access to specialists writing about topics that really may be of interest, MPs, all those sorts of things. So that’s what we hope to build.
“But we know it’s a long journey. It won’t happen overnight, but we know that the way the world has shifted, we need to get into that space and provide what our audience really wants.”
‘We have completely changed direction’ towards digital audience
Press Gazette spoke to Wood in November 2021 when Tindle hired its first group-wide digital editors and he described the publisher by saying: “For us, print is still at the heart of what we do. This is not a digital-first business.”
Three-and-a-half years on, Tindle is definitely becoming a digital-first business, Wood said. “It can’t forget about the print because we still have a really strong vibrant print audience, and our circulation revenue still remains an important part of our turnover. But people do want to consume their news in a different way now and in real time.
“So we have changed direction and now it is about building a digital audience with the ambition that we can grow a subscription model in the future based on our heritage brands. We still want to be relevant to the people of Tavistock or Brecon or Abergavenny, but we know that they want to consume their news in a different way than what they might have consumed three, five, seven years ago.”
Last summer Tindle hired a group IT director and in January the publisher began rolling out redesigned websites. It has also moved from managing them internally to working with an external provider.
Wood said the user experience on the websites has become really important to make sure consumers want to “come back consistently”.
But he added: “Fundamentally, they’re [the websites are] still what they’ve always been. They’re completely focused on local content.”
Tindle has also begun asking local content creators – people that “we would class as influencers” in their communities – to provide content in exchange for reaching more people.
Wood gave the example of a marine biologist in Cornwall who writes and produces video content around the coast.
He also cited expanding the platforms of MPs and councillors who might traditionally have written a monthly column but can now provide weekly videos and take part in podcasts.
He said: “We know news alone will not be sufficient to drive the model that we want, but we do want to keep it local. That’s our ambition. So food and drink, leisure travel, environment, all those things, if they have a local interest, we believe that we can provide the platform for those types of people.”
In print, Tindle had more than 50 newspapers pre-Covid but now has a portfolio of about 23 titles. The closures were largely in the free space, with its brands now primarily paid for.
Despite many local titles closing offices during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tindle has decided to double down on having a strong high street presence for all of its core brands.
Wood said the office in Brecon has recently reopened after refurbishment while refreshes/relocations are also taking place in Abergavenny and Tavistock.
He said Tindle’s offices still get “a large amount of footfall” and that some people prefer to speak face to face. He visited Monmouth in Wales this month and the local mayor and other members of the public came in to speak to journalists while someone else wanted to place a BMD (birth, marriage or death notice).
“It’s about local community engagement, and the best way for us to do that local community engagement is to be very visible. Which is not always easy, because it’s an expensive cost to run the buildings, so I’m not critical of those who can’t or don’t choose to do that, but for what we’re trying to do, the best way for us to get close to our local community, is by being on the high street.”
Wood added that although the market is “challenging”: “I truly, strongly believe that people do care about local, it’s really important to them.
“And they may want to consume their local content in a different way, moving away from print for online, but actually people are still very much interested in what goes on locally – what’s happening to their local hospital, their local post office, the local high street, the number of shops that aren’t there, and actually we as a local publisher can make a difference still… which I think is reflected in, very often when people have a local community challenge, they will come to their local publisher and ask them to be their voice,” Wood continued, adding praise for Tindle’s local news peers as well.
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