Can new team reinvigorate the Indie?

As the Independent endures a string of turbulent events, John Reynolds examines whether the appointment of new management will help the newspapers bring a fresh approach to advertising.

The promotion of the editor to managing director, the exit of a respected newspaper veteran as commercial director and his replacement with a creative agency boss with no newspaper sales experience, along with in-fighting between the company's shareholders with one faction calling for the papers' closure, suggests, on the face of it, that the Independent group is in some turmoil.

There's also a string of management departures, falling circulation and the failure of a revamp to The Independent on Sunday last summer to add to the list of recent turbulent events.
All this might demonstrate that a new approach to management was needed, but the appointments of editor-in-chief Simon Kelner as managing director and Daryl Fielding, a managing partner at advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, as commercial director, have attracted some quizzical reaction.
The Independent can point to Fielding's work on high-profile brands such as Dove and Kelner's involvement in The Independent's innovation in editorial strategy, such as the move to tabloid size (leading a trend) and the single editorial issue front covers, as evidence that the pair can bring much-needed creative thinking to the newspaper group's travails.
Recent departures
Nevertheless, the departure of commercial director Simon Barnes, ousted because he did not "fit in with the future plans of the team", and who lobbied for but failed to get the managing director's job, has been a shock.
His departure follows that of the paper's marketing and circulation director, David Greene, The Independent on Sunday editor Tristan Davies, and the retirement of managing director Terry Grote.
Meanwhile, the paper's long-term future remains unclear following billionaire businessman Denis O'Brien's grabbing of a major stake in the parent company, Independent News & Media (INM). O'Brien wants to sell or close the loss-making UK titles and is embroiled in a row with group chief executive Tony O'Reilly.
There is little doubt that the two papers face a challenging time as they compete for diminishing reader eyeballs. The latest ABC figures reveal The Independent recorded a total sale of 246,584 in March, down 2.4% year on year, while The Independent on Sunday's sales were 221,698, down 2.9% year on year.
These declines are roughly in line with their competitors, but they are inflated with bulk and overseas sales.
The Independent, for instance, only sold around 150,000 copies in Britain at full price. Furthermore, it has been slow to develop an online experience to rival other newspaper websites.
INM's UK chief executive Ivan Fallon says the new management team will reinvigorate the papers and bring in a fresh approach to advertising and promotions. He adds: "We have an entire new team at the top and we will relaunch the papers later this year. The Independent has to be reinvented every few years. This new team will offer new ways of selling to advertisers and new revenue streams."
Paul Thomas, head of press at MindShare, says he can understand the rationale behind the appointments, but believes there are questions about their suitability to running commercial operations.
He adds: "The new commercial director will bring in new creative ideas. But running a newspaper is different to running anything else. I think Kelner and Fielding may have a similar skillset and it could do with more commercial presence."
Crucial alternative
Faced with a shareholder revolt, there is some uncertainty as to how long O'Reilly is prepared to support the loss-making papers, but media buyers believe both titles still offer readers a crucial editorial alternative and advertisers a commercial option.
They point to the Independent's issue-led editorial approach, its pioneering design initiatives, and The Independent on Sunday single- section, compact size format, and a readership profile with a young ABC1 demographic, which are appealing to advertisers.
Rob Lynam, account manager at Mediaedge:cia, says: "The papers offer something different. Commercially, they have a strong creative proposition. If you have a brief from a particular advertiser, then it will go beyond what traditional advertorials offer. There are fewer no-go areas."
Fallon claims the Independent simply needs to revert to its core values of "independence, integrity and fairness" and denies it has lost its value to readers: "It is not that the paper has lost its way; it's simply that its readers have moved on."
One thing is certain, Fallon is not scared of making bold moves to keep the papers fresh and alive, which is vital when they are dwarfed by rivals with bigger resources and readerships. But he may need to be bolder yet if the Independent titles are to survive the first decade of the millennium.
INDEPENDENT FACTS
- The Independent launched in 1986 as a broadsheet and is the youngest UK national daily paper
- The Independent on Sunday was launched four years later
- Simon Kelner changed the paper's format from broadsheet to tabloid in September 2003, which prompted rivals The Times and The Guardian to opt for smaller formats
- The paper unveiled a radical redesign in 2005, when the weekday second section was subsumed within the body of the main paper
- The Independent's editorial approach is to concentrate on issues that it believes its readers care most about, irrespective of the dominant news story of the day
- The Independent was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards
- Editors of the two papers include Rosie Boycott, Andrew Marr and Andreas Whittam-Smith
- The newspapers are owned by Independent News & Media, which also has newspaper operations in Australia, South Africa, Ireland and India.

Colin Reynolds
MediaWeek
15th April