Newspaper & Mailroom
“I”: A Newspaper for the Digital Age
Thursday 24. September 2009 - Martim Avillez Figueiredo, who launched a new newspaper as if print had been invented after the internet, has joined the programme of the World Newspaper Congress, the global summit of the worlds press to be held in Hyderabad, India, from 30 November to 3 December next.
It might seem crazy to create a new paid-for newspaper in the middle of a worldwide economic recession, but Mr Figueiredos “I” is taking Portugal by storm, with circulation increasing 16 percent in the past two months.
The upstart title, launched four months ago, is challenging a mature market with innovation: non-traditional organisation and content; hiring staff through an “I want to be a journalist.com” website; little sharing of content with its sister website; and distribution by bicycle and payment by pre-paid card.
Mr Figueiredo, who is Publisher and Chief Editor, joins a programme already heavy on innovation: other speakers include Robert Thomson, Editor-in-Chief of Dow Jones, whose Wall Street Journal is a leader in paid-for web and mobile content; Andreas Wiele, President of Europes biggest newspaper, Bild, whose popular formula has been successfully exported from Germany to other countries; Marieke van der Donk, who will present a major new study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers on a sustainable future for newspapers; and many others.
More than 1,500 newspaper publishers, CEOs, Managing Directors, Chief Editors and other senior newspaper are expected to attend the 62nd World Newspaper Congress, 16th World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2009, the global meetings of the worlds press. Full details are available at www.wanindia2009.com.
It will be the first Congress, Forum and Expo held since the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA into the new World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the global organisation representing the worlds press industry.
Newspapers are changing in the digital age, and the Portuguese “I” is one of the first true post-Internet papers. Although it has four sections, “they arent sections like politics, sports, economy – they follow the reading pattern of people,” says Mr Figueiredo. First comes opinion and commentary. The second section, called Radar, includes small summaries of the days news. The core section, called “Zoom”, provides in-depth articles on important subjects. And the final section, called “More”, is a mélange of everything, including sports.
The website does not reproduce the paper but provides aggregate news from many sources, includes a You Tube-like area, and has a social network feel. “The paper and online content are completely different because we are targeting different audiences,” says Mr Figueiredo.
The company hired staff through an “I want to be a journalist.com” website, starting with 1,350 candidates and choosing and training 18 to join a seasoned staff of 55 journalists. It sends teams of distributors around restaurant districts at lunchtime hawking the newspaper, and is building distribution machines that will use prepaid cards.
“The idea is not to build a new daily paper but to try to build a new media brand,” says Mr Figueiredo.