Are newsstands the future of MENA print?

Newsstands could help bring traditional print media to an entirely new audience if they get it right

In 1954, Linus Pauling won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1962, he won again: but this time the Nobel Peace Prize. This second prize wasn’t for chemistry, it was for opposing the spread of nuclear weapons. But Pauling would always be known as the man who won two Nobel Prizes.

In 1970, Pauling wrote a book called Vitamin C And The Common Cold. It advocated mega-doses of vitamin C as a way of preventing colds. It became a worldwide bestseller. If the man who won two Nobel Prizes said it, it must be true. It launched the craze for vitamin C. Vitamin C in drinks, cereals, desserts, snacks, even in cosmetics; vitamin C became a marketing dream. Mention your product contained vitamin C and it was sure to sell. It must be true: double Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling said it was. The only problem was, it wasn’t.

Other scientists thought Pauling’s results needed checking. So they checked and found them to be less than rigorous. In fact, scientists worldwide did their own tests on vitamin C. In 1972, 800 volunteers were tested. Mega-doses of vitamin C were found to make no

The public’s insatiable thirst for breaking news and in-depth articles knows no ends. It’s just a shame they would rather not pay for it. Step in Google, the latest digital platform offering to help beleaguered media organisations generate some digital revenue with the launch of its Google Play newsstand in the Middle East and North Africa.

Formally announced at last week’s FIPP conference in Dubai, the app has so far signed up several major print titles including The New York Times but will face stiff competition from Facebook’s recently launched Notify app. Yet only six months ago, Apple ended its four-year bid to dominate digital editions of magazines and newspapers through its pioneering Newsstand and instead tried aggregating content itself with its Apple News app. So why are big names like Facebook and Google trying to re-work Apple’s abandoned leftovers? And will this effect any positive change on the MENA region’s pressured print industry?

According to Amina Mattern, senior digital manager at MediaCom, any potential benefits will only be reaped if publishers take time and effort to tailor their titles to a different platform. “Digital newsstands make perfect sense for readers,” she says. “You can curate the content experience you want and consume it all in one place, eliminating the need for visiting multiple apps and websites. And with one of the highest digital penetration rates in the world, it’s a matter of when, not if, these new platforms take off in

Amina Mattern,

the region. For publishers, it’s beneficial too because it lets them reach a new audience. But the content needs to be reformatted to fit the platform: publishers can’t just take any old print content and expect it to work as well online.”

Roxanne Gahol, senior executive, planning at OMD, also believes publishers will need to put in some additional work, saying: “Everything is moving into the direction of convergence and consumers have become accustomed to consuming an abundance of content from a singular location. To appeal to the engaged reader and leverage the purpose of newsstands, publishers need to consistently build on their offering by creating dynamic and interactive content that static print cannot provide.”

However, self-professed notification fan TJ Lightwala, regional director and head of performance and programmatic at Mindshare MENA, says what will work for some titles may fall flat for others. She says: “I have been using Flipboard and StumbleUpon which is great for filtering out topics of interest and being presented with real-time updates on your devices on the go.

“Personally I am a big fan of notifications, which are great with Yahoo! or Gulf News around the region, to provide snackable and breaking news. Whether it’s the future of print is to be decided, as I think each product category or industry carries a unique consumption pattern and style. That said, I only buy glossy magazines for in-flight hours. I do work in digital after all.”

senior digital manager at MediaCom