Dolly’s print edition ‘independent of digital strategy’, may return to monthly
Emily Kerr, digital managing editor at Dolly, has said the idea of a higher frequency print edition for Dolly is being “floated”, but that it will not change or affect the magazine’s digital-first strategy.
Dolly relaunched in April as a mobile-first, digital offering complemented with a bi-monthly “re-imagined” magazine following declining circulation figures.
Speculation around changes to Dolly’s frequency began in August, following the most recent audit figures, when Bauer Media CEO Nick Chan said that he had hopes for higher frequency for Dolly’s print magazine in future, not ruling out the return of Dolly to a monthly magazine.
Speaking at Mumbrella’s Publish conference on Dolly’s relaunch to a bi-monthly magazine Kerr said: “I’m solely digital so I don’t know the ins and outs but I do know that it has been floated. Like I said, we are adapting all the time. But that is the extent of my knowledge.”
Kerr also said that she didn’t believe that a higher frequency, should it occur, would affect the digital-first focus.
“I think it would be a bit backwards to go the other way. They’re online, they’re on social, that should be the main focus.”
Also in the session, Paul Hamra managing director, Solstice Media, said that the move to digital for The Independent Weekly was straight-forward, as the newspaper was “a six-year marketing campaign for online.”
Hamra: The Independent Weekly was “a six-year marketing campaign for online”
Solstice Media, which runs Adelaide-based news site In Daily, said that creating the audience was not difficult, given the newspaper’s strong and devoted audience of more than 50,000 Australians.
Hamra also said that should Fairfax decide to make the transition, it would be a similar situation.
“If Fairfax ever does drop its weekday newspapers, it’s a similar sort of thing. It’s got this incredible 180 years of marketing to have an audience that can transition to online or view online. But if you don’t, you really need to think about how you build an audience for a news product from a digital native standpoint.”
topics
Bauer Media
Dolly
Emily Kerr
In-daily
New Daily
Paul Jamra
Solstice Media
The Independent Weekly
