Suddenly Fairfax loves the word Weekly
Call Dr Mumbo a cynic, but he can’t help wonder about the timing of an announcement from Fairfax Community Network that it’s rebranding its Victorian titles under the common brand of Weekly.
The move coincides with the launch of a serious rival to Fairfax’s real estate advertising in the shape of Antony Catalano’s Weekly Review.
So that shouldn’t be confusing for the market.
Fairfax’s announcement:
Fairfax Community Network (FCN) today announced an exciting new phase in the company’s growth with a new name, look and brand positioning for its 33 community titles across Victoria.
From September, all of the 33 mastheads published by FCN in Victoria will incorporate the common brand “Weekly”, with the result being a single brand reflecting a true network of community titles.
A new content focus and new, clear brand positioning statement, “Your Community Voice”, are key components of the rebranding initiative, which is the result of extensive research by FCN among its target audiences.
FCN Victoria General Manager, Colin Moss, said: “This is a very positive step forward for our network of 33 great community publications, for their readers and for our valued advertising clients.
“Our goal is to achieve strong future growth for FCN’s titles by having a deeper connection and engagement with their communities, and our focus will continue to be on quality local content,” Moss said.
“Key benefits to readers and advertisers will be the fresh, new designs we’ll soon be introducing, which will be easy to read and provide advertisers with innovative opportunities to effectively reach local markets,” he added.
The new designs and “Weekly” mastheads for FCN’s titles will appear from September, when the consistent look, feel and overall format of the finished products will be unveiled.
So does this mean the end for the Melbourne Times, an inner northern suburban masthead with a long history dating back to well before Fairfax owned the paper?
Would be pretty sad and also represent the destruction of brand value.
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side note – anyone else noticed the reasonably alarming erosion of FXJ’s share price over the last 3 months?
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This is more in line with how advertisers respond to the lack of brand representation across all the titles, rather then trying to change a 100+ year old papers identity.
News ltd have the Leader buy, which is simple for the Gen y’s in agency land to buy without thought, where as with Fairfax you have to remember 33 different bloody names. So readers will have to accept the new names just because its easier for agencies to recognize.
Apparently its been a problem for them for years.
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Agencies have never fully understood and appreciated the clout that weekly newspapers deliver in their rregions. Now that Gen Y is having sway in agencies, weeklies will never, ever be fully appreciated, regardless how good is Fairfax’s re-branding..
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Are agency people really that thick? Amazing.
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It’s hard to argue with the numbers of Leader’s penetration in Melbourne. Are agencies so poorly organised that the young up and comers aren’t trained in what media works? They’re just allowed to buy what they know? Hardly strategic client service.
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