Strategy Verdict - Trinity Mirror

and the exterior of cabs.

It's fine to diversify, as long as it doesn't forget about the
papers.

However, surely the clients who want to advertise in cabs are different
to the clients it is losing from its classified sections. Shouldn't they
be the people that it looks to gain back through diversification?
Otherwise, it is just letting a big market get away and the potential
for taxi advertising can't be anywhere near as big.

Trinity needs a proper long-term strategy to turn around the paper's
fortunes, like the Manchester Evening News' drastic, but apparently
effective, change to part paid/part free. Small changes to editorial or
cover price are just short-term solutions.

Ad spots on taxi screens aren't going to be an easy sell for a lot of
reasons.

A lack of TV copy would be the first - no one wants to see fading stills
of the local Ford dealer. Then there's the minimal audience research and
the question of whether people really watch it or, like me, whether they
just stare out of the window.

I'm all for buying a new horse for the stable, as long as you don't let
your biggest and strongest horse bolt.

Like other regional publishers, Trinity is working hard on its local
newspaper websites, but there is a huge amount of re-educating to
do.

You have got people with years and years of regional press experience
trying to sell what to them is a new medium. The agency buyers and
clients they deal with are also in the same boat.

Using the taxi media to sell more copies of the Echo will only work if
there is a drastic change in the product first. If it's just a case of
saying "buy the Echo for your local news", everyone knows it
already.

I can't see other publishers following this strategy, because I just
can't see advertisers flocking to use this medium.

- Matt Merrett, regional press director, OMD UK.