Richard and I are in the midst of relaunching the leading independent newspaper in Uganda, the Daily Monitor (motto: Truth Every Day) so we are probably unusual in that we are currently die-hard followers of the news that comes out of Kampala. Uganda is a haven for good, hard-hitting political journalism. Partially of course, this is because extraordinary events happen in East African with an unfortunate frequency (in the course of the three days that we were there last month Ebola was discovered and the opposition leader’s brother died of mysterious causes) but its mostly down to considered, serious-minded reporting that makes the most of relatively limited resources.
When I read the “exclusive” PLOT TO KILL QUEEN FOILED splash in the Sunday Express yesterday I recognised a story that was originally broken — on December 1st — in Uganda by one of the many talented reporters at the Monitor.
What surprised me about this wasn’t that it was in The Express, given their obsession with royalty but that it took all of six weeks to percolate through the web to the Express newroom and that when they did get the story they didn’t do it better.
Once this was understandable: there simply weren’t the resources (or the patience) to wade through the reams of newsprint produced all over the world. But now the internet makes it simple to get a local perspective and to take advantage of experienced reporters on the ground.
If you read the Monitor’s version, it is filled with detail and context that the Express story misses. Its also instructive to know, given Uganda’s worsening media freedoms (see Roy Greenslade’s post), that the Monitor’s rival, New Vision, which is majority-owned but not run by government, didn’t (as far as I can see) print the story until yesterday following the Express’ lead.
Australian Sky News and the Herald Sun have both picked up the story as has the Telegraph website this morning.
Not one has credited the Daily Monitor.
January 14th, 2008
Like that gentlest of dons, Quijote, they were wont at the very least to damage useful windmills in the name of dragomachy. (John Barth 1966).
Dragomachy is dragon-duelling - Don Quixote’s motivation, of course, for tilting at windmills.
It came to mind while reading the Guardian’s latest six-part sales booster running all through this week: The Greek Myths. In Saturday’s booklet, Origins of the gods, there is a foreword discussing Hesiod, Orpheus, Pindar and modern Promethean mythology by Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, before the main narrative begins.
This is penned by James Davidson, who I think must be the rather dazzling young Reader in Ancient History at Birkbeck. Here’s an extract:
But Cronus was king now, lording it over his elder siblings, and he had a plan to escape the fate that Uranus had decreed for him. He overpowered his sister Rhea and fathered on her new gods, Olympians: pure Hestia whose realm is the fireplace and who always stays at home, Demeter goddess of agriculture, regal Hera, goddess of marriage, Poseidon lord of the seas, horses and earthquakes …….
Crickey, as Boris Johnson might say. It’s a far cry from whether Terry or Beckham should be captain in the Switzerland game.
Both daily and weekend papers in Britain now are becoming in their own way smaller versions of the cultural package that Peter Wright has created with his relaunched Mail on Sunday. In doing so, they offer a great deal more than news: DVDs, slimming guides, cheap flights, therapy - you name it. This makes good sense in an increasingly competitive and slowly shrinking market. I am sure other markets in other countries will follow suit.
The skill is to make the package coherent so that it reinforces something that your paper stands for and appeals powerfully to the heartland of your readership. Tangential appeal is never good enough in newspapers - brutish, blunt instruments that they are. Even the thinking man’s paper, the FT, found that its most successful circulation booster was a combined appeal to the stomach/wallet. I recall writing the blurb: Lunch at a Michelin starred restaurant for the price of a can-opener (or something like that).
It’s not enough any longer simply to include a voucher for a free frozen chicken (Mirror) or a packet of garden seeds (Express). The offer has to be original or exclusive. A new Prince CD exclusively through the Mail on Sunday is one way to do it well.
But the promotion team that I have come to respect most in the past year is The Guardian/Observer’s. The glossy posters are well judged and cling to many a Farrow and Ball painted kitchen wall, the bespoke Christmas wrapping paper is annoyingly clever and the occasional guides to Wild Camping or to Magic Tricks seem to me perfectly pitched to the readership and a clear incentive to buy. In the Guardian’s booklet series the first, Great Speeches, was probably the best. All have been strong.
Until now that is. In the constant battle against the dragon of falling sales I wonder whether a series on Zeus and friends is not a little Quixotic. (Magnificent though).
January 14th, 2008
