I had the privilege of being shown round the TMG building yesterday
- the editorial hub, TV and radio studios, the commercial department and their
all new digital lab - and I was given a glimpse at a few of the new products
they're working on for users and advertisers.
All very interesting and more on which over the coming weeks.
The one thing that stood out, and something that I really got from Dave King in
his recent interview on Media Week TV, is that TMG do seem to get it. They
understand the nature of online, the need to be surrounded by specialists constantly
thinking about the new, but always with a strong commercial ‘deliverable'
end-game, even if at present the p&l isn't exactly singing.
They understand the need for their teams to aspire to being
integrated, even if in practice that's not easy, possible, or even always
desirable, which is not true of all media owners. Sticking up a few plasma
screens around the office with your website on it is not enough to change the
culture of a team honed over decades to produce a daily paper.
Having been impressed, therefore, by everything on show, I
can't help think it's crazy that on the day I get to see what great strides TMG
is making, Media Week is running a story that the newspaper is, after over 100
years of being in print, finally going full colour.
I'm not singling out TMG on this - the majority have only
just taken the full-colour plunge if at all. Again, the arguments for and
against the need or desire for papers to go full-colour is something discussed
in the Dave King/David Emin interview, but reasoning aside, isn't it a weird
state of affairs that on the one hand traditional media owners are really
driving their digital strategies and at least starting to think a little like
tech companies, even if they have some way to go to operate like them, and yet
on the other hand it's news worthy that, finally, their main product can now be
seen in ‘colour'...gasp!
