21
Cover Story
“The old newspaper
model died a long time
ago, and publishers
need to find a new way
of making money to
keep journalism alive”
of profiting from the Covid-19
crisis through charging rent to
the NHS by up to £3m. The story
was inaccurate with no evidence
submitted or cited to
substantiate the claim. ExCeL
London and its parent owner
were quick to refute the
allegations. While the initial
agreement did state that the
NHS would cover operational
costs, for things such as the
leasehold (the land is owned by
the Greater London Authority),
staff, and maintenance, the
venue has since absorbed these
costs themselves.
It was a big story, with all
the other national papers
picking it up. The user
comments sections were a feast
for the terminally bored, yet they
revealed something quite
noteworthy. At the beginning of
the day, comments were
anti-ExCeL, but by the end of it
and after plenty of online
debate, all the green ticks were
attached to comments
defending the venue and
attacking the paper. A curious
swing: maybe it was more
anti-journalism rather than
pro-events industry, but it
certainly stood out.
What I found remarkable
throughout the entire coverage,
however, was that at no point,
anywhere, was the events
industry itself ever mentioned.
What is ExCeL London; why
does it exist? Is it just a thing in
East London? No, it exists for
one purpose and one purpose
alone: to host events. That
means it needs events
organisers to create both big
and small events, be it
conferences, exhibitions,
festivals or meetings, and to
take them there. These
organisers in turn need
suppliers, such as those
providing shell scheme
structures (like that being used
at NHS Nightingale) and
inflatable structures (also being
used by the NHS) to baristas,
security contractors (NHS
again), and event technology
providers. This is all paid for by
the end user’s marketing budget
(which contributes to the £70bn,
remember.)
ExCeL hasn’t been sitting
there for 20 years doing nothing.
This brings me neatly to the
fact that UK national newspaper
sales have slumped by
two-thirds, incidentally also over
the last 20 years. According to
analysis of ABC circulation data
by the Press Gazette, the figure
shows the extent of the
devastation that digital
disruption has created on the
traditional print-centric
newspaper business model.
The Press Gazette reports
that in January 2000, 16 daily
and Sunday paid-for national
newspapers had a combined
circulation of 21.2m, and within
10 years this had fallen to
16.4m among 17 newspapers.
In January 2020, however, the
same group of newspapers sold
a total of 7.4m copies, a fall of
55% in a decade.
In January 2020, the
Telegraph Media Group,
publishers of the Daily
Telegraph, said it would no
longer subscribe to the ABC
circulation audit system as part
of its strategy to focus on digital.
“The ABC metric is not the key
metric behind our subscription
strategy and not how we
measure our success,” a
statement read.
I raise this because the
Telegraph Media Group was
actively pursuing events (mainly
exhibitions) as a major revenue
driver, and things seemed to be
going well for a while at
Telegraph Events. However, the
wheels have come off in the last
year, with key people leaving and
many shows being lost. I don’t
know all the details of this, for
the record.
But that’s not the point. The
point is the old newspaper
model died a long time ago, and
publishers need to find “new”
ways of making money to keep
journalism alive, now more than
ever. Especially if your name is
Rupert Murdoch and your Sun
newspaper has just lost £68m
in revenue as a result of the
Covid-19 crisis.
All major publishers will need
to turn to events, very quickly, in
order to survive. They need a
coherent events strategy. There
is optimism. The FT, for example,
has been active in running
‘Digital Dialogue’ events during
the Covid-19 crisis, with one
such event reaching an
audience in excess of 6,000.
Before the lockdown, the FT was
www.conference-news.co.uk
running around 200 events
around the world each year, from
breakfast briefings to large
conferences.
The press, then, better start
boning up on what it takes to
run a successful events
business. But before that they
may do well to acknowledge the
existence of the very industry
that will save them when the
last Stannah Stairlift adverts
dry up.
I used to work in an
international newsroom, and it is
not uncommon for departments
to work in silos. A journalist isn’t
going to know much about his or
her newspaper’s events strategy
unless they’re told about it.
As a journalist myself, I am no
stranger to hearing people tell
me that print is dead, and that
digital is the future. Rubbish:
digital has been the present for
20 years. Events aren’t the
future either: they have been
aneconomic pillar since the
Great Exhibition of 1851. The
future is knowing how to do both
these things well.
So, UK press, why don’t we
host a roundtable discussion
together with your event
departments and business
editors to share knowledge and
maybe work towards a greater
understanding of the power of
events? All we ask in return is
that you filter over to your
journalists that this £70bn
industry will be the one that
saves their jobs, so a little
positive press wouldn’t go
amiss. We’ll be in touch.