The former MD of MEN Media, Trinity Mirror’s development director, PR chiefs and media heads all spoke to How-Do yesterday to debate exactly what the cuts at the MEN meant to them, to the media community and to the wider regional newspaper industry.

Commentators include Mark Rix, Mark Dickinson, Nina Webb and Cherry Jackson.

There can’t be many organisations in the developed world that aren’t currently re-evaluating their strategy in order to safeguard their future.  

Knowing the MEN board as I do, this will have been a very difficult decision and one taken with the sole intention of creating a sustainable business model for the future and protecting as many jobs as possible.   

Change is a constant necessity in all our lives, so not really.

The MEN Media portfolio has unrivalled reach in Greater Manchester built over a century of quality journalism – it will remain the Voice of Greater Manchester.  The board will have a clear and workable strategy for business continuity within their new structure.

The focus and commitment to quality local journalism will not be affected at MEN Media by closing offices, the sophisticated technologies available to journalists today negate this argument.

Advertisers want quality, cost effective response – they judge their media selection on that alone.  The MEN’s actions will take this fully into account.

This is an innovative organisation, see Channel M, see part paid / part free publishing, see www.citylife.co.uk  – the MEN Media diversification strategy and its ability to adapt, coupled with GMG’s ownership, means that it may well change shape over time, but will always be an influential and intrinsic part of Greater Manchester life.     

I wasn’t surprised. It’s been on the cards for some time. It is clearly very worrying for all local news journalists that their industry seems to be slowly disintegrating.

No. Local and regional media has been under pressure from falling circulation and rapidly disappearing advertising revenues for some time now. I think this has been inevitable for some time.

Clearly, if you reduce staff numbers there is an impact. GMG is still the biggest media organisation in the city so, in that regard, I guess it still is the ‘voice’ of Manchester, if only because the company has the infrastructure to shout the loudest. 

The existing teams will have no choice but to do their job, but they’ll now have to do the jobs of those who are being made redundant too.

With advertising and marketing budgets already under huge pressure advertisers will be looking at any opportunity to reduce what they have to pay for space in newspapers. I imagine it will be tough time ahead for the ad reps at GMG.

They are clearly keen on blowing the trumpet of convergence – offering news services across print, TV, radio and online. As a result their news staff are also now having to become familiar with all those formats. 

It won’t be long before the average regional reporter also takes the photographs, films segments for TV coverage and records audio for radio – all from one interview.

It comes as no surprise whatsoever. Centralisation of their reporting operations into the Stockport and Manchester offices was to be expected. Cost cutting is indicative of the way the market has been, and is, going I'm afraid.

The MEN will always be the voice of Manchester. The MEN is a great paper as are the regionals. 

The MEN's decision to go free within the city centre several years ago was commendable and come the spring time the city centre will be awash with avid readers in their lunch breaks. 

Not at all. Advertisers understand what their local marketing needs to achieve. There will be complaints as to the 'localness' but given time this will settle and advertisers will continue. 

They have their own businesses to run and isn't all centred around one title in one area.

As with the vast majority of other media owners they are having to cut their cloth accordingly, but GMG have been reviewing their operations for some time and will continue to do so. 

I see the group operating a hub that covers their press, TV and radio interests.

Reporters reporting across all media and possibly even sales teams selling across the portfolio. That’s maybe a few years away but I'm sure it will happen.

I worked at the MEN on the agency sales team from about 1996 through to 1999, so I know a lot of the people that have, and still do, work there.

I have to say that overall I’m shocked by the extent of the cuts that they feel they’ve had to make and have particular concern - both as a reader and as a media man - about the impact that’s going to have on the editorial product. What compromises are going to have to be made?

The MEN has been at the forefront of so many things in recent years, such as the free-part-paid-for model, and that’s really worked to improve the reader profile; bringing it into younger and more upmarket groups. I hope they can continue to achieve that with these cutbacks.

What the group does has in its favour is the cross channel platforms at GMG’s disposal – it has been at the forefront of integrating its offering in terms of editorial and advertising and this does offer hope.

With Channel M and the opportunity of Freeview broadcasting there are still opportunities in the marketplace for the group. 

I hope they can take them…Manchester needs a strong MEN Media and a strong Manchester Evening News.

Paid for circulation fell at every regional newspaper in the second half of 2008 according to the Press Gazette, so what is happening at the MEN won't be an isolated industry occurrence. 

As it did by creating a convergent newsroom and as it did by giving away free copies of the paper in the city centre, the MEN is tackling the issues the regional print media faces head on to secure its long term future, albeit with some short term pain.  

The fact that the MEN had the highest circulation of any regional title in 2008 shows that its strategy is working.  Remember, too, that not one of its other titles will close, they will be simply relocated. 

And with the most successful regional website in the UK - some 500,000 ahead of its nearest rival - the MEN will remain as much a part of Manchester life as it has been consistently over the years. 

I think the rumours of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

Looking across the media industry, and for that matter the economy, there are few businesses which are unaffected by the downturn. 

The MEN while not a plc has to adjust as revenues fall. It would be irresponsible of any management to do nothing and hope for the upturn as the NUJ seem to be advocating. 

The key strategic question for MEN was and probably is still: will the free and paid hybrid weather the storms better than others who felt this was a massive gamble? 

The tectonic plates are still rumbling as we can see from Johnston’s results today. Only 5 years ago they were held up as the champions of the regional industry - now they have hit bottom first. 

But everyone is actually holding their breath to see whether this IS bottom.... 

Evolving the business model within the media space is vital. We cannot go down the micro route and try to make bottom-feeding work but neither can we keep consolidating as ever bigger beasts getting further and further from our communities and less and less able to serve them. 

Somewhere between must lie a way of co-operating within the news gathering community itself. No one can carry the costs of a multi-million pound industry while revenues are drying up due to economic paralysis or being sucked up by Google. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing - but MEN demonstrates that it is not the just the cold-hearted monsters of plcs who are struggling to re-invent the model.

Shocked that the cuts were so deep, but not unexpected. And yes, some sadness.

Yes and no, when the traditional pillars of your revenue (property, motors and jobs) have all dropped off a cliff, the reality is that tough commercial decisions have to be made.

Will this impact on the group’s standing with advertisers at all? 

From an advertisers perspective, it is all about the end product and at the moment we don’t know the impact of this decision on that. 

Editorial content, pagination levels and circulation numbers will be reviewed on an ongoing basis to ascertain the value to advertisers - for us it is important that there continues to be choice in the local marketplace with strong titles and strong distribution.

The MEN have pioneered the way for other publishers with its innovative approach to its business model in the past and we believe other publisher groups will be watching this latest turn of events with great interest. 

All newspaper groups have been reducing their cost base as advertising revenues decline and there is evidence to suggest that the free newspaper model in particular just doesn’t stack up. 

Unfortunately the MEN won’t be on alone in taking some tough decisions over the coming weeks and months.

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