Can traditional publishers cut it in the digital environment?(Brief Article)

Niche opportunities offer the best chance for online success

Jeremy Bullmore pursued an interesting analogy during last week's "On the Campaign Couch" therapy session. In dispensing pearls of wisdom to Worried From Cyberspace, he took us back to the 50s, when satellites answered to the name of Sputnik and computers were the size of a house.

Internet advertising in 2001, he said, is in the same sort of state as TV advertising was in the late 50s and early 60s. It's hard to believe it now, but back then advertisers didn't believe in the power of TV, agencies paid lip service to the business, and ITV franchises were anything but the licences to print money that they subsequently became. Bullmore also pointed out that Associated Newspapers, a shareholder in the franchise then believed to have the greatest theoretical potential, Associated Rediffusion, lost its nerve after years of losses and pulled out.

And, of course, Associated Rediffusion's London weekday franchise went on to fulfil its potential. So fear not, Worried From Cyberspace. It's only a matter of time before online publishing becomes a licence to print money and one day we'll all shake our heads in disbelief when we think back to those dark days at the turn of the century.

And publishers, eh? They never learn, do they? In the past few weeks, two of the UK's more proficient magazine publishers, IPC Media and Emap, have been thrashing about trying to engage ever more powerful reverse gears when it comes to the internet.

Last week, IPC closed its women's lifestyle portal, BeMe. com, its listings site, unmissabletv. com, and its offering aimed at juvenile delinquents, uploaded. com. IPC will now concentrate on its smaller spin-offs, such as nme. com. Meanwhile, Emap was completing a structural review that looks set to continue a retrenchment begun back in April. Sources say it's almost certain that the specialist Emap Digital division will now be closed and online expertise will be relocated to the various relevant publishing divisions.

Neither development is exactly a bolt from the blue but it does make you wonder just how much further the business can contract without dropping off the radar altogether. Hadn't the two publishers previously told us they'd pared down to a base from which it would be possible to move forward? So what conclusions can we now draw?