Tempestade Cerebral

No próximo Sábado, 16 de Setembro, é lançado o semanário Sol, dirigido por José António Saraiva, ex-director do Expresso (o actual líder mercado).

Para fazer face à entrada deste novo concorrente, o Expresso tem vindo a oferecer filmes como Lost in Translation, Traffic (este fim-de-semana) e, entre outros, um dos meus favoritos: Os Condenados de Shawshank (14 de Outubro).

Nota: em diferentes circunstâncias, haveria muitos a classificar semelhante prática como "dumping" (incluindo, julgo, alguns jornalistas do Expresso).

Quanto ao número de exemplares vendidos, ambos têm elevadas expectativas. A estratégia do Expresso centra-se, como já vimos, numa campanha de ofertas que tenta fidelizar os clientes para além do prazo de duração da mesma.

No entanto, a revista Time parece querer desistir de semelhantes práticas ao adoptar a estratégia da revista Economist. A ler, "The Economist effect: Not all news media are dumbing it down" (meus destaques):

Soon after [Time] magazine announced that it would hit newsstands on Friday starting in January, stories also surfaced that Time was considering reducing the costs of maintaining its circulation by allowing its reader base to drop by as much as 25 percent.

Why the big changes? This is an industry in need of some changing. Since 1988, Time's circulation has fallen by about 13 percent. US News & World Report has also dropped by about 13 percent. Newsweek, meanwhile, has lost about 6 percent of its paid readership.

But during that same time period, other titles have thrived.

Take The Economist. The British news weekly has seen its circulation jump by about 300 percent, despite the fact that it is less flashy, more serious, and costs more than twice as much as its US counterparts. And since its launch in 2001, The Week, a new kind of Reader's-Digest-type summary of news accounts from other organizations, has attracted 439,000 readers.

So maybe it's all about format and content, and maybe Time's moves indicate that the other weeklies are beginning to notice.

Time's new publishing schedule will mean it hits the streets on the same day as its British competitor. And Time's idea about circulation, placing less emphasis on quantity, suggests an approach that several publications, including The Economist, have pursued: It's not how many subscribers you have; it's who they are.

Porque, no final do ano, aos accionistas destas empresas não lhes interessa quantos exemplares foram vendidos mas, sim, se tiveram lucro - senão, ainda acabam como o agora falido O Independente.