New Day says "good night"

So good night New Day. Just 50 issues. What were the reasons for your failure and what can we learn?

The Launch
When the paper was launched back in February it promised to give an "optimistic approach" to news that would be unbiased and was aimed at people who consider themselves "time-poor" and who no longer buy a paper.

Some immediate issues:
"Optimistic approach" - in other words a "good news" newspaper. Repeatedly focus groups/surveys of people who don't read newspapers cite this as a reason for not buying a newspaper. But all attempts to build on this have failed. Good news smells of propaganda. Relentlessly upbeat stories feel phoney. Just like a review section with 100% brilliant reviews. 
Unbiased and politically neutral doesn't really work either. Look at the broadcasters: if you are on the left, you accuse the BBC of having a tory bias and if you are on the right vice-versa. On the whole it works better if people can see where you are coming from. 
Then the last "aiming at people who don't buy newspapers." This troubles me. The big question is "will they buy this newspaper?" And of course, they didn't.  Selling 40,000 at the end.

Other problems
The biggest being distribution. I take a keen interest in Newspaper launches. But I didn't see a copy go New Day anywhere until about a week after the launch. No outlet in Bath stocked it until then, there were no distributors on the streets or by the station on lunch day. No papers left around either to suggest that there might have been. Bottom line, it wasn't easy to buy until it got to 50p. 
It was too much like the Metro, which is free everywhere. Didn't have the gravitas of the "I".There was nothing that made it a compelling read.

Some lessons:
I'm sure they had loads of focus groups. I'm sure they did everything right by the book. Research, research, questionnaire and more. I'm sure they also went with their gut - that there was a readership amongst young professional women. But many products have floundered on these as well. Focus groups and surveys only tell you what people have seen, they don't predict the future. People have to find a need for the product - and if they haven't seen a product before they may just tell you what you want to hear. 
Secondly, there is an assumption that people will pay for content, where demonstrably that isn't true in a number of areas. People will pay for tangibles, if tangibles add value; but if they are the same as intangibles then you're going to struggle to get money for them. For many people, for many years, newspapers have been a problem rather than a solution. Look at the downsizing from Broadsheet (Daily Telegraph) to Berliner (Guardian) to Tabloid (the rest). All to make reading easier.
Finally, is there a market for even short news articles? Increasingly amongst my students I notice people just reading and reacting to headlines, also they want their normal news from sources they trust.

Researching Snakes and Ladders

Firstly, an explanation. The Snakes and Ladders board game is a metaphor that Ruth and I have used for our lives together. It featured in our wedding - the cake was designed as a snakes and ladders board and I used the board on a plate that I designed earlier.

Ruth has had serious mental health issues, I have depression. Early on in our relationship we were talking and the conversation went along the lines of "I wish that at that point I had..." The real point is, of course, that we are no longer at that point. Rather we are at where ever we are.

Hence the Snakes and Ladders board. Doesn't matter in some ways if it's a snake or a ladder, you have to start at the square that you are on - or where the inevitableness of the situation is going to take you.

Why I am doing this.
Two years ago I started doing an illustrated book on our experiences, combined with those of other people. It was based on a small showing of pictures that I had done in Bath's annual Fringe Arts Bath (FaB) show. But last year it stalled. I could tell it was going nowhere and I had to regroup. The ideas were still good but there was no focus. I tried a comic book narrative. Then a week ago it went full circle, a board game is often similar in layout to a comic book and I already had a board game in mind.

Stuff I've found
In no particular order here are some images and links that I've found. Interestingly, it appears it's not the first time that someone has used the game as a metaphor for life. In course of looking at images I found this: "The timelessness of Snakes and Ladders" by Doug Bierend, which looks at the moral issues behind the game.

Here's a description of the game, just in gaming terms. I did a board where you could decide between a snake, several snakes or a snake or a ladder. Ruth said that defeated the purpose. I think it makes it more like real life as you have to look ahead and and balance the risks either way.

Several sites, like this one, use the game as an entry to coding. here's another version from DataGenetics.

Sandra Dodd writes a history of Snakes and Ladders from an American perspective, where it is known as Chutes and Ladders.

Of course some motivational speaker has to get his oar in...

 Complete with small children getting chastised.

Here's a version of the game based on the journey of two people using trains. It's in a games museum here. They have many other variations.

This is an Indian version, used to teach morality and the effects of vice. A destiny over which you had little control. Note the ladders all go to a heaven of sorts. Wikipedia had a full article form which this was taken.

Common kids version



















Vintage version on an antique dealers website.
















Can't find an attribution for this one...

Once again, with moralistic overtones, funding by the clothes I would have thought 1930s. Found on Vanished Eras website

Australian, 1901, teaching virtue and the sadness of ignoring good advice. Snakes and Ladders of 1901 provides an old-fashioned moral view. Players slide down the snakes of anger, pride, depravity and vanity while they climb the ladders of forgiveness, penitence, pity and faith. Found in Australian National Archive.

This is from the blog of another Steve, who recounts his encounter with the game. Looking at the game and the blog it struck me that the counterpoint to the snake you've just fallen down should be the next ladder. 
















Modern morality and health advice.












Here it is used by Hisperian to illustrate the disposal of toxic waste.
















Carbon zero planet use it as a way of explaining environmental issues.

3D snakes and ladders




































Finally a person sized version.