The number of subscribers who pay to use the Telegraph’s iPad app are “hugely encouraging”, said Tim Rowell, director of mobile development at the Telegraph Media Group.

The app has received a boost as there are more over 55s with iPads than under 35s, Rowell explained, “which is a sweet spot for us as they are our readers”.

Research shows the average age of the Telegraph iPad reader is 47, about half way between average age of print and web reader.

Speaking at the Media Briefing’s Mobile Media Strategies event today, Rowell refused to go further and reveal how many people had signed up since the launch of the subscriber app on 5 May.

The Telegraph’s paid for app launched just over a month ago with readers paying £1.19 a day (which is 19 pence more than the print edition due to the limited rates set by Apple) or £9.99 a month. The Telegraph’s 340,000 print subscribers are able to access the content via the app without paying extra.

The fact readers are willing to pay is “incredibly reassuring”, Rowell explained, as feedback before the launch of the subscriber app suggested the reverse.

The research was carried out by “rushing out” a free iPad app and gathering audience data. Approximately 60,000 people agreed to have their browsing information analysed. The inclusion of web trends showed what people were reading, when and whether they were using 3G or a wifi network.

The free app research showed weekend reading was twice as popular as week-day reading on the app, with two daily peaks, at 7am and 9pm. As the app was updated just once a day readers were accessing content that was almost 12 hours old. “But that was not important”, Rowell said.

In edition to wider audience data, around 1,800 people submitted a feedback form to give the Telegraph an even more detailed picture of what readers wanted, which included the crossword.

The biggest surprise in the research findings was the worldwide spread of iPad Telegraph readers, Rowell said.

Another key lesson is that the app is “not a substitution for print”, Rowell said, and it requires spend. The annual running costs of an app are around six times the cost of building the iPad app.

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• Media release: Telegraph launches new subscription iPad app
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• iPad users ‘very likely’ to cancel print subscriptions, suggests new study

Speculation that Telegraph Media Group is planning to start charging for some of its online content has been brought up again today by Marketing magazine.

The magazine’s report claims that the publisher is talking to digital agencies about overhauling Telegraph.co.uk and is considering a hybrid part-paid, part-free model from September.

Officially, TMG says it is keeping its options open, issuing a statement that “absolutely no decisions have been made on the introduction of a paid-content model. Like all publishers, TMG continually evaluates the developments in the digital sector”.

The metered approach, if adopted, means readers could access a small number of articles for free before being prompted to register, and could share links on social media.

Tech news site the Register, in its own inimitable style, discusses the issue in a post headlined: “Telegraph mulls cash alternative to suicide”.

“The Telegraph, like other papers, has spent a small fortune in building up a web audience of 31 million, chasing web fads with the dignity of a dad at a disco,” it says.

“But how fashions change. Losing most of the 31 million casuals who make up the Telegraph’s web audience may not be such a disadvantage if it can extract some value from the loyalists.

“Ad agencies naturally love qualified upmarket readers, and with the web, they’ve never been sure they’ve been getting them.”

Gordon Macmillan, writing on Haymarket’s social media blog The Wall, says the metered approach is winning the most favour with publisher so far, with the Daily Mirror apparently tipped to be considering a similar method.

“It is the one that makes most sense in how it relates to the rest of the web – containing within, as it does, a degree of openness that allows the essential social media seeding and sharing of content. That is essential.

He predicts that Mail Online – which is already the biggest UK newspaper website with a record-breaking 54 million unique users – will be the big winner if the Telegraph starts to charge.

The Guardian’s media editor Dan Sabbagh says the proposed model is “cautious” – and not so much a paywall as “a pay fence, sitting somewhere in the distance at the end of a large field.”

He writes: “True Telegraph fans will be discovered through the system, and the exercise might help bring some loyal readers into a new model of payment.”

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News from the Financial Times yesterday that Telegraph.co.uk could start charging for content prompts this post from Seamus McCauley on why a Telegraph paywall might just work at this time:

The paywall strategy makes sense for the Telegraph if its management believes two things.

First, that the online news landscape is changing so that professional news – especially, perhaps, professional conservative newspaper journalism – becomes markedly scarcer online … Second, that the Telegraph’s current monetisation strategy – which is to attract a mass audience and show them display and search ads – is coming to an end.

There’s much more detail behind this arguments, so its worth reading the full post on virtualeconomics at this link…

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• Increase in UK online display advertising activity, says Nielsen
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Telegraph Media Group has announced the appointment of Hugh Dougherty as news editor for the Sunday Telegraph.

Dougherty was previously deputy news editor at the Daily Mail and before that news editor at the Evening Standard

Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, Ian MacGregor, said in a release that he was “delighted” that Dougherty would be helping to set the news agenda at the Sunday paper, describing him as a “superb news editor”.

• Peter Oborne will leave Daily Mail to join Daily Telegraph
• MediaGuardian: Will Lewis ‘pushed out’ of Telegraph Media Group
• Heffer to take sabbatical from Telegraph
• Dominic Mohan named editor of the Sun
• Telegraph merges picture desk and TV under new head

Telegraph Media Group (TMG) has appointed Mike Seery as its new chief information officer. Seery, who was heavily involved in the Economist’s launch online, will take up the post on 8 November 2010.

Richard Halstead, who is already at TMG, has been promoted to group chief technology officer, reporting to Seery.

The group is replacing Paul Cheesbrough, who joined News International as CTO and is one of a host of digital executives to leave TMG for its Wapping-based rival this year, led by the departure of former Telegraph editor Will Lewis.

Meanwhile, the Guardian Media Group (GMG) has named Darren Singer as its chief financial officer. Singer takes on the role from Andrew Miller, who was promoted to CEO in July following Carolyn McCall’s departure. He joins GMG from WPP-owned global agency network GroupM where he was chief financial officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

• MediaGuardian: Will Lewis ‘pushed out’ of Telegraph Media Group
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• paidContent: Guardian News & Media director of international leaving later this year
• MediaGuardian: News International to cut 80 staff, as more digital execs leave Telegraph
• MediaGuardian: British Press Awards results

Telegraph Media Group chief information officer Paul Cheesbrough will leave the publisher to take up the same post with News International.

“News International is fantastically positioned to take advantage of the next stage of growth in the digital marketplace and I am looking forward to joining the group at this exciting time,” says Cheesbrough, who has been at the Telegraph since 2007, in a release.

In his new role at News International, which he will start in the autumn, Cheesbrough will be responsible for all of the publisher’s technology platforms – including the recently launched Times and Sunday Times websites and their forthcoming paywalls.

• James Harding: Times paywall is a revolution for its journalism
• Telegraph merges picture desk and TV under new head
• Media moves: Telegraph gets Mike Seery; Guardian appoints new CFO
• Times and Sunday Times will be paywalled from June – £1 a day
• Online revenues up for Independent and Johnston Press, but print ads fall

Will Lewis is no longer editor in chief and managing director  of the Telegraph. The Guardian had the story last night:

Will Lewis has been pushed out of the Telegraph Media Group after a disagreement with chief executive Murdoch MacLennan over the future direction of the publisher, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

The shock departure comes just a month after Lewis, editor in chief and managing director, digital, accepted the newspaper of the year prize at the British Press Awards for the Telegraph’s expenses expose. The Telegraph dominated the 2010 awards, winning six for its MPs’ expenses coverage.

Full story at this link…

Meanwhile over at Beehive City, Dan Sabbagh speculates it won’t be the last we’ve seen of Lewis:

As for Lewis, he’ll be back soon enough – hacks were last night already putting him down as a possible future editor of The Sunday Times, given friendly relations with the likes of Rebekah Brooks over at News International. Lewis, himself, though, may hanker after a commercial job. Either way, it’d be interesting to find out which election parties he turns up to tonight.

The oddly timed departure also follows media speculation about the fate of Lewis’ ‘Euston project’ – the Telegraph’s mysterious digital enterprise.

Update – The official line from Telegraph Media Group HQ has arrived:

The Telegraph Media Group (TMG) confirms that William Lewis is to leave TMG in the near future.

Commenting on his departure, TMG chief executive, Murdoch MacLennan, said:

“Will has been a superb colleague, helping transform our operation into the UK’s leading multimedia quality publisher and establishing Euston Partners to take TMG forward into its next phase of development. Having achieved so much here, I understand his reasons for wanting to move on. We wish him every success.”

• MediaGuardian: News International to cut 80 staff, as more digital execs leave Telegraph
• Media moves: Telegraph gets Mike Seery; Guardian appoints new CFO
• MediaGuardian: British Press Awards results
• Telegraph wins top AOP award; Guardian wins three others
• Media Week: NatMags axes Ballantyne and Flint with web staff

#FollowJourn: Justin Williams

Who? Assistant editor at the Telegraph Media Group, specialising in technology.

What? Has a regular technology blog at Telegraph.co.uk

Where? More details on his LinkedIn page

Contact? Follow @justin_williams.

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to judith or laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

• #FollowJourn: @rebeccats/reporter
• #FollowJourn: @MarcusWa/online editor
• #FollowJourn: @paulcockerton/web editor
• #followjourn: @catherinegee – Catherine Gee/journalist
• #FollowJourn: @richardkendall/web editor

Eagle-eyed Telegraph associate editor Simon Heffer is to take a one-year sabbatical from the paper for post-doctoral work in Cambridge.

Heffer, who is known for his sharp internal missives criticising staff for slipping standards, will continue to contribute three weekly columns (for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk), whilst working on other projects.

He will return in an ‘enhanced role’ in January 2011, a release from TMG said.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity, following the recent award by Cambridge University of a PhD, to go back to my college [Corpus Christi] and involve myself in its life for a year,” said Heffer.

It was a ‘great honour’ for Heffer, said Tony Gallagher, the new editor of The Daily Telegraph. “I know that he will thrive in the academic world. I wish him every success in this new challenge. I am delighted that he will still contribute to our Comment pages in his regular columns.”

• Peter Oborne will leave Daily Mail to join Daily Telegraph
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Editorial outsourcing firm Pagemasters has announced a partnership with the Canadian Press to provide a range of production services, including design, sub-editing and headline writing, to titles in the US and Canada.

The new division, Pagemasters North America, will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Canadian Press, which already provides pagination services to Canadian daily newspapers including The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star.

The move by Australian Associated Press (AAP), the national news agency of Australia, which owns the editing company, follows a contract with Telegraph Media Group announced in January to provide sub-editing services for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph’s weekend supplements.

In a previous article in The Sunday Morning Herald, Pagemasters managing director Bruce Davidson commented on how useful a time zone difference is for the editing process: “The Telegraph can deliver pages at the end of their day, and when they come in the next morning we have completed the work.”

In today’s release, Davidson said: “The launch of Pagemasters North America is a major development and I believe one which has the potential to lead to significant changes in the editorial production model for US and Canadian newspapers.

“We will be heavily involved with The Canadian Press in setting up editorial production centres in North America, working closely with newspaper publishers as they grapple with the radical changes sweeping the industry.”

• The Sydney Morning Herald: Daily Telegraph outsources production to Australia
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• Reuters blogs: WSJ axes 50 jobs, creates new posts at New York ‘hub’

Graduates jobs have plummeted by 24.9 per cent, and of the jobs that were available 25 per cent received between 1,001 and 2,500 applications, according to a survey released by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) this week.

Nearly half of employers received more than 50 applications for every graduate job, and the fiercest competition was in banking or financial services, investment banking, retail, engineering and the industrial sector.

The number of jobs cut was far worse than anticipated by recruiters, who had predicted just a 5.4 per cent drop in a February survey by the AGR.

More employers than ever are insisting on online-only applications this year (81 per cent) and the competition seems to have brought out the best in many graduates – 40 per cent of employers reported an improvement in the quality of applications.

According to the AGR, graduate recruitment in the media industry was not covered by the survey, because it is too small.

Indeed in April we reported that the Press Association had cancelled its graduate training scheme for the year.

The Telegraph Media Group and the Guardian have both suspended their training schemes for 2009 too.

Last year Trinity Mirror, once one of biggest recruiters of trainee journalists, imposed a recruitment freeze and suspended its training scheme for its national Mirror Group titles.

Other national titles are taking on smaller numbers of trainees, including the Daily Mail, the Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun.

The BBC is still running its annual journalism training scheme which launched in 2007.

But it would be interesting to compare the application rates to journalism graduate schemes with other sectors.

Particularly in light of the fact that applications to journalism degree courses were up 24 per cent this year, UCAS data released in February suggested, despite a scarcity of media jobs and experienced, out-of-work journalists are ramping up the competition.

What kind of response to entry-level/graduate jobs are you getting?

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Brian Harrison, Telegraph Media Group’s digital director, said yesterday that the group “is in the early stages of developing an e-commerce project to place links to sites like Amazon.co.uk alongside Telegraph.co.uk stories in a bid to replace some of the revenue lost from the declining interest in print ads and the slow-down in online display advertising,” PaidContent reports. Full story…

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Confirming the Telegraph’s plans to outsource some of its sub-editing operation to Australia in comments on Jeff Jarvis’ blog, Ed Roussel, digital editor of Telegraph Media Group, made the following statement:

“Reducing the cost of manufacturing and distribution is an imperative for any newspaper group that is determined to remain profitable, as we are (…) The principle holds true on the digital side. ITN creates our video content, providing quality and value that we would struggle to generate internally; Brightcove handles our video distribution; Google powers our search; Escenic provides our web publishing tool; we use software developers in Bulgaria and India.

“Newspaper-web companies should focus internal resource on what they do best: creating premium editorial content.”

Similar to Jarvis’ own mantra of ‘do what you do best and link to the rest’, Roussel’s ‘outsource the rest’ makes sense in a journalism industry where partnerships and collaboration, especially online, seem to be the way forward.

So, outsourcing – not all bad?

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A day that saw plenty of job cut announcements. Here’s the roundup for this evening and Journalism.co.uk will update tomorrow.

• Trinity Mirror: 78 jobs to go as reported at Press Gazette and Hold the Front Page. Press Gazette reported that a restructure will see journalists divided into four centralised multimedia divisions:

“The publisher has today entered into a consultation period with staff and said it envisaged 59 editorial jobs would be cut. It said it was committed to voluntary redundancies where possible.

“The bulk of the job losses will come in Liverpool, where the 175-strong editorial team will be cut to 132 and the Liverpool Daily Post will scrap its Saturday edition.”

• The Telegraph: 50 jobs editorial jobs cut: Fifty editorial staff are to lose their jobs at Telegraph Media Group, management told staff today.

“It is understood the cuts represent a 13-14 per cent saving to the editorial budget and will be brought into effect by Christmas at the latest,” reports MediaGuardian.

• Possibility of more redundancies at the Guardian; GNM losing £100,000 a day
• MediaWeek to go online-only; 18 Brand Media editorial jobs cut
• Round-up of the recent UK newspaper job cuts
• Goodbye Press Gazette: round-up of the links
• Liverpool Daily Post runs online diary to mark capital of culture status

Rounding off last night’s discussion panel hosted by New Media Knowledge on the future of the newspaper industry, panelists were asked what or who they would put their money on for success and survival over the next few years.

Martin Stabe, media blogger, former new media editor of Press Gazette and online editor of Retail Week, plumped for niche and expert content:

“I would bet on anyone who can create unique, high quality content. I’d bet on the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal – those corners of more generalist publications that become more expert,” he said.

Newspapers need to have ‘the ability to compete with all the freely produced expert content that is sometimes better than what is produced by the professionals’, he added.

Neil McIntosh, head of editorial development at Guardian.co.uk, agreed that niche coverage could help newspapers compete with the blogosphere.

“In areas where blogs are working really well, mainstream media has two options: to raise its game and start covering those niches better; or it can get out and as Jeff Jarvis says, ‘do what you do best, and link to the rest’,” said McIntosh

“Those are two areas where mainstream media can move forward but it’s about acknowledging that this world exists.”

Assistant editor at Telegraph Media Group, Justin Williams said trusted brands and content areas such as finance, politics and certain sports are best placed to survive.

“Brands that are trusted and valued no matter how they are produced, those brands will still be here in 10 years time. You’re looking at areas like finance, politics, certain kinds of sport, where we still thrive. During the financial crisis most of us have turned to established news outlets,” said Williams.

“We’re positioned in those markets already, if we can hone in on what’s important to our readers and deliver it in a smart way, then we [newspapers] can be here in 10 years time.”

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