Media Spotlight: Kensington and Chelsea Today

Earlier this year saw the launch of monthly print newspaper Kensington and Chelsea Today, followed by a website last month. While the newspaper industry has experienced circulation drops and closures in print format, ABC has reported an overall rise of 25% in daily browsers across regional newspaper sites. Kensington and Chelsea Today says “while online is now seen as the ‘King’, which we support through our daily updated website, we believe that print is still the Emperor or Empress of the two mediums. People often spend all day on computers and when they get home or have down time they want to be able to have, to hold and to read.” Kensington and Chelsea Today asserts that the print medium is here to stay: “Due to the unique nature of the Royal Borough’s readers’, we realised that there was a gap in the local communications market which provided content to reflect this. Hence the motivation to launch a newspaper which caters for our community businesses, residents, professionals and artists and to inform outside readers of the special nature and features that exist within Kensington and Chelsea.”

Kensington and Chelsea Today’s website has been well received, as confirmed through site analytics. “Our daily ‘hits’ are increasing, we know their origin and which articles are being read.  This information will continue to be translated and put to decisive and objective use.” With the paper’s “roots twined round the arts”, they invite local artists of all denominations to contribute on all aspects of life in the Borough and beyond. “This maintains the traditional Boho aspect people expect of Chelsea while widening the readership to the digital world. It is unique because Kensington & Chelsea is unique.”

As an apolitical paper, Kensington and Chelsea Today intends to maintain an even democratic keel. “By not being drawn into strenuous political debate we are able to target a readership that, knowing our stance to be true and considered, are able to read a well balanced and measured point of view.” While radical reporting is not on their editorial agenda, they do not eliminate their writers from expressing their views, concerns and opinions. “Any investigative journalism on our part is more likely to report on a missing masterpiece than a politician’s missing mistress.”

Kensington and Chelsea Today recently joined Facebook and Twitter. “Twitter enables us to gain higher exposure and makes us accessible by giving our audience a chance to interact with the newspaper.” In addition to linking Twitter to the website, it will also be used to further define Kensington and Chelsea Today in terms of who is followed, which external announcements are made and the local information shared. “It is feasible that if we have a great enough following we will be able to use Twitter to generate further revenue by tweeting information about our sponsors / advertisers.” Kensington and Chelsea Today also uses LinkedIn as a ready-made business network to attract B2B interest.

Kensington and Chelsea Today intends to grow gracefully. “As audience figures rise so will advertising revenue. We will be able to pay more to contributors and in turn be able to publish an ever-increasing standard of reporting and articles. It is perfectly possible and plausible to extend the successful Kensington and Chelsea Today Newspaper format into other boroughs, cross-pollinating information and still target specific areas of local interest. This widening of horizons will be a standard and integrated part of the website too.”

Making the Pitch: Tips and Advice for Pitching to Kensington and Chelsea Today

“We prefer to receive information from PR companies to [email protected]. Kensington and Chelsea Today covers all subjects and would be grateful to receive any information that PRs think is suitable; there is no limitation to the interests of our readers and therefore we keep an open mind. A well written press release is a good starting point and coupled with a short concise e-mail explaining the purpose of the correspondence is always appreciated and in preference to a phone call.”