Staying relevant to the market has never been a more obvious priority for the State’s only daily newspaper, The West Australian.
This year, under its newly appointed editor Paul Armstrong, the newspaper radically overhauled its product – both externally and internally – in an effort to reverse falling circulation.
A newspaper redesign and a string of journalist poaches has increased The West Australian’s profile in Western Australia.
It climbed one ranking to number seven in WA Business News’s most recognised brands survey and ranked highly as one of WA’s most successful and oldest brands.
The West Australian launched an advertising campaign earlier this year, communicating its new look and edgier news reports.
In an interview to advertising trade magazine B&T in June this year, WA Newspapers general manager sales and marketing, Peter Stevens, said the redesign was aimed at better communicating with the Western Australian community.
“The West had become a bit disconnected from the community in Western Australia,” he said.
“Everything we have done has been aimed to reconnect, to get people to sample the paper. People have been saying, by not buying the paper and not reading it as often, that it isn’t right for them.
“But now we are seeing a change in that, anecdotally and in more basic ways.”
The West Australian advertising account has been held by Marketforce. However the newspaper contracted Keith Ellis Advertising to provide its recent TV campaign.
