With a circulation bigger than The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday and The Observer combined, a world-leading investigative unit and a new CEO of parent company News UK by the name of Rebekah Brooks, The Sunday Times is living through interesting times, to say the least.
Eager to uncover the secrets behind its successes, as well as what’s next for the influential weekly broadsheet, we were thrilled to welcome Sarah Baxter, Deputy Editor of The Sunday Times, to our offices last Thursday for a breakfast Q&A session. Here are five things we learnt about The Sunday Times:
The paywall is paying off, but more millennials are a must
Sarah Baxter described the ‘digital transformation’ The Sunday Times has been through. “We have been particularly successful in encouraging readers to subscribe to our iPad edition; we now have more than 150,000 people who pay to read our articles online. I’m proud of that – some papers don’t even sell 150,000 print copies,” she pointed out. Despite this, Sarah believes the ‘death of print’ has been somewhat exaggerated. “At one point we were worried we would lose our print readership before we had had a chance to build up our digital clout, but both The Sunday Times and The Times are now making a profit. The next question is how we can make the most of both print and online worlds.” And attract a younger generation of readers? Sarah nodded. “We’d love to have more 20-somethings and young readers. But then I remember that when I was that age, I was far too busy having fun to read newspapers.”
Investigative journalism is here to stay
The Sunday Times‘ leap to the digital world and over the paywall hasn’t been the only big change to occur at the paper. Having broken a number of high-profile scandals this year, from deep-rooted corruption suspected at FIFA to alleged doping scandals in British sport, it is clear that the paper’s editorial personality is becoming far punchier. “Investigative journalism is fantastic for the industry,” Sarah agreed. “While people stories will always be popular and Buzzfeed-style listicles are great, if you want global prestige you need to go after big stories.” And how do these ‘big stories’ come about? Is this where the new digital world of citizen journalism on social media and 24/7 news comes in? “Twitter is an amazing short-hand way to source news,” Sarah admitted, “but very few stories come out of a vacuum. Investigative journalism involves a lot of patience, things simmer away for months – years sometimes, in the case of FIFA – and you have to work for a breakthrough. These stories don’t come out of the blue.”
A week to plan the paper still means it comes down to the wire
Big scoops aside, which the investigative team work on miles in advance, the beginning of every week means a blank slate for The Sunday Times – “this is the exciting bit,” Sarah enthused. The editors and section editors sit down at 11am on a Tuesday to start planning and mapping out the paper. They meet again at 11am on a Thursday and “if we’re still doing exactly what we said we would do on a Tuesday on a Friday, then we’ve let our readers down.” According to Sarah, this is the natural, if slightly hair-raising, process of putting together the best weekend paper possible. “Sometimes stories don’t pan out. You have to be flexible, be prepared to throw away ideas you like and never stop thinking about what’s new.” The major spanner in the works is a big news event like a world figure dying late on deadline, Sarah attested. “When you’re taken by surprise, that’s when a really great writer is needed – someone who can put something amazing, touching and classy together, and fast.”
Readers love a scoop… and sex, of course
One of the advantages of the online world is its data-driven nature, which allows editors to check which stories are attracting the most clicks. While readers really like big scoops and analysis, believe it or not, “readers like sex”. Although Sarah is keen to stress that this doesn’t influence their editorial decisions too much. “Readers often just want a good, lively, controversial read.” This is where The Sunday Times‘ arsenal of acerbic columnists comes in handy: “Rod Liddle, Jeremy Clarkson, AA Gill and Camilla Long attract lots of groans as well as fans, but that’s why we’re lucky to have them. The Marmite effect is important.”
We could serve the regions better
While The Sunday Times has very strong Scottish and Irish editions, Sarah admitted that “we could do more. We mean well but can get a bit obsessed with what’s under our nose.” Again, this is an area where the digital world could help. The challenge now, according to Sarah, will be to “balance our global ambitions with maintaining a local footprint – as we’ve seen with Scotland and Ireland, more editions may be the answer.”
