Merger Most Horrid?

Sadly the much-mooted merger of How-do, You Tube, What’s On in Manchester, MobileMe and the official Gerry and the Pacemaker fan site now seems unlikely to come to pass. Those of us who eagerly anticipated the arrival of How-do-you-do-what-you-do-to-me.co.uk, though, can take some solace from the recently announced deal between How-do and Manchester Confidential.

Not ideal – "How Confidential", sounds like the slightly more prim off-spring of Wiki Leaks, while “Do-Man” is likely to produce the kind of Google results best excised from your browsing history. The sad lack of unintentionally comic name potential aside, what are we to make of this alliance of the North-West’s media and marketing website and Manchester’s on-line lifestyle magazine?

It think it is safe say that any list of the top ten digital publications outside of London has been read by both Mark Garner and Nick Jaspan. The two, the publishers of Man Can and How-Do respectively, are very different individuals.

With Garner the land and the king are very much one, with Man Con infused with his personality and dominated by “Gordo”, Garner’s digital alter ego. Jaspan, on the other hand, prefers to lurk behind the arras, seldom inflicting himself directly on the readership.

Jaspan vs Garner

Below the surface, both have a little more in common. Both have been serial entrepreneurs and both got their fingers burnt with previous ventures. Garner’s role as a digital porn pioneer with Red Hot and Dutch saw him Dead Broke and Cross, while the most frequent enquiry made by Jaspan’s North West Enquirer was to the banks and inevitably involved a bid to increase its overdraft.

Red hot, but not butch

Learning lessons from their earlier enterprises, both have built successful digital brands and, critically, both have been the undeniable prime movers in these successes.

As a mainstream brand, Man Con, launched in 2003, managing to wrong foot the established media in the North West, pre-empting their digital migration and leaving many of them playing catch-up. This has seen it diversify, both geographically – with forays of varying success into Leeds, London and Liverpool – and by speciality, notably with Body and Kids Confidential.

How-Do is far more of a niche player. Launched in 2007, just as realization set in as to how much the BBC’s Salford move could transform the North West media landscape, it faced far less competition than Man Con.

While, just a few years before, two print titles (Adline and the Marketeer) had competed to provide coverage of Manchester-based marketing and media companies, both of these were just vestigial addresses on press release circulation lists by 2007. With token coverage of the area provided only by the Glasgow-based Drum, the region readily took to Jaspan’s dedicated website.

Sadly Crain's took no note....

This saw How-Do rapidly brand-extend itself into awards events and conferences. Tellingly, the annual how-do awards is now by far the largest media event in the North West.

The success of both How-Do and Man Con has been very much down to the approaches of their two founders. Man Can has succeeded by embodying the more acerbic, judgemental and controversial approach of Garner, while How-Do has adopted an almost diametrically opposed philosophy.

While, in person, Jaspan is informed and sometimes scathing about certain NW players, How-Do itself has steered a very neutral course. It has frequently taken at face value announcements and information from organizations in the North West and published them without comment.

This approach has endeared it to a number of companies happy to escape probing of some of their more dubious claims – McCanns, Trinity Mirror, the MPA, GMG, Sass Panyii, Channel M and Euro RSCG are among the many who have got away with far more than they should.

This “honest broker” approach has frequently irritated many of the site’s more outspoken, while frequently most syntactically-challenged, anonymous contributors. It has, though, kept all channels (except M, obviously) open, ensuring that How-do has remained eminently sponsor-friendly.

The survival of this policy will be an interesting measure of how much influence Garner brings to bear on his new mergeree. Garner is much more of a smiter than Jaspan, notoriously willing to put critics and competitors to the digital dagger.

Retrieved from Gordo's desk (allegedly)

Tellingly, the very first post-merger comment on How-do read: “So does this mean that How-Do won't report anything bad about the Confidential titles? And how co-operative will other media be when How-Do is now merged with what many will feel is a rival?”

Garner is probably too canny to become a mini-Maxwell, with many in media still recalling, with bemused horror, the “bouncing Czech’s” late 80’s period as the proprietor of Media Week. It is an accusation he will do well to be wary of though.

It does bring us onto one question, though, that will concern the readers of How-Do far more than those of Man Can. We all know mergers are bollocks. There is always a shagger and a shaggee. So who is the “daddy” in this particular arrangement and who will be reaching for their ankles and hoping for at least a considerate reach-around?

With twice the trading history and nearly four times the staff, Man Con will clearly be the one causing any squealing heard in the Quay Street vicinity. The direct route into brands and agencies offered through its relationship with How-do will also clearly benefit its expansion plans.

Do not disturb: merger in progress

The benefits to How-Do will be less visible. It previously employed some eight staff across How-Do and Place North West, the property site it acquired two years ago. That’s a lot of mouths to be fed from two websites - particularly when creative services recruitment and property in general have both been hard hit by the current economic situation.

Undoubtedly, the greater sharing of resources will transform the financial landscape for How-Do, though savings will have to come from somewhere. Whether personnel cuts come on the MC or HD side remains somewhat blurred, with the joint statement from the two publishers stating only that “total staff headcount will be 32”.

How-Do II

That same statement also says: “We also intend to exploit Confidential’s broader geographical reach.” With Liverpool already within How-Do’s remit and London, frankly, a non-starter for regional publishers in the marketing sector, Leeds is obviously the prime contender for How-Do II.

Ay up, there's trouble at 't Poulters

If anything, marketing communications and media in Yorkshire are even more poorly served in terms of coverage than they were in the North West. The MEN at least pays lip service to media coverage, while the Yorkshire Post has long disdained such matters in favour of the financial services sector.

The Yorkshire market is very different to that in the North West, despite their proximity. Yorkshire has never had a media community akin to that of the North West, largely because it has historically had far fewer media buying or selling points.

Its lack of a scene is a huge boost for recruitment prospects however. While Manchester creative directors, for instance, all know each other and have an awareness of emerging talents in other agencies, many Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford agencies toil away in blissful isolation.

The lack of a media scene in Yorkshire, though, will mean that How-Do will have to up its game in terms of coverage of the creative sector. Placing more emphasis on new campaigns and design work will be key to drawing in the Yorkshire players.

With the huge shortfall in media stories in the region compared to the NW, this will be essential to the success of How Do II (or “Ay up” as it perhaps should be christened). It also wouldn’t be a bad direction for the North West mothership to expand into.

Cross-selling on recruitment, with staff frequently migrating both ways across the Pennines, will hugely add to HD’s offer. Creating an entirely separate editorial offering will also be crucial. Trying to blend the coverage of the two regions would be a dilution and not an enhancement.

There is also ample opportunity for HD to push into media awards events in Yorkshire. Yorkshire has been running its own awards event, through the largely ineffective and somewhat unrepresentative Yorkshire Publicity Association, for some 20 years.

Historically, it was a 300-strong event held in Rudding Park or the Queen’s Hotel. This year, two years after the event was entrusted to the Carnyx Group, the cottage industry behind The Drum, no ceremony was held. Instead the results were read out in a hotel bar in Leeds. It’s fallen a long way fast, leaving an open door for How-Do and its new chums.

Editorial resource

As well as a new focus on creativity and a move into Yorkshire, the greater editorial resource now open to HD could benefit the site in other ways. Restrictions on staff numbers and an absentee editor often saw HD unable to properly follow-up on stories, often waiting passively for updates rather than taking the initiative.

Similarly, How-Do has been a little hamstrung when it has come to providing off-diary feature stories, relying instead on its hugely comprehensive news feed. How-do has become an astonishingly robust brand in the NW in a remarkably short period of time, the addition of bespoke feature material and industry comments will ensure its position remains inviolable, while shutting up a number of the critics of its “open access” policy.

So, will it work and is it desirable? Does this merger create a dynamic new partnership or does it amount to How-Do selling its arse like a Minshull St whore on a crack comedown?

It will inevitably allow Jaspan to take more of a back seat. How-do has taken up the majority of his time for the last four years and he is keen to work on other projects, while keeping an interest in the site. While Jaspan is a “plate-spinner”, Garner is an empire builder, with the Confidential brand the solus focus of his ambitions.

Jaspan: "plate-spinner"

The motivations of the two men for doing the deal are different. For Jaspan, it means he is no longer lashed to How-Do’s wheel. For Garner, it means a direct route into brand owners, agencies and media buyers. It also sees him strengthening his offers in Leeds and Liverpool.

It is unlikely that Man Con readers will notice any substantial differences in the months to come. How-Do readers, though, may well see a little Garner-ization beginning to emerge. Tempered with a degree of discretion and an element of enlightened self-interest, this may be no bad thing. For the foreseeable future, at least, Jaspan will also be around to safeguard a brand that he has long-nourished and will not wish to see undermined.

Overall, it could have been far worse. A number of different players have, at one time or another, been mooted as potential suitors for How-Do. Frankly it could have been far worse.

Garner: "empire builder"

The Carnyx Group would have been the worst possible option. The Glasgow-based publishers have long looked at How-Do with envious eyes, irked to the extreme that the site stole its most lucrative market so easily. It has also seen its own Manchester events, notably the Roses Advertising and Design Awards, shunned by both sponsors and attendees, while HD now sells 600 tickets for its own flagship event.

So to those naysayers to the HD/Man Con merger, I say this – at least it means that, this time next year, all North West media and marketing coverage won’t be down to a semi-literate intern in the G1 postal code district. Nor will the 2012 How-Do awards be distributed, over nibbles and crisps, in the front bar of the Peveril of the Peak. Bit of a result, I reckon.

Disappointing turnout at Roses 2012