Day two of Print Week saw Peter Kellner, former Newsnight reporter & President of YouGov alongside the political editors of The Mail, The Evening Standard, The Telegraph, The Times, The Sun, The Mirror and The Guardian come to OMD UK to discuss the role of Newsbrands in the upcoming EU referendum debate. A live pre-debate poll from OMD UK showed that over 70% of us would vote to stay in the EU if the referendum happened tomorrow.
All papers were in agreement that they wanted their editorial to reflect their readers opinions. They mentioned that until papers are committed to ‘in’ or ‘out’ (something that doesn’t happen until the later stages of the campaign) they should interpret the debate on their readers’ behalf and not dictate how they should vote. It was also noted how print still has the freedom to take a side, not something that broadcasters can do.
Pro-exit titles felt that they needed to be the voice of exit as remain has the full backing of the government machine. They also discussed that ‘leave’ had to make the case for change or else voters will stick with the status quo.
The debate was well received and shows how Newsbrands are still number one when it comes to influencing the nations politics.
