The Interesting Future Of Print Journalism And Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro In 2019 With Sean Mahon

What is your background briefly?

I’m from Sheffield, so a proud Yorkshireman. I’m also a life long Sheffield Wednesday fan so it’s been a tough season especially as our fierce rivals Sheffield United have just made it back to the Premier League. I spent many years in London working in marketing and media, mostly for national and local newspaper groups across both the traditional print and digital sides of their operations.

My wife Jess is from West Cork and we met in London and then as our family started to grow we took the big step to relocate to West Cork…mostly because I had this romantic notion of living by the sea! We’ve been here 12 years now and I’ve been running the Southern Star business for 10 years last week and and we haven’t looked back!

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Yes absolutely, why not! At the end of the day I’m a firm believer that wherever you are in the world people and customers have the same motivations and tend to want the same things whatever industry you’re in or whatever the size of your market – quality products and services that are relevant and useful for them in their day to day lives, excellent customer service and appropriate pricing.

What is important here in West Cork though is the importance of making sure our business, The Southern Star, is at the heart of the community, making sure we get involved locally with supporting people, business, sport, charities etc and above all bringing the personal touch so that our customers can interact with us so that we can help wherever we can by keeping the region connected.

At the end of the day that’s what we do, we keep people informed and connected via a range of platforms, products and services all under the famous Southern Star brand.

What was the appeal of working in West Cork after being in London?

How about a ten-minute commute to work for starters! Funnily enough, I probably do similar hours to what I did in London but my time is much more productive because I’m not sat on a train or on the M25 motorway for 1.5hrs twice a day so I’m not exhausted at the end of a week from commuting. I can put in a long week here at The Southern Star and then on a Friday night be sat in a kayak on alongside my kids or be having a swim in the sea within half an hour of leaving the office.

Throw into that the incredible coastal scenery, eclectic mix of people that you find living down here, great fresh food and safe environment to raise a family in, well West Cork ticks a good few boxes.

On the business side of things, I really relished the opportunity and challenge of taking the reins of a traditional business that is 130 years old but firstly needed careful navigation through one of the worst recessions that Ireland has seen (around 2009) but then needed refocusing and remodelling as ‘the’ local news and information brand for West Cork in order to give it a sustainable future into the twenty first century.

How does a local print newspaper survive in 2019 and beyond? What interesting/innovative things are you doing to maintain your audience and to ensure a revenue stream too?

Even though our print newspaper is still the main revenue driver for our business and we have a really talented team working on it and holding up it’s circulation and advertising we realised we needed to also diversify and evolve our business to develop new revenue streams for the future.

We now publish 25+ magazines every year targeting specific markets, eg Weddings, Farming, Courses & Training, West Fork (food) and we also developed the ’50 Things to See & Do…’ range of mags designed to target tourists and locals and we now publish this title in eight different tourism locations including Killarney and The Ring of Kerry as well as West Cork’s key visitor towns.

We’ve also invested a lot into developing our digital operations and have West Cork’s biggest digital audience across our web and social media platforms and this revenue stream is growing each year.

We’ve created the ‘Southern Star Studio’ which allows us to create short promotional videos for clients as part of their sponsored content packages (ie. in paper article + web article + video + social media) and this is getting really good traction as advertisers can now reach a much bigger combined audience with more frequency by using all our platforms, both print & digital.

We launched the West Cork Business & Tourism Awards last year which was a great success and has become a revenue generator. We also have Southern Star Creative, our marketing services function which provides design, print, digital and promotional products and services for local businesses including looking after the publishing needs of some big clients like the ‘A Taste of West Cork’ food festival and the ‘Doing Business in Kinsale’ initiative.

Basically we look at how we can develop new products and services that sit logically under our Southern Star brand and in line with our core skill sets and that will appeal to different B2C and B2B audiences across West Cork and even beyond.

Do you think we will still have print based media in the future? If so, why / why not?

That’s a good question and I think it depends on what point in the future you are referring to! There’s no doubt that more and more content is migrating online and will continue to do so but I think we will still have print media for a good few years to come.

I think the most important thing for the future of ‘traditional’ media organisations is to recognise that it’s becoming increasingly important for people to be able to trust the sources of information that they consume in a world where fake news and attempts to manipulate opinions will probably only continue to increase.

This is where I see the opportunity for media organisations, especially the print media brands (whether they be local, national or international) as they evolve their digital operations. We sacrifice that trust at our peril.

Who are your sources of inspiration both in the media and in wider life?

In the media, Greta Thunberg. How can she not be inspiring?

In wider life, people who are positive and not afraid to approach life from a different perspective but ultimately get things done. I find that inspiring.

How can people find out more about you & your work?

This short video https://youtu.be/T7ElWT7q-58 gives you a flavour of what we do commercially. You can also visit www.southernstar.ie Also, anybody is welcome to email me at any time or visit my LinkedIn page and message me that way.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you to my staff who work so hard and are passionate about producing the best local news and information media platforms for West Cork possible. Thanks to all our loyal customers for supporting the business over the years. Thanks also to the people and the business community of West Cork and Cork city who have been so welcoming and helpful to me since I arrived a decade ago. And thank you to my proactive and progressive board directors for their ongoing support, trust and backing.

What should we have asked?

– What’s your guilty secret?
I have to admit to being a bit of a Coronation Street addict, it’s the Northerner in me!

– What are you doing this summer?
I’m climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and then for a bit of extra spice running the world’s highest half marathon route from the top at just under 20,000ft all the way down to the national park below. It’s a mid-life crisis thing! I’m trying to raise funds for Bantry Hospice which do essential care work here for people in West Cork and also for Multiple Sclerosis research and support. If you want to donate a few quid please visit https://www.gofundme.com/seankilichallenge19

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