Daybreak – the classic example of a relaunch train wreck

Raymond Snoddy on what went wrong: When it comes to relaunches, gentle, gradual, evolutionary change is obviously best. But everyone forgets that. The excitement of the new and shiny takes over. Daybreak managed to put its finger on every mistake it was possible to make and include it in the big plan…

Media memories are notoriously short.

It was said of Greg Dyke that he had the attention span of a gnat. It was always about now and the decision that had to be taken that moment. Next.

Yet there are some enduring truths in such a febrile world and ITV’s breakfast offering Daybreak, despite some recent modest improvements in its ratings, is living proof of one of them.

The most dangerous time for a newspaper, a magazine, a long-running radio or television programme is the moment someone very senior decides it’s time for The Relaunch.

Money will be applied by the bucket-load, columnists/presenters will be sacked/changed and there will be new colours, a new set, new page designs as appropriate for the particular media outlet.

Sometimes the relaunch comes when there is a change of editor or owner but usually it comes from a perfectly reasonable desire to improve, to move forward and increase circulation numbers or ratings.

Somewhere in the recesses of industrial collective memory there is the realisation that a relaunch is a dangerous thing to do. There is the tacit acknowledgement that the trick must be to do just enough to attract new customers without alienating the old. Gentle, gradual, evolutionary change is obviously best.

But then everyone forgets. The excitement of the new and shiny takes over and the millions are spent on new high profile presenters and dramatic hi-tech studios.

We are off and running yet again for another relaunch disaster.

For some reason this universal truth is particularly acute for breakfast television, perhaps in the forlorn hope that a dent can finally be made in the public’s “irrational” historic attachment to old fashioned steam radio in the early morning.

Actually it’s more about habit and about people wanting to be eased gently into the day. Sudden changes of direction or disruptions do not seem to play well, particularly at breakfast.

But everyone forgets.

They spent millions on a new set at Sky and brought high profile presenters from “real” telly such as Eamonn Holmes and the audience plummeted.

But the classic example of the relaunch train wreck is Daybreak and if academic studies are not yet underway to detail exactly what went wrong, then it can only be a matter of time.

Even ITV’s chief executive Adam Crozier admitted earlier this month that Daybreak had “not performed as we would have hoped”, though it had improved over the past few months. Indeed but only up to a point.

The improvement had taken the audience all the way up to an average of 800,000, around 100,000 fewer viewers than GMTV, an achievement that cost something like £10 million.

There was also the free hit for BBC Breakfast, which increased its audience by 300,000 without spending an extra penny.

The academic study will be instructive and will highlight not just the perils of the dramatic relaunch but also how Daybreak managed to put its finger on every mistake it was possible to make and include it in the big plan.

You don’t get rid of all your existing presenters at once. The disruption and the minor sense of loss involved just gives your audience permission to look around and try something else.

If for some reason you can’t resist the dramatic then you need to be very careful whom you replace them with and above all pay attention to the interests and characteristic of your key audience.

In this case the core of the audience is made up of women and children – the sort of people who would typically watch Emmerdale or Coronation Street.

For many years GMTV carried virtually no sport after 6.15am in full recognition of the interests of that audience.

So naturally you go and hire that most blokish of football fans Adrian Chiles who is never happier than when talking about West Brom and who is being groomed as the face of ITV football.

Then you pair him with his sofa chum from The One Show, Christine Bleakley, completely disregarding the fact that they were a success with the very people who were not watching the soaps at the time.

The error has been more recently compounded in her case through her relationship with Chelsea’s multi-millionaire captain Frank Lampard.

The evidence is that struggling mothers with children do not care a great deal for the antics of the WAGS and their effortless wealth.

Then there was the decision to major on the Daybreak theme with the London sunrise live before us.

It must have seemed a great idea at the time – September – when the day did actually break during key times of the programme. Surely someone could have anticipated the arrival of winter. It happens with monotonous regularity every year.

Then there is the problem of highlighting the London skyline, when you can see it, even though most of your viewers do not live in London and you are supposed to be producing a national programme not South East Today.

On top of the coldness of the studio design you compound all of the above by getting  rid of most of the people who know how to produce a comfortable breakfast show.

There is only one hope for Daybreak and that comes from the BBC, which is about to shoot itself in the foot by moving Breakfast to Salford.

This is being done not because anyone thinks it is a good idea but because the body count in Salford was too low and a big programme had to move to boost the numbers.

We will know soon how many presenters and experienced staff will feel unable to move north because of understandable family commitments.

In future it will be a down-the-line programme with the usual suspects from the world of politics, music and books being interviewed down the line from studios in London by presenters – whoever they turn out to be – marooned on the Salford sofas.

At long last Daybreak has been given a slice of luck. The suckers have at last been given an even break – by the BBC.