Sir Martin Sorrell: traditional media too 'stuffy' for young digital readers

Sir Martin Sorrell has cited the BBC, the New York Times and the Guardian as examples of traditional media with a “stuffy” attitude to content that is not resonating with younger digital news fans gravitating to sites such as Vice News.

Sorrell made the “stuffy” reference at several different sessions at the Cannes Lions festival -- each time claiming he then perhaps used the wrong word -- to encapsulate why he believed Vice was more attractive to a youth audience. “What I was getting at, maybe ‘stuffy’ is the wrong word, is that younger people trust different sources,” he said. “Or, they look at different sources, or look at sources differently to the way we trust them. We naturally trust the BBC, the New York Times or the Guardian. But younger people, centennials or millennials, don’t naturally feel that way. If they see something on Buzzfeed or Vice, or watching Periscope, the way they react to it is very different.”