May 29, 2008
A Tiered Approach to Content
Perspectives from Chris Anderson
At the top of the pyramid would be traditional journalism, in which writers and editors obsess over every single word and image, and fight tooth and nail for exclusive access to sources on behalf of their readers. At the bottom of the pyramid would be reader comments, Twitters, and blog posts linking to the mainstream stories of the media outlet. And in the middle would be a mingling of the two, where the best comments and audience blog posts bubble up and meet with reporter blogs and group blogs.
Stories from the top of the pyramid would run high-CPM ads sold by the media company’s salesforce, while the Long-Tail comments and blog posts at the bottom of the pyramid would run Long-Tail ads from AdSense and other ad networks. As stories move up the pyramid, they would tap into higher CPM ads.
I have not been able to find a more complete transcript of Anderson’s presentation, but will post a link to it if I do.
May 13, 2008
Newspaper Survival Tactics: Context And Substance
By Diane Mermigas
MediaPost Editor-At-Large Diane Mermigas, one of my favorite commentators, recently weighed in on newspaper strategies. Mermigas suggests that newspapers should focus on one of their key core competencies: “delivering more of the contextual analysis and in-depth reporting that’s all too scarce in the slapdash interactive marketplace.”
Mermigas writes:
Elevating news content above commodity status by creating value with meaningful context and analysis does not have to be an exercise in futility. It can be a unique refuge from the bombardment of quick-fix news–and a boon to advertisers willing to pay a premium for association. Integrate enticing uses of interactivity–beyond the usual pedestrian applications–and it becomes a deeper dive into information that consumers can use.
Among her suggestions:
· Make information mobile and universal, distributing to where consumers are congregating
· Focus on quality, and treat top-notch journalists as valuable assets
· Reinvent the product and execute better than the competition
· Leverage deep community connections to remain relevant deep into your market
· Avoid being just an aggregator: “Mandate original content, enterprising analysis and reader engagement.”
To read the full column, click here.
May 06, 2008
World's Editors Weigh in On Future of Newspapers
Survey Results from World Editors Forum and Reuters
A survey conducted by Zogby International for the World Editors Forum and Reuters indicates that editors “remain confident about a mixed-media future and have quietly got on with the business of integrating their newsrooms," but this is "tempered by anxiety that newspapers are not investing enough in recruitment and training for the future," according to World Editors Forum president George Brock.
· 86% believe integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm, and 83% believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years.
· A plurality - 44% - believe on-line will be the most common platform for reading news in the future, compared with 41% last year. Thirty-one cited print (down from 35% last year), 12% mobile and 7% e-paper. The rest were unsure.
· A majority of editors - 56%- believe news in the future will be free, up from 48% from last year's survey. Only one-third believe the news will remain paid for, while 11% were unsure.
· Two-thirds believe some editorial functions will be outsourced, despite frequent newsroom opposition to the practice.
May 02, 2008
Horizon Watching
Strategy Resources from NAA
Over the past decade, NAA’s Horizon Watching Initiative has provided strategic recommendations to newspapers, based on the collective thinking of some of the top newspaper strategic thinkers. Here are links to some key resources:
Recent Reports
Original Reports
April 07, 2008
Future of Newspapers Refresher
For those who are new to this blog, in November 2007 we posted commentaries on the future of newspapers from 23 different thought leaders. Those commentaries were complied into a PDF available here.
Since those original posts, we have been updating the blog with thoughts and perspectives from a diverse set of folks, mostly from opinions posted in other blogs. We will continue to aggregate visions for the future of newspapers on this blog.
Break Up the Newspapers
From "New Media Bytes" Blog
Shawn Smith, senior news producer for Mlive.com, suggests on his New Media Bytes blog that newspapers should blow up the traditional print and online product into a variety of niche publications/sites, each able to go deeper into content areas than newspapers do today.
Shawn writes:
Break up newspapers into their related sections. Make the traditional paper into a strictly local front section, largely cutting down on wire copy, and then put out multiple niche publications for the different sections. New print publications can become aggregators of the best content on the wire and web. These niche publications can cover specific issues more in-depth and in interesting ways.
Next, think about breaking up the websites. Make sections into communities and even consider breaking them out into microsites. This is an idea that got floated at the Toronto ONA conference that I think some attendees failed to recognize how revolutionary it could be for them. If online marketers can cash in big with niche sites, why can’t news orgs?
You can read the full blog post here.
April 01, 2008
Maybe It's Time to Panic
From "The American Journalism Review"
AJR Senior Editor Carl Sessions Stepp argues that the changes impacting the newspaper business is not in the nature of news but the role of the journalist. Stepp writes:
Today journalists stand not at the head of the pipeline but in the middle of a boundless web of interconnected media, messages, senders and receivers. This is the new, right-brain, digital world.
The journalist-in-the-middle is a ringmaster, a maker and a consumer, a grand impresario of a two-way information flow that has no beginning, end or fixed schedule.
Journalists no longer control content and format. Anyone with a computer can become a publisher. An independent blogger can scoop the pros. A kid with a cell phone can distribute the day's most compelling video.
Ultimately this interactivity may be the most influential change of all.
Stepp offers a variety of ideas and suggestions to re-invigorate the product and make it “astonishingly, irresistibly better,” focused on the newspaper enterprise as the organizer/aggregator/synthesizer of information important to consumers.
Read the full article here.
Chris Anderson's View of Newspapers
From "The Long Tail" Blog
“The Long Tail” author Chris Anderson, on his Long Tail blog, shows a Gawker chart on newspaper revenue trends over the past 25 years and ads some much needed perspective on the state of the industry (down 10% from the industry’s peak in 2005, but still very strong).
Chris writes:
The truth is that the newspaper business is still a huge industry and will be around in one form or another for the rest of my life. That is not to dismiss the declines, but only to note that there's still a lot of money there and what is required is strategic change, not giving up the ghost.
Read the full blog post here.
March 24, 2008
Ted Leonsis' Take on Newspapers
From "Ted's Take" Blog
The former AOL Vice Chairman and current owner of the NHL's Washington Capitals offers a ten-point plan for newspapers to re-invent themselves. Although most of his recipes for success have been covered here and elsewhere, his emphasis on new skill sets, syndication and local ad networks are worth noting.
For example, on networks, he writes:
Embrace and extend your reach locally by building a great digital sales force and then network and ingest local unique visitors, page views and engagement from third parties. Do locally what Advertising.com has done nationally, superset the region by creating a network of affiliates and build up massive scale of local sites. Promote them in your print-based property.
On new skill sets:
What is needed is a team of people that know how to work and create blog rolls and how to get the content up high into the algorithms so that when a consumer searches the newspaper's content it comes up high in the rankings. Knowing statistically what content gets the best click through across all media is a key deliverable. Newspapers need math majors running big swaths of the organization.
It is also interesting to note how digital pioneers like Ted Leonsis still care – and take the time to blog -- about the future of the newspaper franchise.
Read Ted's full blog post here.
March 14, 2008
Forget, Borrow and Learn
By Scott Anthony
NBC Universal and News Corp. this week formally launched their new joint venture Hulu.com, an online video service. Scott Anthony, president of innovation consulting and investing company Innosight, comments on a Harvard Business School blog about how two incumbent (i.e. traditional) media companies were able to “use the power of disruptive innovation to their advantage.”
February 20, 2008
OC Register Articulates Strategy
Although more near-term focused than other entries in this blog, an article in the Orange Country Register describes that newspaper’s strategic direction as articulated by new publisher Terry Horne. The strategy acknowledges that the traditional print product is now a niche product serving a distinct segment and that the path to growth is through more targeted print and digital products. According to the article,
Terry Horne, the new publisher of The Orange County Register, is betting on free community newspapers, expanded Web offerings and a smaller Register newspaper to help the company weather falling ad revenue and declining circulation….
Horne believes the combination of offerings will fill gaps for both readers and advertisers. The subscription-based Register will include premium content targeted at a mostly older readership. Free community weeklies go to a broader base with a hyper-local focus. OCregister.com will provide free content to a younger audience. Local advertisers will have a similar choice to get their message out on any or all of these platforms….
Other changes on the horizon include:
- A narrower paper, with the width of each page shrinking by 1 inch in late summer or fall.
- Joining a consortium with other companies, to be announced soon, that will share advertising and news content.
- Considering the expansion of the free Irvine World News/OC Post tabloid to five days a week from three and possibly rolling out the concept in other communities.
- A new Web site, www.OrangeCounty.com, which will be a destination portal for people around the world planning to visit or move here.
To read the full article, click here.
December 20, 2007
Disaggregating Newspaper Functions
By Dave Morgan
Dave Morgan, former Tacoda chairman and now executive vice president of global advertising strategy at AOL, authored another in a series of thoughtful analyses and recommendations for the newspaper industry.
Dave argued, in his weekly column on Online Spin, that newspapers should disaggregate their businesses. He writes:
Most newspapers don’t have a core competency. They have several. They are much closer to vertical monopolies than they are to point solution providers. They are not just news gatherers and reporters and editors. They are printing companies. They are distribution companies. They are ad sales companies. They are direct marketing companies. They are digital media companies. Many are good at all of these functions. Digital competition and audience fragmentation are fracturing the business models that have built these great, vertically integrated companies. While they are clearly not sustainable as they are, they might be quite sustainable in horizontal pieces.
The full blog post is available here.
November 21, 2007
Future of Newspapers:
The Book
All of the commentaries on this blog are now available in a pdf (a perfect gift for the holidays). You can access the PDF here.
November 19, 2007
Other Perspectives
By Various Commentators
The 23 essays on this blog offer perspectives from "big thinkers" that we asked to contribute to this project. We thank them for sharing their insights and for their passion about the future of this medium.
We certainly hope this isn't the last word on this blog. We've received inquiries from others who would like to "officially" offer their thoughts and we welcome those perspectives. We also encourage you to add your comments and feedback to ideas and strategies proffered throughout these entries.
Or, if you've seen other commentariesor resources related to this topic, please let us know. Below are some we've come across lately that are particularly thoughtful. Other useful resources are available under the Strategy section of the NAA Web site.
From the American Press Institute
What Have We Got? Paper, People and Place
By Michael A. Silver
As the newspaper industry goes through painful restructuring for the next few years, I think we’ll find—or perhaps more accurately, rediscover—a few key pillars to rebuild upon. They include the talent of professional journalists, the power of local presence and the potency of the print medium itself.
|
|
