Role of audiences in corporate strategy will determine publisher success in decade ahead

In the past month, INMA has released two reports I authored:

“Recreating Value for News Content In an Age of Abundance.”

“Newsmedia Outlook 2010: Last Minutes of Danger, Last Minutes of Opportunity.”

What ties the two reports together is the raging discussion at most newspapers today about the role of audiences in corporate strategy.

Audiences are atomising. Instead of one big homogenous audience for general-interest content delivered in print form, technology is opening up new options for content sources and style while simultaneously creating new ways to access that content.

The result is a mad dash to understand the new audience segments and maximise the new value formula of “audience + content + platform.”

This would be happening regardless of today's recession. Yet the recession – and subsequent acceleration of key advertising categories to the internet – has intensified the need to monetise content outside the traditional publisher model. And the only ...[more]

E&P's demise a sober lesson for newspapers

The Nielsen Company announced last week that it would close Editor & Publisher (E&P) magazine by year's end after 125 years of reporting on the U.S. newspaper industry. No official reason was given, though one can guess the lack of growth prospects and tepid profitability were the culprits.

As of this writing, there remains a distant hope that a “white knight” will save E&P. There's been an amazing outpouring of support and sentiment in the past few days. Whether that can be translated into the preservation of this institution is unknown.

In any event, the events of the past week provide lessons to be learned for publishers.

Let me start by saying the Nielsen announcement profoundly affected me. It was the equivalent of a relative dying. It literally stopped me down for several hours. From what I can see online, others had a similarly emotional reaction.

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Applying a popular remedy to the audience cauldron of big regional dailies

Two broad demographic trends are bearing down on newsmedia companies:

Working-class consumers and general-interest regional newspapers are separated and nearing divorce. News – on paper or digitally – is less relevant for this stagnant part of society, publishers are no longer focused on their needs, and fewer advertisers want to reach this demographic.

Upper-class consumers are consuming more news than ever before, yet are multiplying their platforms beyond print to smarter and faster versions of the World Wide Web via computer internet and mobile.

As the veil lifts higher on newspaper demographics, long-time fissures are being exposed through segmentation.

The newspaper industry is often portrayed as a one-size-fits-all industry. It's not. There are several kinds of daily newspapers in the world, notably:

“Quality” national dailies.
“Popular” national dailies.
Regional dailies.
Financial dailies.
Sports dailies.

The regional dailies make up the majority of the 10,000+ dailies worldwide and a majority of the newspaper circulation worldwide. ...[more]

Life after newspapers

Have you ever seen the History Channel series “Life After People”? The idea behind this series is that if people suddenly disappeared, what would happen to the Earth? In sometimes graphic detail, the series looks at what happens to animals, plants, cities, and the ecosystem.

Similarly, an entire cottage industry has emerged to ponder “life after newspapers.”

On the one hand, you have those who believe people will walk around uninformed, presumably running into walls with stupidity. On the other hand, you have those who believe in a better world in which all information is free and people share so much that we're all better informed.

What the History Channel series teaches us is that natural law trumps all. Without people interfering, nature runs its course. Buildings crumble, animals evolve, deserts eventually become river beds, and so on.

If newspapers disappeared tomorrow, the functions they serve in society would largely be taken over by two groups:

Bloggers, amateurs, ...[more]

Use the Digital Taliban for what they are: parameters and change agents (not business model experts)

This week, INMA released a new report titled “Recreating Value for News Content In an Age of Abundance.” I authored the report, which injects the consumer into the newsmedia industry's paid content debate – a rarity. I hope it adds dimension and insight into the complex discussions about paid content happening at media companies worldwide (click here for more on this report or click here listen to a podcast interview with E&P's Fitz & Jen).

As I move on from this report to tackle the next report for INMA (“Newsmedia Outlook 2010”), I'd like to reflect on something disturbing that I took away from researching the “Recreating Value for News Content” report.

I don't know where this fits, but I need to get this off my chest.

Like learning Santa Claus wasn't real, I no longer believe in the Digital Utopiasts who spread good cheer and ...[more]

Eyeballs at any cost: “value” from a link economy or the prerequisite to paid content?

INMA will soon release a report about recreating the market value for news content, a snapshot of the paid content debate – with lots of INMA twists involving a global view, other media industries, a marketing vantage point, and my interactions with the subject visiting publishers worldwide.

I authored the report, which aims to demonstrate four broad themes:

Creating value for content will require publishers to carve scarcity from an abundance of information.

Value is about a smart linking of unique content with a tightly defined audience with an effective platform.

Generating value in the consumer’s mind is a pre-condition for placing a price tag on content.

“Value” to publishers employing professional journalists must have a tangible, financial return on investment.

Central to the new report is the most misunderstood word in the paid content debate: “value.”

When the smartest digital consultants talk about a “link economy” that builds “value” (think Jeff Jarvis, ...[more]

Second Wave of newspaper cutbacks under way

Why, newspaper industry? Why?

In visiting with a wide range of North American and European newspaper executives in recent weeks, I'm sensing a Second Wave of cutbacks entering 2010. I'm trying to make sense of it.

First, there are companies that – inexplicably – held off cutbacks earlier this year gambling on better times ahead. All of these companies have reached their tipping points and are cutting now – especially editorial-heavy “quality” dailies.

Second, there are “moving parts” cutbacks. That is, CEOs that leave and the entire foundation upon which their companies operate collapse with their departures.

Third, there are production cutbacks that will continue through the next decade as technology evolves and centralisation and outsourcing become the norm.

Fourth – and the most devastating – cutbacks in areas like CRM, market intelligence, understanding consumers and advertisers, and knowledge-based strategic decision-making. The progressive companies bravely kept them in the bad times, but don't have the ...[more]

Before the good times return, focus on newsmedia, CRM, content values, new marketing, and audience engagement beyond journalism

I have in front of me three strategic priority lists from:

One of North America's leading media companies.

One of Europe's leading media companies.

The INMA Board of Directors for 2010.

Everybody seems to be circling around a few key themes, so let me bring them together in one location.

The “how” of newsmedia: First, INMA changed its name two years ago from “newspaper” to “newsmedia” and explained to the world why this was necessary for us and the companies we serve. We spent 2009 explaining what a multi-platform newsmedia company might look like. In 2010, we will spend a lot of energy showing how to make the transition – very practical stuff from the commercial side to the editorial side.

Real CRM: Second, I wrote a book 11 years ago titled Newspapers and CRM. Don't worry: it's old and should be thrown away. Because the key lesson from that book was that newspapers can buy ...[more]

Pearls of wisdom from the road: reinvent or die, nuances of brand extension, and too much content

One of the tragedies of today's recession is that many newspaper executives are unable to attend the many wonderful industry conferences that provide opportunities for rejuvenation. You can look at the PowerPoint presentations and hear the reports, but this captures perhaps 20% of actually being there.

One can't innovate from a cave, though a few publishers are trying to prove me wrong.

I attended a few of these conferences in recent weeks, including the INMA/OPA Europe Conference in Liverpool. Below are three presentations that piqued my curiosity.

Reinvent newspapers based on profitable audiences, multi-media, differentiation

Juan Señor, partner with Innovation Media Consulting Group, told the INMA/OPA Europe conference in Liverpool of the four great choices facing newspapers in this rapidly changing marketplace: a) exit; b) sold or be taken over; c) cut until the cash cow bleeds to death; or d) reinvent the business by focusing on profitable audiences.

Señor lamented the vanilla journalism that ...[more]

Outlook for newsmedia in 2010: my initial thoughts

I'm preparing for 10 days of conferences, board meetings, and press interviews about my outlook for media companies in 2010. I don't yet have a “lead” to the story. Yet in keynote presentations at the SNPA, Inland, and INMA conferences in Naples, Chicago, and Liverpool in the coming days, I'll be expected to have a “lead.”

Here's what I know.

2010 will mark the year in which newspapers decide what they want to be post-recession. Real economic growth will return in 2011, as will further disruptions to the status quo such as the semantic web.

The newspapers that shifted expenditures to marketing, sales, research, and digital entrepreneurialism in 2009-2010 will be the ones who succeeded in turning danger into opportunity.

I fear most newspapers simply scaled their expenses to the revenue reality – across the board. And as you know, we don't have “across the board” challenges in our industry. Our challenges are unevenly distributed.

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