Entries Tagged as Speakers
Wilkinson closes conference by asking, “What’s next?”
08 May 2012
An Encyclopedia Britannica salesperson came to Earl Wilkinson’s home nearly 40 years ago, wanting to sell the family of the future executive director and CEO of INMA books for an “astronomical rate.”
That set and all the others Encyclopedia Britannica has published since 1768 are now collectors’ items. The company announced in April it will stop printing hard copies of the world’s longest-running encyclopedia.
“For some reason, as I close this conference, this story rings very vivid,” Wilkinson said.
After 25 presentations over three days, Wilkinson finished off the 82nd INMA World Congress — themed “New Oxygen, New Growth” — on Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t just want to close this conference,” Wilkinson said. “I’d like to close an era.”
Like Encyclopedia Britannica had to do, Wilkinson spent his 40-minute presentation asking “What’s next?” from INMA delegates in attendance at the J.W. Marriott/L.A. Live in Los Angeles.
Media outlets around the world have come to similar points over the last year and a half, Wilkinson said, knowing they have to go digital but unsure how to monetise online publishing.
He urged newspapers to move away from an “organising model” — aggregation, one deadline a day, and light expertise on a large number of subjects — in favour of a more niche operation.
“At the end of the day — today — Encyclopedia Britannica is more profitable but an infinitely smaller business,” Wilkinson said. “That’s not a bad landing, but I’d suggest we could do better.”
Wilkinson’s message wasn’t necessarily aimed at The New York Times and Los Angeles Times companies of the media world, but rather the publications that can be unique to a market. Other metro dailies need a new brand — a brand that revolves around convenience, relevance, consumption choice, and empowerment, he said.
“I don’t believe we can be great at dozens of stories … most of us are not in that league,” Wilkinson said. “We’ve got to pick and prioritise in the digital age with what we want to do.”
...[more]Gannett redesigns business model to maximise efficiency
08 May 2012
Gannett is the largest newspaper group in the United States, yet two years ago, the company decided it was not the world-class media player it wanted to — and could — be.
That bit of honest self-evaluation launched the company on an improvement programme that Vice President/Advertising Leslie Giallombardo outlined to INMA on Tuesday.
“If we really want to stand out for our customers and be valid and vital, we need that competitive differentiation,” she said.
What Gannett needed was a strong competitive advantage.
Historically, Gannett focused on sales month to month. Now the company is moving to long-term sales, focusing on quarterly, which Giallombardo said is best for customers. Employees needed to be more consultative and sell solutions that get results, she added.
...[more]Chisholm cites need for print-digital linkage to save newspapers
08 May 2012
Jim Chisholm likes the old-fashioned feel of thumbing through a printed newspaper.
And despite the trend to digital everything, the European-based consultant and analyst urged participants in the 82nd INMA World Congress not to give up on the printed medium. Rather, he said, they need to do a better job capitalising on print’s position in the media value chain.
“I think we’ve forgotten what brands are,” he told the Los Angeles audience.
Print is going to fund the industry into the future, but there also needs to be a linkage between print and digital media, he said. Both can be successful if media outlets figure out how to best use both platforms to market each other.
...[more]Panel featuring Tumblr, YouTube employees pushes engagement
08 May 2012
A three-person panel spoke Tuesday at the INMA World Congress about the next generation for social media engagement and news publishers.
Convergence, influence, and conscience: These are the three key words Claire Hawley, director of audience acquisition at the Los Angeles Times digital edition, wanted delegates at the 82nd INMA World Congress to take with them after her presentation on Tuesday. In particular, Hawley discussed how the L.A. Times is launching social media advertising packages and exploring how advertisements can reach their audience.
A Times’ Web site registration feature allows users to connect to Facebook and Twitter. And by adding a “like” button on the top of their masthead, the Times staff also tripled the number of “likes” their Web site had on Facebook.
“With small modifications you can get a lot more audience,” Hawley said.
The Times, which Hawley said is aiming for an aged 18-34 target audience, is looking at convergence through Google’s Search Plus Your World, which takes into account a user’s network and information when finding search results.
Hawley also emphasised influence, which the newspaper gains by interacting with users. She compared posts on two Times Facebook pages — the main news page, which had a number of “likes” and comments, and then an automated sports feed with little reader feedback.
“You’d think that’d be a no brainer, but we’re still seeing a lot of companies using auto feeds,” she said. “In the long run, this can only hurt you.”
The Times found that 91% of journalists on Twitter retweet or interact with their followers, Hawley said, and that those feeds were most popular at their respective papers.
The last trend Hawley spoke about was conscience. Based on poll results collected by the Times, 47% of respondents said they shared links because they felt it would help others.
“Users are going beyond having a conversation,” Hawley said. “They’re using social media as a catalyst for change. Social media is touching more and more points of our lives.”
...[more]Panelists say different paywall models all profitable
08 May 2012
A four-panelist presentation Tuesday at the 82nd INMA World Congress gave publishers from around the world a chance to discuss digital subscription strategies back to back.
- Jerry Harris, managing director of group newspapers and design products at News Limited, controls more than 140 newspapers in Australia. His company uses what he calls a “freemium” model, meaning a certain percentage of content is in front of the paywall. Editors decide which stories stay free and have the ability to change an article’s status when they feel it’s needed.
The newspapers may offer more free content when traffic to their sites is slow; it did not want to become subscriber-only media to keep their casual readers, Harris said. - Paul Smurl, vice president/paid products of The New York Times, said readers were clear in wanting notice of what would change when the newspaper decided to establish a paywall for content.
The New York Times has always allowed open access to its homepage. But when a paywall went up last year, non-subscribers were limited to reading 20 articles a month so as to not lose casual readers.
Despite “blistering criticism” from media pundits, Smurl said, the paywall proved successful. The free reads limit was lowered in April to 10 articles as The New York Times cited more than 450,000 digital subscribers.
Live at INMA World Congress: revenue models for multi-media companies
08 May 2012
Today at the INMA World Congress in Los Angeles, the
focus is on new multi-media revenue models, paid content success stories,
expanding audience with social media, advertising sales innovation, and where
print fits in the multi-media company.
Click here for our World Congress blog and here for up-to-the-minute live coverage by our team of bloggers.
...[more]
Juan Señor’s Monday takeaways
07 May 2012
Closing out day one of the 82nd INMA World Congress, moderator Juan Señor summarised the day’s top thoughts:
- It’s all about culture change.
- You need to take on the big issues to remain relevant.
- Controversy = conversation.
- Engagement is key!
- Right resources, partners, and training to become digitally fit.
- Growth of mobile will drop newspaper consumption to only 7% of total media intake.
- Future of journalism will be better than its past.
- We need to rethink every facet of the journalism model.
- Is it better to have a stable of focused brands with independent business models?
- Focus on story page and not so much the homepage.
- Right form for the right medium.
- Innovation must be part of an organisation’s DNA.
- Do not adopt digital — absorb it.
- 50% of publishers will not make the transition to digital.
Comedy Central’s Levitt tells media outlets to be more than newspapers
07 May 2012
Comedy Central is statistically the go-to source for comedy. But Executive Vice President for Marketing Walter Levitt said the company wants to be much more than just a television network.
“We are in every digital platform you can imagine,” Levitt said. “We’re in the DVD business, the TV business, and even send comics around to tour.”
This is the same type of mindset that newspapers need to have, Levitt said at the 82nd INMA World Congress.
Just like Comedy Central doesn’t want to be only a television network, media outlets can’t just be newspapers. They need to venture into the digital realms, he said.
Comedy Central is well ahead of its competitors as far as what peoples’ favorite news channel is, with 51% of people giving their vote to it compared to just 17% for Adult Swim — the next closest competitor.
So Comedy Central has the attention of its fans, but now the brand needs to keep them. Levitt kept with a familiar theme of World Congress sessions, saying news organisations need to understand their audience and cater to them.
“They build it,” he said. “We have to follow them.”
Comedy Central, for example, is a brand geared toward younger people, Levitt said. Its focus is on 18- to 30- year old males in Generation Y — a generation that consists of 75 million people. It’s also one that Levitt said has essentially been born with a mobile device in its hand.
...[more]Gilbert offers six tips to growing like the Deseret News
07 May 2012
If you want to argue against the law of gravity, Deseret News Publishing Company President and CEO Clark Gilbert made it clear Monday he won’t stop you from walking off a cliff.
But don’t expect him or his newspaper — one of the fasting growing in the United States — to follow you.
The same goes if publishers want to flout some of the new laws of today’s media space, he told the INMA World Congress in Los Angeles. Ignore them at your own peril. Just don’t say Gilbert didn’t warn you.
So, in his same direct style, here are the six ideas he says are changing the media industry:
Two big content ideas:
- Differentiate your content: Invest where you can be “the best in the world.”
- Be digital only, not just digital first.
Two big sales ideas:
- Digital buyers require digital sellers.
- Long-tail requires a completely new sales channel.
Two big e-commerce ideas:
- Optimise your revenue mix.
- Hire digital DNA.
Swedish newspaper funding for the future
07 May 2012
Sture Bergman, CEO of Västerbottens-Kuriren, a 34,000 circulation daily newspaper in Sweden, has seen his publication’s future. A “small player” in the global media scene, VK lags behind larger markets in North America and Europe.
Even though VK makes a profit now, Bergman said the newspaper is already preparing its model for a few years from now.
“We have to start mending the roof when the sun is shining, in our case,” he said.
Bergman shared his plan for the future — one that draws upon readership data and employee opinions — Monday at the 82nd INMA World Congress.
VK’s subscription data shows that its largest customer age group is 61 to 70 year olds. The newspaper saw its largest decline in the age group that should be the highest — 31 to 40 year olds. Bergman said VK needs to focus on customers, taking into account the trends in news consumption among different age groups.
“We are in an old, old industry,” Bergman said. “We are trying to get things right rather than try something new. We have to go in a new way.”
...[more]
