McKinsey to news publishers: digital revenue model has 4 tenets
08 May 2012
A sustainable digital revenue model for newsmedia companies should be based on sponsorship at scale, proprietary lead generation, consumer-paid access, and digital video, said Michael Lamb, a principal at McKinsey & Company.
Lamenting the deteriorating business models built on banners as billboards, the “tyranny of the click-through,” and free access to content, Lamb encouraged publishers to work with “the Web we’ve got.”
Despite rising advertising and audience numbers, Lamb suggested publishers “ignore the cheering” since premium display is under pressure. The good news is that news publishers can still command a premium versus Facebook, Yahoo, and others.
Lamb walked the INMA World Congress audience through case studies related to a sponsorship sales model, non-fungible inventory, and accountability for impact. This includes thematic/event “tentpoles,” more intrusive advertising units, data targeting, and more.
...[more]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.
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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.
South China Morning Post redesign leads to audience growth
07 May 2012
There was a time when Anne Wong knew how to market movies and theme parks but didn’t know how to sell news. The eventual director of marketing at the South China Morning Post proved to be a quick study.
The Post, an English newspaper out of Hong Kong that’s printed since 1903, needed an overhaul in terms of its look, Web site, and content. So in 2010, executives at the South China Morning Post realised the need for change and, like other industries affected by new technologies, that journalism wasn’t dying — it was simply changing.
“It’s a lot of news like what you’ve covered, although it’s a slightly different angle,” she told delegates Monday at the 82nd INMA World Congress.
Criticisms of the newspaper before its overhaul, Wong said, included readers calling it the South China “Boring” Post and complaining it wasn’t geared enough toward Hong Kong natives.
“We had to change in order to capture all of these people,” Wong said.
So she and the newspaper adopted a three-part strategy: elevate, engage, and expand.
The South China Morning Post set out to elevate its brand quality and voice in hopes of engaging both readers and its own staff. The newspaper’s new tagline was “Make Every Day Matter.”
“(This applies to) every aspect of your life, and not just news,” Wong said. “Whatever it is, we’re going to help you.”
...[more]“Media house” at Aftonbladet proving profitable over newspaper alone
07 May 2012
Anna Settman, CEO of the largest printed newspaper in Sweden, told the INMA World Congress on Monday that despite Aftonbladet’s large print circulation, the newspaper could still make a profit without it.
Aftonbladet is published on every platform and reaches an audience of about 2.6 million readers every day. The “media house,” as Settman referred to it, reported a 12% profit last year and $15 million in revenue.
Aftonbladet has 150,000 digital subscribers now, but Settman said the organisation wasn’t always stable.
After debuting a Web site in 1994, Aftonbladet created a steady revenue from advertisers. Then the dot-com bubble burst, and Web sites and advertising exploded into popularity.
Aftenbladet saw 80% of its Internet advertisers disappear almost overnight. Aftonbladet learned quickly from the burst to find revenue outside of banner ads, Settman said.
...[more]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]Forrester calls on newsmedia companies to become “digital disruptors”
07 May 2012
James L. McQuivey, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research, warned media leaders Monday at the INMA 2012 World Congress that the Internet’s effect on newspapers in an age of digital disruption could be grim.
“Half of the companies that are digitally disrupted don’t make it,” he said.
After McQuivey’s audience scare — eyes grew wide when he suggested half of all publications won’t make it through the digital transition — McQuivey said he wanted to turn the 300 delegates into the disruptors themselves.
Digital disruptors build better media experiences, stronger customer relationships and worker faster overall Modern digital disruptors include products such as iPads and XBOX 360s, McQuivey said.
“They create a rapidly disruptive experience for the customer,” he said.
It took Apple two years to sell one million iPods, while there were 67 million iPads sold in the same amount of time, McQuivey said.
“The world has changed significantly, on the supply and consumer side,” he said. “You’ve got to get into their heads and figure out how many new ideas they’re ready for.”
To explore how digital disruption is different from regular disruption, McQuivey invited the audience to go back in time — specifically, to 1999, when he was having the conversation about the future of consumer trends. McQuivey discussed his research that explored how teenagers interact with technology, as opposed to non-teenagers.
...[more]Paton: Earn trust by listening to customers
07 May 2012
Traditional media are fighting a trust battle. More people trust the public — their friends and networks — than ever before, causing news organisations to reevaluate how to earn that trust back.
John Paton, CEO of Digital First Media, said that’s because news organisations need to learn how to listen to their customers.
“The customers have spoken. But are we listening?” Patton asked Monday. “I would argue not nearly hard enough.”
Paton’s talk at the 82nd INMA World Congress came on the heels of a talk by Amy Leyh, director of digital circulation marketing for Dow Jones & Company, who gave an example of how The Wall Street Journal changed a business model to incorporate online products into one price package after listening to their customers’ needs.
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