Ideas for the Newspaper Industry

A while ago, I posted about re-thinking the newspaper industry. Here are a couple of ideas I had around innovating in that space. I by no means have any background in this industry, but here goes. In my language customer is defined as a person who gathers utility from reading the contents of a newspaper.

Product Innovation: Allow readers to customize their content. This is not a new concept online. Personalized home pages, email alerts, RSS are all commonplace across the web, and if not already should be integrated into the online channel for the newspaper. This will not only help you better understand what your readers are interested, and allow for better targeted advertising, but will also make them better able to navigate the reams of content available.

Second, in the same vein - appreciate the fact that many of your users don't have an interest in online reading, however that doesn't mean that you should be able to provide them tailored content. Printing innovation is evolving rapidly. Why not allow a subscriber to tell you what they are interested in and have a customer newspaper printed for them based on these interests? Then urge them to go online and rate the content that was delivered so that future papers can further be tailored to their interests. (similar to what some companies are doing to tailor music streaming)

Beyond that I see digital newsstands that would allow a user to select from a menu, and have a custom paper printed off immediately on authentic newsprint (like a soda machine that spits out a newspaper). Plus advertising and print layout would be defined on the fly by software. Further - give people a plastic 'remember me' card, so that they can use with other electronic newsstands, of which get updated every time they make a change (similar to an ATM). Once this is attained - next step is partnering with other news organizations to share/combine content. (Give me the wall street journal combined with Boise local business in one paper!)

Business Model Innovation: Why not create a model where the price of the paper to the end customer varies based on how much advertising they are willing to accept. The more ads, the cheaper the paper becomes. It has been shown that people are willing to pay for advertising free niche content. Think pay-per-view or Sirius. This could initially be packages with varying levels of advertising along with various skews towards types of content (local, sports, business, etc) The content selection would then of course help associate related advertising.

Next combine the two ideas. Allow for infinite tailoring of content to what users need combined with business models that allow pricing to vary by customers interest or lack thereof for advertising, and have any advertising sent be targeted. Meet the long tail needs of your readership.

These may seem unrealistic (or maybe not), but in the end its about thinking on the edges. Most of what I talk about here requires technology and online interactions with consumers, but it doesn't rely solely on the online medium for content delivery.

Now when we get to a point where e-paper is almost as flexible as real paper (we are not that far off), that opens up entirely new opportunities.

Rethinking The Newspaper Industry

Yesterday, I was at a conference on the impacts of new media on marketing for the Capital City Communicators. One of the panel discussions centered around the changing interactions between marketers and journalists. What I found most profound after listening to the panel which included players from both sides - it was yet another example of how baffled, and stubborn most newspaper organizations are regarding the changes in the industry. These changes are rocking the foundation of a business model that is well over 100 years old. They simply have no clue on how to turn things around, so here are 10 thoughts I had after chewing on this issue for a day. I am not a journalist (at least in the mind of a journalist) but maybe that’s a good thing! Its always easier to think on the edges, when you are not trying to defend the status quo.

1. The internet (and other new media) is not just another channel to pipe the exact same print content. Newspaper organizations need to take full advantage of the this channel's ability to provide richer interaction to provide the customer a unique experience will make it valuable and something that can either supplement or provide an alternative to traditional print media.
2. Traditional print was a time of scarcity (of space). Now, scarcity is no longer an issue. With new media you have the ability to make anything available – not just what you think is important. The New York Times tag line has always been ‘All the news that’s fit to print’. Remove this elitist mentality from your thinking.
3. Print is no longer effective for breaking news. It’s a time-to-market issue.
4. Satisfy the long tail of news readers. Editors shouldn’t be choosing the content – they need to figure out ways for their customers to help them, and better yet – figure out ways to create unique content for all users.
5. Use your online channel to better understand customer needs.
6. Every piece of news is news to someone.
7. People will pay for things that they see value in. If given the exact same content across two channels, but one was free, would you pay?
8. Journalists should stop thinking of themselves as only news breakers or news creators. I believe the future is in aggregation. Aggregation of information, diverse opinions, providing local perspectives etc.
9. Don’t just think about readers as customers in your business model – think of them as potential suppliers. Think about the full business ecosystem of a newspaper organization in the new economy.
   
10. You can only have one primary customer. Think hard about who it is, and who it should be in the new economy. Readers? Advertiser? What business models will work based on this perspective?

All well and good to provide this type of commentary as an outsider right, but in a future post I will describe a couple of business ideas I came up with that might help bring a traditional newspaper business over the hump.

Digital Outlook 2007

Avenue A Razorfish released its 2007 Digital Outlook report. It was on the agenda for last weekend, but I decided to go climbing in the Idaho mountains. This weekend I finally got some free time to read through the report. If you haven't seen it yet, its definitely worth reading or skimming. It gives a great overview of where the digital media space is moving, how it has changed from last year and offers some interesting insights into the connection between digital media and culture.

Some of my key take-a-ways:

- In 2006 communities as a defined vertical spending group were up 69% year-over-year and 216% since 2004. Communities tied with Entertainment as the vertical with the largest share of billings. This does not surprise me since communities can be view as another form of entertainment and likely are taking away eyes that would be on the entertainment vertical.

- While many traditional media companies have made a significant push to extend their brands online, it remains an uphill struggle. I think this is due to the lack of consideration of the differences between the channels. The online channel is fundamentally different than current media channels, however companies are having trouble making this transition.

- Across all media channels, marketers face the difficult challenge of 'breaking through the clutter' as the scale of the media immersion in daily life exceeds all prior benchmarks. The sheer volume, variety and availability of media channels have resulting in cultural change. So to have consumer behaviors.. I like this comment because this is one of the issues we are trying to solve at Balihoo.

- There are six broad themes driving changes seen in media today: Personalization, Collaboration & Community, Visualization, Ubiquity, Immediacy, and Monetization. What strikes me about these themes is that all except for monetization are also key aspects of a cultural shift taking place.

- 2007 is going to be a year about sorting out how to monetize all the new media real-estate. Creating the right ad model for revenue - the right value to the advertiser, but also the right experience to the consumer, at the right price, and in the right format.

A Framework for assessing Emerging Channels

• Audience and Reach: "Is there an opportunity to interact with a sliver of our target audience more deeply, or in a new way on this channel?"
• Accountability: "Knowing that measurement abilities among emerging channels vary can bw learn something about our audience we don't typically get to see?"
• Investment: "Since this channel is new, and hasn't yet reached critical mass what level of investment do we need to make to ensure our test will be a success?"
• Risk: "Realizing the open nature of this channel carries with it risks, so how can I construct a responsible framework for testing and learning that allows me to reach my customers without damaging my brand?"

Key insights into user behavior and expectations for the next iteration of the Web

• Human-computer interaction is about to get intense: intersection of biology, technology and media.
• The network is ubiquitous: We are no longer computer specific - we just want on the network. User experience or a media campaign must be ubiquitous as well.
• There is no middle: In every category traffic will flow to a few big players and a host of niche players. Playing the middle will get you squeezed.
• The internet is where general interest goes to die: Niche is king. Long tail theory.
• Information Seeking equals entertainment: Internet has created the reemergence of play in new ways.
• Transparency is king: People see little difference between online and offline company identities. Talking with consumers is smarter than talking to them.
• Social networking ascends to utilitarian status: social networking is moving from fun hobby to everyday utility, with the behavior increasingly embedded into the culture.
• Lets stay friends: See also this article on the concept of friending.
• Giving back is good
• People are open to new forms of content distribution.
• Blogs have yet to achieve media brand status: Currently genres are still more important than specific blogs.
• More mobile phones, less talking: Mobile phone use will grow, but not for talking.

No matter what business you are in, and what your title, everyone has to be a marketer to some degree, and whether or not it is a full time role or just part time, the digital landscape and the trends taking place are important for everyone to understand in the new economy.

Blueline: New Media Conference

Be Your Own Media was the title of a one day conference held yesterday at BSU by a local grassroots marketing firm Blueline on using new media to create more authentic two way connections with your customers. It was the second event by this name held this year (first event was in April), and based on some questions asked of the audience early in the morning by Blueline New Media guy Tac Andersen it was encouraging to see that the concept of new media has definitely progresses in the past 6 months from being limited to the local innovators to at least the early adopter crowd based on current spread of knowledge on new media mechanisms, active bloggers in the crowd as well as conference attendance in general. And similar to the shift and emergence of new media marketing - so has Blueline itself, with a new look and feel as was as a company strategy that appears to be focusing more clearly on grassroots marketing. Congrats on finding focus.

Couple concepts I found interesting:
1. Napsterize your Knowledge

Not a new concept, but I like the way they phrased it. This is the concept that if you give knowledge away for free, you can still have a viable business (disregard the fact that Napster got sued out of business for their disruptive business model:). Many companies think that if they give information away, they will have nothing to bring to the table for their clients, but it is completely the opposite. The information builds trust between you and your customer on your ability to deliver. Maybe they could take this information and do it for themselves, but typically that is not their business and when they need someone to deliver a service, who will be top of mind for them?

2. Four points raised from a Book called Pyro Marketing by Greg Stielstra as it related creating customer evangelists (high on the metaphor scale which makes it easier to burn into your mind)

• Gather the driest tinder
• Touch it with a match
• Fan the flames
• Save the coals

3. Rule # 1 with New media marketing: Its not about generating traffic, its about creating relationships

Many people equate blog readership as the yardstick of success, and while this can bring notoriety and possibly some add revenue, blogs can still be a success with only a few niche readers. The 'Volume = success' is a carry over from legacy media in my view (e.g. TV media). If you have 10 readers of your blog, that actually would hire or recommend to you, wouldn't you consider that a success?

All in all the conference was a great value for the $25 attendance fee with the content as well as the opportunity to network with others people interested in this space.

Stimulating as Black Coffee

I came across this quote this morning:


"Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after."
--Anne Morrow Lindbergh, aviation pioneer, writer


This exemplifies why new media options used to create meaningful two-way conversations with your customers (eg. Blogs) are powerful marketing tools. One-way marketing puts your customers to sleep, two-way marketing gets them engaged.

Emerging Business of SecondLife

It never ceases to amaze me how innovation happens. The online virtual world Second Life is a great example to watch this take place. Born in 2003, and expected to reach a million users this year, Second Life is not a game, but more like the next evolution of the web - the web in 3d, where you enter and navigate the world with your own virtual avatar (virtual self). A few innovative people are already making a successful living inside this world such as Chinese-German businesswoman Ailin Graef who reported made over over 100k USD last year. (See previous blog) People make, sell and trade land or items within this world. A new enterprising company profiled in 'Wired' is shifting this in reverse, by moving from the virtual world to the real world. Fabjectory is a start up by Michael Buckbee that will make and sell real objects customer created from the digital items by users inside Second Life.

[from Wired] "Buckbee is the first to get his service off the ground. The virtual designer creates a three-dimensional model of a client's avatar using screenshots taken in the world of Second Life. He uses an open-source design tool known as the OpenGLExtractor by Eyebeam OpenLab. After tweaking the model to make sure that there are no overly fragile parts -- hair has been a big worry -- Buckbee sends the design to the client for final approval. The digital file is then turned into reality using a 3-D printer made by Z Corp. The final price? Typically less than $100."

Although intriguing, what I find more interesting however are the people starting to utilize Second Life to model real-world problems, like the logistics of distributing aid after a disaster, or studying how efficient the layout of a proposed office building will be. (see article) I suspect that this will continue to blossom into an entire industry on its own, where companies can offer simulation to help organizations with all types of situations from team building exercises to advanced virtual meeting spaces. If it can be used to do something better, faster, cheaper then it has a place in business and people will find a way to use it.

Corporate Reputation on Wikipedia

Wikipedia - The free enclyclopedia that anyone can edit. It is what brought the concept of wiki's to the mainstream. The long tail of content. A great example of a disruptive business model, that will likely kill most of the current encyclopedia companies. Not necessarily definititive or 100% correct, but most often close enought and at minimum an excellent place to start research on a topic due to the breadth of content. See the statistics.

In reading a blog article today, there was a link to a company website and beside the name there was hyperlink [company name] (wiki) in brackets. This link took me to the wikipedia page for the same company. Not out of the ordinary - I have came across many company pages before in specific searches but it struck me today in seeing this additional secondary link that wikipedia in addition to being an online encyclopedia, is now yet another marketing channel for a company, but in this case it is one that the community controls. As a company you may see this as good or bad, but nonetheless, if you are not already on top of this you need to be. So what should you do?

• The first thing you will want to do is search your company name to see if there is an entry. If not, it probably makes good marketing to start thinking about creating one before someone else does. Unfortunately, no matter how closely your legal team scrutinizes the content, it could change tomorrow as the community seeks to keep items 'current' or 'correct'.
• Assign at least one person to manage this new non traditional 'channel' to the consumer. Its not just about making sure there is appropriate and accurate content, you need someone that will immerse themselves in the wiki community and culture that they understand how it works, and can make appropriate recommendations to management when issues arrise. We are in a world of consumer generated and consumer controlled content, and every company needs to understand how to play in this environment.
• If there is already an entry, you better review the content looking for innacuracies, and possible new content that could be added. Then start contributing and watching the article for changes and especially vandalism.
• Understand how disputes can be resolved using the community.
• Consider ways in which this channel can be used to better inform consumers about your company and what it has to offer. For example, what other topics in Wikipedia could or do currently reference your company, and take steps to make these changes.
• Think about ways to not only watch when content has changed on your company page by external contributors, but what kinds of changes are being made, and what does this say about users perceptions about your company or the brand?

Other considerations or comments welcome!

By the way - this is just the begining of new media channels that companies will need to be aware of. Once you have a person primed in the wiki community, next comes Secondlife, which ads an entirely new dimension of culture and branding.

New Media/Web 2.0 Consulting

The futurist Jim Carroll talks in a video clip about an austrailian study which stated that 65% of pre-school kids today will work in jobs that don't currently exist. That blows my mind when I think about what that means across many dimensions - prepareing/raising your kids for the world, keeping yourself nimble to adjust to this rapid change.

Its happening now and constantly - just think about new jobs people are coming up with all the time. One category that seems to be gaining momentum now is related to the new media, web 2.0 wave that is currently rising. No not just the technology and tools associated with it, but people popping up with titles of new media consultants (or some dirivation thereof... blog consultant, podcast consultant, SecondLife Consultant?). They are often technically savy people tired of their current job and looking to do something they are passionate about, and that free's them from their cube. (Don't we all!) I applaud their entrepreneurial spirit, but as will all things don't take the first opinion you get.

Passion does not always equal well thought out options, expertise or insightful information. Granted the space is evolving so quickly, it is hard to keep pace, but I recently listened to a podcast where there was a short discussion based on a caller question about the controlled taxonomy of iTunes category structure and how it was limiting the way in which content is serached/viewed or associated with a genre (music, podcast etc).

A valid problem and one that iTunes is not alone with, however after some passionate discussion about the problem the suggested solution was ultimately to create more detailed subcategories. At no time was the concept of user driven tagging, or folksonomies raised even as a discussion point, which would allow users (IE customers) of iTunes to tag music, podcasts etc. with their own terms of how they felt the music or content should be categorized. These tags could then be assimilated by software into artist tag clouds or a series of distilled user created keywords to help customers find songs by genre(s), and sorted across multiple categories to allow them to find content the way they view it through their lens - not how the iTunes designers, record industry, etc feel it should be categorized.

Now, its quite likely that with further discussion other options such as this might come out, but I feel that the job of a consultant is to present options and help guide clients the the right option for them. There is never just one option. By the way, if you don't quite understand this concept I described above, feel free to hire me - new media consultant:)

Podcasting - who owns it?

The New Oxford American dictionary declared podcasting as the 2005 word of the year defining the term as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player". POD, has been referenced as Portable on Demand, but also has some strong ties to the iPod brand. (for more history - see this and this) However Apple is again stepping up its efforts to stop other companies from using the term 'pod' as part of a company name. They say it causes confusion with consumers with respect to brand.

No understandably, Apple needs to protect its trademark, so that it doesn't go the way of Xerox, Kleenex, and Jello, thereby lowering the value of their brand. However Apple, being the innovative company that it is, should think about ways in which to take advantage of this type of press, as opposed sending cease and desist letters to other innovative companies. It is reminiscent of the way the music industry first reacted to music downloading. With terms like podcasting tied so closely with their player, it gives them great word-of-mouth marketing at no cost. As more and more people start to look at getting mp3 players for more than just music such as various business application, visually impaired services etc, this opens up a many new markets, and what player naturally comes to mind when you hear the word podcast? Why not try and partner with companies such as Podcast Ready or others in this space. Its a fine line, but at the risk of creating backlash from the consumer community, in the face of increased choice, lawsuits are probably not the solution.

Long Tail Snipits

This is one of the most thought provoking books I have read in a while. Here are a few tidbits that will make you think. (some are direct quotes while others are summarized points, but all are attributed to the author, or references within the book)

• Broadcast is very good at bringing one show to millions of people with unmatched efficiency. But it cant do the opposite – bring a million shows to one person each. This is exactly what the Internet does so well.
• Three main observations about the long tail:
• the tail of availability is far longer than we realize
• its now within reach economically
• all those niches when aggregated can make up a significant market
• The Long Tail is just culture unfiltered by economic scarcity.
• 3 forces are creating the long tail:
  
• Democratizing the tools of productions (eg PC) = more stuff available (lengthen the tail)
• Cutting the cost of consumption by democratizing distribution (eg Internet) = more access to niches (fatten the tail)
  
• Connecting Supply and Demand (eg Search) = Driving Business from Hits to Niches
  
• The motives to create are not the same in the head as they are in the tail. One economic model does not fit all. You can think of the Long Tail starting as a traditional monetary economy at the head and ending in a non monetary economy in the tail.
  
• The Long tail promises to become the crucible of creativity, a place where ideas form and grow before evolving into commercial form.
  
• The traditional line between producers and consumers has blurred. Consumers are also producers.
  
• We are entering an era of radical change for marketers. Faith in advertising and the institutions that pay for it is waning, while faith in individuals is on the rise. Peers trust peers. Top-down messaging is losing traction, while bottom up buzz is gaining power.
  
• We are leaving the Information age and entering the recommendation age. Information gathering is no longer the issues – making smart decisions based on the information is now the trick.
  
• The day when magazine, newspaper and TV editors decide what makes it to market and what doesn’t is fading. Soon everything will make it to market and the real opportunity will be sorting it all out.
  
• We are seeing a shift from mass culture to massively parallel culture. Every one of us – no matter how mainstream we might think we are – actually goes super niche in some part of our lives.
  
• The secret to creating a thriving long tail business can be summarized in two imperatives:
  
• make everything available
• help me find it
  
• More information is better, but only when its presented in a way that helps order choice, not confuse it further.

Virtual Life - Real Opportunity

Virtual gaming has morphed into a cultural trend to an online world where you can take on a second persona, and not only play games, but have 'real' businesses, with real money. Second life which has grown from 20,ooo users to 170,000 users in about a year, in an amazing social phenomenon. There are actually people making real world money in there (the exchange rate is about 300 linden dollars, the second life currency to 1 US dollar). If people can have virtual lives, and virtual businesses, it then begs the question - what about virtual advertising for those businesses within the SecondLife world? I then start to think about possibilities for current online services. Why couldn't you take that same service, and apply it to virtual customers within the game. Is a virtual avatar (that is associated to a real person) any less real than a real-world virtual user? You could build buyer profiles off them, and offer them similar products that you would offer real people, except it would be based on the wants, needs and habits of the avatar rather than the real world user.

Check out this new article in Business week entitled My Virtual life for more insight into SecondLife.

The business of Social Networking

What was once thought of as a fad, is now proving to have some staying power. Sites such as MySpace and Facebook are showing with their large user base and investment funding that the phenomenon will be around for some time to come. Advertisers are also starting to shift their thinking on how to utilize these sites to their advantage. Check out Socializing for Dollars. Most of these sites however are mostly about meeting people, making friends, trying to show how cool you are, fitting in, and just finding yourself and your place in the world. We are social beings and this concept definitely has it place, but how can or will this trend or model transfer into the business world? Linkedin, and Simplyhired take the concept of social networking and put it to work in a business application, but I feel that this is just scratching the surface as to where we could go to create social networking applications that can actually drive economic progress inside company walls as well as the business community in general. Plus, think about the the MySpace generation as it (eventually) grows up and enters the workforce. Applications that use the social networking model should be adopted easily, as long as it increases productivity, and not just killing time at work.