the new growth path and how to get there
TRANSCRIPT
Earl J. WilkinsonExecutive Director and CEO INMA@earljwilkinson
The New Growth Path and How to Get There
Encyclopedia Britannica32 volumes
130 pounds
US$1,400
Middle class buying a dream
Print edition1768-2012
Encyclopedia Britannica1990 sales of US$650,000,000
Microsoft Encarta forces digital encyclopedia (US$1,400 to US$40)
Digital business: libraries, schools
Revenue falls 80% to US$130,000,000
2/3 of revenue from online sales
Higher margins, smaller business
Print edition1768-2012
Overriding issues facing publishersIdentifying growth
Being more relevant
Managing complexity
This presentationOrganising models
What we market: products to brands
Culture change and the growth path
What’s next?
Organising models
Organising modelAggregate
1 deadline per day
Hundreds of OK stories
Be better at 15+ subjects
Deep engagement/platform
Organising modelAtomize
1,440 deadlines (minutes)
5 great stories per day
Own 3 unique subjects
Multi-media flickers
Organising models
Atomize
1,440 deadlines (minutes)
5 great stories per day
Own 3 unique subjects
Multi-media flickers
Aggregate
1 deadline per day
Hundreds of OK stories
Be better at 15+ subjects
Deep engagement/platform
Organising model
Based on how people consume us
Affects content, distribution, marketing, advertising … everything
Can’t be both … make a choice
What we market: products to brands
Marketing a print newspaperHome delivery
Content packaging
Shut out the world
Status symbol
Marketing a Web siteEasy access
Infinite information
Get it quick
Sharing with friends
Marketing a mobile app/siteNews in pocket
Skimmable information
Get it anywhere
Fillers for your day
Marketing an iPad appBeautiful experience
Curated information
Second screen
Personal enjoyment
Marketing your products
iPad
Beautiful experience
Curated info
Second screen
Personal enjoyment
Mobile app/site
News in pocket
Skimmable info
Get it anywhere
Fillers for your day
Web site
Easy access
Infinite info
Get it quick
Share with friends
Newspaper
Home delivery
Print packaging
Shut out world
Status symbol
Multi-platform subscription bundlesOverview: how to bundle print, Web, mobile, tablet
Axel Springer: + iPad2 @ €49.99 per month
L.A. Times: + membership model
Helsingin Sanomat: 33% of subscribers in bundle
New York Times: driving print sales with digital!
The Times: packs for weekday, weekend
Marketing anews brandConvenience
Relevance
Consumption choice
Empowerment
Marketing newspapersNo longer destination purchase (producing and distributing important)
Now highly discretionary purchase (selling and marketing important)
Re-create demand for products
What companies sellP&G: shampoo shine to confident and sexy
Disney entertain to make dreams come true
Apple: make products that people will love
Not content but convenience and delight
Not the news, we help improve people’s lives
Transport hearts, minds to world of discovery
What newspapers sell
What we are not marketingJournalism
Trust
Role in democracy
Reflection of you
Not about how hard we work (not about us)Is your writing better?
Do you care more?
Have your people been doing this a long time?
Has your brand been around a long time?
Avoid muddled brandsLet’s not be old guy trying to act young
Nurture brands with clear characteristics
Grow old with today’s subscriber base
Reposition for youth
Marketing anews brandConvenience
Relevance
Consumption choice
Empowerment
Culture change and the growth path
Pew study on business modelsPowerless to change culture
Haven’t needed innovative people
Employees operationally focused
Battling inertia
Culture: contact sport, 1 collision at time
Google macro-culture
Speed over perfection
Low-cost innovation
Placing many small bets
Google micro-cultureHire people smarter than you, get out of way
Hire generalists to deal with “what’s next”
Don’t reward good planning, reward results
Attending meetings not getting things done
Passion: feedback, don’t take it personally
Save staff time: food, dry-cleaning, red tape
Eat your own dogfood
Culture change (us)1. Listen to the market
2. Focus relentlessly on differentiators
3. Prioritise expenditures to USPs, cut rest
4. Go where the growth is
5. Speed over perfection
6. Be willing to fail, but fail fast
7. Respect platform for its unique value
Culture change: only path to growth1. Operationally excellent
2. Raw content engine good enough
3. Structural advertising vs. order takers
4. Must change how we pursue revenue
5. Must change industry perceptions
Culture auditCurrent: culture of hierarchy/clan
Future: culture of innovation, entrepreneurship
Business development fund = 5% of revenue
Cross-departmental, analytics, market focus
Seamless multi-media publishing model
Change must begin with senior management
VÄSTERBOTTENS-KURIREN (VK) | SWEDEN
Be true to your USPsDESERET MEDIA | UNITED STATES
Family
Finance
Responsibility
Faith-based
Education
Care for the poor
Values in media
Digital firstJOURNAL-REGISTER COMPANY | UNITED STATES
New news ecology: prioritise platforms by velocity (fast to slow)
Sell digital first, print a differentiating second
Cut legacy costs: infrastructure, Ben Franklin
Business plan changes valuation metrics (25%-50% of EBITDA from digital)
News audiences as lead generators
SCHIBSTED | SWEDEN
Owns 16 assets nationally
2 newspapers
Traffic aggregation, e-commerce
Blocket classifieds, Hitta search
Digital company owns newspapers
Print vs. digital200 magazines, Web-centric company
Manage print for profit
Manage digital for growth
Pursue digital audiences: social, syndicated, crowdsourcing
Cut print products by half
IDG | UNITED STATES
Culture changeEditorial
Advertising sales
The people equation
Organizing marketing
Managing, leading audience development
Why “newspapers”
Advertising salesIntegrate at same pace as your advertising community
Keep print and digital separate, integrated teams when you need them
Integrate everything, have platform specialists
Why “newspapers”
AudienceWhat we sell: bundled subscriptions across platforms (print, Web, tablet, smartphone)
Selling and engaging 2 separate functions
Have to be willing not to force print
Why “newspapers”
MarketingShift from pushing products to brands
Out:Tactile benefits of print or shut out worldWow of home delivery or “newspaper in digital”
In:What associating with news brand means to youValue proposition of bundle (portability)
Why “newspapers”
ResearchNeed one over-arching metric
Implement dashboard (FINN, LUN)
Goal: know more about audience than your smartest advertiser
Napkin data: advertisers, CEO, employees
Why “newspapers”
Human resourcesCan’t treat today’s young generation like recently departed
Training, coaching, memberships, conferences (internal/external)
Innovation found mostly by exposing employees to those outside company, country, industry
What to reward: over-arching metric
Why “newspapers”
EditorialNo print or digital journalism, just journalism
Platform managers looking across platforms
Platform specialists for platform engagement
Social media specialists: make content social
Newspaper anywhere modelSame/similar content experiences across platforms?Different content/experiences across platforms?
Why “newspapers”
ManagementNeed brutally simple metric: rally all around
In-your-face ways of communicating success
Best practices to drive cross-platform growth
Reward numbers over “quality”
Make audience the rallying cry
Culture change foundation for
multi-media model
Growth pathUnderstanding consumer behaviour
Rapid digital adoption
Product development pipeline
Smart marketing
Data analytics
Scalable transaction business
What’s next?
What’s next?Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation
Future of printWill decline as mass-market vehicle
Gradual reduction in frequency
Gradual reduction in pages + format
How to preserve print for mass market?
How much to find new opportunities?
WHAT’S NEXT?
What’s next?Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation
New product developmentHow many in pipeline at once?
1 big initiative or many small ones?
Time frame for success (print vs. digital)?
Role of editorial?
Loud vs. soft launches?
WHAT’S NEXT?
What’s next?Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation
Core competenciesCompanies that invent new markets, shift consumer choice
Competencies engine for new business development
Competencies spawn unanticipated products
WHAT’S NEXT?
Competencies determine productsJournalism
Story generation
Storytelling
Communication
WHAT’S NEXT?
What’s next?Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation
Your crossover pointIf print advertising is declining, what must digital growth rate be to run a growing business?
Digital First Media: digital growth of 50%
WHAT’S NEXT?
The new solutionsSearch
Social
Mobile
Geo-targeting
Behavioural targeting
WHAT’S NEXT?
Digital First MediaSolutions
Geo-target audience
Target behaviours based on customer mix
Facebook “likes”
Improve search engine positioning
Products
Web site banners
Yahoo inventory
Facebook contextual ads
Directory package
WHAT’S NEXT?
1 + 1 = 3?What do these revenue solutions add up to?
How do we structure industry re-training?
Is this 100%/80%/60% print replacement?
Unsatisfied and nervous … and anxious to learn
WHAT’S NEXT?
What’s next?Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation
iPhone’s impact on mobile pageviews
v1 2010 v10 v19 v28 v37 v46 ve 3 ve 12 ve 21 ve 30 ve 39 ve 480
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
1,000,000
1,200,000
1,400,000
1,600,000
1,800,000
2,000,000
+1,700%
Putting mobile in perspective
Source: Otto Sjöberg
Phase 1: connecting people (86% penetration)
Phase 2: connecting people to Internet (33%)
Phase 3: connecting everything (5%)
Mobile: connecting “everything”Cars
Assisted living
Clinical remote monitoring
Source: Otto Sjöberg
Security
Traffic management
Meter reading
Impact of mobile connectivity on youRelevant services in embedded environment
Content with different screens
Enabling readers to access content/services
Source: Otto Sjöberg
Economics of smartphonesProcessing power improving
Access speed faster
Smaller and thinner
Cheaper device + time
Economics of newsprintDemand will weaken
Paper mills: consolidate
Suppliers: contract
Prices will rise
Targeted opportunities
When platform economics collide
Cheaper to give away $50 tablet than printing/deliveringTipping point? Price? Speed? Device volume?
What’s next?Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation
Attracting talentNot attracting best/brightest
Creative class can’t overcome image
Nobody wants to climb the mountain
Liberate people: give time for new ideas
Newsrooms, advertising, marketing
WHAT’S NEXT?
Level the mountain!Average age of newsroom: 58
Massively holding back change
Why not hire a young gun?
2 years of trying … nobody will take it
WHAT’S NEXT?
Employee oxygenInternal training
External training
Access to information
Access to peers
Encouragement by you
Education about news industry
WHAT’S NEXT?
Conclusions
Why own a newspaperProfitability
Political influence
Business/civic influence
Audience trafficker
Content pool for niches
We need to buy timeMaintain print long enough for digital advertising to scale
Lag between advertiser, consumer shifts to digital
Lag between time mobile and smartphone
Need to finance transition period
Under-valuing ourselvesHow to price newspaper
How to price Web content
How to price apps
Pegging our valueHotel chain breaks down pieces of hotel room
Asks guests to place financial value on pieces
Print newspaper worth $5
If newspaper helps find job, worth $2,000!
Pegging our valueUniqueness
Relevance
Authenticity
What does news brand do for me?
Be creative (even with an end point)Life cycle: born, live, die
Arrogance from idea of living forever
Live: discipline, confidence, creativity
Don’t strive for “quality”
Do strive for relevance
Earl J. WilkinsonExecutive Director and CEO INMA@earljwilkinson
The New Growth Path and How to Get There