Fernando Samaniego - International New Media Consulting

25 Tips for a Modern Newsroom

While much gloom and doom has been heralded about newspapers the fact is that many of them have understood that their news gathering and delivering activity goes beyond their occasional paper support and are being highly successful at bringing a refreshing amount of innovation into the online world.  Indeed, in many markets news companies are among the fastest growing players in the online world just because a mixture of right vision and management skills are increasingly getting the attention of their audiences.  Under these circumstances media companies are asking themselves ‘How should my newsroom be?’ This rather long post intends to shed some light on this issue and is based in my own experiences as well as on conversations with experts on the matter.

Concepts before the onset:

1. Write down your reasons for change and share them with your management team

Let me start with the obvious.  Change for the sake of it or just to please the Board or just to imitate successful competitors… is not an enough reason to move forward.  Before embarking into such a task you need to state your Business Goal because only it should drive the design process.  Also, a warning on the people around you who strive on changes; beware of them since you could move away from your business goal into senseless experimenting.  Share your reasons for change with your management team and make sure you have their full support before the start.  

2. Don’t go from Newsroom 1.0 to Newsroom  3.0

There are three basic newsroom models coexisting.  As Dietmar Schantin mentions in his post “Moving tables is not enough to succeed in a multimedia world”   in the Newsroom 1.0, online and paper are managed separately with dedicated editorial for each platform.  In the 2.0 there is a cross-media newsroom which exploits some advantages of gathering content for different media.  The 3.0 version aims to provide content on multiple channels by integrating the complete news flow across print and digital media from planning to production.  For each type of newsroom there are excellent examples of successful newspapers since what counts are the vision and the execution.  Still, if you have decided to move from 1.0 to 3.0 you are defying the laws of gravity: your IT and journalists’ skills will not be ready for it.  Move slower, from 1.0 to 2.0 and gain the basic experience and skills.  All along the process remember that each medium has its own internal logic and rules.  If you place the responsibility of digital under a Chief Editor with no enough experience in it he may override some basic concepts and damage delivery.

3. Be eclectic

These are no chartered waters and you will not be able to rely on a textbook solution to guide you in the process.  With a business goal in mind you will try to adapt your newsroom to a changing society since only playing a relevant role in it will ensure you play a pivotal role in the community and remain relevant and necessary.  Any mechanisms you set to better “plug” yourself, your team and your project to the community and to other newspapers that are doing the same, the more chances you have of doing it right. 

4. Commit some investment to R&D.  Permanently

Just as the best companies in the world spend no less than 5% of revenues in R & D, in our modern newsrooms we have to maintain operations while at the same time being able to explore and experiment in innovative ways to deliver our merchandise, for instance on how to use today’s killer applications (the facebook and youtubes of the moment).  As when referring to the Fortune 500 corporations, “Spending more doesn't necessarily help, but spending too little will hurt”.  Even though the key is in how we do things, not just on how much money we devote to experimenting, we need to commit some figures beyond the initial design investment.

5. Get some help from the outside to move a little faster

When envisaging the transformation process top management tends to think of the conceptual challenges ahead and hence they hire consultants to address them.  Nevertheless, equally or more important are the HR challenges because as a management professor of mine used to say, “most often the enemy is not outside but inside”, in people’s minds and in their fear of not being able to adapt to the new scenarios.  If you decide to choose a consultancy firm, pick one with a track record in working with media and with journalists because the challenges are very specific to this industry.  If your journalists are convinced and involved you will be half way through the process.

Concepts on the physical layout of the newsroom 

6. Know the advantages of Open Space

You’d think most newsrooms are open space type, but it has been a surprise to me to see how many are divided by walls.  Offices have traditionally been associated to hierarchy: the larger the office the more important the boss, and that mentality lurks in many of our people’s minds.  Still, our new fast world needs to provide for easy, frequent, informal interactions among our personnel, beyond their own section or working group.  Just by going open your operation will minimize barriers and provide a more stimulating setting for the exchange of ideas, among onsite workers and those working outside.  Beware of complaints of your model which are nothing but status considerations.  Create meeting rooms for people to go private when they need it, for work or just to make a personal call.  Design a place where members of your teams can congregate and interact informally, such as a modern type of cafeteria. Last, one technical detail that is often overlooked when creating open spaces: many people gathered together tend to produce noise and which can be disruptive beyond a certain level.  Flooring and ceiling should address the problem and contribute to noise reduction.

7. Install a movable layout 

The process of implementing a modern newsroom will not lead to a comfortable final destination because it’s just one step forward.  After the new newsroom is in place and the team has moved in you’ll need to tweak your design repeatedly to reflect the constant changing needs of your business.  Ensure the furniture is movable and the electrical and digital plugs can be moved around.  Raised flooring is a must, as well as Wi-Fi and adequate lighting, which will allow for permanent changes and low-risk prototyping.

8. Respect the characteristics of your market

Most likely your market has some special characteristics that your business process has built into its DNA over the years.  You should not follow a standard design completely since you risk losing those special abilities that made you unique.  Adapt your design to your business.  There are no other rules to follow.  Respecting the characteristics of his market, Rob Curley in a recent video mentions how in his Las Vegas Sun project a small team of sales people are located within the A&E editorial team allowing for cross-pollination. 

9. Elements to include in your newsroom

When talking Newsroom 3.0 or a fully integrated newsroom, there are many basic designs you can find in the Web.  Juan Señor has facilitated to me Innovation’s design which is very detailed (top post image by Innovation).   According to them your new newsroom should include the following elements:

• Sections currently included in the paper.

• Hub or Super Desk: “the chiefs sit here, where the action is, not hiding in offices. They are visible, accessible and responsible.” 

• Graphic Desk: “info graphics and photo desk, located next to the super desk, producing visual journalism where ‘show, don’t tell’ is the norm.” 

• Radar Desk: “for monitoring the world via technology focusing on the why and what’s next as opposed to the who, where.”

• Community Desk: “for monitoring, moderating and integrating audience comments, pictures, videos, tips and opinions into every page and section of paper and digital media.” 

• Assignment Desk: “planning and assigning resources…; the superdesk relies on the assignment desk to continuously track the whereabouts of reporters, photographers and correspondents and coordinate their schedules.”

• Mini TV/Radio Studios: for news updates; for that 1 min summary at the closing of the stock market; to interview the local celebrity in radio or video; for video chats…etc.

• Hot Desks: for the contributors and freelancers who need occasional desks as the modern newsroom maintain a less permanent staff.

• Other Possible Elements:  Meeting Rooms, Public Gallery & Conference Rooms, in which city and community events take place next to “their” newsroom; an Innovation Desk to experiment across all platforms and introduce new products;  Digital Walls, where live statistics are shown as well as tweets and inputs from users…etc.

10. Be transparent

By tearing down some walls you have opted for transparency which is a state of mind with physical consequences.  Now you want your newsroom to stand for transparency and cooperation; if you need a wall, use glass and never opaque materials.  Even meeting rooms should be transparent.  Your quest for transparency will eliminate internal silos and push your organization away from comfort zones and ivory towers.   The Spokesman Review has gone furthest in this direction by inviting community members into the making of the paper and even into the decision making meetings.  Some difficulties in the form of persons with “agendas” may come in the way, but their desire for credibility is worth the trouble. 

11. Allow for active networkers

With your new layout in place, pay attention to the networking that takes place within.  The real success of your project will take place if the right networkers are able to operate freely across your established organization. They are the energetic people the organization trust and rely on.  Regardless of their title, they move around irrespective of the organization chart connecting people and experience, transforming bits of information into added value.  They are the energizers.  Their enemies are the inertial authority figures who dislike active networkers and hold too high a respect for established channels of communication.  By making sure that loose pieces of information are transformed into solutions this breed of employees will increase the possibilities of success of your project.   Make sure they are not subdued by your “establishment.”  Let there be a certain degree of noise.  Total peace belongs to cemeteries.

Concepts on IT

12. To succeed your people will need a proper tool box

Confirm that your company is ready to invest adequately in technical infrastructure since the modern journalist needs the proper tool box to deliver content across media.  The CEO and the Board should know that acquiring or developing a good WMS or CMS is an important step but other investments inevitably will follow.  Smaller investments will be required in pursuing the adequate delivery of news to every user/reader or target group at any moment of the day.

13. Bring decisions at the beginning of the processes

When visiting newspapers, I still see that some of them strive at the end of the process to fix issues that should have been addressed in the planning stage.  Unless they correct their work flow before totally merging operations into a new setting their problems will only multiply.  As when Toyota decided to tackle production problems by stopping the production chain when a problem was encountered, thus “preventing defective products from being produced,” papers should make every effort to ensure that as many decisions as possible are addressed at the beginning of the processes since that will force definition of rules.  The result will be music instead of noise.

14. Get the right tech people on board

The fast pace of change in the newsrooms makes it impossible to find a single piece of software that is able to handle all editorial needs.  This fact reinforces the importance of counting on the best and most experienced IT minds if you are to build the right “technological architecture.” On the other hand, that relevant IT role should not prevent the company from paying attention to the support team which if well selected and trained will be able to overcome journalists’ difficulties giving them the confidence to try new ways to address their problems.  Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to find that the wrong IT support causes frustration on the part of journalists who end up blaming the technology for not being able to move forward. Last, technology has to be so good that the journalists don’t notice it.  As with literary masterpieces, the style should not come in the way and steal the attention away from the content.

15. Don’t organize your newsroom around the production process

Randy Covington has repeatedly said that it’s easy to be carried away by an ideal work flow or by the beautiful simplicity of some work flow improvements, but the market usually acts disruptively on businesses.  In a similar way, let the market enter the newsroom and have a say on your process.  Let the needs of the reader/user and the advertiser’s change your initial thoughts.  The market wants you to be fast, to take into considerations many sources of information and in many formats.  It also wants the feedback and content of the users to be taken into consideration.  IT will have to adapt to market needs regardless of the complexities this decision will add, because content is king.

On telling stories and journalists

16. Search out for the best journalists

Content is the material; journalists are the craftsmen.  You cannot embark in transforming your newsroom if your journalists are not prepared for the task.  If you have not done it yet, set a hiring policy by which only the ones with a certain tech experience are hired, and make only exceptions with proven story tellers.  Train those who are willing to become more tech savvy, reward the ones who reach a multimedia level, ask new journalists to spend no less than one month in the medium they know the least.  And while you plan your next newsroom, push for your organization to become fully updated and operational as it regards the current editorial system.

17. Your news site should excel at telling stories

News sites have been very concerned about their CMS and related technical issues, including the training of journalists…, which are all relevant issues; but often they have forgotten about the real strength of old dailies and the reason they have been able to endure and maintain their roots in their communities: telling stories.  News sites have excelled at performing many complicated tasks and extending their reach; however, in general they have fared worse than newspapers in regard to owning well executed stories relevant to the audience.  In the new world you are facing, you should keep in mind that news are first, technology/platforms/workflows come later. We all know this but it’s worth remembering.

18. In the process don’t overlook the watch dog role

It’s only natural that when newspapers become digital they start using their traffic and brand to enter into adjacent territories: job/house/car sites, coupons and promotions, community portals, deep A&E…etc.  After all, they were traditional sections of the newspapers.  Stretching the brand is not necessarily bad as long as it is continuously reinforced.  As dailies have known for centuries, one of the best ways of strengthening the brand has been by fulfilling the watch dog role that the community expected from them.  When thinking of news work flows and layout remember that investigative reporting cannot be lost in the process.  The community needs to ascertain that ‘your brand’ still looks after the community.  

19. Go back to where you once belonged!  

Thanks to your investments in top class tech minds and in soft/hardware there are many things you can do now that before were simply impossible.  Journalists can work from any location thanks to laptops, smart phones, photo cameras which shoot video…etc.  For too long newspapers have either forced or at least accepted that journalists come to work in the newsroom and only go out for scheduled press conferences or events.  Now is the time to push them back to the community, where the news not reflected by wires and agencies are happening.  If you wait for wires you will be a “me-too-medium,” whereas if you create the news you set the agenda; you lead and others follow; you are the reference and thus become necessary.  Experiment with this concept and work for the community from inside the community.

20. Promote the “journalist as a personality” profile

If we agree that papers and news sites should grow their roots in the community, it would also seem that the modern journalist, armed with many more ways to establish links with readers should also work in the same direction.  Some journalists in the new setting should fit Steve Outing’s description of this new professional:  “…she puts herself out there as a personality -- a human being you can get to know by following her, and who is an expert on a topic you care about (like medical news, or crime, state government, and the like). She will communicate with her readers, answer their questions and accept tips about topics she should cover, and accept criticism when she makes mistakes. In my view of the newspaper sans paper, every journalist is a personality, not just an anonymous byline.” 

Last, some concepts on sales

21. Focus on your sales team

If you were relying on a third party for the job, hire in-house salespeople; be the master of your destiny. Dependence on a third party to obtain revenues will deprive you of walking along the learning curve of the sales process of the modern news operation which is complex because of its many new products and possibilities.  Choose well trained, ‘coin operated’ individuals.  Offer them a strong compensation system that they can understand and verify anytime they want.  Your CCO should use a good CRM to control the operation. If however,  this is not the case, do not complicate your life with it just now, instead experiment with a little “cloud computing” CRM such as salesforce.com.  Lastly, keep training always in mind since it is absolutely a must.  Your CRM will help you find out if selling of new products is being addressed and hence where to focus your training.

22. Sell audiences 

Odds are you are selling media products.  Soon you will discover that you will make more money if you become more relevant to your clients by selling audiences.  If, for instance, your client’s target is high income individuals you can offer him an audience made of different products and media.  When considering your layout, do not forget sales because matching the increasing degree of sophistication of your products with your clients’ needs is difficult.  Some salespeople will need to have access to some of the Hot Desks we mentioned before, next to the product operators.  In any case, it’s a good idea to expose your salespeople to the newsroom, by rotating them.   Avoid at any price having them in a different building away from the newsroom!

23. Automate your sales

Automate your sales operation: call centers are bringing good results to many players, especially when they call on specialized clients with ad hoc offers (e.g. offering a good auto site to car dealers).  For this type of sale, I also recommend in-house personnel.  As your operation is turning digital, smarter clients may be ready to hire online solutions without your team’s intervention but with call center assistance.  Start planning for it.

24. Get the right ad server or suffer

I apologize if this tip is obvious to most, but I have visited players who had not solved ad serving properly.  A good ad server is used by media companies and advertising agencies to traffic, target, deliver, and report on their interactive advertising campaigns.  It works with rich media, video, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium.  It greatly simplifies the administration effort by all parties and minimizes unsold inventory for publishers.  This choice is not a minor one.  Ask, compare and get references.  We are talking core organs here!

25. Wrapping it up

Our business is about delivering content when and how the audience wants it.  To achieve it, media companies have to go digital and transform themselves completely.  Not only do HR, journalists, technical personnel, salespeople…have to adapt, but the entire environment must adapt as well.  In transforming the newsroom, do it in incremental steps, and don’t get distracted from your core “telling stories” by the means (design and technology).  Read, ask, visit and if possible bring some proven consulting experience to interact with your journalists.  Reassure them that they will be working differently, smarter, not longer hours.  As always in the case of Change Management situations, involving and motivating your HR is the most important facet. 

Finally, focus on marketing and your sales will follow.  If you interpret well the changes in the market, revenues will come.  

You are free to use this article in your publication as long as you credit the author Fernando Samaniego.

Reorganization of Media Groups

During the last decade most Media Groups have organized themselves around their type of media properties, around their channels.  That is, papers, TV, radio…were independent divisions responsible for that channel and its production and sales functions.  Each division being very autonomous they were often located in separate buildings and also competed against each other.

There were numerous reasons for that: different types of expertise and skills were needed in each case, the strong medium was afraid of piggybacking the weaker ones…etc.  Most important, the consideration went, each medium had to follow the internal rules and logic specific to it and being apart was the right thing to do.  In the case of internet the real fear was that the more traditional and not very dynamic culture of newspapers would slow down the new medium.  Indeed, all those considerations were correct and “life apart” has probably helped many online players to develop fast and be successful.

During that last half a dozen years numerous dailies have shown a remarkable ability to reinvent themselves.  In parallel, online projects have shown a great ability to embed all other media and the leading media executives have discovered that the “living apart” solution had to evolve into a “back to living together” but in a radically different way.

The reorganization issue just reflects other strategic topics being debated.  As our societies become richer and more sophisticated and as advertisers and agencies try to reach increasingly differentiated consumers, shouldn´t media groups facilitate their job by offering target groups across all media?  On the content side, how come audiences are discovering multitasking and media groups are not doing anything about it?  Those and many more questions are advising media companies to abandon production considerations in favor of concentrating their efforts on audiences.

Once top management begins to travel this road the way forward is not a simple one and any reference to the solutions other players are using becomes important.  The consulting firm Innovation has either visited or led these experiments around the world and offers some advice on things to do and pitfalls to avoid.  This article by Chris O´Brien and Juan Señor from Innovation sheds some light on how to organize a multimedia group and offers many examples around the world. It´s worth reading!

In my experience, only companies with a certain degree of performance in each of those media should try to move as far as it is mentioned in the article.  For less developed companies, they first should prove themselves as adequate independent operators in each  medium since bringing the online operations next to the offline ones should only happen when the internet people have been able to develop their own culture and rhythm.

Chart copyright Innovation Media Consulting Group

TV and Internet Merger

Experiments to merge TV and internet have systematically failed but that has not discouraged new players from trying because most pundits believe that the right formula/s will eventually be found.  Previous attempts by Microsoft and Apple seem to point at that moment where the two media will work together through the development of creative formulas still unknown to each of them.  Multitasking, increasing lower third TV screens and the example of online video including support content are some of the trends heralding that moment.

A recent video in the Wall Street Journal showed the latest joint effort by Samsung and Yahoo! to achieve the active coexistence of TV and online.  But as an innovation from previous experiments, the merger has been performed using Yahoo!’s widgets. It has allowed the internet to coexist with the TV programming, and the viewer-user the ability to surf the internet without having to opt out from TV.  Like my first car of some 30 years ago - although the product can be improved, it does the job.

The implications for editors and local portals are not minor.  As time goes by, the site-only strategy will simply not be enough. The past news portals have represented the logical extension of newspapers into the digital era; however the time has arrived for them to open up.   Regardless of the beauty and size of the portals, users need more than merely accessing content through them. We should facilitate their access through doors- as many as possible-, windows, chimney, floor cracks…etc.  Easy to say and hard to do?  Yes, indeed, but a visionary company will slowly travel in that direction by developing easier access to its content: news portal/s, complementary sites, content conceived for mobile, widgets for specific pieces of information, IPod casting, presence in the big sites (YouTube, Facebook…)…etc, and now television.

Away from newspaper-like type of information where the content is mostly textual and long, online editors have to think in terms of data base type of content, ready to be complemented, expanded, commented, reused, searched…etc.  An article published in the paper is less and less relevant in the new environment of the “percolated house” since our products require content elements that can be linked together and repurposed.  A textual description of a new film is a short lived element in a newspaper, whereas the same film description can be formatted from its inception in smaller packages which can be permanently used online to support, for instance, even the movie protagonist’s bio many years later.  Those smaller packages can merge with images and video, they can be part of the skeleton for other sites such as trivia contests, affinity evaluations…etc.  They can be searched, reused, surfed in the PC, mobile…and now, thanks to Samsung and Yahoo! they will be repurposed when that very movie is being shown on TV.

Because of their tremendous content and their position in the cities, newspapers can count on a large network of collaborators. If they are to be the references of the on-goings on in their cities, the ability to gather “evergreen” information in the data base format will present an enormous competitive advantage.

News Portals: From Free to Fee?

Almost from the beginning news portals have been trying to find formulas to charge their readers/users.  Experiments abound.  Most attempts have failed because the decisions were too radical and they neglected the existence of free audiences.  A great example may be found in the following illustration: for a long time Spain’s elpaís.com had been open to subscribers and when it realized it had to change its business model it found out that its competitor elmundo.es had become the leader.

The Wall Street Journal provides another example in combining subscriptions with free and massive traffic in an effort to generate revenues from advertising.  Only last week I was talking to a consultant who mentioned that some newspapers were studying the effect of establishing micro-payments.  It would not be very different from the tolls being paid by cars when traveling along a highway, except that in the former case the editor would establish a daily limit to reassure the user.

Recently the New York Times featured an article on the Global Post (a.k.a. GP) which sheds light on the revenue issue.  The permanent cost reduction strategy implemented by many large newspapers has had many casualties among correspondents around the world, and has offered GP its opportunity.  Conceived as a for-profit project, GB has created a network of some 60 correspondents around the world who live in the countries they write about, to insure quality.

The project was funded with $8.5M and was launched in January, 2009.  Although too early to judge its viability, it offers some lessons on approaching revenues.  First, it relies on advertising as any other news portal.  Second, it hopes to obtain subscription fees from avid readers desiring international coverage.  The tag is not low: the cost is about $199 per year, and allows subscribers the opportunity to suggest ideas for articles, opening the newsroom to its audience.  Finally, given its solid network of international correspondents (chosen from among over 500 candidates), some established media have subscribed to their syndication, which represents a third source of income.  Willing to complement revenues, they reached an agreement with a CBS Radio News to play the role of its international network of correspondents.

GB is a non political line project based on storytelling journalism and top analysis covering international issues, as well as business, technology, and energy.  Founded by America’s largest regional cable news company, and a foreign correspondent and innovator in multimedia, it boasts a correspondent’s network only second to the Associated Press.  The project is ambitious and the market needs it.  While waiting to see if it takes off, some teachings regarding revenue diversification can be used, especially as it concerns subscriptions.

I guess Global Post represents one of those experiments, such as The Huffington Post, that anyone interested in newspapers and news portals has to keep track of.

I have not written a new post for over one month

 

There is an easy explanation why I have not written a new post for over one month.  I am now working for a new media company and I do not have any more of those hours in between flights when I used to write a good part of my posts.  My new job has taken me to Asia.  As COO of Publications & Online of Arab Media Group, a Dubai company in the United Arab Emirates, my new job demands a series of time consuming initial tasks that I want to concentrate on.  I do not know when I will resume my blog, but I am afraid it’s going to take some time.  With this post I wanted to address those people who are wondering why Fernando is not writing anymore.

There is little to be added about the brand Dubai.  Millions of tourists come every year to discover a city which invented itself on the shores of the Strait of Ormuz and the desert.  They have been similar creations in which a city was built in the middle of nowhere, such as Brasilia, but Dubai’s experiment is quite different and goes far beyond.  Personally, I had been following this project for the last couple of years and now I feel very grateful to have been given the opportunity to be part of it.

My best regards to my friends-readers and I hope to reestablish contact some time soon.

 

Aprovecharse de Youtube

Aunque tradicionalmente los diarios sido el soporte en el que las empresas anunciaban sus productos, ellos mismos apenas han utilizado otros medios para comunicar sus bondades a la población. Centrándonos en internet, en los tiempos actuales existen grandes plataformas online que, utilizadas con astucia, bien pudieran ayudarles a atraer a sus sitios, e incluso a sus ediciones en papel, los usuarios y lectores a los que más difícil les resulta acceder, los jóvenes (nota: aunque me refiero a los diarios, los argumentos se aplican a cualquier otro proyecto, especialmente si tiene presencia online).

20 Tips For Newspapers During Recessions

Even though I usually concentrate on the newer media forms, lately I’ve been in touch with some newspaper editors and I believe I should answer a question I’ve been asked several times: “What should be done in these times of crisis?”

Through my work with the press in Western and Eastern Europe as well as in the Americas and occasional forays into other emerging markets, I’ve come up with these 20 pieces of advice especially suited to the current situation. They do not mean to be comprehensive. Instead they intend to cover actions that, in my opinion, are usually overlooked.

When facing such a challenging economic situation it’s in one’s interest to keep some fundamental concepts in perspective to avoid guesswork and to not waste the opportunities that all crises can afford us. As I concluded in a previous post ”crises serve a function in the life of corporations and markets. It’s clear that among other things they prompt us to rethink projects and strategies, while making cost cuts, but also to kick start new tactics that will be very beneficial once the sun shines again. And a crisis is too expensive and scarce to be squandered.“

20 consejos para los periódicos...(Parte II)

11. Utilice colaboradores externos
A la hora de interpretar la realidad, sobre todo la más próxima, nuestros periodistas han sido la única clave. El mundo cambia rápido y cada vez hay más gente ahí afuera dispuesta a colaborar. Abra la ventana al mundo, hay muchos ejemplos de otros sectores que utilizan recursos externos para innovar. Muchas personas con talento estarían dispuestas a colaborar con el diario, y en muchos casos por poco más que algunas muestras de “cariño”. Mi caso es un ejemplo. En España colaboro con finanzas.com en el análisis de internet y los medios de comunicación sin pedir nada a cambio, como un subproducto de mis trabajos de consultoría. Construir una red de colaboradores externos es una hermosa labor que los diarios debieran abordar, no sólo por la reducción de costes que pueda entrañar, sino por mejorar el producto y pegarlo más al terreno. Después de todo, entre el 87% y el 60% (según edades) de las personas considera que los blogueros (léase colaboradores externos) aportan valor y criterio en la creación de opinión.

20 consejos para los periódicos en época de crisis (Parte I)

Aunque me suelo centrar en los nuevos medios, últimamente he estado en contacto con varios editores de prensa y me ha parecido oportuno responder a una pregunta varia veces formulada “¿Qué conviene hacer en estos momentos de crisis?” De mis trabajos con la prensa en Europa occidental y del Este, así como con las dos Américas y alguna incursión en el mundo árabe, destilo en este blog 20 recomendaciones especialmente adaptadas al momento presente y que he dividido en dos posts dada su dimensión. No pretenden ser exhaustivas sino que cubren aquellas actuaciones que, en mi opinión, se suelen quedar en el tintero.

Ante una coyuntura económica tan desafiante interesa tener claros algunos conceptos fundamentales para evitar dar manotazos y desperdiciar las oportunidades que toda crisis ofrece. Como concluía en un post anterior, “las crisis tienen una función en la vida de las empresas y los mercados. Está claro que, entre otras cosas, sirven para replantear proyectos, estrategias e importantes reducciones de costes, pero también para poner en marcha tácticas nuevas que nos serán muy útiles una vez el sol vuelva a brillar. Y una crisis es demasiado cara y escasa como para desaprovecharla”.

Consolidación en los directorios locales (iYP)

Hasta hace bien poco el camino más emprendido para acceder a los ingresos por búsqueda local que tanto han estado creciendo durante los últimos años era a través de la generación de iYP (páginas amarillas digitales). Replicar Google era poco menos que imposible, pero liderar un mercado local en iYP parecía más accesible. En los EEUU y otros países desarrollados, editores locales y jugadores provenientes de internet fundaron decenas de competidores locales confiando en que su estrategia sería la adecuada una vez pasados los duros inicios que tiene que soportar cualquier negocio. Si los jugadores tradicionales, los propietarios de las páginas amarillas de toda la vida, confiaban en su capilaridad comercial y en que los clientes que contrataban internet lo hacían a menudo arrastrados por la oferta combinada de papel más internet, los jugadores aspirantes, a menudo editores, confiaban en su capacidad de generar tráfico y en el poder de su marketing y prescripción, seguros, además, de que con tarifas más ajustadas convencerían a un determinado porcentaje de comerciantes de pasarse a sus proyectos.

Publicidad online y factor tiempo

Para que la publicidad en internet pueda efectivamente erosionar los ingresos que se dan en los medios más tradicionales, debe no sólo explorar nuevos formatos, sino sobre todo internalizar el factor tiempo como el elemento auténticamente clave y diferencial para conseguir el éxito de una buena parte de sus anunciantes y, por ende, el suyo propio.

La Publicidad online es más rentable de lo que parece

La semana pasada un cliente me mostraba su pesimismo ante la dificultad de diversificar sus ingresos más allá de los banners tradicionales (o fórmulas afines) combinado ello con unas bajas tarifas resultado del argumento esgrimido por sus clientes de que los anuncios en su medio obtenían bajas tasas de click (CTR, “click trough rates”). Como no es la primera vez que escucho estos razonamientos, en mi siguiente visita dediqué una sesión a abordar este asunto. Posteriormente lo presenté a varios responsables comerciales de su empresa y creo que al final conseguí insuflarles confianza en el poder de sus anuncios (dejo para otro momento la dificultad de la diversificación de los ingresos por tratarse de un tema que requiere una atención especial).

¿Todavía no estás en una red social profesional?

Si pensabas que podías permanecer al margen de las redes sociales porque era un fenómeno más adecuado para jóvenes ociosos que para profesionales como tú, ya va siendo hora de que te replantees ese postulado. Si además estás por debajo de los 50 y no trabajas en uno de los escasos sectores a los que internet no transformará durante los próximos 5-10 años, no puedes esperar más. Si, por último, trabajas en el sector servicios y necesitas estar permanentemente actualizado sobre lo que pasa en tu área de responsabilidad, sigue leyendo.

Spots baratos de producir y rentables

Si en mi post anterior escribía que “Es precisamente en la intersección entre la búsqueda local y el vídeo donde se produce una interesante oportunidad de negocio,” pretendo ahora comentar cómo desarrollar anuncios locales a un coste ínfimo con el objetivo de monetizar los fortísimos crecimientos en ingresos de vídeo local que también cuantificaba en el referido artículo.

Vídeo como estrategia local

¿Si es cierto que el consumo de vídeo está creciendo exponencialmente podemos pensar que un jugador local puede posponer su utilización en internet? Veamos los indicadores antes de dar una respuesta categórica.

Es de todos conocido que el tiempo dedicado por el consumidor medio a visionar contenidos de vídeo, tanto profesionales como generados por los usuarios ha aumentado. En Europa el tiempo dedicado al consumo de video se ha incrementado en un 50% en un sólo año. El gigante youtube ha visto incrementar su base de usuarios únicos un 42% en tan sólo ocho meses. Tal ha sido el crecimiento del vídeo que en EEUU durante algunas horas de la mañana ya se ve más vídeo por internet que por TV. Ambos medios muestran una curva de consumo muy similar en el “prime time”, como indica el siguiente gráfico cedido por ComScore.

En lo que también coinciden la TV e internet es en que son precisamente los contenidos profesionales los que generan ingresos, no los de los usuarios.

¿Por qué la prensa francesa es tan diferente?

Muchos se han preguntado qué hace a los diarios franceses tan singulares, por qué han evolucionado durante las últimas décadas de forma tan diferente al resto de diarios en otros países. Pues bien, su historia reciente lo explica en buena medida.

Antes de la Segunda Guerra Mundial los propietarios eran hombres políticos con una ideología a la que en buena medida servían los diarios que, recordemos, en aquellos años constituían la principal fuerte de información. Por ese mismo carácter instrumental, la prensa no resistió muy bien la invasión alemana y rápidamente “se acostó con el enemigo” (términos recientemente mencionados por el presidente de un diario francés) de 1940 a 1945, con diferentes matices en cada zona y cada medio. Con el florecer posterior de las redes de resistencia, los periódicos operaron en posiciones ideológicas más ambiguas. Aún antes de la liberación algunos diarios fueron tomados por las armas y pasaron a manos de hombres políticos o jefes de la resistencia que albergaban unos objetivos políticos que transmitían a sus medios.

Recomendaciones para crear webs hiperlocales (Parte III)

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Como colofón a mis posts anteriores sobre webs hiperlocales de noticias y webs hiperlocales del tipo agregador, ofrezco algunas recomendaciones para las empresas que quieran emprender la generación de webs hiperlocales, basadas en mis experiencias personales y de mi entorno:

1. Así como para los primeros portales de noticias el principal desafío consistió en sortear la maraña organizativa y cultural de la prensa escrita, los proyectos hiperlocales de los medios de comunicación online se encuentran a menudo lastrados por una cultura que no les deja desarrollarse a su propio ritmo. Puesto que el producto y el ritmo es diferente al de los portales de noticias, se les debe permitir adoptar un código interno de funcionamiento aún menos formal que el de una web local.

2. Los portales hiperlocales no deben basarse sólo en noticias, aunque hay ejemplos de lo contrario, a menos que la definición de noticia sea más amplia. Necesitan de una oferta central que les dé cohesión y evite la sensación de magma informe, especialmente hasta alcanzar una masa crítica de usuarios y contenidos. Por expresarlo con un ejemplo, al igual que muchos portales locales han llegado a la conclusión de que son las noticias de última hora las que los vertebra y les permite acceder a contenidos aledaños, los sitios hiperlocales necesitan encontrar uno o más elementos que les den “cuerpo” y entidad suficiente.

Webs hiperlocales: agregadores (Parte II)

Como afirmaba en mi post anterior, las mejores webs hiperlocales serán capaces de crear espacios tan estructurados como el sitio de unas páginas amarillas y tan abiertos y “humanos” como las webs de redes sociales. La combinación perfecta. Algunos jugadores han preferido comenzar por la parte “dura” del proyecto: muchas bases de datos y bien ordenadas, con la esperanza de poder revestirlo más tarde de contenido elaborado ad hoc por los usuarios. No debe sorprender esta estrategia ya que las páginas amarillas (p.ej. superpages.com), algunas webs de cine (que imitan a filmaffinity.com) e incluso muchos sitios de clasificados (que incorporan filosofía de trulia.com) han seguido el mismo camino.
Hilando con el comentario en mi post anterior de que en lo hiperlocal priman los servicios y otros contenidos locales sobre las noticias, destaco un proyecto que puede deparar sorpresas futuras. Everyblock.com aborda lo local llegando casi hasta la manzana del barrio. Sus gestores conocen el entramado local ya que fueron fundadores de chicagocrime.org. El portal se alimenta de numerosísimas bases de datos generadas diariamente por diferentes entidades, que el portal filtra, ordena y presenta al usuario. Entre sus contenidos se destacan la información cívica (de organismos oficiales), las noticias y blogs así como información varia (reseñas…). Parte del secreto de everyblock.com reside en su capacidad de filtrado de la información por códigos geográficos. El sitio todavía está siendo ajustado pero es previsible que en la medida en que los motores internos de búsqueda vayan siendo más finos e intuitivos los resultados ofrecidos sean realmente pertinentes. No obstante, en mi opinión todavía falta un tiempo para ello.

Sitios Hiperlocales: noticias (Parte I)

La carrera por el contenido hiperlocal comenzó hace algún tiempo, pero sigue estando en sus albores. La penetración de internet, la abundancia de blogs y la creciente disponibilidad de contenidos sociales son algunos de los factores bottom-up que están permitiendo la creación de unos contenidos generados por el usuario que le son tan necesarios. También existen factores top-down que favorecen la llegada de lo hiperlocal, como son algunas de las tecnologías y herramientas (p.e. Google Maps). Desde el punto de vista técnico destacan las infinitas posibilidades de los mashups que consisten en la integración de informaciones provenientes de diferentes fuentes en una herramienta o aplicación que aporta un servicio o información no existente en las fuentes de las que se nutre. Son aplicaciones webs realizables por usuarios con escasos conocimientos técnicos. Que en el futuro oiremos hablar más de lo hiperlocal parece seguro a juzgar por los numerosos start-ups que intentan abordar proyectos hiperlocales con el objetivo de satisfacer tanto al anunciante local como al nacional y regional que necesitan mayor segmentación geográfica. Si bien es cierto que los resultados que aportan algunos de esos sitios, especialmente los más avanzados técnicamente, son un tanto ingenuos o a veces irrelevantes, la rápida curva de aprendizaje que están recorriendo augura que estamos ante un fenómeno llamado a ocupar un papel significativamente más relevante en el futuro. Es demasiado pronto para conocer todas las variantes que la tendencia puede generar, pero sin duda contribuirá a conseguir algo que los iYP (internet yellow pages) siempre han deseado: combinar bases de datos “duras” con contenido más atractivo. Los huesos del esqueleto (bases de datos) con los músculos y la piel que le dan su atractivo.

On Classifieds (Part II): Mobile Examples

Resumen del artículo: tras mi anterior artículo sobre las estrategias de las diferentes categorías de jugadores de clasificados, este post se concentra en las innovaciones que los móviles están permitiendo.

In my previous post I wrote about some of the larger players using different strategies, Craigslist, eBay and Oodle. All of them will have to leverage their R&D capabilities to assure healthy growth against the myriad of competitors aiming at this lucrative market. In all cases players will have to adopt and adapt the new technologies to better serve their clients and audiences. In the case of Craigslist it may have to raise, at least partially, its revenue in order to experiment and adopt some of the technology already being used by most competitors without necessarily having to abandon its “helping people help” philosophy that pleases much of its audience. EBay, which has promised large investments in classifieds, will transfer to them all the tools and experience it has acquired in its core business along the years such as refined searching and filtering. Implementing technological improvements will be a challenge to all of them, Oodle included.

On Classifieds (Part I): Craigslist, eBay, Oodle

Resumen del artículo: en este post se analizan las diferentes categorías de jugadores en el mundo de los clasificados online: los medios tradicionales, los "pure players", los actores del sector (p.ej. agencias inmobiliarias), los llegados a clasificados desde actividades aledañas y los agregadores.

For centuries newspaper’s exclusive turf, the online world has changed the way classified ads reach people and interact. Some newspaper groups (see below) have been more successful than others at transferring their offline skills to the online world. Large online media companies like Google (Google Base started in 2005 and has lost most of its steam), Amazon and Yahoo are not being counted among the new media companies successful in classifieds (Hotjobs.com and other examples notwithstanding). Nor has Microsoft: Live Expo was started in 2006 and officially closed last summer. Among the industry players Realtor.com (National Assoc. of Realtors), Rightmove.co.uk (founded by several large UK real estate networks), and Monster.com (TMP Worldwide) have been able to establish a sound presence. In the world of companies which specifically target internet classifieds we’ll analyze three projects because of their different backgrounds and strategies: Craigslist, eBay and Oodle.

Ingresos locales: promociones online

Article Summary: there is a trend of change from conventional advertising spending to promotional because advertisers consider that traditional formats are losing effectiveness.  Although more frequent in the national arena, local businesses and media are exploring this category which, according to Borrell Associates, will surpass all other advertising categories.

El  objetivo de las inversiones de los anunciantes siempre ha sido, y será, conseguir que su producto llegue a más clientes y a fin de cuentas se venda más.  Frente a la saturación publicitaria percibida, los anunciantes han ido explorando nuevas propuestas, algunas de las cuales se han consolidado.  El ritmo de migración hacia nuevas fórmulas no es constante pero durante los últimos años se ha acelerado debido tanto a las nuevas posibilidades como a la insatisfacción de anunciantes que sienten que pagan demasiado por la publicidad, obtienen resultados escasos y se encuentran alejados de sus clientes.  Sin duda ese sentimiento ha estado siempre presente, pero una mezcla de curiosidad por las posibilidades de las nuevas tecnologías y de recursos escasos en tiempos de estrecheces económicas ha estimulado la innovación.   Según Borrell Associates, la actividad de las promociones online suponía en el mercado norteamericano $ 8billones USA pero se triplicará en 2012 hasta representar 22,8 y sobrepasar a todas las otras categorías de publicidad online, incluyendo banners, búsqueda, vídeo…).  Constituye una de esas actividades en las que los aspirantes a líder local de la publicidad deberían estar dando sus primeros pasos.

Oportunidad en la búsqueda local (Local Search)

Article Summary: money is growing fastest in both local search and video.  Local and news sites are well positioned to reap this growth, but other players such as iYP (internet yellow pages), are claiming their piece of this fast growing pie.

Cualquier experto en medios de comunicación escritos sabe que a corto plazo es impensable sustituir los ingresos y beneficios que los diarios han venido teniendo por la simple migración de sus noticias a internet, o incluso por desarrollar un portal de noticias con algunos servicios locales.  Hace unos tres años se decía que para sustituir a un solo comprador fiel de prensa hacían falta 100 usuarios de internet.  Aunque seguro que ahora el ratio es más favorable, el portal de noticias es condición necesaria pero no suficiente. La cuestión no es baladí, porque según Borrell Associates, en EEUU los ingresos locales online crecerán un 48% en 2008.

Weather is Local and Journalistic Material

Resumen del artículo: frente al tratamiento tan frecuentemente superficial que se aplica al tiempo, pocos contenidos hay tan locales y tan versátiles a la hora de dar contexto a muchas informaciones con el mínimo esfuerzo. Por otro lado, las noticias relacionadas con el tiempo cada vez escalan más posiciones en "lo más visto."  Falta que los diferentes aspirantes a la categoría de líder local exploten bien sus posibilidades.

The weather isn’t poetry in a local site, it’s business.  Its growing interest should insure that local portals pamper and nurture their weather content as one of their most valuable assets.  Instead, a few clouds here, the current temperature there and a link to an external source very often proves the lack of interest put into them.

Elaboración de noticia local

Article Summary: My client was deciding whether to opt for a single newsroom (convergence) or two.  In my opinion the decision has more to do with newspaper and corporate culture, and size of the journal than with other considerations. I chose an example to illustrate this.

Hace unas semanas estaba reunido con un cliente propietario de varios medios de comunicación regionales y preocupado porque sus sitios de internet no conseguían captar el tráfico suficiente como para soñar que algún día sus ingresos online podrían compensar la pérdida de ingresos tradicionales.  La conversación giró en torno a si una redacción única es mejor que dos redacciones separadas.  Mis experiencias me han enseñado que la respuesta tiene más que ver con los recursos humanos existentes, la cultura de la empresa y la visión del consejero delegado que con verdades absolutas.  Para grandes diarios con recursos humanos ‘poco inquietos’, quizá lo mejor fuese comenzar separadamente y hallar poco a poco puntos en común que vayan haciendo entender a todos que se trata de dos medios diferentes con reglas internas de funcionamiento diferentes, a los que hay que tratar organizativa e informativamente de forma diferente.  Si lo online nace junto al medio tradicional, es muy probable que se pierda demasiado tiempo en desencuentros estériles y que el hijo no acabe de descubrir su propio lenguaje (o tarde demasiado).