Fernando Samaniego - International New Media Consulting

38 Tips for a Chief Digital Officer (Part 1, technology)

For the last 20 years I have been in charge of diverse media businesses in different countries. All along, digital was always a part of my responsibilities, and lately it has become my main focus. In appreciation for the generosity of so many people during my career, I want to share the mental blueprint I use when managing a digital operation. The following doesn’t mean, though, that I am doing well at every step I describe. Rather, I’m just a challenged beginner trying to plot my company’s roadmap to a profitable and fast growing digital operation. I can boast, nonetheless, that it represents a useful guide to leaders trying to manage rather complex digital media operations.

1. Choose who do you work for

If you are senior enough, choose who you work for. Transforming the dominant culture of a company involves, among other things, razor-sharp strategic vision, determination, stamina and serious backing to achieve the expected goals. Taking that journey with shareholders who have a track record of mistreating executives (excessive churn, unfulfilled promises, poor HR reputation…) is adding extra liabilities to an already difficult task. On the other hand, if you select a company with a good public image that goodwill will significantly help the products you launch. If the company has a good brand image albeit with a history of failed digital projects, the situation can be reversed. A poor digital track record will pose extra difficulties when attracting talent at the outset, but that can be overcome. Changing the mind of the market is much harder. Do yourself a favor and avoid conflicting companies and Boards.

2. Obtain real and perceptible support from the top

Moving a traditional media company along the digital path is a herculean task which involves most areas of the business, with the exception of printing. The successful transformation of the dominant culture and its processes requires strong support from shareholders and from the COO. This top-down support should be felt throughout the organization, should be well thought out and should include clear messages to the organization. Should hesitation or doubts arise along the way, shareholders should be careful not to express it outside the walls of their boardroom. In absence of explicit support, the inertia of the company will automatically act against the disruptive noise of the emerging culture.

3. Be “hybrid”: our digital world is a fast changing one and rigid schools of thought do not fit well with that.

Digital media is so dynamic that truths have a limited shelf-life. Requirements for success are diverse and involve many areas of human knowledge. Yes, somehow this is also true in other areas of business, but in digital we live ‘dog years’, compressed time. To be successful, one has to adopt a very pragmatic all inclusive approach. The argument in favor or against proprietary platforms versus open source is irrelevant; the answer is that both may be required. The same applies to investing in one’s own server farm versus cloud services, advertising versus transactional revenues, internal growth versus hiring from outside, agency revenues versus direct sales…etc. Be hybrid, be all inclusive and open minded in all areas of the operation, be they technical, commercial or personnel-related. When possible, perform constant A/B testing to monitor the effectiveness of each possible solution before you take a definitive decision.

TECHNOLOGY

4. Always think architecture first

Don’t fall in love with the variety of sexy software and technology tools to choose from! It’s easy to get carried away with a new platform which has been recommended by someone we trust and which moreover gets the best trade reviews. The problem, not uncommon to media companies with low revenue-contribution from digital, is that their architecture has become a series of technology layers which can be traced back to previous managers, or even to decisions fostered by attending seminars or visiting respected media groups. My personal advice is that you should chart your existing architecture while being honest and unforgiving with the situation and its ability to deliver. Then, share it with top tech guys you respect and find out if the current technology set up really makes sense or if some modifications would better suit your needs. Some elements will be valid; others are probably bound for change or obsolescence. This process, more often than not, will result in cost reduction. Whenever you need to progress, ask your people how any small change, new tool or platform fits with the architecture. This is my first point regarding technology simply because it’s the most important.

5. Digital technology and businesses should be intertwined

I have worked under two different circumstances: with authority over the technology team and without. Believe me that the speed of change is much greater with the former. Some media companies prefer that the IT people have control of the Digital technology, because of habit or simply because their IT managers are highly reliable. In this scenario the Digital business managers may feel insufficiently supported or dragged down. The Data Center is often a good example. IT gives support to hosting and maintenance of servers, at times without the proper knowledge of web tools and systems and more frequently following policies designed rather for traditional businesses, for which they have the knowledge. The Data Center example (let it be clear, no team is better than the other, they just have different skill sets) may shed light on the need for the digital area to have control of its own technology. Good understanding between both heads, and among team members, is a must. Whether you are the shareholder, CEO or Chief Digital Officer (CDO), the thinking should be the same, since this is not a matter of a person accumulating power, but of a professional being able to move the company forward by having control of two interdependent levers.

6. Sit digital technology personnel next to the business managers

It’s not uncommon to find that technology and businesses work in separate locations, perhaps in the same building. Twice I have experienced the tremendous energy created by just sitting the technical guys among the business teams. It’s hard to believe how dramatic the change can be. For close to zero cost, this is by far the best move a media company can make to accelerate its digital operations.

7. Have tech and business teams interact

Along the lines of the previous point, mix technology and business team members when analyzing a new business or the next release, and also when brainstorming. Recently one of my tech team members came up with the key to a very challenging strategic question we were posing ourselves (in a database project, how to persuade unsubscribed merchants to subscribe while not affecting users negatively). Such interactions are very positive for the company and for the professional development of both teams: tech people realize how important their job is and business people learn more about the basic principles of technology. Moreover, both sets of professionals appreciate the learning and growth; they also appreciate their interdependency.

8. Be hybrid with your architecture: use open source and proprietary software

Media groups have a tendency to perpetuate their legacy habit of acquiring proprietary technology and platforms into Digital Media. They perceive a sense of security from after-sales support, vendor expertise, stability, vendor trust…etc. Adding to that, open source technicians have been absent in media groups until recently, and at the beginning they were more expensive. It was Rob Curley who showed me the open source potential back in his times in Kansas. Since then, I have tried to move to open source when possible, but not obsessively. Experts talk about the zero cost of open source as the main advantage, but that ignores the fact that a good part of innovation is being driven by companies which aren’t in the business of selling software. Open source solutions are increasingly excellent at solving specific problems. Another overlooked element in regard to proprietary software is its cost in terms of the negotiation process, including subsequent time delays. For some well-defined jobs, a proprietary solution may be the right one. For projects which can evolve in unexpected ways, open source can give you the flexibility to adapt to the possible scenarios of a project. In any of those two scenarios, make sure you have in-house experts who understand the technology and inspect new patches or adaptations. It will avoid complications, downtime and in the long run it will give you some protection against unexpected turns in your business or the vendor’s.

9. Use Project Management

I have managed digital operations with and without a Project Management discipline and the difference is notorious. I wouldn’t do it again without. All media companies are trying to grow digital revenues fast. As shareholders look at the inevitable chart in which analogue income dwindles over the years whilst digital’s goes up trying to make up for it, it’s clear that this is a race against the clock. If proper management of time and budget is important, PM is crucial. Initial project estimates will vary and without PM it’s hard to ascertain where one stands. PM optimizes internal resources and suppliers to ensure that there is no wastage of time or money, nor further complications when the problems of one project start affecting others and threaten to disturb the morale of the team and its credibility. Beyond reducing time and costs while helping quality, reaching an agreement for PM workflow is an excellent tool to negotiate and obtain buy-in from the different teams working on a project. It’s a management aphorism that “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” and indeed any project extending beyond two weeks needs to be accounted for in order to be managed. The opposite is a recipe for disaster. A PM workflow is the result of team compromise and it represents commitment from each party to achieve an objective regardless of other commitments. It allows the project management officer to follow up and take corrective measures on time and on budget. With the years I have become more PM aware. I currently include in the PM workflow elements having to do with the business, not just the technology: contracts that have to be ready by a certain time, key revenue agreements to be signed...etc. Finally, I recommend that the flowchart includes quality and stress tests, technical documentation before launch as well as budget and time buffers (these last two could be hidden from the team).

10. Be hybrid: do in-house programming and also farm out

In principle, an in-house group of developers will react quicker to your company needs and will take into consideration more of the complexity of integration. Nothing beats face to face interaction and the speed and creativity generated when the holders of technical and business skills interact. When exposed to the business objectives of a project, internal developers will come up with unrequested ideas. Maintenance will be easier for them because they know the project from inception. It seems that I’m making the case for not outsourcing, but in fact there are many cases in which farming out is better and/or cheaper; each decision should be made on a per case basis, with pragmatism. An external company may be approached for a development job which requires a specialization not found in-house or because the team has its hand full or because you may want to get fresh air from outside to challenge your team or because you think that some repetitive tasks are better done elsewhere. Search was an abstruse set of skills for most of us some years ago, but now it’s a skill most media companies possess internally. For many companies outsourcing was the way to acquire them. The same applied to mobile skills some time ago. What is imperative is that at the end of the day your company has to possess the core skills. Whether farming out or doing it in-house, it has to do with the history and beliefs of your company, but as a rule of thumb, reinforce your core, reinforce your technical team but outsource routine and commodity. Lastly, one should not forget that our technical teams want to learn and grow; they are ready to move out of their comfort zone to acquire new skills in order to remain “hirable”. Am I being too candid? Honestly, in my life the most heard of complain of technicians has to do with lack of training, not with having to learn new things.

11. Offer incentives to your developers

I firmly believe that in a digital media operation, and for that matter in all companies, all individuals should look in the same direction and have the same goals. Since accomplishing it is more art than science, let me share ways I have been trying to achieve it:  first, absolutely every single person in a digital operation (including a personal assistant, or the tea person who exists in many Asian companies) should have a bonus or variable compensation at the end of a period (year, semester, quarter, month) to incentivize performance. Not only personal performance but also group results should be taken into account to foster cooperation and to stimulate the group dynamics which will expel the laggards who penalize the rest. Another non-economic way to incentivize people was influenced by my previous life as a university professor when I cherished some of the teachings of the behavioral psychologist Burrhus Frederic ‘Skinner’ regarding human motivation: I have often applied the sentence “positive reinforcement of desired behavior” in my professional life, as opposed to threats or punishments, and I seriously believe it works with most people. One question often asked in regard to rewarding developers is how to measure their performance. I have tried different ways, not all them successful. Currently our developers report to their technical head but they are organized along business lines (e.g., the video platform developers have a dotted line to the Business Manager of video so that they identify with the objectives of that line of business). Their bonus is therefore dependent upon the total digital revenues as well as the revenues generated by the video business. I know this system is not perfect but I have tried others and this one suits us best. The purpose is that developers identify with their digital peers and with the success of the businesses they work for.

12. Document all development

The pressure to meet deadlines is often responsible for neglecting the preparation of software documentation, which frequently includes a description of the software, its function, relationships to its environment, construction principles…etc., as well as record of code, interfaces, algorithms and APIs. Ideally, it also includes manuals for the administrators, end users and support personnel. Unless the piece of software is going to have a short life span (e.g. a mobile app for a client’s campaign), documentation is critical. When ignored, any future versions or updates will become time consuming and more prone to error since any changes may negatively affect the software. This becomes especially important in the case of complex platforms which are created to last for several years and which will experience upgrades and intensive interaction with other pieces of the architecture. Who determines the scope of the documentation required and gives the seal of approval is important since it will affect its quality. In principle, the developer or developers, internal or external, should get the approval from the person in charge of QA (quality assurance) or a similar position. The following may seem tough to many, but in the case of more complex SW it is good to have the documentation ready before launching. The very same pressure to implement the SW will be felt by the engineers in charge of documentation. Someone told me not too long ago that the original WCMS (web content management system) of his company had been left undocumented by previous managers and that had been one of the main reasons to move on to a new one.

13. More on the technical area

Other recommendations are just common sense. Have your tech people listen to the business owners to grasp the basic concepts that matter, let them exchange examples of what the project tries to achieve. For more complex developments ask your tech personnel to offer business owners a RFP (request for proposal) and to help them go through it. Have the business support in delaying some complex functions to Phase II, if it makes technical sense. Include tech people in some of your work and planning meetings to make sure that there are no misunderstandings. After a business owner has defined a new project, ask her to share it with her tech peers to look for complementary ideas. At key milestones of the product development by your tech people, get together with your internal clients and share what has been achieved. This type of approach is always important but more so in the case of Newsrooms. News sites have matured by now and while competition from pure plays is flourishing, our newsrooms have to work frequently with a straitjacket which prevents them from thriving. With the proper open architecture, WCMS and a good array of modern tools they can develop the flexibility they need to show what they are capable of. If they are part of the building process, misunderstanding will be reduced, later implementations will be faster. Before any major technical development obtain the proper business data to verify that you are taking the right decisions; verify that the proposed step is not the consequence of just established assumptions. Data should be the beginning of things. When creativity or hunches come first, data has to follow. Beyond that, make sure you test every single component of the architecture of a new project, the more so the larger the traffic expected. Have it done by someone who did not work on the project.

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My Interview by the International Press Institute

As a permanent new Member to the Advisory Board of the International Press Institute, I was recently interviewed on their website.  Here is a copy of it, and a link.

Why should traditional media invest in innovation? 

Let me start by stressing an old truth: good storytelling is the key to our success.  Good storytellers are the protagonists in our own future success, the protagonists who unfortunately have too often been sidelined by the antagonists (‘bad guys’):  bad journalists and unprepared bosses in the newsroom. 

The newsroom needs to be reinvented: it needs to become dynamic, to become the platform where content merges from multiple sources, including external contributors, professional and amateurs.   For this to work, contributors need to be compensated for their work in new ways because the some of the previous models are unsustainable.  And our content platform absolutely needs to produce original content - paywalls are not possible without it.

We old dogs need to learn new tricks to engage audiences. For media companies to interact more closely with readers, they need to further explore the relationships between content and users; and between content and content, uncovering patterns which will allow us to automatically anticipate the intentions of users and create related services and functions.

In short, innovation is key to the future of the news – from the technology, content and business perspectives. 


How can an innovative online media project become economically sustainable? 

1. Leverage our key assets and branch out into adjacent businesses 
News sites are heavily trafficked, but they are costly and unprofitable if we fully allocate real costs.  While we need to grow and master that business, we also need to discover other activities we should explore for potential profitability.  If we grab a newspaper printed 20 years ago, its index will show some of the businesses it aggregated: obituaries, cinema, economy, classifieds, professional ads...etc. Hard news was one part of the picture, albeit, the main one.  In our digital papers, it should be the same; we should explore adjacent territories in order for us to become the local connector. Our advantages are our brand, our editorial and commercial teams. Thanks to them we can continue grabbing audiences and smartly creating new activities in the hope of creating new businesses.

2.  Don’t be precious about our homepages - take our content to where the readers are
Too often our guests don’t go beyond the hall of our costly hotels – the homepage. Users peep at the breaking news and leave. Some players are exploring means to present the user with related content or tailor made proposals, but in fact more and more of our readers’ activity takes place outside our properties. Of course we have to follow them wherever they go, but we need to continue engaging users in our properties.  We should think of ourselves as the owners of a network of FREE heavy trafficked highways who need to recoup our investment. Since drivers do not pay a toll, we have to be smart at populating our highways with billboards and road signs to direct vehicles to the new stores we need to create in the infinite land along our roads.

3. Be agile & flexible in embracing technology 
Media companies need to avoid the “asphyxia by technology” syndrome.  Too many companies fight daily with their existing vendors and platforms, which often walk at different speeds and with divergent goals.  I use the “energy”¨comparison to describe the use of technology in the newsroom: you can depend on foreign oil and “export”  lots of money, or you can increasingly rely on new sources of energy, invest in research, create jobs, manufacture locally...etc.  An approach based on reducing costs, risks and rigidity while keeping inside a series of core competencies will facilitate our playing with content as if it were dough.
We need them to take strides in our understanding of the relationships of content with other content and with users, (semantic web), to second guess behaviors or to ascertain the desired content to be consumed at each precise moment, including categories of data or services the user is in need or in the mood to consume.  Nowadays content is technology dependent and good journalism needs good platforms to thrive.

4. Understand that data is the new oil  
If we could gather and harness data left voluntarily by the user on our sites (think gamification techniques) and if we could add to all of that some of the personal information available via other channels (e.g. Twitter or Facebook, including past “likes”, friends, groups), we could offer readers a much richer experience. 
For example, we could surprise them with the best Groupon-type offers or services or a Daily Me for non- hard news. In a hypothetical ‘personal control board’ where the user could see its own ‘shadow’, any affinity proposal would be possible (better targeting of ads is just the obvious benefit coming to our minds).  If media companies are able to achieve such goals, their role in the community would be assured. 

5. Change the culture: 
As is the case in industries in which innovation is key, media companies need to be better at understanding the rhythm of change in society and at using the latest technologies to keep pace with it.  We tend to go slowly and timidly about it.  Often, the best technical people do not want to work for us because we have not created the right environments for them to bloom.  Often we force those tech people to adapt to our corporate culture and we show our surprise when they suffocate or lose their initial enthusiasm.   
This all said, let’s not lose track of what is really important: our future requires original, real story telling. Without that, no competitive advantage will be left for us.

In your opinion, how do initiatives like the IPI News Innovation Contest promote the development of new media and strengthening of journalism?

IPI plays an important role in making innovation happen by funding a number of interesting projects.  This year we were forced to choose among a vast array of proposals from many countries.  In some cases, the projects were presented by people not coming from media and I’m sure they will shine new light onto our old problems.  In the case of developing countries, IPI’s funding will undoubtedly help strengthening those new democracies. By putting money behind good intentions, IPI fosters innovation and good journalism.

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

The Future of Media; Part 4, Revenues

The fourth and last post of the presentation The Future of Media Companies focuses on the generation of revenues.  The revenue model a media company envisages is intimately related to the vision of its role in the market.

Banners and similar formats have a serious growth limitation and a project based on them will see revenues dip. Unless a media company adopts a more updated vision of content, brand and portfolio the sales department will not succeed in bringing home the necessary resources to keep the project humming. While it is true that we will lose analog dollars to digital pennies, there are other activities as well as other revenue and advertising formats which can start bringing money from different sources in a rather immediate way.

 

You can click Download Part 4 Future of Media to gain access to the Power Point presentation.  Alternatively, you can click here to see it here, in Slideshare.

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

 

The Future of Media; Part 3, Brand and Portfolio

This third post on The Future of Media Companies deals with Brand and Portfolio. Content and brand are the only two things that really matter when looking at the future of media companies.  All other things, important as they are, are just means.  Marketing will have to ask many questions and offer many answers before the media company can seriously embark on its transformation.The new media company, especially if addressing a local market, will compensate for the shrinking of its flagship, the newspaper, with the generation of new businesses.  A larger portfolio of activities around core competencies will ensure relevancy for audiences and advertisers.

 

You can click  Download Part 3 Future of Media to gain access to the Power Point presentation.  Alternatively, you can click here to see it here, in Slideshare.

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

 

 

The Future of Media; Part 2, Content

The second part of my presentation The Future of Media Groups deals with Content in media.

Again, very few slides in which I try to offer basic references when looking into the future, in this case into content.  My objective, as one would expect from somebody who has been actually managing media companies for the last 20 years, is to suggest practical guidelines being followed by media companies, regardless of their size, when trying to build the news content they need.

 

You can click Download Part 2 Future of Media to gain access to the Power Point presentation.  Alternatively, you can click here to see it here, in Slideshare.

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

 

The Future of Media; Part 1, New Paradigm

An important function of the top management of media companies is to try to ascertain the direction in which their companies should move. Some owners and managers believe that the fog has to clear before they can take any steps forward; they argue that there is so much confusion that they risk taking their company off a cliff if they act too early.  They add that we risk embarking into cul-de-sac projects which will deprive us of the cash we will need later on.

From my own experience, that is just a poor excuse for inaction and avoiding necessary risk-taking.  Reality is more similar to a ladder: if we are in step 2 and later on we realize that our company needs to operate from level 17 to remain relevant to audiences and to continue squeezing revenues from our market…we will be game.  No time to react, no internal skills, no culture…etc.  Although everything may not be clear, one thing is: companies will be different, less corporate, more entrepreneurial and digital.  They will be better at capturing and packaging news from their markets and they will rely more on local external sources and users.

Good content will remain key but devices and formats will evolve as also should our ability to squeeze more digital pennies. The sooner we start the learning process, the more chances we will have. There is no option but to use good judgment and start the walking.

This post has been divided into four sections to make it easier to visit or download.  I’d feel rewarded if any, or all, of these slides would be used by media companies to facilitate the internal debate which is going on within many of them.The first part is a brief general introduction which presents what in my opinion is really relevant in a media company.  

You can click Download Post 1 Future of Media to gain access to the Power Point presentation.  Alternatively you can click here to see it here, in Slideshare.

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

The Chronology of News Creation & Distribution

One of the hardest nuts to crack when dealing with newspapers is the general mistrust of chief editors to share their stories with other media within the same company.  Convincing them to do so or asking the newsroom to get involved in the online work is a conversation that doesn’t belong to 2010.  I refuse to reopen it.  We shouldn’t talk anymore about sharing and repackaging content.  That’s not the way to solve our ills.

It was almost a decade ago that I covered those topics with the chief editors whom I had the privilege to work with.  All of them were proactive and some of them, let me pay homage to Carlos Jornet, have had the intellectual ability and charisma to convince their troops, as well as the organizational skills to do it.  But I know other chief editors who are quite different, and this short post (compared to my usual long ones) is addressed to them.

Printing is not the center of our activity.  Actually it should be the last step of the process. Yes, I said the “last” step.  The very nature of the product means that a newspaper has to include complete information and analysis, which can only happen after the fact (i.e. after the news has occurred).  Instead, our users/readers frequently want the information ASAP, even if still incomplete.

Satisfying that need requires a strategy beyond sharing and good will from journalists.  It goes further than the convergent or multimedia newsroom.  It focuses on our vision of how things happen and how readers find out about them in the real world.  Then, we just act accordingly and repurposing and repackaging will come naturally.

One important way of doing it right is understanding the time sequence of news.  At the end of July I’ll be in North America talking to a proactive media player about, among other things, this topic.  I have prepared for the occasion a slide that I want to share with my readers. 

 View this photo 

I hope it can convey in a synoptic way the importance of having the time sequence right for media groups.  I will not dwell on it since it is self explanatory.  The reality cannot be apprehended in one slide and the casuistic nature of content formats and timing can be infinite.  Still, it tries to offer in a simplified and visual way the importance of delivering news in the right media order.  Band aids, as I mentioned in my first paragraph will not make it.  Play by the customers’ rules.

Are Arab Newspapers Doing Enough to Push Their Online Offerings?

To answer that question, let us start by saying that not all Arab newspapers exploit an online platform.  Some 15% of them just don’t.  If we take the Arab countries as a whole, the percentage of revenue coming from online is about 2% (source: Arab Media Outlook, by Dubai Press Club) as opposed to some 13% for US papers and even more for UK papers.  The bravest companies in the West have gone even further, like the Scandinavian group Schibsted which claims to have crossed the 50% threshold, mostly due to online classifieds.  McClatchy has gone from 11.6% to 16.2% in just one year and the most innovative groups will be approaching the 20% mark in 2010 and 2011.

One could argue that the lack of broadband explains the very low percentage of digital revenues generated by Arab newspapers.  In fact, given that domestic broadband penetration in Western Europe and the USA is in the  60-70% range  (with the States ranking highest), whilst in Arab countries it is 12% (according to Informa TM), perhaps the 2% share of digital revenues is acceptable.  The surprising part is that Qatar, UAE and Bahrain can boast broadband penetration rates above USA and the EU yet still a meager 2% of advertising revenues come from online.

Is it because people in the Arab countries are accustomed to getting news from newspapers and online is just an option for social purposes and entertainment?  Not really, since users in Egypt, Lebanon, KSA and UAE use the Internet as much as newspapers as their news source.  The reason is probably more complex.  First, it has to do with the inertia of advertisers and agencies.  Beyond that, the situation is also conditioned by the very products being delivered by editors.

In my conversations with different players in the Arab world, some individuals seem too relaxed because the language barrier plays in their favor and therefore “we have more time”.  I have worked in mature and in developing markets with different languages and I am convinced that that reasoning has a certain degree of wishful thinking.  The average Arab user has shown during the last few years an incredible ability to surf as the Western one. Many Arab users are constantly exposed to quality products and they expect the same from local brands. 

As for the language barrier, in my opinion it provides less protection than generally thought.  Some 65% of Arabic speakers prefer to read in Arabic and the figure goes down slightly to 62% in the case of Internet browsing (Nielsen).  This means that users feel more and more comfortable surfing in English.  Local news brands have to take note and be decisive in pushing their online projects since users may be already getting part of the newspaper content elsewhere.

Newspapers, in any physical form, have a role to fulfill in our societies.  The community needs (the best of) them. We all share a responsibility in making sure that they build bridges to their future, and the digital world is part of it.  For newspapers to make a successful transition, digital revenues have to increase fast. Moving from 2% to 5% is feasible, because broadband penetration will grow at 38% for the next few years (Value Partners).  Reaching 10% and beyond gets harder and requires innovation to reach users who are becoming banner blind. Other formulas have to be used, but that is another topic I will cover in the future.

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

Monetization Via Content. Letter to an Editor.

We each receive so many inputs regarding our businesses that we often fall prey to ‘paralysis by analysis'.  We seem to forget that “the optimum is the enemy of the good”; and so we procrastinate in search of the perfect strategy, the silver bullet.  

Those were at least my thoughts two weeks ago after visiting a client; I had been telling him countless times that he seriously needed to start extracting new revenues from his current news activity.  I had sent him enough material to write a dissertation, and yet …still he was hesitant to act.

During my long flight home I thought that perhaps it was my fault since I could have been less sophisticated, less detailed; and in the plane I started to write a document which I sent  him the next morning.  It was a pleasant surprise when two days later he called and instead of asking for more information, said that the next time we meet his team is going to present me some initiatives to create and monetize content.  

Here is the document to my client, free of sensitive references. 

Dear Mr. X,

We both know that your news operation has entered into a vicious circle which is affecting your bottom line.  Although the general population consumes more and more news, your company, as a news “manufacturer” is moving away from satisfying those needs by slashing editorial budgets to keep the company in the black.  Those cuts are affecting your capability to publish original content (i.e. content which you obtain with your own team and for which you have exclusive rights) and subsequently advertisers seem to find your newspaper less appealing, less relevant to your readers, and to their clients.  As we have seen, in the short term online will not solve your problem (“trading dollars for nickels”).  What is worse, you will not be able to charge for content online in the near future, because your content is becoming a commodity which could be found for free in other sources.

Honestly, my friend, there isn’t a simple way out, a secret blueprint with all the answers.  For the last two months we have seen many different strategies and examples, but now is the time to start taking little steps and exploring new ways for which I have put together an oversimplified road map.  During my next visit we could work on specific actions and timelines to execute them.

Cost cutting

As seen before, you really have to execute serious cost cutting in non-sensitive areas.  I know this is a very sensitive topic, but this point is an absolute must in order to move on to more strategic actions.  If you don’t do it, you will choke your company. Your 10-15% cost savings lie in:

(I am saving my readers the details of cuts in that company; they have to do with administration, merging distribution outside the city, automating some tasks, moving some journalists away from working in international and magazine content…etc)

Create more locally relevant original content

I understand your reasons for wanting to charge for content on your website, but we have seen examples of failures.  You can only charge for whatever content belongs to you (for now, let it be true). Audiences have been getting news for free for too long.  Non-original news is a commodity and no one will pay for that type of merchandise.

You have to move resources away from the international section and from ‘general content’ (not directly related to your market) into content areas at which you can excel and become the reference to other media and to consumers.  During these past weeks we have seen examples and formulas of positive reinforcement of your brand via creation of local value added content.  Go over those cases with your team and choose a couple of them to start with ASAP.  I will help you with the implementation, but the drive has to come from your team.  Convince Scot since he’s the natural team leader.

Every time I travel to your city I hear complaints from your people, the taxi drivers, the hotel staff…that the river is polluted.  You have a great topic right there.  You could pay a national lab (for credibility) to analyze the water along its travel through the province.  Six checkpoints may suffice.  Present it in a double page, with good infographics. Include “human activities” along the river.  That work will be the talk of the town and since you will use outside scientific analysis you will not end up dodging the unhappy readers’ bullets. This is just but one example of the “watchdog” attitude your daily always showed and that gave you the punch your advertisers miss.  The population should know that your paper is there, as always, ready to serve them; and from original content you will reinforce your brand.

I will  be very happy to go over your “original content” proposals since this is an issue so relevant to you (I am aware that the example above is rather dramatic, but at this point we need a quick win to move on to the next points of this road map).

Promote that content

You have many ways to promote your content.  Your special agreements with the local radio network may come in handy now and that may be also beneficial to the radio station. You’ll be the talk of town.  The next day the local free paper will have to mention your report.  So will the local TV.  You can even provide them with the special advantage of interviewing the journalists who led the report.  In the sequence of events, first send an SMS as an appetizer, give some highlights online and then bring it to the cover of the paper the next morning.  Generate reactions online and bring them to the paper the next day.  Keep the topic alive for 3 days.  By then, all media will have promoted your brand and most citizens will have been hearing about your work (good eternal journalism!).  Now that your brand has been visible and associated to positive community involvement, it’s the time to promote your brand as an excellent advertising vehicle in order to monetize your efforts in the content area.

Personally visit three clients, after a couple of brand successes.

You have two objectives:  First, show the media impact of your actions. Do it visually. Quantify as much as possible.  Sell them brand credibility. It will motivate you, your Sales Manager and your sales force.  Be open to new ad formats.  Do not sell tariff, sell coverage, audiences.  Second, among those three clients you should detect one that has a special need or is ready to try something different.  Offer him a Comprehensive Advertising Solution involving the newspaper, the internet, your organization’s writing skills, and your call center. If the client is launching a new upscale car, offer him a multi-week campaign in both media, where potential customers can schedule a test drive.  Add some meaningful way for two couples to each receive a free week-end break during which they will be testing the car along those beautiful mountain roads 100 km away from the city.  Your company can offer a micro-site with photos of the trips, the car and the drivers, plus some more textual comments to make it more readable and warmer.  After all, your newspaper is expert at creating content and if you put those skills at the service of the client, he will love it.

Take this as an example of a comprehensive campaign which brings together off and online, plus the story telling ability of your company.  Be creative: if the client is pushing a drink, add a free magazine that you distribute freely in bars and pubs.  Later, you can make it more complex and include mobile.  For the time being, just commit yourself to do it once, even if you barely break even.  Then, you will have a beautiful showcase to promote your services among other clients.

I know I am proposing simple steps which will not solve all of your problems, but we need to take incremental steps since from those new experiences your team will learn to take the next ones. Besides, cost cutting is a painful process and if you only cut trees and don’t plant new ones, the organization spirit will decay. (end of letter)

That was the letter I sent. It was the first time I addressed my client with something other than Excel pages and Power Point presentations, but it appears to have been effective. Those who take a new step get a better view of the following ones.  

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

Newspapers and TVs Could Learn from the Music and Movie Industries (and Part 2)

On free content

 There is a similarity between the music industry and newspapers in regard to their content. Songs in their basic form are considered by many individuals as free merchandise, the purpose of which is to attract attention to the artist. This belief is reinforced by the artists themselves, by those who are generally less traditional and more innovative in their approach. Take Lil Wayne, ho received the Grammy’s Best Rap Album, for example.  He built his fan base by freely giving hours and hours of his music away.  The surprise is that, in spite of that, his ‘Tha Carter III’ album was the top-selling album of 2008.  In this case, giving away content and being the top seller were not alternative strategies.  I am sure his success will inspire others.

Similarly, I believe newspapers will have to attract their readers/users by giving away ‘good’ content while charging for other content that the audience perceives both costs the company and is useful for their lives or their small businesses.  Basic news (at least the commodity part of it) will remain free despite all the buzz, while special reports and differential content/services will follow a different track.  Fighting the perception of the users is always a risky mission.   After all, as Tony Wadsworth, former head of EMI for a decade, says ‘The development of technology has meant music” (you can substitute by ‘news’)  “is consumed in more places in more ways than ever before – that is a great thing...; the future business model of this industry might not be based on transactional music sales for much longer. In the space of a year, the proportion of income derived from other sources – live gigs, merchandising, advertising, digital licensing, broadcast – has grown from 11.4% of total revenues in 2007 to 18% in 2008”.  To continue with the parallelism, newspapers may have to obtain new sources of income by fulfilling new tasks in their communities.

Cherry Picking

Another similarity between music and news lies in the fact that in the past you had to purchase the whole product even if you just wanted a single song in the CD or just the classifieds section of the newspaper.  In the digital world you can choose to acquire a single song and not pay for the unsolicited merchandise.  One study says that iTunes-like platforms have cost the music industry more than piracy!  We may not like it, we can even say that the user is losing the opportunity to discover unexpected jewels in the package…but the fact is that unbundling is the increasingly preferred option and fighting it is useless.  As music is consumed digitally, mixed bundles may be losing their appeal.

Likewise, newspapers may end up charging for specific pieces of content when it’s clearly justified in the eyes of the user.  Deciding when to charge or not requires a lot of trial and error as well as sufficient internal expertise in analyzing that information.

“Publishers for the most part have already begun preparing as if this process [unbundling] is irreversible. They are implementing new ways to replace revenues that are lost when customers no longer buy the whole ‘package’. This new repackaging can take many forms. Subscriptions to popular online journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, increasingly offer unique features, including email alerts, user communities, access to unique data sets, and multimedia content designed to make the value proposition of buying the “whole package” greater than the sum of the parts.” Nothing to add.

Conclusion

The music industry has taken too long to learn new tricks and has lost big revenues in the process.  Newspapers can learn from the ability of the most adapted labels how to diversify revenues, to relate differently with their environment and how to reach audiences less with recorded content and more with live gigs. Faced with a transformation of this magnitude, change has to affect all and every single area of the company (yes, even accounting) and the profile of the professionals has to evolve.  Changes should not be done in one day, but on the other hand, wasting time with excuses is not an option.  As I said in a previous blog, save money in legacy activities and invest in exploring new avenues of income.

From the movie studios, newspapers and conventional TV channels should imitate their ability to move (relatively) fast while not discarding any possible way of reaching clients.  After all, all legacy content industries share the same basic challenges and the logic of any responses to them.  

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

Newspapers and TVs Could Learn from the Music and Movie Industries (Part 1)

One decade at a time

One could argue that the perfect storm now affecting the Media and Entertainment industries started around 1982, when the first music CD was sold.  But it was in 1985 that CD began to gain popularity in the larger popular and rock music markets (Dire Straits’ album Brothers in Arms was the first one to sell a million copies).  At that moment, consumer content became digital. Later on, the compressing capabilities of MP3 and the extension of the internet greatly facilitated file sharing.  

As I wrote in a previous post, it was some 10 years later that another digital birth took place that would soon affect the placid businesses of established newspapers.  It was Craigslist and its ability to volatize classifieds’ revenue. Lastly, 10 years later, a pre Google YouTube was launched and the lives of incumbent TV channels first, and the film industry later, began simmering.  For the last 20-30 years, usually during the middle of each new decade, a new phenomenon has been born, destined to uproot the functioning of complete industries. As a matter of curiosity, does anybody have an idea of what 2015 may bring to us?

First the music industry, then newspapers and magazines, and then finally TVs and movies, they all are struggling to cope with the radical changes.  The slowest one to react was the music industry, perhaps because it was the first casualty (forgive me for using the incumbent’s terminology, not the customers’) and there were no examples of how deep, and redefining for the whole industry, the changes brought about by the new digital innovations would be.  That the music industry has lost a full decade is evident since its response to these digital challenges has coincided in time with the newspapers’.  TV and film industries, casualties of the third wave, may be reacting a little faster.

The Film Industry, the Last to Feel the Pinch

From observing the film industry, newspapers can learn the determination to reach audiences however the consumer wants it, in almost any possible format...  Even though things are just starting, we can legally get films online, - rented, purchased or free with advertising, - via multiple devices.  Hundreds of web sites offer movies (Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Babelgum, Joost, The Auteurs…and long etc).  Other established players in the digital arena have also become digital retailers: Xbox Live and PlayStation Store, Amazon Video on Demand...etc.  You can even watch a movie on your smart phone.  Of course, you can still buy or rent DVDs and watch films thanks to the growing VOD offer of cable and digital platform operators.  Lastly, you can enjoy a film in the most traditional outlet of the business, movie theaters.   

Digital delivery has been growing SO FAST that film studios have identified 250 digital formats. Yes, two hundred and fifty! And now they are trying to reduce costs by agreeing on an interoperable digital master format (IMF) which will also help promote their digital business.  Are studios moving fast enough?  Perhaps the answer is no, but in any case they are moving faster than the music industry and newspapers did.  Now, in how many formats are papers reaching their readers and delivering their content?  Are they expanding their new media reach at a proper speed?  Whatever the answer, newsrooms have to develop their own open technical architecture and be ready to deliver in more vehicles (unfortunately, sales departments are frequently the laggards and end up delaying the whole experiment, but this is another topic).

Lessons from the music industry

On one hand, any internet novice can download songs and bypass the incumbents’ structure to collect royalties. To add insult to injury, the record industry has had to face the stampede of brand-name artists moving away from them (remember Madonna leaving the Warner for Live Nation, a live-events and concert promotion company?) Many others have followed.  In their quest for a proper set of business answers, labels are gathering experience with paid downloads, ad-supported streaming, subscription services, ad-supported and ad-integrated P2P download services…etc. But perhaps most relevant is the music industry’s fierce determination to redefine its role and its artists while at the same time creating links with audiences.

In the past, the record industry was strategically placed in between audiences and artists and supposedly had the talent and experience to decide in the name of the audience which songs/artists had the quality to be recorded.  That paradigm has changed.  Many artists are flying solo.  Instead of focusing on getting the attention of the labels’ execs in order to be chosen to record songs and sell CDs, artists are now getting more focused on getting the attention of their potential fans in order to be able to sell tickets to their shows, to license songs…etc.   Multiple companies and web sites have started to “provide online music business lessons, exclusive video interviews and advice, career and business planning tools and thousands of hand-picked resources designed to help you achieve success in the new music industry” (about us, Music Power Network).

Closer to the audience

The incumbents have understood that revenue from recorded music will continue decreasing and that their activity cannot be limited to seeking out the best singers and bands to sign. Instead, they have to learn new skills, such as mentoring artists to develop their performing style, and hone their public skills to better connect with their potential audiences.  They are becoming business advisors, career planners as well as permanent managers of organized tours and all kinds of live performances, which represent the fastest growing source of income in the industry.

The exhibitionist and theatrical Lady Gaga has learned to be closer to her fan base and be coherent in all her public appearances. Her dominance in the charts has proven her right.  When she received five Grammy Nominations she did not thank anyone other than her “Little Monsters”, aka her fan base. On the scenario, as in any digital format, she has established a solid link with her audience.  To them, she offered her own DNA (some follicles) in her GaGa Fame Monster Bundle, as well as a collectible puzzle, pullout posters, a paper doll collection and a personal note for USD115.

Other artists are finding their own unorthodox methods of reaching audiences’ attention and pockets.

Newspapers need to address new ways of getting to their audiences and interacting with them. From the early formula of posting a comment to a piece of news, to the way the most advanced players are trying to harness the traffic and commercial potential of local bloggers, there is an array of possibilities.

As I have written before, the main strategic areas in a newspaper or a TV are brand/image and content.  From each one of those two areas they have to persevere in reading the consumer’s interest.  The old journalism days of waiting for agencies’ content is (partially) over.  Now, the journalist’s network, his/her roots in the community and ability to scan what the community is interested in, are required skills to add value and differentiate the final product from other local players. Following readers’ interest, via marketing tools, as well as discovering what interests them via social web sites, is a new skill media companies have to turn into a habit.  (End of Part 1)

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

Newspapers and Televisions should go the Low Cost Way

One shouldn’t deceive oneself into thinking that we are simply in the middle of a crisis caused by the irrational behavior of our financial institutions since there may be other causes. Even though Asia has been bringing costs down for decades, many countries and industries have ignored the potential threat of these lower costs and have chose instead to maintain their cost structures.  The generalizations of internet and broadband have extended the competitiveness of the new players (“the world is flat,” according to Thomas Friedman).  Not to be mistaken, this financial crisis is a cause as well as a catalyst of the current turmoil brought about by this ‘Asian price’ and this new local and world competition facilitated by broadband.  

Many companies have understood this new scenario.  Airlines, for one, may offer extremely low ticket prices and absolutely no-frills, but at the same time they may charge for extras like food and drink, seat allocation, baggage...etc. The increasing penetration of low cost and no-frills products and services has carved a position in the mind of consumers and now marketers know very well that people frequently trade up and trade down; they can go for rock bottom prices (below the consumer’s standard of income and living) in order to afford small luxuries, which may appear beyond their reach. By shopping in discount supermarkets, a couple may afford a long haul vacation, no frills, in their dream destination. 

One cannot downplay the significant effect that these economic and societal changes are having on our audiences (readers, spectators, users).  The bad news is that they now expect basic merchandise to be free, but at the same time they are learning to pay, albeit minimally, for new content. Changes like these have permanent effects in our businesses.

Many newspapers and TV stations are taking too long to adapt their legacy cost structure to the new reality and to get rid of the unnecessary dead weight and the internal obstacles which prevent them from making their companies more nimble.  The basic operation has to be a very lean one, enough to put forward the basic offer to the audience. Too many examples are showing us that if that effort is not made constantly and in an orderly way it will have to be done traumatically.  Media incumbents should save lots of money on the repetitive tasks of their current operation in order to achieve three basic purposes: 

First, to maintain profitability and operations while the company moves forward.  Second, these legacy media need those savings to project themselves into the future, in order to explore and develop new media opportunities to further increase their reach.  Lastly, parts of those savings have to be addressed at investing in those activities which create brand and differentiate them from the rest.  I am referring to investigative journalism, special reports, event creation, exploiting local databases…etc.  That is, developing their own content which equals the frills the airlines are able to charge and which makes the difference for audiences and advertisers.  It also may open new avenues of profitability. After all, is there anything as vital for a medium as (differential) content and marketing (brand)?

There is no way to cross successfully into the future if cost cutting in legacy activities is not an active policy implemented constantly by newspapers and television companies.   Proper cost cutting is not a reactive decision; it’s a fundamental part of our future building strategy.  Do not be apologetic about it. (Just don’t cut corners in brand image and differential content creation).

Newspapers and TV stations are taking a long time to adapt to this new situation, as if time wasn’t an issue.”

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

Newspapers's Potential in Local Database Management (and 2)

Following Rob Curley’s Trail

When offering communities results based on databases from the local market, I have always thought Rob Curley has led the way and has often been imitated by others.  The following examples, taken from newspapers where he has worked, may have not been developed by him or his team directly, but I’m sure his vision has had a strong influence.

While working in Kansas for the Lawrence Journal he developed the Kusports site and reinforced the use of statistics as content but also as a complement to regular information. He always found the right way to place unexpected data in the middle of information, be it driving tickets, weather…etc.  And the audience rewarded him with a big increase in traffic, and revenues. No local database was foreign to him: births, weddings, deaths, schedules of anything…etc.  Sports and Arts and Entertainment info was always stored as elements of an ever growing local database to be permanently reused.  Even though some years went by, the Ljworld.com site still retains some of that philosophy.

Later in Naples, Florida Rob addressed a more mature and affluent audience in the site Naplesnews by offering any info relevant to a community frequently interested in the weather and the water (Naples is on the West Florida coast): rainfall, air and water temperature, tides…etc.  Current as well as historical data were offered directly by the site or by linking to the sources.  Presented in a user friendly way, boating, golfing, fishing or just walking became a little easier. Naplesnews received an Eppy Award for Best Internet News Service in 2006.  In that same year his new vision on covering high school sports in Bonitanews received a NAA Digital Edge award for "Most Innovative Multimedia Storytelling". 

From Naples, Rob moved to a much larger organization, The Washington Post, and left two years later probably “because I wasn't the best fit with the organization”.  I am sure his vision on local matters had an influence beyond the specific projects he managed.  

The national and international roles of the Post may hide to many its local flavor.  On one hand there is the local section of the paper which includes a plethora of information and some resources such as dog parks, farmers market… as well as links to full-fledged projects like the Going Out Guide which features an Events Calendar in which all the information, including text for reviews, has been databased for easier repurposing.  
On the other hand, the Local Explorer is more than just a map. It also includes facts and figures, local news, classifieds and upcoming events that will help take the user further inside the community. In fact it’s one of those blueprint projects one should follow when dealing with local communities. A complete array of information is arranged in four categories (Places in the Area, Recent Home Sales, Schools, Crime) welcomes the users upon giving their exact location.  As a complementary new way of exploiting its arsenal of data the Post has created products like this which organize business information in many different ways (e.g. revenues by sector, largest employers, new companies…frequently mapped for easier usability).  

I guess the Post wants to take a definitive step in the local-hyperlocal direction and in spite of all the difficulties for a newspaper of its category, we may see new developments happening.  Perhaps the final result will/should include more user participation.  For comparative purposes I recommend the Cincinavigator by Cincinnati.com.  

Databases, geocoded information, all enhanced with content from the editor and from the users seems to be the four legged formula some editors are finding appropriate to address their local challenges.  I foresee that we will see more sophisticated developments within this same content architecture.

EveryBlock.com, Yelp, Google (yes, always Google)

“In dense, bustling cities like Chicago, New York and San Francisco, the number of daily media reports, government proceedings and local Internet conversations is staggering. Every day, a wealth of local information is created — officials inspect restaurants, journalists cover fires and Web users post photographs — but who has time to sort through all of that?”  This is the spirit of local database management, and that sentence doesn’t belong to me but to EveryBlock, that aims at solving that problem.  “We aim to collect all of the news and civic goings-on that have happened recently in your city, and make it simple for you to keep track of news in particular areas. We’re a geographic filter — a 'news feed' for your neighborhood, or, yes, even your block”.

I should add that they are only a team of six people working from Chicago led by Adrian Holovaty, a journalist and Web developer who worked previously as editor of editorial innovations at the Post and developed chicagocrime.org.  Given the small size of the team and the tremendous task of covering 15 cities, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the info is a little “dry” or lacks the relevancy that a newspaper could add.  But it’s a matter of time before the project gets sufficient funds (MSNBC has bought EveryBlock and additional funding and resources will be provided). Lastly, I find useful their definition of local data: “Civic information — building permits, crimes, restaurant inspections and more; News articles and blog entries — major newspapers, community weeklies, TV and radio news stations, local specialty publications and local blogs; Fun from across the Web — local photos posted to the Flickr photo-sharing site, user reviews of local businesses on Yelp, lost and found postings from Craigslist and more”.

The more a database is complemented and enhanced by users the better it is.  In the case of Yelp (a contraction of Yellow Pages) the extensive database has been supposedly fully created by the users, which makes it a different animal to the former examples.  What is relevant, though, is that that a business supported exclusively by local advertising was recently the acquisition object of Google at a price north of half a billion dollars.  The local editors can breathe at ease because Yelp has rejected the offer, but the sole idea of giant Google having access to the local markets with a local platform like Yelp seems scary to me. By the way, The Weekly Yelp is available in 28 cities with the latest business openings & other happenings and constitutes a first (minor) step to creating a media on local events.

As a summary, in their alternatives for growth the most advanced local editors are learning to use databases to uncover local stories, to enhance news, to relate to their users, to attract new audiences and, not least, to have access to new sources of revenues.

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

Newspapers’ Potential in Local Database Management (Part 1)

This post highlights the importance that managing data has for newspapers, and local broadcasters, as they struggle to extend their roots in the community.  As local media need to maintain digital growth they will have to go beyond news delivery into satisfying further needs of the markets they serve if they want to reach new sources of traffic and revenues. In an environment more story-oriented and not so comfortable with computers, company execs need to plan on mastering the skills to extract useful content from information hidden in local databases.

Importance of managing data among top internet players

While newspaper editors and televisions rely basically on developing or acquiring good content, the Top Ten websites in the world have reached their position mostly by organizing data, i.e. other people’s work.  Google, Facebook, YouTube, Blogger.com are websites which organize extremely well third parties’ content.  Yahoo! (which appears twice in the list with its Japanese URL) receives big traffic from its search, both from email and from the many services it offers (news aggregator, maps, video sharing, social media web sites).  Wikipedia is somehow the exception since it relies on contributions written expressly for the site by its users.  

Two players, Baidu and MSN deserve special attention from the TV/papers viewpoint.  The Chinese Baidu.com started in 2000 as a generic search engine and now is possibly the most comprehensive website in the world.  It includes specialized search capabilities for government sources, postal codes, educational, legal, patent, country statistics, as well as services such as antivirus and safety, maps, dictionary, translation, online community…etc. It also provides links to news sources, a music service with links to top songs for easy downloading, an encyclopedia, an entertainment channel, a finance website in collaboration…etc.  Finally, it even offers online shopping for businesses to sell their products and a TV/movies site to watch and download content. 

Microsoft and its recently redesigned msn.com relies on plenty of links and content from other sources: MSNBC, of course, as well as Hearst, Fox sports, Hulu, PC World…etc, and is learning to open up to social connectivity giants like Twitter or Facebook.  Msn.com does a remarkable job at aggregating content from different sources while pushing its own corporate interests, be it its operating system software, Bing, MSNBC, Xbox360…etc.

One could think that these players are following the steps of the likes of AOL, Terra, Lycos and other horizontal portals but the truth is that these giants (Google, Facebook, Yahoo…) want to retain users longer by offering more services while concentrating less on creating content and more on managing third parties’ content.  My point is that local papers and broadcasters will be forced to master those same skills to extend their local influence.  The sooner they do it and the more holistic their approach, the better.  

Database editors

First they have to fight the widespread belief that because of Google, the researcher is no longer necessary.  In reality, the opposite is true. Because of Google, researchers— a data base editor—will be of critical importance. Randy Covington, Head of IFRA-Newsplex, was talking to me the other day about Hyde Post, the editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s website who argues that a successful media website should be built on four pillars: -Speed , -Community, -Visual energy, -Utility.  Utility is an obvious next step for media organizations in their web strategy and refers to a site that wants to be helpful and practical for its audience.  Very often users look for sites in order to obtain information they need on some aspect of their lives,-- for example, how do test scores of their children’s school compare with those elsewhere—and a newspaper or broadcast website would be a logical place to find out.  

As search engines have promised to organize the vast content on the internet, communities need to organize and make sense of the increasing sources of local information, and newspapers are well positioned to do that.  They have local content, local businesses with local advertisers, local journalists and contributors, a local sales force, some local database information…and are in a privileged position to reap the benefits of that local connection. Managing local database content lies in the no man’s land between very large organizations and the small local agents such as bloggers and smaller websites.  One may be unable to have access to many of the databases and/or extract their usefulness while the latter lacks the financial resources, at least for a certain time.  It is easier for newspapers well rooted in their communities and with well connected organizations to have access to official and private databases.  

The Chief Editor and his/her direct team may have to get involved in the first efforts to gain access to that information while the organization learns to do it. To facilitate this first step, the IRE, Investigative Reporters and Editors, trains journalists, even beyond the US, in “using spreadsheets and/or databases for better watchdog stories, obtaining data and public records and making sense of them, storyboarding, planning, and managing investigative stories and projects, building an effective intranet of public records to strengthen your newsroom’s reporting on deadline…etc”.  It’s important to have examples to learn the tricks of the new activity.

In a newsroom environment rather experienced at building linear stories and which at the same time is not very computer savvy, getting the skills needed to use data content has to be a planned effort from top execs.  Ideally a couple of journalists with that expertise could be brought on board. Alternatively a programmer can be hired and trained to search database content that could enhance regular newsroom output and be used as a new source of content. Some journals have done it and if the person has an open mind, the result can be enlightening. Diversity is hard to manage but very rewarding.

Examples of database usage

Chicagocrime was one of the best and earliest examples of data gathering and presentation (now it's contained in everyblock, recently acquired by MSNBC). Anybody interested in renting or buying a house, starting a business, choosing a school or just visiting the city, as well as the security officers and local politicians became instant users.  There are many other examples the local  newspaper can provide to answer the questions and needs of its audience.  What new businesses have been started in the city, what new permits have been granted to build houses or buildings in general, what are the latest real estate deals, official house valuations, or general property values, home foreclosures, open houses…are clearly types of content that could attract attention immediately, especially if arranged by neighborhood.  Later, if the newspaper allows free access to the information, local talent will come up with ideas to complement  that information.  By studying the trends, links, deviations from national or international patterns,we may shed light on our community in a unique and exclusive way.  

Let me use a non local example on presenting a piece of news in a different way, starting from pure data.  I refer to the article published by The New York Times on “Jackson’s Billboard Rankings Over Time”, which is just a series of interactive graphs which prove how the King of Pop had really died 20 years ago.

Other cases could attract more consumer attention, but databases are often accessible from the internet but hidden under non intuitive names, or it is hard to make sense out of them, or they are not conceived to be user friendly…etc.  Rankings of hospitals and schools, student examination public records, education levels, driving tickets, air and noise pollution, police activity, accidents, fires, traffic incidences…etc, they all are useful. Lastly, there is the need for databases which do not currently exist but which audiences would appreciate if their newspaper put together.  A map of gas prices in the region (see screen shot from gaspricewatch.com) or a ranking of supermarket prices based on a small basket of products may facilitate the lives of families on a tight budget who undoubtedly will appreciate the help of “their” newspaper (there may be local projects offering that content, often ready to establish an alliance). In these cases the information gathering may be in the form of a wiki, something the younger audience may appreciate. In any case, those price-maps have to be open to permanent inputs from users.

In all the above cases it’s important that the information is geolocated as precisely as possible if it is to unveil relevant information as well as trends and correlations between apparently unrelated series of data.  The community will literally see how their neighborhood follows or deviates from national patterns, or how the official version fits their reality.  Those trends and patterns may be discovered by the newsroom and/or by the users themselves.  (End of Part 1)

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).