The past week or two has found me in the midst of a couple really good conversations about newspaper websites, and specifically the use of a metered paywall. I only wish I had the definite answer as to how best to navigate the waters ahead of the newspaper industry in regards to their websites and how much (if any) of the content can be consumed for free.
To me, the answer seems obvious for newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Their content transcends most local newspapers, and is a destination spot for news consumers across the country and globe. I've already read my WSJ this morning through their very slick app.
But most newspapers and newspaper companies are not playing at the level of those two newspapers. Can the typical newspaper publisher make more money with a wide open website with fresh and innovative content that compliments the printed product, or by making the content a commodity and charging any and all a fee to access?
The answer to this probably varies by market and by newspaper company. Maybe I'm viewing the world like Peter Pan here, but I think innovation and a slick online product can work side by side with the print edition and enhance the overall audience and marketing potential for that local publisher.
In fact, I think there is a greater risk in some markets, if you don't try to go this route. If a newspaper locks down its content, the field is opened up for new voices to come in and steal the audience away and the advertising dollars that follow.
But, it will take an investment by newspaper companies to make this happen.
Sandy MacLeod had a blog post on the INMA.org website about this subject.
http://www.inma.org/blogs/value-content/post.cfm/what-s-next-for-media-paywalls
MacLeod suggests that the era of the paywall might be on its way out. Her post also discusses the amount of money that has been generated for newspaper companies as a result of the recent paywall efforts.
At a time when investment by newspapers to catch up on digital should be happening, they have largely taken the bump in revenue straight to the bottom line. There are newspapers and companies out there that are pushing the digital envelop, and to them I congratulate them. Unfortunately for the industry, too many newspaper companies took the cash for the digital paywall and did not invest nearly enough into their business's future.
Once these one time boosts to profits go, the hunt will again be on to find cash through expense cuts, instead of eventually reaping the benefits of a good investment.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
Changes of Google's algorithm directly impacts ChaCha and their layoffs today
The changes made by Google to their algorithm has caused a lot of grief to marketers and anyone that has involvement in search engine optimization. Today, it claimed another victim in the form of 26 employees at Indianapolis based ChaCha. That Google is the blame is the claim being made by ChaCha CEO Scott Jones.
http://www.indystar.com/story/money/2014/05/19/chacha-layoffs-carmel-indiana-search-engine/9294949/
I don't begin to know if Google was the reason for the demise of ChaCha, a mobile Q & A website. According to the Indianapolis Star article, Jones said the job cuts were a result of a drastic drop in advertising revenue after Google reduced ad rates for ChaCha-directed ads about 10 days ago.
What I do know, and have said before is that I would not want to base my business completely on Google and their algorithm. Google is in the business of making money for.....GOOGLE!
Google changed their practices which reduced the payback to ChaCha. In their recent past, algorithm changes rendered SEO practices useless. I know of a couple specific instances where entire product lines were rendered useless as a result. Sadly in at least one of those cases, the company continued on with a product that didn't work.
ChaCha will soldier on, though significantly leaner than before today. Let this be a warning to companies that have built their entire revenue stream on Google's Ad Word and / or algorithm for SEO. Google is making the changes to enhance the user experience, but also (and even more so) to enhance the revenue and bottom line for their own company.
http://www.indystar.com/story/money/2014/05/19/chacha-layoffs-carmel-indiana-search-engine/9294949/
I don't begin to know if Google was the reason for the demise of ChaCha, a mobile Q & A website. According to the Indianapolis Star article, Jones said the job cuts were a result of a drastic drop in advertising revenue after Google reduced ad rates for ChaCha-directed ads about 10 days ago.
What I do know, and have said before is that I would not want to base my business completely on Google and their algorithm. Google is in the business of making money for.....GOOGLE!
Google changed their practices which reduced the payback to ChaCha. In their recent past, algorithm changes rendered SEO practices useless. I know of a couple specific instances where entire product lines were rendered useless as a result. Sadly in at least one of those cases, the company continued on with a product that didn't work.
ChaCha will soldier on, though significantly leaner than before today. Let this be a warning to companies that have built their entire revenue stream on Google's Ad Word and / or algorithm for SEO. Google is making the changes to enhance the user experience, but also (and even more so) to enhance the revenue and bottom line for their own company.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Tablet audiences soar during TV prime time hours, providing local publishers a great opportunity to engage that audience
Steven Jobs offered the world "one more thing" just barely four years ago, when the very first iPad was launched. Since then, the product has spawned four versions of the Apple product and hundreds of other competitors trying to get market share and audience attention.
Tablet sales have nearly crippled the PC market, and has created a whole new way for consumers to watch TV. Second screen viewing, watching your TV while interacting on a tablet, is an amazing opportunity for digital publishers to capitalize. This is an opportunity for all size of sites, not just the big boys.
The audience opportunity is enormous. Prime time, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. accounts for a third of tablet use currently. My wife and I are great examples of second screen viewers. My wife will watch TV, play an online game and interact on Facebook. I will also interact on social media, but I'm very open to going to websites and looking up information presented in the show. Networks understand they have a golden opportunity to drive traffic to specific sites and items online. But as I said, all publishers have this opportunity.
There are a lot of season finales happening now on network TV. Is there a opportunity to engage the TV audience in a way that could drive them to your website for a contest, a viewer review of the show, web chat with a local super fan? This drives audience engagement, thus driving page views and future revenue opportunities.
The NFL draft just ended. I wonder how many newspapers, sports sites (besides ESPN) or community portals had a way for fans to have an online conversation about how their local team did picking future players. That seems like great digital content that would easily make a nice column on fan reaction in print for local newspapers.
The point is, this isn't that difficult and is a great opportunity to engage audiences online and make it local. With that many people using tablets during their TV viewing time, there has to be a way to harness those eyeballs into marketing opportunities on the local level.
There is an article talking about how people are using tablets, covering more than just prime time is available. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/225549/tablets-equal-all-day-media-consumption.html?edition=72717
Tablet sales have nearly crippled the PC market, and has created a whole new way for consumers to watch TV. Second screen viewing, watching your TV while interacting on a tablet, is an amazing opportunity for digital publishers to capitalize. This is an opportunity for all size of sites, not just the big boys.
The audience opportunity is enormous. Prime time, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. accounts for a third of tablet use currently. My wife and I are great examples of second screen viewers. My wife will watch TV, play an online game and interact on Facebook. I will also interact on social media, but I'm very open to going to websites and looking up information presented in the show. Networks understand they have a golden opportunity to drive traffic to specific sites and items online. But as I said, all publishers have this opportunity.
There are a lot of season finales happening now on network TV. Is there a opportunity to engage the TV audience in a way that could drive them to your website for a contest, a viewer review of the show, web chat with a local super fan? This drives audience engagement, thus driving page views and future revenue opportunities.
The NFL draft just ended. I wonder how many newspapers, sports sites (besides ESPN) or community portals had a way for fans to have an online conversation about how their local team did picking future players. That seems like great digital content that would easily make a nice column on fan reaction in print for local newspapers.
The point is, this isn't that difficult and is a great opportunity to engage audiences online and make it local. With that many people using tablets during their TV viewing time, there has to be a way to harness those eyeballs into marketing opportunities on the local level.
There is an article talking about how people are using tablets, covering more than just prime time is available. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/225549/tablets-equal-all-day-media-consumption.html?edition=72717
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Future of media and marketing is unified view of audience and channels, and being taught today on the college level
I was fortunate enough to get to visit the future of media and marketing this past week. The vision was very clear, powerful and strong; and I felt very ill-equipped to tackle all the opportunities and challenges ahead. Juli Metzger and John Strauss were kind enough to open up the hallways inside the David Letterman Communication and Media Building to give me and three others a tour of the Unified Media Lab at Ball State University.
Ball State University is probably not the first,and certainly not the only university taking on this holistic approach to media, marketing and journalism instruction in the country. But they are certainly making a difference and creating cutting edge learning opportunities for students that will have them ready for real world opportunities on the traditional and emerging media front.
The world that they are training journalist for features one news team feeding multiple media channels. A student has a news story, and they are learning to tell that story multiple ways to fit into a number of outlets; newspaper, online, social media, broadcast TV and radio. I think back to my first job out of college in radio or some of the new reporters I've hired over the years; and I remember being taught and having to teach them so much that was never covered in school. In the future I envision these students walking into a newsroom and within a few days teaching the experienced staff some of the things that they should be doing. Talk about role reversal.
The future laid out to me this past week also was very clear for marketing and sales. One sales staff selling everything, and not being overwhelmed with the new product knowledge. Because to them, the wave of digital products is not new.
http://cms.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/ccim/unified-media
That link takes you to the Unified Media page for Ball State University. I'm not doing the program justice explaning the vision that was presented to me and others last week. The video on this this page is a great starting point to watch and learn. How much different would a local newspaper be if they had some of the same comments that are made by the students on that video?
By the way, the young man in the suit coat and tie is Nikko, a selling machine. I actually had a chance to meet with him on the tour as well and listen to his passion for sales. His experience, and he just completed his junior year of college last week, is enough that I would offer him a job on the spot at nearly every newspaper I've ever worked. Nikko understands the importance of integrating a marketing message into multiple channels, understands the strengths of the various channel audiences and understands the sales process very well.
The reason for this commercial for Ball State University? I see so much practical application today in media outlets across the world. While the experience and learning by the students about integrating stories and advertising across multiple channels is wonderful, there is no reason that this learning cannot take place at media outlets today.
Station managers and publishers need to demand newsrooms plan for content across multiple audience channels. Sales managers should be demanding sales to sell multiple channels. All of us need to be pushing the envelop!
The future of marketing and media will take shape based on the concepts these students are being taught. I'm not ready to be labeled a dinosaur, and I'm ready to adapt to the changes and challenges that are coming. The future for the industry, while very different than what we've seen in the past is very exciting.
Ball State University is probably not the first,and certainly not the only university taking on this holistic approach to media, marketing and journalism instruction in the country. But they are certainly making a difference and creating cutting edge learning opportunities for students that will have them ready for real world opportunities on the traditional and emerging media front.
The world that they are training journalist for features one news team feeding multiple media channels. A student has a news story, and they are learning to tell that story multiple ways to fit into a number of outlets; newspaper, online, social media, broadcast TV and radio. I think back to my first job out of college in radio or some of the new reporters I've hired over the years; and I remember being taught and having to teach them so much that was never covered in school. In the future I envision these students walking into a newsroom and within a few days teaching the experienced staff some of the things that they should be doing. Talk about role reversal.
The future laid out to me this past week also was very clear for marketing and sales. One sales staff selling everything, and not being overwhelmed with the new product knowledge. Because to them, the wave of digital products is not new.
http://cms.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/ccim/unified-media
That link takes you to the Unified Media page for Ball State University. I'm not doing the program justice explaning the vision that was presented to me and others last week. The video on this this page is a great starting point to watch and learn. How much different would a local newspaper be if they had some of the same comments that are made by the students on that video?
By the way, the young man in the suit coat and tie is Nikko, a selling machine. I actually had a chance to meet with him on the tour as well and listen to his passion for sales. His experience, and he just completed his junior year of college last week, is enough that I would offer him a job on the spot at nearly every newspaper I've ever worked. Nikko understands the importance of integrating a marketing message into multiple channels, understands the strengths of the various channel audiences and understands the sales process very well.
The reason for this commercial for Ball State University? I see so much practical application today in media outlets across the world. While the experience and learning by the students about integrating stories and advertising across multiple channels is wonderful, there is no reason that this learning cannot take place at media outlets today.
Station managers and publishers need to demand newsrooms plan for content across multiple audience channels. Sales managers should be demanding sales to sell multiple channels. All of us need to be pushing the envelop!
The future of marketing and media will take shape based on the concepts these students are being taught. I'm not ready to be labeled a dinosaur, and I'm ready to adapt to the changes and challenges that are coming. The future for the industry, while very different than what we've seen in the past is very exciting.
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