Did you notice anything different yesterday in the media world? Probably not, but it was a new day at least for Gannett. The long awaited split between broadcast and print occurred yesterday, June 29. Despite clearly defined plans for digital transformation, how this impacts the two companies long term remains very much in question.
The newspaper side of the business retains the Gannett name, while the broadcast side takes on the name TEGNA. TEGNA is an anagram for Gannett without the double letters. Gannett's revenue growth has come from their broadcast side, which many says have helped prop up the print side of their business.
With broadcast gone, how will Gannett whether upcoming storms? First quarter advertising revenue was off 9%, with projections for second quarter not fairing any better on the print side. Programmatic ad buying for online publications impacts larger markets and national websites most, and that is the segment where most of Gannett's websites would fall. This leaves a lot of questions yet to be answered.
Rick Edmonds wrote yesterday on www.poynter.org that "Gannett shares were down 5.2percent for the day (with stocks generally off 2 percent because of the Greek and Puerto Rican debt crisis) TEGNA's shares were up 5.1 percent."
Granted, that is only one day of trading but something definitely worth watching to see if Wall Street is buying what the new Gannett is selling. Locally, Gannett titles are spinning this as a way to build up community journalism.
In Indianapolis, publisher Karen Ferguson penned a nice column about the changes and how it strengthens Gannett and specifically the Indianapolis Star. And while Indianapolis celebrated Gannett Day with a mayoral proclamation, no one is proclaiming this is a successful model. At least not yet.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Future of USA Today could be linked to future of entire newspaper industry
I don't think it is breaking news to anyone to say that newspapers have been struggling. Shocker, right? Clearly that isn't a surprise, but I have to say I was a little surprised to hear the comment this week by USA editor in chief David Callaway.
Speculating on the future, Callaway said that he could foresee that USA Today could end in the next five or six years. I understand and actually agree, but I was surprised that he said it; out loud; to a reporter.
But the rest of the story is where I think the future actually is for USA Today. The product will still be around in some form, and I believe that will be a printed format as well as digital. Gannett has started offering their product as a daily supplement to Gannett properties. The first to do this supplemental approach was the Indianapolis Star.
Using national and feature sections from USA Today allows a newspaper to have a wide scope of content with no reporters, editors or page designers. It costs them newsprint, but they have saved on newsprint through other cuts. While I don't know if any newspaper has done this yet, they could also drop or significantly reduce the AP contract, if they are relying on USA Today for national coverage.
USA Today still have the reach with their content, and I'm sure there is some sort of advertising revenue share. So the advertising department has an increasingly bigger audience to sell.
Gannett started shopping around the supplemental content to non-Gannett properties a while ago. Schurz Communications is one example of a company that is adapting the new USA Today format to their daily products. They are not the first newspaper company to add this USA Today product, and I don't suspect the last.
While USA Today as a stand alone product might be short lived, the product will evolve and be around. For some newspapers, it could be a unique revenue stream and expense reducer which will continue to be important in the future of all newspapers.
Speculating on the future, Callaway said that he could foresee that USA Today could end in the next five or six years. I understand and actually agree, but I was surprised that he said it; out loud; to a reporter.
But the rest of the story is where I think the future actually is for USA Today. The product will still be around in some form, and I believe that will be a printed format as well as digital. Gannett has started offering their product as a daily supplement to Gannett properties. The first to do this supplemental approach was the Indianapolis Star.
Using national and feature sections from USA Today allows a newspaper to have a wide scope of content with no reporters, editors or page designers. It costs them newsprint, but they have saved on newsprint through other cuts. While I don't know if any newspaper has done this yet, they could also drop or significantly reduce the AP contract, if they are relying on USA Today for national coverage.
USA Today still have the reach with their content, and I'm sure there is some sort of advertising revenue share. So the advertising department has an increasingly bigger audience to sell.
Gannett started shopping around the supplemental content to non-Gannett properties a while ago. Schurz Communications is one example of a company that is adapting the new USA Today format to their daily products. They are not the first newspaper company to add this USA Today product, and I don't suspect the last.
While USA Today as a stand alone product might be short lived, the product will evolve and be around. For some newspapers, it could be a unique revenue stream and expense reducer which will continue to be important in the future of all newspapers.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Phantom update from Google is real, and having impact on website rankings
Have you noticed that your Google ranking and thus your site traffic has dropped? Well, you're not alone!
Google has finally come out acknowledged that they have tweaked their quality score, and as a result that change has altered search engine ranking since roughly the first of May. According to an article on Search Engine Land, the change was to its "core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals."
This change apparently had nothing to do with the 'Panda' or 'Penguin' filters. Informational sites and "How To" sites are potential targets for this change according to Hubpages.
Check out Search Engine Land's post from earlier today on the changes and possible impacts at http://searchengineland.com/the-quality-update-google-confirms-changing-how-quality-is-assessed-resulting-in-rankings-shake-up-221118.
Google has finally come out acknowledged that they have tweaked their quality score, and as a result that change has altered search engine ranking since roughly the first of May. According to an article on Search Engine Land, the change was to its "core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals."
This change apparently had nothing to do with the 'Panda' or 'Penguin' filters. Informational sites and "How To" sites are potential targets for this change according to Hubpages.
Check out Search Engine Land's post from earlier today on the changes and possible impacts at http://searchengineland.com/the-quality-update-google-confirms-changing-how-quality-is-assessed-resulting-in-rankings-shake-up-221118.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Lessons learned on how social media works in 2015 from Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price
Every business is trying to adjust to the new era of media, instant access through Twitter and other social media outlets. Major League Baseball is an entity that has actually done a very good job of harnessing the power of the internet.
Their MLB At-Bat app is the number one sports streaming site. That success has added to the already rich coffers of baseball team owners. But Major League Baseball's oldest franchise, the Cincinnat Reds might still be struggling on the uses of digital media. Well, at least their second year manager Bryan Price.
Price blew up at 'beat writers' for his baseball club, upset that they were reporting on personnel changes. In one case, the reporters were announcing a change in the roster even before Price had a chance to break the bad news to the player being sent back to the minors.
The five minute and thirty four second rant featured several f-bombs and some creative ways to describe animal waste. While this rant was very good, it wasn't the best in baseball history. That still belongs to former Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia.
While we can laugh at a crazy baseball guy who was frustrated by poor performances from his team, I do believe there is a media lesson to learned here. If a reporter is talking to you, even if they are really friendly, remember they have a job to do. And that job is to find out information that people want to know about you and your organization, and report it.
Perhaps someone should tell that to Price. Here is one of his quotes from the rant: "Your job is not to sniff out every f****** thing is about the Reds and f****** put it out there for every other f****** guy to hear. It's not your job."
Actually Bryan, it is.
Long gone are the days of beat reporters not telling all they see. Babe Ruth got away with that, President Kennedy got a way with that too. But that was long before social media made everyone a reporter, and breaking news 24 hours a day.
Being combative with the media is rarely successful. Partner with them, and while they won't bury news for you they will often work with you to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. Any company spokesperson needs to be trained on the latest in social media; how it works but also why things happen the way they do.
Their MLB At-Bat app is the number one sports streaming site. That success has added to the already rich coffers of baseball team owners. But Major League Baseball's oldest franchise, the Cincinnat Reds might still be struggling on the uses of digital media. Well, at least their second year manager Bryan Price.
Price blew up at 'beat writers' for his baseball club, upset that they were reporting on personnel changes. In one case, the reporters were announcing a change in the roster even before Price had a chance to break the bad news to the player being sent back to the minors.
The five minute and thirty four second rant featured several f-bombs and some creative ways to describe animal waste. While this rant was very good, it wasn't the best in baseball history. That still belongs to former Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia.
While we can laugh at a crazy baseball guy who was frustrated by poor performances from his team, I do believe there is a media lesson to learned here. If a reporter is talking to you, even if they are really friendly, remember they have a job to do. And that job is to find out information that people want to know about you and your organization, and report it.
Perhaps someone should tell that to Price. Here is one of his quotes from the rant: "Your job is not to sniff out every f****** thing is about the Reds and f****** put it out there for every other f****** guy to hear. It's not your job."
Actually Bryan, it is.
Long gone are the days of beat reporters not telling all they see. Babe Ruth got away with that, President Kennedy got a way with that too. But that was long before social media made everyone a reporter, and breaking news 24 hours a day.
Being combative with the media is rarely successful. Partner with them, and while they won't bury news for you they will often work with you to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. Any company spokesperson needs to be trained on the latest in social media; how it works but also why things happen the way they do.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
How did the newspaper industry lose its classified advertising business to such an ugly, scam filled site like craigslist?
In sports, there are times when the underdog wins the game and you can't help but wonder, "How in the world did they ever win?" In the newspaper world, I sometimes can't help but say that very phrase when it comes to craigslist.
craigslist.com is the absolute leader when it comes to private party classified advertising, items for sale by an individual. Look at any newspaper today at the classifieds section, if they have a section and you'll see a mere fraction of what it use to be. Those tiny classified ads were great revenue for the newspaper industry, but maybe more importantly great readership for the publications.
The free option of craigslist came along, offered immediate publication and often times immediate sales for those items. Not to be hypocritical, I have used this outlet several times with mixed results. I'm not saying it doesn't work, or that there isn't a place for it either. I am still shaking my head that the newspaper lost that segment of business to such an ugly site, filled with scams, escorts and murderers.
Recently, I purchased tickets for Spring Training baseball games in Florida. We had extra tickets, so we decided to sell them at face value online. We used eBay and craigslist to get the word out in the markets that would have interest in those tickets (New York, Detroit and Philadelphia). It took a few days, but we received an offer for one of the sets of tickets via craigslist.
They were sending a money order for the amount requested. All seemed OK until they emailed back, saying they send the wrong amount. They were requesting that I cash the money order and they send them back the difference in another money order. Red flags were flying for me that this was a scam, so I tried to get them to use PayPal. They refused, yet another red flag. This continued on and became apparent to me that this was fraud. The money order arrived, and I took it to the bank asking them to confirm that it was not real. They did, to no ones surprise.
We have since sold the tickets via eBay, and we have a happy ending. But for so many people, craigslist fraud ends with them losing hundreds and thousands of dollars. The internet is filled with stories of people losing money through scammers. The bank I took the check to told me they see people on a regular basis trying to cash bad checks through craigslist deals.
I was dealing with tickets for a baseball game hundreds of miles away. If you're selling locally, you have a much greater chance of not getting taken. Local police agencies, like Boone County Indiana are setting up craigslist Safety Zones to help avoid scams.
Newspapers out priced themselves out of the private party market, showed arrogance thinking that a site like craigslist could come in a take hundreds of millions of revenue away. There are things a local newspaper can do to stay relevant in this part of the business, but it is very very tough.
How in the world did the newspaper industry ever lose to craigslist?
There are things you can do to protect yourself from fraud on craigslist. Check out http://www.infoworld.com/article/2875832/security/how-to-stick-it-to-craigslist-scammers.html for information on how to fight back.
And for the record, avoid transactions with someone calling themselves Matthew Peterson, stigaloom23@gmail.com, phone numbers (609) 447-1278 and (480) 448-8421.
craigslist.com is the absolute leader when it comes to private party classified advertising, items for sale by an individual. Look at any newspaper today at the classifieds section, if they have a section and you'll see a mere fraction of what it use to be. Those tiny classified ads were great revenue for the newspaper industry, but maybe more importantly great readership for the publications.
The free option of craigslist came along, offered immediate publication and often times immediate sales for those items. Not to be hypocritical, I have used this outlet several times with mixed results. I'm not saying it doesn't work, or that there isn't a place for it either. I am still shaking my head that the newspaper lost that segment of business to such an ugly site, filled with scams, escorts and murderers.
Recently, I purchased tickets for Spring Training baseball games in Florida. We had extra tickets, so we decided to sell them at face value online. We used eBay and craigslist to get the word out in the markets that would have interest in those tickets (New York, Detroit and Philadelphia). It took a few days, but we received an offer for one of the sets of tickets via craigslist.
They were sending a money order for the amount requested. All seemed OK until they emailed back, saying they send the wrong amount. They were requesting that I cash the money order and they send them back the difference in another money order. Red flags were flying for me that this was a scam, so I tried to get them to use PayPal. They refused, yet another red flag. This continued on and became apparent to me that this was fraud. The money order arrived, and I took it to the bank asking them to confirm that it was not real. They did, to no ones surprise.
We have since sold the tickets via eBay, and we have a happy ending. But for so many people, craigslist fraud ends with them losing hundreds and thousands of dollars. The internet is filled with stories of people losing money through scammers. The bank I took the check to told me they see people on a regular basis trying to cash bad checks through craigslist deals.
I was dealing with tickets for a baseball game hundreds of miles away. If you're selling locally, you have a much greater chance of not getting taken. Local police agencies, like Boone County Indiana are setting up craigslist Safety Zones to help avoid scams.
Newspapers out priced themselves out of the private party market, showed arrogance thinking that a site like craigslist could come in a take hundreds of millions of revenue away. There are things a local newspaper can do to stay relevant in this part of the business, but it is very very tough.
How in the world did the newspaper industry ever lose to craigslist?
There are things you can do to protect yourself from fraud on craigslist. Check out http://www.infoworld.com/article/2875832/security/how-to-stick-it-to-craigslist-scammers.html for information on how to fight back.
And for the record, avoid transactions with someone calling themselves Matthew Peterson, stigaloom23@gmail.com, phone numbers (609) 447-1278 and (480) 448-8421.
Monday, February 23, 2015
The history of native advertising as told by HBO's "Last Week Tonight"
As I head to the Mega-Conference in Atlanta this week (big conference for newspaper and online publishers), my goal is to learn more and understand what I already think I know a little better. That might be tougher than it sounds, given the ever changing landscape for publishing and marketing these days.
Native Advertising is a great example. It has been around for us to get taste of what it can be. In some businesses, including mine we have a baseline for revenue that we can now build on for the coming year, hoping to replicate the huge growth we all read about in various publications and websites.
In preparation for Mega-Conference, I have received dozens of notes, calls and emails from current and potential vendors. All of them asking for a few minutes of my time to discuss possible business partnerships. The best one of all of them came from a friend of mine, Paul Camp from Content That Works in Chicago. Content That Works has been trying to get out in front of the native advertising game, and has done a good job so far.
But even Paul and Content That Works won't pretend to know all that there is or where this potential beast is going. And they don't take themselves too seriously either. Check out this roughly 10 minute history and commentary on native advertising, from HBO's show "Last Week Tonight"
Happy Monday!
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Speeding up TV programming to delivery the necessary impressions for advertisers
Many years ago during my radio days, I would substitute host for a popular oldies show "Sunday Night At The Oldies." This was late 1980's and we were still spinning actual records for our music, as compared with digital music libraries that stations have in place today.
When we set up the turntable, the rpm's were actually slightly excellerated. It may have been explained as to why, but I honestly don't remember the reason. As I read today's issue of The Wall Street Journal I am reminded of this practice and may have found out why this was done.
Forward (pun intended) to today, and cable channels are speeding up their programming to fit more commercials. As the cable world continues to fragment, ratings have dropped meaning to delivery the needed impressions, cable networks are having to deliver more ads.
It has been common practice to eliminate or at least limit intro and ending credits. Law and Order normally has a 1 minute 45 second intro, but it is only 24 seconds on cable today. But now programmers are playing with the speed of the actual show.
Does Jerry Seinfeld sound a little high pitched on TBS? Probably so, as they are using this technology to speed up the episode. My favorite example of this is with the Wizard of Oz. The munchkins are already with squeeky high voices. They are using the technology for this movie, making the voices even higher.
As the audience / programming revolution continues, the business side of programming will have to continue getting creative to squeeze out the audience and the revenue necessary.
A couple stories on this topic:
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/speeded.asp
http://www.wsj.com/articles/cable-tv-shows-are-sped-up-to-squeeze-in-more-ads-1424301320 story is behind the WSJ paywall.
When we set up the turntable, the rpm's were actually slightly excellerated. It may have been explained as to why, but I honestly don't remember the reason. As I read today's issue of The Wall Street Journal I am reminded of this practice and may have found out why this was done.
Forward (pun intended) to today, and cable channels are speeding up their programming to fit more commercials. As the cable world continues to fragment, ratings have dropped meaning to delivery the needed impressions, cable networks are having to deliver more ads.
It has been common practice to eliminate or at least limit intro and ending credits. Law and Order normally has a 1 minute 45 second intro, but it is only 24 seconds on cable today. But now programmers are playing with the speed of the actual show.
Does Jerry Seinfeld sound a little high pitched on TBS? Probably so, as they are using this technology to speed up the episode. My favorite example of this is with the Wizard of Oz. The munchkins are already with squeeky high voices. They are using the technology for this movie, making the voices even higher.
As the audience / programming revolution continues, the business side of programming will have to continue getting creative to squeeze out the audience and the revenue necessary.
A couple stories on this topic:
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/speeded.asp
http://www.wsj.com/articles/cable-tv-shows-are-sped-up-to-squeeze-in-more-ads-1424301320 story is behind the WSJ paywall.
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