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.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Celebrating your team's Wins & Acknowledgements is a easy way to improve morale and performance
A couple months back, I spent an evening at a project management leadership meeting. Most of the people at that meeting, and most people who think of project management largely think about IT projects and new system installs. I go to these meetings thinking about sales and marketing, and I always seem to come away with applicable ideas. Sales and marketing is a project and a process.
The subject at that meeting was team building and attitude. Jessica Soroky (Twitter: @jlsoroky) was the presenter, and she discussed how she starts meetings with what she calls "Wins and Acknowledgements". The idea is very simple: each meeting start with positive information, specifically that was a strategic win for the individual or the team, or an acknowledgement of an event, milestone or individual who helped out. These wins and acknowledgements can be personal or professional.
Sales is so much about a positive outlook. Even the most successful hunters are getting told no or not now frequently throughout the day or week. Taking a moment to think about positive people and moments helps refresh the mind, clears out the negative thoughts and allows the individual to refocus on the outcomes that they want to see.
Each sales meeting I hold with my team is starting with a wins and acknowledgement segment. Monday is usually a quick recap from the weekend. Each Friday, the group recaps the week and their highlights and accomplishments. Participation is not required, but nearly everyone every week is coming to that meeting with post it notes in hand to brag on their week, co-workers and everything positive going on.
Post it notes were an add on to the program to provide a visual reminder throughout the week of the positive things happening. It may look like a pre-school project, but the stained glass looking window to my office is a colorful reminder to my staff and everyone in the building that we are being positive in the department.
The subject at that meeting was team building and attitude. Jessica Soroky (Twitter: @jlsoroky) was the presenter, and she discussed how she starts meetings with what she calls "Wins and Acknowledgements". The idea is very simple: each meeting start with positive information, specifically that was a strategic win for the individual or the team, or an acknowledgement of an event, milestone or individual who helped out. These wins and acknowledgements can be personal or professional.
Sales is so much about a positive outlook. Even the most successful hunters are getting told no or not now frequently throughout the day or week. Taking a moment to think about positive people and moments helps refresh the mind, clears out the negative thoughts and allows the individual to refocus on the outcomes that they want to see.
Each sales meeting I hold with my team is starting with a wins and acknowledgement segment. Monday is usually a quick recap from the weekend. Each Friday, the group recaps the week and their highlights and accomplishments. Participation is not required, but nearly everyone every week is coming to that meeting with post it notes in hand to brag on their week, co-workers and everything positive going on.
Post it notes were an add on to the program to provide a visual reminder throughout the week of the positive things happening. It may look like a pre-school project, but the stained glass looking window to my office is a colorful reminder to my staff and everyone in the building that we are being positive in the department.
The impact of such a small gesture has been very visible, beyond the window at my office. I genuinely see employees going out of their way to help each other out, more than before. They are making sure to say "thank you" in person and through this program for when someone goes beyond the norm. Visitors to our office and employees from other departments are seeing the collage and are asking questions and commenting on the morale of the people in the department.
This is a no cost - high return project that anyone can implement and see results.
Monday, April 14, 2014
The Tiger Woods effect on TV ratings and the popularity of golf
Tiger Woods is killing professional golf!
No, this is not a Tiger Woods bashing column. I have written more than my share of sports columns over the years, but this remains a sales and marketing blog. But there is, or at least should be some concern as it relates to the future of professional golf and Tiger Woods.
"The Tiger effect" is directly related to the ratings of major golf championships on TV, comparing the ratings of a match with Tiger in contention vs. when he is not. This past weekend was the first Masters Tournament that did not have Woods as a participant since 1996. The results for the ratings were less than encouraging for CBS, The Masters and professional golf in general.
Yahoo Sports has the details on the tournament, and ratings information for Saturday and Sunday's telecast: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devil-ball-golf/masters-ratings-down-from-2013-154433616.html
Like him or hate him, people watch him. I do believe the lack of Tiger for the entire tournament, and Phil Mickelson not making the cut had an impact on the TV ratings. As exciting as Bubba Watson is for professional golf, he doesn't bring the mystique of Tiger Woods from back about 10 years ago.
Professional golf is very star driven. Even if Woods doesn't reach the championship totals of Jack Nicklaus, he is still the biggest star the sport has ever seen. The PGA needs to either develop the next megastar, or prepare a diminished TV audience, which means less marketing and advertising dollars for their broadcasts.
TV audience measurements can be deceiving however. Yes, a rating in 2014 of 7.8 is a 23.5% drop in audience from last year. But how does this all play out historically?
The match ups and the drama on the last day obviously play an impact on the ratings. For instance, when Tiger Woods won his first green jacket at the Masters in 1997 the TV rating was 15.8. That is by far the highest ratings ever for the event. How about 1996, which was the last year without Tiger Woods? That broadcast drew an audience rating of 10.2. That was the same rating as the year before, 1995.
Growing audience is a key to growing advertising revenue. The PGA does face an uphill battle of replacing the star power of Tiger Woods, and the draw he has on TV, merchandise, event attendance and participation in the sport. When I first heard the ratings, I was convinced the situation was worse than I think it really is.
Want to see the audience trends in TV ratings for the Masters? There is a great site, showing those details dating back to 1977 and Tom Watson's victory: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2008/04/17/the-masters-tv-ratings-1977-2007/3216/
No, this is not a Tiger Woods bashing column. I have written more than my share of sports columns over the years, but this remains a sales and marketing blog. But there is, or at least should be some concern as it relates to the future of professional golf and Tiger Woods.
"The Tiger effect" is directly related to the ratings of major golf championships on TV, comparing the ratings of a match with Tiger in contention vs. when he is not. This past weekend was the first Masters Tournament that did not have Woods as a participant since 1996. The results for the ratings were less than encouraging for CBS, The Masters and professional golf in general.
Yahoo Sports has the details on the tournament, and ratings information for Saturday and Sunday's telecast: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devil-ball-golf/masters-ratings-down-from-2013-154433616.html
Like him or hate him, people watch him. I do believe the lack of Tiger for the entire tournament, and Phil Mickelson not making the cut had an impact on the TV ratings. As exciting as Bubba Watson is for professional golf, he doesn't bring the mystique of Tiger Woods from back about 10 years ago.
Professional golf is very star driven. Even if Woods doesn't reach the championship totals of Jack Nicklaus, he is still the biggest star the sport has ever seen. The PGA needs to either develop the next megastar, or prepare a diminished TV audience, which means less marketing and advertising dollars for their broadcasts.
TV audience measurements can be deceiving however. Yes, a rating in 2014 of 7.8 is a 23.5% drop in audience from last year. But how does this all play out historically?
The match ups and the drama on the last day obviously play an impact on the ratings. For instance, when Tiger Woods won his first green jacket at the Masters in 1997 the TV rating was 15.8. That is by far the highest ratings ever for the event. How about 1996, which was the last year without Tiger Woods? That broadcast drew an audience rating of 10.2. That was the same rating as the year before, 1995.
Growing audience is a key to growing advertising revenue. The PGA does face an uphill battle of replacing the star power of Tiger Woods, and the draw he has on TV, merchandise, event attendance and participation in the sport. When I first heard the ratings, I was convinced the situation was worse than I think it really is.
Want to see the audience trends in TV ratings for the Masters? There is a great site, showing those details dating back to 1977 and Tom Watson's victory: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2008/04/17/the-masters-tv-ratings-1977-2007/3216/
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Local radio stations struggle to maintain audience against a wave of digital disruptions
Local radio is dead.....or at least critically ill.
While I have sold against radio for nearly 25 years, in many respects I'm still an old radio guy at heart. I went to school for radio and television, had some amazing times working in the business and made some great friends along the way. A few are still working at radio stations; a place that I would hardly recognize from the stations I trained and worked at in the 1980's and 90's.
I hardly listen to local radio stations ever. My radio is cranking every time I'm in the car, but usually it is on Sirius-XM radio. On a rare occasion, my radio will slip over to WLW in Cincinnati but even that happens less and less.
The problems with the newspaper business is very well documented, as audience habits have changed and digital disruptions have taken over key segments of the business. Every bit of that last sentence is also true for the radio industry.
Radio's reaction has been similar as well, cutting expenses like crazy focusing on content. Instead of a local radio station having local programming, they run syndicated programming. To me, the beauty of local radio was that it was.....LOCAL! Programming was different up and down the dial, and from town to town.
Sirius-XM has captured about 99% of my radio time. But their influence is not that big in terms of audience size nationwide. But the audience they have is growing in size and more importantly in terms of influence.
The Wall Street Journal discussed the influence that satellite radio is exerting on country music. While their audience is smaller compared to broadcast stations with a country format, the music industry is taking notice. The typical listener of country music tends to be wealthier, better educated and much more likely to plug into social media compared with other music format listeners. Clearly, marketing and advertising people are always looking for that wealthier audience who can better buy the products and services of the customer. Add in the fact that satellite radio subscribers are going to score even higher on that wealth scale, since they are paying $200 a year for the service.
The full article from the Wall Street Journal can be found at: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303847804579479631389940754?mg=reno64-wsj
While I have sold against radio for nearly 25 years, in many respects I'm still an old radio guy at heart. I went to school for radio and television, had some amazing times working in the business and made some great friends along the way. A few are still working at radio stations; a place that I would hardly recognize from the stations I trained and worked at in the 1980's and 90's.
I hardly listen to local radio stations ever. My radio is cranking every time I'm in the car, but usually it is on Sirius-XM radio. On a rare occasion, my radio will slip over to WLW in Cincinnati but even that happens less and less.
The problems with the newspaper business is very well documented, as audience habits have changed and digital disruptions have taken over key segments of the business. Every bit of that last sentence is also true for the radio industry.
 |
| Pete Van Baalen playing the big band hits on WFBM Noblesville, Indiana circa 1987 |
Sirius-XM has captured about 99% of my radio time. But their influence is not that big in terms of audience size nationwide. But the audience they have is growing in size and more importantly in terms of influence.
The Wall Street Journal discussed the influence that satellite radio is exerting on country music. While their audience is smaller compared to broadcast stations with a country format, the music industry is taking notice. The typical listener of country music tends to be wealthier, better educated and much more likely to plug into social media compared with other music format listeners. Clearly, marketing and advertising people are always looking for that wealthier audience who can better buy the products and services of the customer. Add in the fact that satellite radio subscribers are going to score even higher on that wealth scale, since they are paying $200 a year for the service.
The full article from the Wall Street Journal can be found at: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303847804579479631389940754?mg=reno64-wsj
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