Despite reputation as being stuck in the past, newspapers continue to innovate

http://www.petevanbaalen.com/single-post/2017/07/23/Despite-reputation-as-being-stuck-in-the-past-newspapers-continue-to-innovate

If I randomly asked someone to label the newspaper industry, some of the words they would say might be:  old, dying, not relevant, boring and stuck in the past. As much as those words hurt, there is some truth to them. But on the flip side, I see a lot of innovation going on that is exciting that leaves me with hope for the future of the industry.

Recently, I hosted an idea exchange for member newspapers of the Hoosier State Press Association. The hour long discussions on revenue ideas for newspapers were anything but old, boring or stuck in the past. Yes, there was good discussion on special sections and other tried and true products that are a part of newspaper's past. Yet even those have such unique twists on them that they would barely be recognizable to what the industry was doing when I first started selling advertising.

Three categories of innovation were a big part of the discussion, showing the evolution of newspapers into the 21st Century. There was plenty of discussion on events, unique ways of connecting with locally owned and operated businesses and of course digital marketing.

Larger daily newspapers were the first to jump in and start doing events, and that is still happening today. But on the call, it was great to see large and small daily newspapers sharing their successes on event marketing. Let's not forget weekly newspapers, which have also discovered ways to connect with their readers by creating unique events in the market, and the resulting profits too. Recruitment revenue has been tough to come by for many newspapers in the traditional sense. A way of recapturing that lost revenue is with job fair events, one of the easier events I think you can put on. Pinterest has helped inspire many people to start doing their own crafts, and has inspired many newspapers to put on local craft shows, highlighting the talents of the area. Several newspapers have jumped into events focused on women, which makes sense. Women drive the majority of consumer spending, so creating engaging events to match their interests is a recipe for success. Newspapers across Indiana are tapping into new profit opportunities with general interest women's events as well as mom's night out type events.

Connecting with locally owned and operated businesses was another common theme. Working with the businesses along Main Street is not new, but the approach many newspapers are taking is. There were several different approaches, but the common theme was to work with mom and pop stores who are fighting to stay competitive with the big box stores. Tying in local promotions to the Shop Small program launched by American Express the Saturday after Thanksgiving is one approach. Other newspapers have programs throughout the year to encourage people to live local and shop local. One newspaper in southern Indiana partners with the local chamber to create a shopping program with local merchants that tracks the dollars generated through the newspaper promotion. It continues to grow every year.

Digital transformation continues to happen in the newspaper business. What excited me about the digital ideas shared was that they weren't traditional digital display ads. Newspapers are already looking past the basic opportunities and trying to innovate, perhaps  getting ahead of the curve for a change.

Many of the innovative ideas had or could have traditional elements attached to them like special sections. We should not turn our backs completely to what has worked in the past, but try to build and improve on those opportunities. There are still a lot of newspapers that are stuck in the past. But I remain encouraged by the innovation that continues to occur.

Three key business lessons from watching the movie "The Founder"

http://www.petevanbaalen.com/single-post/2017/07/02/Three-key-business-lessons-from-watching-the-movie-The-Founder

I grew up more of a Burger King fan as a kid, in part because my oldest brother used to be a manager at one and would con me into mowing their lot in exchange for a Whopper, fries and a Coke.  As I’ve gotten older and with a child of my own, McDonald’s has become the fast food establishment of choice. After watching the movie “The Founder”, I now have a deeper appreciation for fast food in general and more specifically the impact McDonald’s has had.

In my mind, the movie generated three key takeaways for businesses.

1.       Develop a tight process

2.       Vision without passion will only take you so far

3.       Get all the details down in writing

Early in the evolution of McDonald’s, the two brothers Dick and Maurice worked tirelessly on creating efficiency in the process. They were so fast getting food out to the customers, then a revolutionary idea, allowing them to increase capacity and thus profits. In the movie, the brothers go to a local tennis court and use chalk outlines to create potential layouts to scale for their kitchen areas. It took hours of effort on their part and those simulating the work and three layouts before they figured out the basis for their layout. While many things have changed, there are still elements in place today at thousands of McDonald’s restaurants that originated during this time, including the burger slide and the tool that delivers a measured squirt of mustard and ketchup on each burger.  Over 60 years later and a process is still in place is a testament to just how tight a process is.

I’ve been to Des Plaines, Illinois and knew that was the site of the original McDonald’s. Only I was wrong. The original was in San Bernardino, California; the one started by the two brothers. It was Ray Kroc’s first franchise store that opened in Illinois. It was the McDonald’s brothers who had the vision of creating a fast food establishment, the golden arches and even a franchise of restaurants all over the country. When Kroc stumbled on to McDonald’s, they already had a few franchises set up out west. But it was Kroc’s passion that brought quick, affordable hamburgers to seemingly ever city and town in the world.  Kroc was the ultimate sales person, with enough passion and work ethic to overcome a lot of obstacles to find success. Passion won’t necessarily work without the right vision, and without passion even the best vision won’t lead you to success necessarily. A lot has been written about Kroc and his passion, and how that passion created casualties along the way including this piece from Forbes Magazine.

Perhaps the two biggest casualties were Dick and Maurice McDonald’s themselves. Surely, you might be thinking, the originators of the concept ended up wealthy beyond your wildest dreams. The riches went to Kroc, who bought out the McDonald’s family for what amounted to $1 million each after taxes according to the movie.  Kroc, at the last minute refused to put into his contract buying them out a deal to give them .5% of the company’s profits forever. Michael Keaton, who brilliantly portrayed Kroc in the movie said that they would just have to trust him on this and that they would see the profits. They did, and he didn’t. The McDonald brothers had the leverage, and likely would have got Kroc to put it in the contract but they caved without anything being in writing. That handshake deal instead of getting things down in writing has cost that family billions of dollars so far. And with every passing day, that total like the number of burgers made continues to grow. 

Good news for newspapers regarding media's digital migration

http://www.petevanbaalen.com/single-post/2017/06/27/Good-news-for-newspapers-regarding-medias-digital-migration

We are a storytelling society. Think about someone you know, or perhaps someone famous and think about what attracted you to them. Chances are it could be the way they communicate and their ability to tell a good story.

Storytelling doesn't mean making things up, though a good old fashioned 'tall tale' can be very entertaining. In business, the art of telling a good story often comes down to your ability to communicate effectively the highlights of your business purpose. Telling someone facts about your company, but doing so in an engaging and effective way is a key to communication, and thus sales.

I talk a lot about the story the media industry has to tell. And despite the regular beatings our advertising department's take with advertising agencies and other advertisers, I still think the story the industry has to tell is a great one.

Digital continues to disrupt every segment of our lives daily. It was just announced that Amazon was purchasing Whole Foods. The impact of just that one transaction will send ripples of innovation and change throughout even more areas of our life, including the way we purchase food. The digital disruption of the media industry, I believe has the potential to be our friend if we harness the power of the changes happening all around us. For that pending battle of local media companies, the newspaper industry still has the high ground on the digital battlefield.  Look at our competitors, and tell me what you see.

Broadcast radio has seen tough audience and revenue declines. As their audience transitions from a analog to a digital platform, where are they going? Very few local radio stations have successful live streaming of their products online. Most of the audience looking for a digital alternative are going to Pandora, Spotify, Amazon or Sirius/XM for digital music. The ESPN app, Fox News and CNN apps do well with digital content for talk radio listeners. The digital migration is away from the local radio station's content, and thus away from their ability to sell ads and make revenue.

The same is true with TV and cable. Netflix and Hulu are doing very well with original programming. Amazon has recently jumped into that mix too. Even Facebook is reportedly in Hollywood now looking for original programming. The largest network for  video content is now YouTube! Cable TV is taking a hit too, thanks to Apple TV, Tivo and others who create a world of cable through the internet. The DVR that comes with my cable subscription is also a way for me to zap out a lot of commercials, either by fast forwarding through the commercial content or by watching shows on-demand. Sure, there are some commercials on-demand but the inventory is significantly less.

The fragmentation of the radio, TV and cable industries is making the large audience more elusive than ever. But when a newspaper subscribers stops their newspaper subscription, where do they go for local news? They are going to the newspaper's own website. Sure, our subscribers are also going to other websites like CNN.com, FoxNews.com or others for national and international news. But when the local school wants a bond to build a new school, that information is still content that the local newspaper will get. In many (most, perhaps?) markets, the local newspaper and its website will be the only place that can be found.

In a world full of fake news, the reliability of a newspaper in a local community is more important that it has ever been. And our ability to explain to readers and advertisers why we are doing what we do, and why it is so important to the community we serve is extremely important. 

Most Americans are paying for their news, which translates to good news for publishers

I've always found statistics to be fascinating, which is probably an outgrowth of my love of baseball. Baseball is a sport that is nearly obsessed with stats, from batting averages to consecutive games played total number of home runs hit.

When the stats were in their favor, the newspaper industry use to have a similar fascination with statistics and numbers. As the media landscape has changed and the swagger has faded, the industry relies less on those raw numbers than in the past. But a recent study from the AP NORC Center and American Press Institute sheds some positive light on the industry that can quickly be used in the marketplace.

The study found that most Americans in fact pay for their news. In fact, 53% responded affirmatively to the question of paying for news in the survey. Of those that responded, 54% currently subscribe to a newspaper, either print or digital. This is information that is good for both the circulation and the advertising departments of a newspaper.

The advertising department needs positive information about the industry when talking to perspective customers. As an industry, we've run too many articles about our own demise and our customers have picked up on that. Plus our competitors are also out there telling the world of our eminent failure as a business, casting doubt in our customer's heads.

In a world where social media and digital are dominating marketing budgets, the reliable newspaper still has an important role to play. And that role is not just for older readers, either.

The desire for reliable and paid for content is strong across all demographics. The older the person, the more likely their subscription is to a print product but the habit of reading newspaper content runs throughout the ages of 18 to 65 and beyond.

For circulation departments, this is good news because of some other key takeaways from the study. Only 10% of those surveyed felt their subscription cost was too high for what they were getting.  I don't view this as open season wildly high hikes in pricing but if you were concerned about whether you can raise prices or not it adds more to the discussion. You probably can charge a little more.

Newspapers will never likely every again enjoy the domination of a by-gone era of amazingly high market penetrations. That has, and will continue to change the strategy we as an industry have to employ. But relevance has not diminished nearly as much as we've reported and this is just one more survey that proves that point.

You can find full details of the study by visiting:  https://www.axios.com/who-pays-for-news-2389759186.html

What media companies can learn from the marketing approach of Vera Bradley

It isn't everyday that you get to spend the day at a Hoosier icon's house. And while officially it wasn't the actual house of Barbara Bradley Baekgaard or Patricia Miller, I did get to spend the day at the corporate headquarters of Vera Bradley near Fort Wayne and learn about their legendary business.

Founded in 1982 by the ladies with a $250 loan, the women's handbag and accessories company now rakes in over $500 million in sales annually. In their 35 years of business, these ladies have learned a thing or two about how to run a successful business. Some of those key points are quickly translatable to media companies, who can learn from today for a better tomorrow.

Vera Bradley had a very simple beginning. The two founders were neighbors and struck up a friendship and business partnership based on a simple housewarming gift. Later, the two were traveling and noticed the selection of women's handbags was limited to black and brown. They introduced fun patterns and bright colors, revolutionizing the handbag and backpack market.

Turning a good product into a sustainable business is not easy. They lean heavily on research, design and customer feedback to keep their brand fresh and growing. Vera Bradley doesn't look at their internal goals and then try to create a product that works at achieving their goals. They are interacting with their core customers and potential customers, and determining what they can create to excite that target and score sales.

Too many times, the newspaper company does just the opposite.

The challenge is to be different enough to customers to be fresh, but not so radically different that they are turned off. So the challenge for media professionals is to do the same; with special sections, product roll outs and sales initiatives.

It is May now, and Christmas feels forever away. But it's not. At the event I attended, Vera Bradley gave us a sneak peak of their back to school and fall / holiday TV commercials. They've planned their marketing that far out. Within our organizations, we need to take the bull by the horns and plan ahead for the remainder of the year. Now, or at least in the next few weeks.

If sales specials, kick offs, sales rep incentives and special sections are thought out six months ahead instead of thrown together at the last minute, you have the chance to research, innovate and refine the plan. Remember, Vera Bradley's success comes from interacting with their customers and prospects to find out what their goals were, and then building the product line with that in mind.

Vera Bradley identifies their target very specifically, and they have named her "The Day Maker". A part of their philosophy is to have empathy towards this target. "Design with a deep understanding of our consumer, not a focus on ourselves."

  

Every special section and sales initiative should be thought of as a new product roll out the way they would at Vera Bradley. Find the needs in the marketplace, the desires of the target audience and then carefully determine the strategy you can implement to satisfy those needs and desires in a effective and profitable way for your organization. If we took that same approach with our special sections and sales initiatives, the results would be better; better received by our customers and better performing financially. And that's a goal we can all take to the bank. 

Leadership skills taught through the culture of Amazon

Everything you read about Jeff Bezos leads you to believe he is a business mad-man. Cutting edge technology and business thinking that he has been the driving force for has created Amazon, which is disrupting the entire retail business eco-system. And it all originating from the Bezos way of thinking.

But is his approach all that radical? Is what Bezos is preaching incredibly advanced, or just beautifully simple. ?

The Leadership Principles for Amazon

I'm presently looking to fill a management role within the organization, and we're struggling to find that ideal candidate. Finding the technical skills required is somewhat easy, but trying to find someone with the technical skills and the leadership skills combined proves elusive.

And that's not just in my organization. A lack of leadership is apparent in a great deal of companies that I interact with on a regular basis.

Can you teach leadership? I'm not sure, but you can offer up guides to help encourage the leadership that every individual holds within them. And the Leadership Principles at Amazon can help. You can reach the full details of the list at https://www.amazon.jobs/principles, but here are the 12 essential points:

• Customer Obsession
• Ownership
• Invent and Simplify
• Are. A lot.
• Learn and Be Curious
• Hire and Develop the Best
• Insist on the Highest Standards
• Think Big
• Bias for Action
• Frugality
• Earn Trust
• Dive Deep
• Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
• Deliver Results

Tapping into the history of your organization to create a strong team in the future

---

I found myself with a longer than expected commute today, and got to spend some time with ESPN’s Mike & Mike program. Being from Indiana, basketball is a big part of the fabric of growing up. So when the guests announced were former Butler University coach Brad Stevens and basketball legend Oscar Robinson, I was pretty excited about my luck. 

Brad Stevens vaulted to legendary status after taking the Butler Bulldogs to the national championship game not once, but twice in back to back years. The story of Brad Stevens is a great story of persistence, grit and determination; easily making him a Indiana legend. And being a Butler alumni, I am particularly found of him.

Quite simply, Oscar Robertson is the greatest basketball player ever from Indiana. There really is no doubt, and no room for debate. Others are also great – Larry Bird for example, but the Big O is at the top of the list. 

So with that line up, I was expecting to be schooled on hoops. Instead, I got a nice dose of leadership. First up was Stevens.

He didn’t talk about “The Butler Way” which has become synonymous with his time leading that college team. Great leadership books and lots of columns have been devoted to that, and deservedly so. The Butler Way – by the way is:

The Butler Way...
demands commitment, denies selfishness,
accepts reality, yet seeks improvement everyday
while putting the team above self.

Stevens talked about the responsibility to be great. As the head coach of the Boston Celtics, the most honored team ever in the NBA, Stevens has inherited great expectations in his role. Rather than shying away from that past, he embraces it head on. He told the interviewer that playing under the championship banners helped push him and the team to greatness. And he is achieving great things, as his team is likely to clinch the top playoff spot for the NBA’s Eastern Conference later this week.

Robertson’s accomplishments are amazing. Until this NBA season, he was the only player to ever average a triple double for the year; more than 10 points, assists and rebounds per game. While I never saw him play, his abilities are legendary. As a former broadcaster of Indiana high school basketball, I heard countless stories about Oscar’s team at Indianapolis Crispus Attacks High School, where he won back to back state championships in the early 1950’s. And might have won a third, had he not lost to little Milan High School. Milan is the team that the 1986 movie Hoosiers is based.

Robertson’s interview spanned a variety of topics, focused primarily on his historic triple double season. But Mike Greenberg ended the conversation talking about the Big O’s role in the creation of free agency in the NBA. Robertson, many don’t know, was the player that suited the NBA for that right, over 40 years ago. Robertson commented that players today don’t necessarily know about his involvement with the league all those years ago. 

NBA players are signed and are instantly millionaires, so they don’t always have an appreciation for the history, and the story of those people that came before them. He suggested that every rookie when signed should have to read the history of the league and the team they are a member. Again, a reference to understanding the history of your organization. 

Why aren’t more businesses tapping into this? Stevens and Robertson are both correct in trying to create an appreciation, understanding and respect for the past. Millennials want to connect with their employers. Generation X and Baby Boomers are a part of that history as well as revere the past, thus giving multi-generations within the workplace a potential common bond. That common bond will lead to a better team, and thus better results.

We all have work to do here. I have work to do here. Currently, I work for a newspaper that won a Pulitzer Prize, and the primary writer for that is still on staff. Yet, I know very little about it. Established organizations have the pride, accomplishments, lessons learned and institutional knowledge of our past, and yet most are not leveraging it. Sounds like an opportunity to me.