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Print is Dead, Long Live Print!

marek.miller — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 06:00:58 +0000

This Autumn is rich in terms of interesting conferences for newsmedia companies. Those who haven’t done so already, we encourage to look closely at the programme of the upcoming conference in Oxford organised by INNOVATION Media Consulting.

The conference taking place on November 13th and 14th in Oxford is going to focus on finding an answer to the two most important questions for newsmedia publishers nowadays: How to Re-invent Newspapers and Magazines in the Digital Age? Where’s the Money & How Do We Get There?

Below please find the programme of the event and make sure you check THIS SITE for details

PROGRAMME

November 13th (Sunday)
7.15 pm Wadham College
Traditional Oxford Welcome
College Dinner & Discussion

November 14th (Monday)
St Anne’s College
WELCOME: Provocative speech form David Levy

08.30 am Coffee

MORNING HOW TO REINVENT OUR TITLES

First Session Juan Antonio Giner & Spiros Polikandriotis
DIGITAL FIRST DOES NOT MEAN DIGITAL ONLY. (Juan Antonio Giner)
DESIGN IS CONTENT! How to reinvent newspapers and magazines for the digital age through content-driven redesign. Ten dos and don’ts. (Spiros Polikandriotis)

Second Session Chiqui Esteban & Deborah Withey
THE NEW DIGITAL NARRATIVES. The new storytelling techniques and genres that print newsrooms should master to engage with new audiences.
Q&A (Deborah Withey)

Third Session Javier M. Zarracina, Pedro Monteiro & Deborah Withey
THE RISE OF THE APPS. How to desing for the eyes and the fingers.
Q&A (Deborah Withey)

13.00-14.00 Lunch

AFTERNOON WHERE’S THE MONEY?

Fourth Session Carlo Campos
THE NEW REVENUE MODELS FOR NEWSPAPERS IN PRINT AND BEYOND PRINT.

Fifth Session Nic Newman
HOW TO MONETIZE SOCIAL MEDIA AND ENGAGEMENT.

Sixth Session John Wilpers
HOW MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS ARE PROFITING IN A DIGITAL AGE.
INNOVATIONS IN MAGAZINES.

Tea Time HOW DO WE GET THERE?

Seventh Session Nat Low
THE PRINCIPLES AND MODELS OF INTEGRATION.

Final Session Juan Señor
THE NEW WORKFLOWS AND NEWSROOMS OF THE DIGITAL AGE.
Closing and takeaways.

Is this a breakthrough year for the newspublishers?

marek.miller — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:07:29 +0000

The new surge in sales of electronic readers for books, notably ‘tablets’, and the multiplication of mobile devices with easy and comfortable access to news sites, has given a new lease of life to the idea that wireless platforms may yet take a central role in news publishing. During this session at the World Editors Forum in Hamburg current newspaper experiments in publishing on such devices were examined by Chris Ahearn (President of Media, Thomson Reuters),Alfredo Triviño (Director of Creative Projects, News International, UK), and Annemarie Kirk (digital business development manager, Berlingske Media, Denmark)

The old business model is dead, publishers have to embrace the new opportunities. Publishers have to embrace the journalism to make sure the business survives. They have to embrace the technology to keep going – said Chris Ahearn during the last Thursday’s session at the World Editors Forum.

Chris Ahearn does not believe in the rumours of the doom of press. He introduced himself as the recovering paperboy. He understands the media business and agrees that publishers should drive demand and re-engineer costs. The key words are the subscribers.

Publishers have to give more utility, and more uniqueness in order to go on. They ought to ask themselves a question, whom are they serving. Whatever the platform is (print, mobile, tablet), there is the branded relation with the users – so think content first. And always think about the reader.

It is true that iPad is a game changer. 200 apps are downloaded from AppStore every second. We have never seen technology being adopted so fast on the consumption level. But iPad is not everything. It is still just another platform.

According to Chris Ahearn, 2010 is not yet the breakthrough year. It’s not the iPad or any other tablet, but the entire ecosystem that is changing: it is the entire 3G technology, smartphones, and tablets that scatch the future before the news publishing industry. The list of devices is long, and not each one will survive, nor they should.

New is not necessarily the end of the old. iPad nor web are not something that will kill printed newspapers. He doesn’t believe that people pay for content – they pay for experience. This is why iPad might be a game changer in the discussion about paywalls. Users will pay for experience and uniqueness. Applications are going to be crucial in the transition of the media world as apps are changing the way information is consumed.

But he desn’t believe in Chris Anderson’s words that web is dead, he thinks that Wired’s editor in chief is dead wrong.

What he thinks publishers should do:

differentiate,
package,
invest in differentiation and brand.

Loyalty, convenience, access and discovery are the advantages of an app world. Journalism needs to fundamentally change – we need a new content platform for the professional news industry. It is not said yet, that iPad will be that platform.

For Alfredo Trivino, tablets are something more than just an opportunity for reading. It is about playing, organizing and buying – a perfect combination of interactions with users. This combination of information with entertainment should be backed up with the element of surprise.

Technological issues will be essential in building a strategy on tablets. Of course, understanding the reader is important, but the existance on tablets will be something like finding a balance between meeting the readers’ expectations and understanding technological boundaries, such as loading time for instance.

Tablets were called by Trivino the liquid media. In his opinion, the liquid media are now the best ally for storytelling. Tablets not only differ with the so far known media platforms like books, newspapers, magazines, and websites, but they also have this unique ability to substitute them all.

The mixture of stories, technology and emotions in media means money – revenue that media companies are so desperately seeking online nowadays.

Even though the iPad has not yet officialy launched in Denmark, Annemarie Kirk says, her company is already ready and well prepared for it. Berlingske Media already built an application for iPad, and did it with a shoestring budget and a very small team of people. The recipe is to find talented and goal oriented people in the newsroom, people who have a fresh view on global trends, and get them to work. Existing skills should not be forgotten – the iPad application was designed by a graphic with a long time work experience. The iPad will consist of a mixture of online and offline content, and will be exported to the app through the semi-automated process. The app is now awaiting approval from the App Store.

Does iPad really offer a second life to newspapers?

marek.miller — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:36:15 +0000

During the 2010 World Editors Forum in Hamburg, Juan Senor from the Innovation Media Group, presented ideas of the newspaper of the future, and what the publishers should focus on while building the business models. Read the summary of this extremely interesting presentation below.

The session focused on three subjects:

Unbundling the Bundle, the New Sunday Papers. In many markets, Sundays represent the ‘last chance’ for many newspapers to revive their fortunes and keep their paper operations profitable and popular. So what are the new successful Sunday formulas for newspapers that are working and why?
The New Quality Tabloids. A new genre of newspapers in emerging in developing nations: the Quality Tabloid – a mass market compact an compelling newspaper that appeals to many social classes with a firm base on the emerging urban middle classes of megacities in India, Brazi and Russia. So what can the developed world learn from this new generation of Quality Tabloids? And where is the money?
Tablets – a Second Life for Newspapers? How can newspapers re-invent their brands successfully on tablets to increase reach, relevance and revenue? A look at best practice, guidelines and lessons learned so far.

Juan Senor’s presentation was accompanied by:

Claus Strunz, Editor-in-Chief, Hamburger Abendblatt, Germany

Flavio Pestana, Editorial Director, Diario de Sao Paulo, Brazil

Diego Cenzano, Director, Biko, Spain

Carlo Campos, Direction, Innovation Media Consulting Group

Do tablets really offer second life to newspapers? Rupert Murdoch once said: “if you have more of these devices and less of the newspapers… it may be as well saving the newspaper industry”

Publishers must reinvent the way they are telling stories – it’s about the content, not about the platform. They must reinvent the newspaper by deconstructing it. Tablets are a new grammar, the news that you can read, watch and touch. Experience in the age of tablets is much more important than the brand.

App Store: average rating of the application of newspapers: 2.5 out of 5. Magazines: 2.2 out of 5. Newspaper publishers do something wrong.

iPad is often (wrongly) understood in 3 ways:

iPad as the pdf reader
iPad as the newspaper on steroids with lots of videos, audio and buzz
iPad as a shovelware – 100% of newspaper on iPad

This is all wrong. Innovation Media Group proposes a 70/20/10 – formula. 70% mechanical transportation of newspaper’s content. 20% – the part where news publishers should think of new storytelling, something that will differentiate iPad app from the newspaper. 10% should be the utilities of the app: weather forecast, traffic, etc.

iPad is not only the video. If everybody does that, it doesn’t mean we should do the same. Think about: infographics, unique videos, slideshows, caricatures/art. Try to sell information, services and issues and passions.Tablets should be approached as premium product. iPad means iPay – why should it be for free?. Produce more for those who pay and less for those who do not pay. Enough of free, as free is very expensive for news publishers.

Apple wants to become the world’s kiosk. The cost of that is great for news publishers (they keep 30%) If news publishers lose pricing and customer’s data, what’s left for them? So here comes the advice from Juan Senor: don’t impulsively bite the Apple. News industry cannot suffer same fate as music industry (Apple actually killed it with iTunes).

Should it be tablets or paper? Stop thinking black and white! Think tablets AND paper.

Innovation believes all these new devices will morph into one device in the nearest future. Here is how Innovation Media Group perceives the future:

Newsrooms should divide content creation part from content elaboration

Diego Cenzano proposes to think about 3 main profiles of employers to be left in the newsroom: IT people, journalists and graphic designer. Infographics will be the new way of telling stories. There are 5 To-Do’s that cannot be skipped while planning the tablet strategy:

become application creator
be more stress flexible
enhance the user experience
organize the IT staff to deal with the day-to-day work
expand the technical staff’s horizons

They do believe paper has a bright future. No medium in history did ever kill another medium. TV did not kill the radio, internet nor tablets will never kill the paper.

Innovation does not want another weekend publication, nor extra pagination strategy. They would like to propose a new Sunday magazine formula, new multimedia product with all the multimedia extensions, photography in the first plan, and sold differently.

Example: Diario de Sao Paulo, a newspaper in trouble turned into a 3 rhytm sunday experience: dia (day – what’s going on), viva (life), esportes (sport). Most in the “show, don’t tell” formula. Internet is no competitor for publishers. Nor are new market players. The main competitor is time, the lack of time to innovate.

Flavio Pestana (Diario de Sao Paulo): circulation decreasing, advertising decreasing. The brand did not exist within opinion papers. They started to change the newspaper, cosmetical change would not do anything here. The size was changed (dangerous move – all quality papers are in one format), they invested in machines to have a full color 64 pages newspaper. Wanted to tell good stories with visual effects.

So far the results are: in 2 months, there is an increase in sales on the newsstands by 50%. In terms of advertising, the results are to be seen next year. The newspaper is becoming more relevant, just because of the political topic, the elections, Diario De Sao Paulo increased the sales by 50%.

Hamburger Abendblatt has gone through not only redesign, but the reconstruction of the concept. Claus Strunz had to restructure the entire team. As he said, it meant some of them were not ready for the future and were not ready for the digital future. The workflow had to be reinvented. 15 months later they felt they could make it.

As the effect, circulation dropped only by 4% yoy. Advertising revenue after the drop is coming up back again. He sent a direct message to editors: don’t forget the reader in the process of transformation, the reader is the key to your success. The relaunch of Hamburger Abendsblatt is the effect of the intense process of consulting the changes with the readers, 500 readers were involved in the process.

Where is the money?

There will be a flip soon, the paper in the future will become a premium product. Online and mobile will be the mass medium. Despite the falling circulation it is possible to earn more when publishers charge more for the paper issues. The benchmark is 5 times more than the regular price, from 50 cents to 2,5 Euros.

Carlo Campos has searched for the possibilities to earn from different platforms. The right question is not whether we should charge or not charge for online (we should) but what we should charge for. Only what is scarce can be charged for. Publishers have to find scarcity in what they do. Google has already found it: proprietary algorithm for searching, opportune context, limited search terms.

Here is the scarcity publishers can charge for:

unique content
unique utility
unique convenience
unique packaging
unique experience

Innovation believes in a freemium model. Abundant content should be free, scarce content has to be paid for.

Avertising? Situation now: overabundance of bulk contacts that drives CPM to zero all over the web. What is scarce in newspaper advertising:

message richness,
context,
audience profile,
location,
intention,
fulfilment.

We have to move from the digital to the physical world. Try to get more intimate with the audiences – to keep contact with the audience and let advertisers know they have this direct contact as well.

How to find the money? Focus on your clients’ needs. Start thinking about clients as opposed to productions needs what kind of product publishers want. Become audience orientated. It is a huge step to take, from media in a box, to a commercial engine.

Where is the money? Clients have it, so publishers need to focus on their needs and have to focus on scarcity.

Sometimes it is good to go back to basics. Think about the core business! Good journalism is a good business.

Tablets: a new hype or a great opportunity?

marek.miller — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:27:47 +0000

Tablet and mobile apps and how the Internet will never be the same again. At the INMA/OPA Europe Conference in Krakow, Diego Cenzano, CEO of Biko and Innovation Consultant, Spain gave great advices of what publishers should focus on while planning their tablet strategies.

Smartphones/tablets are the new frontier in digital world and they force us to rethink the products, IT strategies, and workflows. Why tablets are a great opportunity for the publishers:

1. New devices enable us to create more convenient information services for our audiences – great experience for user and reader. Big players like Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Skype, Spotify create alternative online applications. Newspapers should think about moving in two directions:
From print to tablets. Many newspapers have focused their first steps on offering the print product with its traditional format and no value added – that is wrong.
From web to tablets. Other examples show how starting point are the news feeds coming from the web and a browser style experience. In many cases web experience is richer than tablet experience – that strategy needs correction as well.

According to Diego Cenzano, we haven’t seen much great user experience or a really convenient application so far.

Innovating should begin with the user’s experience. Some media companies and startups focused on tablets from the very beginning work on some great applications (example: Future Drive – information from a magazine but thinking about new experience for the user)

2.We are in a position to rethink our global strategy based on sustainable integrated model for the future. Now should be a time for a multimedia multiproduct and multiplatform strategy.

Disaggregation should include 3 strands:
1. Information
2. Services
3. Issues and passions

Perfect example is the iPad Zillow app with classifieds gathered on a map.

Some special concerns that publishers should be aware of:
user/reader data is basic in order to develop a complete multiplatform strategy,
Partnership with brands may be crucial for newsmedia companies in order to innovate. Advertisements of partnering companies may be a good starting point for the tablet strategy.

3. Tablets and smartphones give us the chance to rethink our organisations and IT workflows in order to shift our companies into tech savvy and attract new talent.

We need to promote the integration of journalism, graphic, technology and business profiles inside the newsroom in order to empower the possibilities of our everyday work.

Five needs to be considered:
1. become application creator
2. stress flexibility
3. enhance the user experience
4. organize the IT staff to deal with the day-to-day work
5. expand the technical staff’s horizons

Paid for content? Web-TV? They’ve got it all at Schibsted

marek.miller — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:09:00 +0000

Kalle Jungkvist, the Senior Advisor at Schibsted, Norway spoke during the INMA/OPA Europe conference about the secrets behind their successful strategic choices. The most popular strategic choices every publisher nowadays faces deal with how to monetize the content on digital media. Schibsted seems to know the answer.

Crisis is the mother of all the new inventions. In the times of crisis old strategies show their weaknesses. It is the times of crisis when new winners will emerge.

Schibsted built their first website in Sweden in 1994. Everything was growing until the new millenium.

Beginning 2001 the ad revenue started to melt down as Schibsted lost 50% of revenue between 2000 and 2001. The future of the Aftonbladet New Media was threatened.

New strategy for Schibsted emerged in 2001:

1. continue developing core services (journalism and advertising)

2. Classifieds is where the money will be

3. Premium services

4. Premium content

Aftonbladet already earns money in web on the paid-for content. They started online subscription part – Aftonbladet Plus. They already have 115.000 subscribers paying 3 euros a month. They decided to put premium content there, the one that their readers actually searched for:

articles about health and well being
travel guides
lists, taxation etc.
tests everything – from cars to shavers

Schibsted also started experimenting with micropayments last year. And even though it did not work well, they don’t give up. A special technology for micropayments was developed, based on the Apple iStore system. The system is not wrong, Wrong were the prices that actually lowered the value of the content.

Where the micropayments did not work, the pay clubs did. Those became a tremndous success for Schibsted. There are 380.000 subscribers paying for the program of weight dropping. The prices are as follows: 30 euro (3 months), 40 Euro (6 months), 50 Euros (12 months). Knowing how successful this programme has become, Schibsted is instroducing another program, this time for people suffering from insomnia.

The business model of Schibsted is the one to follow if these hard times for publishers. 20% of Schibsted’s revenue comes from online operations – from the paid content part.

Will it save journalism? No, at least not now. It’s a solid revenue stream. The key is to create content and packaging that readers are prepared to pay for.