I should be in the gym right now instead of writing this blog post. Like most people, I suck at keeping my New Years resolutions. That doesn’t stop me from telling other people what I think theirs should be.
So here they are, the 7 New
Years resolutions newspaper execs should be making in 2010. I've saved the hardest one for last.
Resolution 1:
We will talk to our advertisers.
Sounds simple enough, but
you’d be surprised how little communication there is between newspaper executives
and the people who pay the bills.
In talking to advertisers directly, instead of through the sales team (if
you actually bother to do that), news execs will learn that advertisers are
completely focused on return on their advertising investment and that the more
they know about what drives ROI, the less likely they are to be advertising in
a general news environment.
Another interesting thing
about advertisers is that the smart ones often know your readers better than
you do. Marketers know that it is better to study who a person is rather than
ask them what they want. It’s
their job to know their consumers.
They spend a lot of time and money understanding the interests,
lifestyes, needs (and yes, purchasing behaviour) of consumers during various
stages of their lifecycle.
And who are your readers? Yup. Consumers. Knowing
them better could change your content strategy.
Resolution 2: We will not rely on banners and big
boxes for our online ad revenue.
Two words – ad
blindness. My theory is that this
is a much bigger problem online than in print due to the templated nature of
most websites. When you see the
same layout on page after page, you’re more likely to start ignoring the
ads. Dismally declining
click-through rates support this theory.
Online advertising needs to
become a lot smarter. There needs
to be more cooperation between advertiser, sales rep and editorial department
so that custom advertising products such as sponsorships, content integration,
events and exclusive access promotions can be created.
Resolution 3: We will create vertical sites.
Context drives
engagement. Engagement drives ROI
for advertisers. It’s such a
simple formula. Don’t let content
farms like AOL’s robo-content management system and Demand Media win in this
space.
Use your data. Analyze audience and revenue trends in
your market and then build vertical sites to serve them. Create high quality environments that
readers love and advertisers love more by including a mix of news, information,
data, listings, maps, advertising and e-commerce.
Resolution 4: We will become the Complete Community
Connection in our town or city.
I’ve written about my
love of Steve Buttry’s Complete Community Connection before. I think it is the best hope for
newspapers to begin to win in the online space.
In Steve’s words:
“For consumers, we will be
their essential connection to community life – news, information, commerce,
social life. Like many Internet
users turn first to Google, whatever their need, we want Eastern Iowans to turn
first to Gazette Communications, whatever their need. For businesses, we will be their essential connection to
customers, often making the sale and collecting the money. We will become the Complete Community
Connection.
Resolution 5: We will start blogging and Twittering.
Don’t tell me you’re too
busy. Alan Rusbridger, editor of
the Guardian does it. Kai
Keikmann, head of Bild does it.
Arianna and Tina do it. It’s
now a basic requirement of your job.
When anyone with a keyboard can be a publisher, you can no longer afford
to hide behind your (dwindling) staff.
Listen to your audience and
just like your advertisers, they will tell you important things you didn’t
know.
And, appoint a community
manager if you don’t have one. It’s
2010 for God sake!
Resolution 6: We will not erect pay walls where we
are not providing unique value.
Think very carefully about
the value you are supplying and how easily it could be replicated by a lower
cost organization. Yes, I know, it
works for the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. That’s because financial sites provide
value that is difficult to replicate and directly impacts a user’s wallet. It doesn’t hurt that the audience for
financial sites are wealthier than the population at large and work for
organizations that pay their subscriptions for them.
Where’s your value? Put up a pay wall without finding it
and you will assure your own quick demise while enabling new competitors to
enter the market.
Resolution 7: We will get comfortable with being
uncomfortable.
Integrating your print and
online organizations feels good.
It looks good on paper. It
makes you look like a take-charge leader whose eyes are on the future as your
feet are planted firmly in the needs of today. It keeps the print people from feeling that they are
forgotten, left to manage decline as their skill sets become obsolete. It makes the digital people miserable,
but who cares about them? They
think they’re smarter than everyone else and that’s really annoying. Besides, they’ll get used to it soon
enough.
Know what else feels
good? E-readers. They allow you to essentially duplicate
the print experience online in a controlled, closed environment that looks an awful
lot like our traditional printed product but with videos and photo
galleries. And, there’s no need to
link to other sites or allow readers to comment or interact with us in any
way. Perfect. Never mind that that’s not really how
people use electronic media.
Ooh, and it’s also
comfortable to tie most of your online revenue to classified advertising and
then tie that to print revenue. You
can call it “leveraging our core assets”.
There’s just one problem
with comfortable solutions. In the
online world, chances are, if a solution makes you feel comfortable and in
control, it’s probably not radical enough to work.
That’s why in Q3, online
revenue at newspapers fell 17% from 2008 when the online advertising
industry as a whole fell by only 5.4%.
That’s also why when the
online industry as a whole saw the beginnings of an advertising recovery with a
Q309 increase of 1.7% over Q209, newspaper online advertising still declined
4.6%.
Stop trying to feel
comfortable. You are not in a
comfortable situation.
Great resolutions, Judy (and not just because you included C3). I would add another (that I've also blogged about, of course): Pursue a mobile-first strategy: http://bit.ly/6WnABX
Posted by: Stevebuttry | 01/03/2010 at 05:10 PM
Ha! You're right Steve, maybe they'll be ready for it next year.
Posted by: Judy Sims | 01/03/2010 at 05:31 PM
Judy -
Thanks for taking the time to do this. We are certainly not in a comfortable situation.
Adding to Steve's comment, we cannot get out of this uncomfortable situation, or create C3, or the mobile first strategy, without first creating content in the first instance in native XML "atoms", heavily tagged, so that the information can flow as required.
Let's hope 2010 is a year of progress on showing how to start with atomized content.
Chuck
Posted by: Chuck Peters | 01/04/2010 at 06:50 AM
Online advertising can be quite effective. The problem is most, really, all, newspaper sites do it all wrong.
And if you're measuring "click-through rate" you're paying attention to the wrong metric.
And the only way to understand what is really working for advertisers, as you suggest, is to get out and talk with advertisers.
Posted by: Howardowens | 01/04/2010 at 06:53 AM
Goodluck to your new years resolution. I wish you can achieve it all!
Posted by: Parenting Magazine | 01/04/2010 at 10:42 AM