What will we become? I think it’s important for us to visualize the new form that former media companies can take as we go through transformation. So much of our attention and resources are focused on media products that it is hard to think of our model and mission as anything but community, news and information.
Local media companies recognize that their current ”product” and business model is failing (or has failed). The push to monetize digital content is an important tactic to attempt to change the business model, but it’s not enough. Information has lost it’s value. I read somewhere that google was worried that if traditional news media dies, it may have to pay for trusted content… ironic since google is a prime example of how information has been devalued in the first place. The key here is in analytics and the education of the small advertiser to understand the value of the search-engine as a channel that drives impressions.
However, until we recognize that our model can morph beyond content generation and advertising sales, we are limiting the possibilities. We had a retreat at my place few weeks ago where we began to explore what other assets we have as a mature local media organization. If we turn the model upside down and shake out the assets, some pretty significant opportunities presented themselves.
One of the most glaring opportunities has often bubbled up in conversation. We have paid lip service to “selling audience”. I would guess that this media company is not the only who has attempted to “sell audience” by including more audience information on a rate card (or a handful of rate cards) and bundling products.
This is a step in the right direction, but we can do better. It needs to be a focus of our changing structure and business model. We need to look at ourselves increasingly as marketers with a powerful set of channels at our disposal, some of which are our own. We need to build the skills, processes and tools to market through multiple channels.
We are beginning to recognize, enhance and further develop marketing vehicles and services through existing channels such as email, mobile, and social media, but it’s not happening fast enough. Our focus is still on the traditional channels of print and broadcast. Our new approach must be multifaceted, and we must partner with other channels to offer total audience solutions.
The new product management model must focus on the right mix for the right audience and deliver the mix with multiple options including services as well as packaged products. We have to ask ourselves how we can use our assets to quickly create relevant, convenient opportunities for audience to find information and marketers to find audience.
Then what? Then we can more effectively talk about marketing our own products, transactional partnerships, and so on. But we must lay the new foundation very quickly. It must be built into our structure, skill sets, tools, planing…our processes… It must be how we think. This is the opportunity for product management as we sludge through the daunting challenge of rebuilding the value of our assets.
As we have been working through this process, figuring out the roles and tasks involved throughout, I have come to the realization that one of the most important factors in all of this is the passion within us.
I’m impressed by the guts of the organization because this is a huge undertaking. But, of course, it needs to happen. Determining who will fit into what roles is of course part of the process.
The past few weeks have been very challenging for all of us, and I am sure there are many more of these weeks ahead. At times the challenge seems daunting. And the workload can be overwhelming. But the thing that makes a difference is, of course, attitude.
You can learn new skills, you can train new skills to others, you can completely revamp processes and day-to-day contact points. But you can’t train or teach passion.
It seems to be what drives the energy behind people. And having people on board with it is now more important than ever . I would rather work with someone who has energy and the willingness to learn new things, someone who is a team player — anyday — over one with all the experience and talent in the world but without the energy to “show us what they’ve got.”
How do you light that fire in people? I think the only way is to try to be an example, to expect the best from people, and to expect them to want that from you. Reminds me of a poem a friend gave me years ago, and I’m going to dig it up to include it here below… It may seem trite, and I by no means exemplify it, but whenever I read it I am reminded of how much I truly agree with it. I need to make a copy to keep at my desk so I can be reminded of it more often, especially now.
My framed copy of it says “author unknown” and that’s a shame, so here’s to “unknown”:
Promise Yourself
To be strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind…
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every
person you meet… to make all your friends feel that there is something in them…
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true…
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best…
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own…
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future…
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile…
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others…
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
There is no doubt changes are necessary. I really think the issue is that most of us don’t really understand the concept. I want to grasp it, but I feel like I am grasping at straws sometimes. I am still working in the old model and want to understand the new model and where I might fit in. I don’t sense much resistance. What I do sense is frustration caused by lack of knowing. Once we get our arms around the changes, I am confident we can move forward and transistion into a new and more profitable model.
From a media perspective, the internet has introduced a problem for traditional channels. Some have tried to replicate traditional media on the internet and that is not likely to work (rarely does a copy-cat win) nor does it solve the problem. Realizing you (the media companies) are offering a product (or products) and pushing innovation, true innovation will help some survive.
P.S. I would focus on mobile, that is the future until you can wire the news directly into my brain as it happens.
I’m working with the printing industry to help them recover some business from the internet. There are several things that they can do to enable their customers to prove the ROI of print.
The traditional media can regain some revenues with the same innovations.
Unfortunately, brand advertising has a last mile problem when it comes to web analytics. I’m still thinking about that problem. Local advertising is not so intractible. I have a solution for that, but brand advertising has relied on surveys and statistics, so quoting someone I can’t attribute, it is still true that “I know half of my advertising dollars are wasted, I just don’t know which half.” I do have a solution in mind, but it is too downstream from where I’m at today.
If traditional media can get their ad revenue back, then content innovation can be funded.
A phrase that really stuck with me is a quote from Jane Stevens in Jason Kristufek’s blog: “We are moving from news and information that is a mile-wide and an inch-deep to niches that are an inch-wide and a mile-deep.”
I’ve been of the old mindset that we need to cast a wide net to try and get readers, when now it’s more that we should cast a lot of small nets to get them.
In turn, I’ve thought that niche products are more of a supplement to the main product (The Gazette newspaper), when now it should be that the niche products collectively could cover more ground than the “main” product.
I’ve been enjoying creating my own content and setup with various online tools, and I think it would be worth trying to set up the Gazette’s offerings in such a way that our audience can do the same thing, rather than giving them a lot of options to choose from to get the info they want. Maybe it can be something like “choose from these options, or you can create your own.”
It really seems to be about customization and empowering the audience to make it their own product. We need to position ourselves as the organization that powers that product.
Just passing by.Btw, your website have great content!
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