Crusading for constant growth with new models
Held in Los Angeles (US) during May 6-8, the annual INMA World Congress 2012 concluded successfully crusading for constant growth in newspaper business through new paths and models. After 25 presentations over three days, Earl Wilkinson, executive director and chief executive officer of INMA, finished off the 82nd INMA World Congress — themed ‘New Oxygen, New Growth’, by asking, ‘What’s next?’ He urged newspapers to move away from an ‘organising model’ - aggregation, one deadline a day, and light expertise on a large number of subjects - in favour of a more niche operation.
Ravi Dhariwal, INMA president and CEO for the
The Times of India addressing the delegates.
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In presence of 300+ participants in Los Angeles, some 25 delegates to the INMA World Congress 2012 shared their thoughts on the conference sessions and how they relate back to the challenges at their own companies. The focus was on new multi-media revenue models, paid content success stories, expanding audience with social media, advertising sales innovation, and where print fits in the multi-media company, along with emphasizing on the future of news in the digital landscape, how to protect the print franchise while fending off digital competition, and confronting a recalcitrant culture to generate new revenue for great journalism.
Ravi Dhariwal, INMA president and CEO for the The Times of India; Yasmin Namini, INMA vice president and senior vice president for marketing and circulation for reader applications at The New York Times and Thomson, president and CEO at the Los Angeles Times spoke about a changing culture in newsrooms around the world and a growing need to create digital-first media to adapt to new consumer needs and grow revenue. “Today we are no longer just a newspaper business,” Namini said. “We are a multi-platform business. We are navigating the evolution of print, digital, and mobile,” Thomson spoke specifically about some of the challenges the LA Times faces in trying to make that transition to digital. “Society as a whole is becoming more digitally fit. This changes not just content but advertising, creating higher-yield opportunities,” she said. “News organisations must take risks and have a lot of ideas – ‘big ones, safe ones, and risky ones” – and you have to be willing to experiment and have some failures,” Thomson added. She was certain about one thing – journalism will never go away.
Traditional media are fighting a trust battle. More people trust the public – their friends and networks – than ever before, causing news organisations to reevaluate how to earn that trust back. John Paton, CEO of Digital First Media, said that’s because news organisations need to learn how to listen to their customers. “The customers have spoken. But are we listening?” Patton asked. “I would argue not nearly hard enough.”
“I sometimes feel that people perceive we are going through a transformation from one steady state to another steady state,” Richard Gingras, Google’s head of news products, told the INMA World Congress. “That is not the case.” Instead, Gingras sees a future of ongoing and likely constant ‘disruption of media’. Unlike when television was introduced and caused the number of newspapers in some cities to drop from four to one, the internet disruption has almost eradicated the need for print media, according to Gingras. “More than ever we need to aggressively rethink every facet of the journalism model,” he said. One major factor in the new dynamic is the connection between audience flow and site design. The number of people who get their news from social media is increasing. Because of this, companies should be focused on getting more hits on content pages rather than just trying to drive traffic to their homepage.
Newspaper consultant and analyst Jim Chisholm cited need for print-digital linkage to save newspapers. Despite the trend to digital everything, the European-based consultant and analyst urged participants in the congress not to give up on the printed medium. Rather, he said, they need to do a better job capitalising on print’s position in the media value chain.
Michael Lamb, principal for McKinsey & Company emphasized on the need to be newer, more intrusive advertising methods that go where readers are. That’s where ESPN.com and Pinterest come into play. The outlets exemplify catering to audiences and creating intrusive ads that attract consumers. Another key component to driving advertising online is quality content, Lamb said.
As per Deseret News Publishing Company president and CEO Clark Gilbert, there are six ideas changing the media industry: two big content ideas - differentiate your content, invest where you can be ‘the best in the world’, and be digital only, not just digital first; two big sales ideas - digital buyers require digital sellers, and long-tail requires a completely new sales channel; and two big e-commerce ideas - optimise your revenue mix, hire digital DNA.
James L McQuivey, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research, warned media leaders that the internet’s effect on newspapers in an age of digital disruption could be grim. “Half of the companies that are digitally disrupted don’t make it,” he said. After McQuivey’s audience scare — eyes grew wide when he suggested half of all publications won’t make it through the digital transition — McQuivey said he wanted to turn the 300 delegates into the disruptors themselves. Digital disruptors build better media experiences, stronger customer relationships and worker faster overall modern digital disruptors include products such as iPads and XBOX 360s, McQuivey said. To explore how digital disruption is different from regular disruption, McQuivey invited the audience to go back in time — specifically, to 1999, when he was having the conversation about the future of consumer trends. McQuivey discussed his research that explored how teenagers interact with technology, as opposed to non-teenagers.
Panel discussion
A four-panelist presentation - including Deepak Shah, vice president of circulation and brand services at The Economist; Lauren Coniglio, senior vice president of consumer development for CurtCo Robb Media; Paul Smurl, vice president/paid products of The New York Times; and Jerry Harris, managing director of group newspapers and design products at News Limited - gave publishers from around the world a chance to discuss digital subscription strategies back to back. The newspapers may offer more free content when traffic to their sites is slow; it did not want to become subscriber-only media to keep their casual readers, Harris said.
While a three-member panel - including Claire Hawley, director of audience acquisition at the Los Angeles Times digital edition; Liba Rubenstein, Tumblr’s director of outreach for causes; and Tom Sly, head of original programming for YouTube - spoke about the next generation for social media engagement and news publishers. Convergence, influence, and conscience: these are the three key words Hawley wanted delegates at the congress to take with them after her presentation.
