Post on 25-Dec-2015
Becoming The Economist of Metro Newspapers
& The Pursuit of the Tablet
Audience
Jim MoroneyApril 2012
WHAT IS THE SAME
The goal of journalism:
An informed public that can make wise decisions
to govern itself. [[
WHAT IS NOT THE SAME
2007
$42.2M
2011
$20.6M
WE ARE NO LONGER PUBLISHING FOR A MASS AUDIENCE
WE ARE PUBLISHING FOR “THE MASS INTELLIGENT”
As The Economist labels it.
DEM
OG
RAPH
ICS
MARKET SIZEBIGSMALL
ELITE MEDIA
MASSINTELLIGENCE
MASSMEDIA
AUDIENCE:THE MASS INTELLIGENT
AUDIENCE:THE MASS INTELLIGENT
THE ECONOMISTTHE NEW YORKERTHE ATLANTICHBOART GALLERIESLIVE THEATERCLASSICAL CONCERT
People who read/watch/attend at least two of…
PEOPLE MAGAZINEUS WEEKLY
THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
SPORTS ILLUSTRATEDESPN
FAMILY GUYTHE SIMPSONS
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVEAMERICAN IDOL
33%
39%
32%
MIX & MATCH
[ SOURCE: MRI, FALL 2007 ]
We do not believe
that dumbing down
our content is how
we will succeed.
There is a sufficient
audience for intelligent
reporting, curating and
aggregating of news
and information.
Harry Potter
HBO
“The Lion King”
“The King’s Speech”
The Economist
The New York Times
“ “Our writing will remain the core of what we and all other clever publicationsreaching clever people do.
[John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist]
VALUE OF CONTENT
Rele
vanc
e Value
Differentiation
WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE
ARE COMMODITIES
is table stakes. Consumers expect you to have it, yet you can’t win at it.
TODAY the value of reporting lies in
& WHAT HOW, WHY
IT MEANS TO ME
PICA Perspective Interpretation Context Analysis
PICA means Beat reporters.Columnists.Subject matter experts.
A focus on certain categories of local coverage where you can go deep and own education, economy, government, sports, arts, etc.
Print advertising revenue will no longer support high-end journalism
For local media, ad revenue derived from digital publishing will not pay for the cost of creating relevant and differentiated content that attracts a ‘mass intelligent’ audience
You will need to cross-subsidize your journalism beyond advertising.
THE FINANCIAL MODEL CHALLENGE
LEAN BACK 2.0:
THE FIRST AGE:LEAN-BACK PRINT
RITUAL PLEASURE OF READING
THE SECOND AGE:LEAN-FORWARD WEB
SNACKING AND RESEARCH,COMMUNITY SHARING
THE THIRD AGE:LEAN-BACK DIGITAL
LEAN-BACKONLY BETTER
O
“ “I have gradually become used to dividing my reading into two zones: The work, laptop, info zone; and the chill, relaxing, leisurely read of the tablet.
[Andrew Sullivan, The Sunday Times]
IMMERSED IN THE CONTENT:
42% OF TABLET NEWS READERS REGULARLY READ IN-DEPTHNEWS ARTICLES. ANOTHER 40% SOMETIMES DO THIS.
THEY ARE THREE TIMES AS LIKELY TO REGULARLY READ IN-DEPTH ARTICLES AS TO WATCH NEWS VIDEOS.
[ SOURCE: PEW Project for Excellent Journalism]
[ SOURCE: PEW RESEARCH (US) IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ECONOMIST GROUP, OCTOBER 2011]
NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME:TIME SPENT WITH NEWS NOW COMPARED
WITH BEFORE OWNING A TABLET
Share of US Traffic:
Class web
91.8%
Mobile web:
5.2%
Tablets
2.5% Other
0.5%
WE AREN’T ABANDONING THE WEB
BUT OUR DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES ARE FOCUSED ON THE TABLET
[ SOURCE: GARTNER, Emarketer ]
21
SUMMARY
Content derives value from its relevance and its differentiation.
For local media organizations, this means covering local news. It is the most relevant and differentiating reporting you can do.
There is very little value in W,W,W,W, reporting. It’s undifferentiated and a commodity.
You can’t charge for commodity content.
We are working to put more PICA into our reportIng in order to differentiate it and build value for it.
In order to do this, we are working to build more subject matter expertise in our newsroom and through affiliations, particularly area universities.
3
45
6
87
SUMMARY
PICA combined with scales says “you can’t get this kind of reporting any other place” This means differentiation.
PICA and “intelligent” reporting is not a mass audience strategy
We are focused on a smaller audience that will pay for high-end, quality journalism9
10
11
We believe this audience and this kind of journalism will rapidly be building a news reading habit on tablets – and for now, that means the iPad.
The one catch: We must preserve the scale of our newsroom to be successful with this strategy and to do this, we must develop sources of revenue other than advertising.