1. Designing News Products and Business Models from a Netcentric Perspective Richard Gingras [email_address] 650 793 0093 Salon Media Group

2. Prototypical Blogger? I.F. Stone

3. Technological change

• Embrace it. Change with it. It is the playing field; it sets the rules of the game

• Do not presume it will save any old model

• It wont!

4. Technology progression: simplified Exponential Convergence

5. What wont change We had better hope so!

• Openness of networks

• Access to distribution

• Free speech

• Whats killing print is not Google but the openness of the Internet

• Openness broke the newspaper distribution control and the associated business model

6. On an optimistic note

• Journalisms future will be stronger and more valued than journalisms past or present

• Newspapers are dying because we have put a press into everyones hands how can that be bad?

• Journalisms future will be molded not by the painful transmogrification of existing entities but by many new creative endeavors

7. Accept new economics!

• Presume no economic savior, there is none

• • Micro-payments are not a macro solution

• • $40 print ad CPMs are history

• • Subscription fees are self-defeating unless content has extraordinary value

• Revenue: assume an RPM of $10

• Expense: target Cost/MPV of $5

$10 $65 $5

8. Traffic flows Inbound traffic: Home Page versus Rest-of-Site 50% 50%

9. Traffic flows

• Source of rest-of-site traffic

• • Search Engines

• • Referral Sites: aggregators, email, blogs, social media, news-ranking sites

• Behaviors: query-driven as well as browsing

• • 83% use search to access news; 53% frequently

• • 15-35% of news site traffic comes from search/aggregation

• • Its not only a good traffic but its a great source of new uniques and an opportunity to drive product discovery

10. Rethink content architecture Necessary to work the matrix from every dimension Ephemeral anthrax attack article Persistent anthrax attack resource

11. Topic Pages The new article page

• Real-time micro-sites on important issues, ongoing stories, hot topics

• Locus for engagement

• Editors as experts of their domains

• Widget structure supports variation by topic

• Increase search rank

• Draw new users

• Drive product discovery

• Increased ad relevancy

Salon Articles Audience Engagement Twitter Stream Background Info Aggregated Coverage Ownership

12. Rethink the output Every new medium begins as a container for the old

• The long-form article is not the end product of the reporting effort

• The end product is far more than that:

• • Articles, posts, facts, related docs, reader contributions, discussion, databases, etc. etc.

• And, yes, the long-form should be reconsidered

• • Audience is low, abandonment is high

• • How might one better achieve the objective to inform?

13. Abandonment by Length 4 100% 44% 30% 29% 3 100% 43% 33% 2 100% 41% 59% 67% 71%

14. Database journalism

• How can technology allow more effective use of the fruit of a reporters efforts?

• Shouldnt reporting generate persistent informational resources?

• Yes, but the thought process must change

15. Leverage the trusted crowd

• More writers publishing today than ever before

• • The blogosphere, Wikipedia

• • More chaff, yes, but also more wheat

• How can one optimally:

• • Harvest high-quality, self-determined work

• • Lead work into areas of interest/need

• • Provide guidance on ethics and style

• • Develop appropriate compensation models

• There is a huge benefit to those who develop the skills and processes to do this well

16. Salon Media Network Using the Salon brand to leverage the trusted crowd

• Grow a virtual media organization of eager and capable participants

• Built on Salons quality ethic and led by its editors

• Sign-on to Salon policies. Work to its forms, guidelines, styles

• Lead work across editorial spectrum

• Evolve compensation models, largely performance-based

• Convert high-quality user contributions into Salon-branded content

Video

17. Seek extreme efficiency Salons smart covers

• Stimulating, fast-changing , responsive to audience behavior; support passive and active customization

• Auto-produced via editorial rules

• Modular for flexibility, localization, experimentation, delivery to various platforms

18. Rethink the roles

• What is the day-to-day role of a reporter?

• • when creation and publication can be in the reporters hands

• What is the day-to-day role of an editor?

• • in an edition-less environment with a crowd of participants to lead, guide, and harvest

19. Break down that wall!

• Everyone must understand how the product and the business works

• Business: trust makes the brand

• Editorial: how the economics work

• Everyone: tracking the data

• Everyone: collaborating on product development

20. Working the Matrix

21. Premium advertising Premium pricing requires flexibility and creativity

• Support creative flexibility beyond standard ad units

• Seeking high impact and greater engagement

22. Ecommerce Salon shopping experience

• Opportunity : Salon is a lifestyle brand -- clear demographic, educated, progressive, involved, higher-income

• Product : consistent with Salons values, further celebrating those values; a self-reinforcing

• Approach : strong editorial personality; ecommerce business with no marketing or inventory costs

23. Designing News Products and Business Models from a Netcentric Perspective Richard Gingras [email_address] 650 793 0093 Salon Media Group