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PREPARED BY: ALISA LEONARD VICE PRESIDENT, STRATEGY & PLANNING I [email protected]
HEARST NEWSPAPERS STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT: STATE OF THE UNION !
February 2012
A WORD…!
§ This document is an edited and abridged version of a larger strategic analysis assignment I was engaged to lead in 2011-2012
§ As such, competitive insights and particular sections and slides have been omitted
§ This presentation is intended to present insights into what it means to be in the business of information exchange in today’s socially-connected, always-on world
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
CONTENTS!
§ Introduction § Insights § SWOT Analysis & Hierarchy of Needs
§ The Path Forward
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
B A C K G R O U N D I P E R S P E C T I V E
INTRODUCTION
!
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE DISRUPTION & THE NEW INTERMEDIARY!
§ I n t h e 2 0 t h c e n t u r y , t h e n e w s m e d i a t h r i v e d b y b e i n g t h e i n t e r m e d i a r y o t h e r s n e e d e d t o r e a c h c u s t o m e r s
§ I n t h e 2 1 s t t h e r e i s a n e w i n t e r m e d i a r y : S o f t w a r e p r o g r a m m e r s , c o n t e n t a g g r e g a t o r s a n d d e v i c e m a k e r s c o n t r o l a c c e s s t o t h e p u b l i c
§ T h e n e w s i n d u s t r y , l a t e t o a d a p t a n d c u l t u r a l l y m o r e t i e d t o c o n t e n t c r e a t i o n t h a n e n g i n e e r i n g , fi n d s i t s e l f m o r e a f o l l o w e r t h a n l e a d e r s h a p i n g i t s b u s i n e s s
PEW RESEARCH
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
THE QUESTION!
W H AT I S S O C I A L M E D I A’ S R O L E W I T H I N A N E W S O R G A N I Z AT I O N "( I . E . H O W C A N W E L E V E R A G E I T T O C R E AT E VA L U E ? ) …
W H AT I S T H E R O L E O F A N E W S M E D I A O R G A N I Z AT I O N I N T O D AY ’ S A LW AY S - O N , S O C I A L LY C O N N E C T E D W O R L D
( I . E . H O W D O W E C R E AT E VA L U E ? ) …
THE QUESTION RE-FRAMED!
ADAPTING TO SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT ABOUT CHOOSING
A SET OF PLATFORMS OR TECHNOLOGIES!
• Social media reflects changing shifts in how consumers behave – the web is an entirely social space that connects people in real-time to other people, places and information. Almost every touch point on the web has some aspect of social connectivity– from comments and shares to +1’s
• Social media represents a change in standard communications protocols, disrupting the means and control of content production and distribution
• Ultimately, social media impacts news organizations in almost every aspect of the newspaper value chain
CONTENT SOURCES
CONTENT PRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION AUDIENCE
DEVELOPMENT SALES &
MONETIZATION
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
DIGITAL EVOLUTION, AND IN PARTICULAR SOCIAL MEDIA, HAS DISRUPTED THE NEWSPAPER VALUE CHAIN!
LINK THEN NOW
CONTENT SOURCES
CONTENT PRODUCTION
DISTRIBUTION
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
• Journalists • AP
• Printing press • Text & photos • Expensive multi-media for the web
• Fixed timing • Newsstand • Home delivery • B2B & B2C
• Readership growth through newsstand & B2B distribution
• Subscriptions • Web site traffic
• Journalists / AP • Data sources (APIs, DMPs, databases) • Consumer content + conversation • Partners
• Printing press • Text & photos • Expensive multi-media for the web
• Always-on, real-time 24/7 • Myriad of channels / consumer social spaces • C2C and C2B push-button distribution through
sharing
• Myriad of digital means: social spaces & databases, SEO, email, mobile
• Digital audience profiling • Product development
SALES & MONETIZATION
• Ad sales (offline + online) • Static/ implicit performance • Subscriptions
• Sales (offline + online) & marketing services • Audience monetization / exchanges • Dynamic implicit & explicit performance
A NEW MODEL EMERGESTHE BUSINESS VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA LIES IN HOW IT IS"
LEVERAGED ACROSS THIS NEW VALUE CHAIN
CONTENT SOURCES
CONTENT PRODUCTION
MULTI-PLATFORM
DISTRIBUTION
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
SALES & MONETIZATION
GOVERNANCE FEEDBACK LOOP
TO CONTENT CREATORS
TRENDING DATA FOR SALES &
EDITORIAL
REPORTING & KPIs TO
PUBLISHING & EDITORIAL
PRODUCT INNOVATION & MARKETABLE
CONTENT
MARKETING SERVICES
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
THIS IS THE STATE OF THE UNION!
T R E N D S – D A T A – I N F O R M A T I O N – I N S I G H T S
F I N D I N G S I I M P L I C A T I O N S
INSIGHTS
!
INSIGHTS FROM A MACRO TO MICRO PERSPECTIVE!
Social Media Diagnostic Tactical-practical
Value Chain Assessment Strategic imperatives
Trend Analysis Big picture
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
HOW TO READ THIS ANALYSIS!
TREND ANALYSIS
• Audience behaviors, trends and expectations that affect the state of news
• Competitors and market forces that are shaping and re-shaping the industry
• Technologies, tools and products transforming the news industry
VALUE CHAIN ASSESSMENT
• Findings from our ecosystem analysis in the context of the newspaper value chain
• This section is designed to identify core opportunities for Hearst newspapers as it pertains to leveraging social across the value chain
SOCIAL MEDIA DIAGNOSTIC
• Quantitative and qualitative review of existing newspaper social spaces
• Deep-dive into individual branded spaces in order to asses practices and performance that impact the value social media could provide
[EDITED] [EDITED // ABRIDGED] [OMITTED]
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
MAJOR THEMES EMERGED THROUGH OUR RESEARCH & ANALYSIS !
PEOPLE
• Critical need for tiered (basic-advanced) training curriculum across newsroom editorial, sales and marketing teams
• Audiences must be embraced and utilized
as content co-creators & distributors
• Need to re-define R&R and daily processes for Journalists
• Need dedicated talent, discipline and
process for managing brand-level social spaces and conversations across the Hearst newspaper platform
PROCESS
• Critical need for central Governance and oversight with localized rules of engagement
• Must implement standard rules of
engagement and social media editorial style guidelines, and processes for individual journalists to use social media for sourcing, distributing content and engaging audiences
• Need standard process and tools to
create insights-driven social media editorial programming and daily social engagement activities/optimization by brand-level community managers
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
MAJOR THEMES EMERGED THROUGH OUR RESEARCH & ANALYSIS !
PLATFORMS
• Critical need for knowledge management platform and reporting feedback loop to inform journalists, editorial, sales and marketing
• Need standardized social media management and monitoring tools with advanced permissions for central management across the newspaper brand network and custom, local implementation by journalists, social media community managers, and marketing teams
• Development for Facebook’s Read, Listen, Watch API’s is crucial in the next 6 months
PRODUCT
• The future of news is visual storytelling. Visual content creation needs to be developed as a core competency
• Growth requires product innovation
leveraging social data and a consistent user participation framework across all digital channels
• Greater social integration with mobile, site
and search is critical for maximizing content sourcing, distribution through social spaces, audience development and sellable marketing services
• Online ad products must keep up with
marketing trends, and the services model needs clarity and scalability across brands
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
TREND ANALYSIS!
L O O K I N G A T T H E B I G P I C T U R E
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA SIGNALS BIG SHIFTS IN PUBLISHING DYNAMICS!
§ I n a m e d i a w o r l d w h e r e c o n s u m e r s d e c i d e w h a t n e w s t h e y w a n t t o g e t a n d h o w t h e y w a n t t o g e t i t , t h e f u t u r e w i l l b e l o n g t o t h o s e w h o u n d e r s t a n d t h e p u b l i c ’ s c h a n g i n g b e h a v i o r ""
PEW Research
DISINTERMEDIATION AND THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW SOCIALLY-IMPACTED VALUE CHAIN!
• We are experiencing the rapid acceleration of Moore’s Law: Means of content creation and production have become cheaper, faster and more ubiquitous
• Content scarcity has given way to content overload
• Fixed and controllable channels of distribution have been displaced by open networks
• Audiences are no longer passive recipients but co-creators and distributors of content and conversation
• Advertisers are becoming their own publishers, giving rise to a focus on “earned media”
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
NEWS CONSUMERS ARE VERY SOCIAL, DIGITAL CONTENT “SNACKERS” & CREATORS
OPPORTUNITY TO LEVERAGE NEWS AUDIENCE FOR CONTENT CO-CREATION !
• Online surpassed print for news
consumption for the first time in 2011
• 65% of 18-29 year olds get their news primarily online
• 48% of 18-34 year olds see news first on Facebook
• Consumers of print and online news
index in the highest, most active brackets of Forrester’s Technographics ranking: Social “Creators”, “Joiners” and “SuperConnected” mobile users
• Consumers prefer to follow specific news topics, and will bounce around multiple sources “snacking” on topical content and gaining multiple perspectives
Sources: PEW Research Facebook iCrossing news consumer panel & Forrester Research
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
WHAT ARE THEY “SNACKING” ON & CO-CREATING? VISUAL CONENT
LEVERAGE SOCIAL DATA & DATA VISUALIZATION AS SOURCES OF VISUAL CONTENT
• 12% drop in text-based content consumption over last year
• Over 2 billion video views on YouTube per day
• 60 billion photos are uploaded and shared on Facebook every month
• Infographic content dramatically risen in popularity as with increased access to data presents opportunities for visual storytelling
• Popular and fastest growing content platforms focus on visual, curated and co-created content: Pinterest, Hulu, Huffington Post, Tumblr, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Buzzfeed, Flipboard
Sources: PEW Research
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
THE FUTURE OF NEWS IS VISUAL STORYTELLINGVISUAL CONTENT SUCH AS INFOGRAPHS & VIDEO ARE AMONG THE WEB’S MOST CONSUMED
CONTENT ACCORDING TO A RECENT COMSCORE STUDY
NEWS MEDIA IS THE THIRD MOST “PINNED” CONTENT ON PINTEREST, FASTEST GROWING INDEPENDENT SITE IN HISTORY
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
IN ADDITION TO CONTENT INNOVATIONS, NEWS ORGANIZATIONS MUST INNOVATE THEIR AD PRODUCTS
OPPORTUNITY TO LEVERAGE SOCIAL DATA FOR HIGHLY TARGETED ADVERTISING PRODUCTS
A recent 2011 PEW study found: • 21% of all ads on news sites are in-house
ads
• News organizations’ online properties are not attracting fast growing types of online advertising, including video which is expected to grow 43% in 2012
• Only 3 of the 22 news organizations assessed (New York Times, CNN and Yahoo!) use highly targeted, dynamic advertising based on audience behavior or social data
• Hearst is uniquely positioned now with iCrossing’s Core Audience to aggressively capitalize on product innovation
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
NEWS LEADERS ARE EXPERIMENTING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA ACROSS THE VALUE CHAIN
OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARST TO EXPLOIT AREAS OF THE VALUE CHAIN IN WAYS COMPETITORS ARE NOT!
• Content Sources: consumer conversation data, social trends, bloggers, UGC and curated consumer content, social data visualizations
• Content Production: On-the-ground and live-streaming journalist videos, dedicated data visualization production teams
• Distribution: Branded & journalist social spaces, viral distribution through Facebook apps, partnered social syndication
• Audience Development: Audience growth through community management, app development and co-creation opportunities allow the audience to feel part of the story
• Monetization & Sales: NYTimes rewards responsible social activity with paywall credits; Washington Post sells inventory in their SocialReader app
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
Social Content Development/Product Innovation: Consumer Co-Creation
COMPETITORS ARE EXPERIENTING WITH CONTENT DEVELOPMENTOPPORTUNITY FOR HEARST TO CURATE HYPER LOCAL CONTENT "
THROUGH COMBINED DATA + AUDIENCES APPROACH!
Social Content Development/Product Innovation: Data Curation
Social Distribution & Audience Development: Talent
COMPETITORS ARE TAKING EITHER A TALENT OR TECH APPROACH TO DISTRIBUTION
OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARST TO DRIVE INNOVATION WITH A TALENT + TECH APPROACH!
Social Distribution & Audience Development: Technology
Audience Development: Driving deep site engagement by
surfacing content users are reading
AND THEY ARE EXPERIMENTING WITH INTEGREATED SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT/CONNECTIVITY
TRENDS TOWARDS SURFACING CONTENT MERCHANDISING BASED ON SOCIAL ACTIVITY!
Audience Development: “Like-gating” content on-site
THE NEW YORK TIMES IS TRANSPARENT ABOUT ON-SITE SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION
BY EDUCATING THEIR AUDIENCE ABOUT SOCIAL INTEGRATION, THEY DRIVE GREATER PARTICIPATION!
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
SOCIAL CONTENT AGGREGATORS & CREATORS ON THE RISE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS SEEK TO SCALE CONTENT THROUGH CURATION!
Percolate aggregates social content and allows for push-button publishing to sites and social spaces
Contently crowdsources content for publishers and brands
PopTent curates pro-sumer video content
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
SOCIAL TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES HAVE BEGUN TO MATURECRITICAL TO IMPLEMENT STANDARD TOOLS FOR MANAGEMENT & MONITORING!
MANAGEMENT: AUDIENCES
MANAGEMENT: CONTENT
MEASUREMENT MONITORING
*Categorizations based on core capabilities
IN ADDITION TO TOOLS & TECHNOLOGY, NEW DISCIPLINES AND SKILLS ARE EMERGING, REPLACING CHAOS WITH CAPABILITIES!
• In addition to great content, social media success requires talent with specific skills and training
• Two key disciplines are emerging: 1) Engagement Planning 2) 2) Community (Audience)
Management
• Engagement Planning focuses on answering the who, what, when, when and “how often” of content and engagement
• Community (Audience) Management focuses on daily publishing and audience development and require both soft people skills and hard analytical skills
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
A SPECIAL NOTE ON FACEBOOK: STRATEGICALLY FOCUSED ON DISTRIBUTING THE WORLD’S ENGAGING CONTENT !
• Facebook cannot be ignored: 800 million users, half of which are mobile
• 20% of all web page views
• 56% of all content shared online
• 38% of click-throughs on content that is shared on the web
• New API’s and Timeline feature illuminates critical Facebook strategy: they are focused on being the central hub for multi-media content
• Facebook’s API’s encourage apps that allow users to Read, Listen & Watch– and news organizations are quick to develop for this platform
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
A SPECIAL NOTE ON GOOGLE: STRATEGICALLY FOCUSED ON SOCIAL DATA ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS & PRODUCTS!
• Similar to Facebook, Google is making an aggressive play for premium content and social connectivity
• Google has stated in 2011 Social Media Council meetings it anticipates to embed social data/connectivity into every Google product by 2013
• With the launch of YouTube’s premium content channels and the intersection of G+ with search, Google stands to dominate content access across the web
• Google will continue to be a critical focus for publishers, particularly as social interaction with content continues to impact visibility in search
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
THE FUTURE OF NEWS LIES IN THINKING MORE LIKE ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPERS!
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
KEY TAKE-AWAYS!
INSIGHT IMPLICATIONS
Audiences want to co-create,
empower them
The future of news is visual content
Product innovation leveraging social
data is critical
Talent must go hand-in-hand with
technology solutions
One of newspaper’s biggest opportunities with social media is to leverage it as a source for content – both through audience co-creation initiatives and through publicly available social data
Because consumers are overloaded with content everyday, share of attention will go to highly desirable, high quality visual content. Developing visual storytelling as a core newsroom competency is critical
The future success of the news business requires thinking more like entrepreneurial developers. Opportunity to re-define “what the news is” through leveraging social for product innovation
A “talent & technology” approach, developing expertise and excellence around new skill sets beyond the traditional newsroom, and investing in critical technologies is crucial
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS!
T H I S S E C T I O N E X A M I N E S O U R F I N D I N G S T H R O U G H T H E L E N S O F T H E N E W S V A L U E C H A I N
WE TRIANGULATED FINDINGS FROM OUR ECOSYSTEM ANALYSIS AGAINST THE NEWSPAPER VALUE CHAIN !
CONTENT SOURCES
CONTENT PRODUCTION
MULTI-PLATFORM
DISTRIBUTION
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
SALES & MONETIZATION
GOVERNANCE FEEDBACK LOOP
TO CONTENT CREATORS
TRENDING DATA FOR SALES &
EDITORIAL
REPORTING & KPIS TO
PUBLISHERS & SALES TEAMS
PRODUCT INNOVATION & MARKETABLE
CONTENT
MARKETING SERVICES
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
RE-THINKING CONTENT SOURCING: SCALING BEYOND TRADITIONAL SOURNCES!
• Competitors are increasingly leveraging consumer content in addition to search and social data to create relevant, contextual, on-demand content
• Across the board, social is not being leveraged as a source for content on the newspaper brand’s web sites and mobile apps
• Some journalists are using social tools to
follow people and topics for story ideas, but their process is sporadic and the tools they use are disparate
• Expanding how Hearst newspapers sources content (from social audiences and data feeds) is key to reaching increasing digital scale, and deliver highly local, customized content
NEWS
Journalists, AP & Link partners
Data & API’s
Consumer content &
conversation
Currently leveraged
Not currently leveraged
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
NEWS ENTERPRISES MUST HAVE A DUAL CONTENT STRATEGY: TRADITIONAL “NEWS” AND MARKETABLE CONTENT!
• Sales teams desire more on-demand, topically-driven “marketable content” to package and sell against
• Current newsroom structure leaves sales teams needing to “beg, borrow and steal” from the newsroom to capitalize on marketable content opportunities
• There is need for dedicated teams /center of excellence to both create marketable content and deliver digital marketing services to local advertisers
NEWS MARKETABLE CONTENT
Currently leveraged
Not currently leveraged
Journalists & AP
Data & API’s
Consumer content &
conversation
Marketable content
team
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
CONSISTENT AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION FRAMEWORK ACROSS ALL CHANNELS & PLATFORMS CRITICAL!
• User participation capabilities vary by channel, creating inconsistencies in meeting audience expectations
• Sites allow for commenting and sharing
• Mobile does not allow commenting and only some sharing
• Social spaces do not foster consistent engagement or feedback loop into other channels
• Opportunity for a user single-sign/centralized profile across all channels to control subscriptions on different platforms, comment and share seamlessly across channels, and consistent personalized content experiences (a saved or Liked article on the site would be surfaced on other digital platforms)
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
MONETIZATION & SALES REQUIRE PRODUCT INNOVATION ANCHORED BY A NEW SERVICE MODEL !
• Potential to leverage localized “Live Media Studio” service delivery model for creating marketable content and providing local digital marketing services
• Opportunities for monetization through product innovation that focuses on utilizing social data at its core (e.g. Facebook app or social content hub)
• Opportunity to leverage Red Aril in more meaningful ways, including monetization through an audience exchange, and dynamic, audience-based content experiences
• Need for knowledge management / data feedback loop for quarterly sales planning, product development & services optimization
Social-Mobile Centric Product
Innovation
Marketable Content
Marketing Services
Data & Insights
Service Delivery Model
“Live Media Studio”
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
THE UPSHOT: FROM > TO!
FROM
TRADITIONAL NEWS VALUE CHAIN
NEWS + AUDIENCE
FRAGMENTED AUDIENCE EXPERIENCES
SALES
TO
NEWS VALUE CHAIN THAT LEVERAGES SOCIALLY-CONNECTED DIGITAL
INNOVATION ACROSS ALL TOUCH POINTS
NEWS + MARKETABLE CONTENT + SOCIAL EQUITY
CONSISTENT AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION FRAMEWORK ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS
SOLUTIONS
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
I N S I G H T S I N P E R S P E C T I V E I C O N T E X T
SWOT ANALYSIS &
HIERARCHY OF NEEDS!
NEWSPAPERS HIERARCHY OF NEEDSTHE NEXT STEP: DEVELOPING A COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS STRATEGY
HOLISTIC VALUE
EMPOWERMENT, MEASUREMENT &
INSIGHTS
SOCIALLY-CONNECTED VALUE CHAIN, BEST PRACTICES,
CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE
GOVERNANCE, PROCESS, EDUCATION & TRAINING
GOALS, OBJECTIVES, VISION, CULTURAL READINESS FOUNDATION
SAFETY
FORMATION
OPTIMIZATION
CONNECTEDNESS
ALISA LEONARD // [email protected]
A L I S A L E O N A R D I A L I S A M L E O @ G M A I L . C O M
THANK YOU!