This document discusses strategies for newspapers to transition to digital platforms and new business models. It outlines how newspapers have traditionally relied on advertising but now face declining revenues. It proposes that newspapers become the "essential connection" for communities and businesses by creating a digital marketplace for direct sales, lead generation, sponsorships and mobile applications. It also suggests focusing content on community topics like driving, personal milestones, entertainment and business services. The document advocates for a "mobile-first" strategy with easy-to-use mobile apps and websites to provide news, information and commercial offerings.
Unleash Your Potential - Namagunga Girls Coding Club
Complete Community Connection: Driving Conversation and Local Knowledge
1. The Complete Community Connection Steve Buttry, Gazette Communications February 12, 2010 stephenbuttry@gmail.com @stevebuttry on Twitter Slideshare.net/stevebuttry
2. U.S. newspapers Most revenue from advertising Home delivery & street sales Consolidation to one daily in most metro area National papers: NY Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal Consolidation of ownership
3. 2009: 12.9% of population buys newspaper Graphic from The Digital Journalist, “Circling the Drain,” by Mark Loundy
10. Create Once Publish Everywhere NPR.org NPR.org Player NPR News iPhone app Mobile web site NPR Addict iPhone app Public Radio Player WBUR.org Minnesota Public Radio iTunes NPR on iGoogle
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12. C3’s new relationships For the public: We will be their essential connection to community life — news, information, commerce, social life. Like many Internet users turn first to Google, your community should turn first to C3, whatever the need.
13. C3’s new relationships For businesses: We will be their essential connection to customers, often making the sale and collecting the money.
14. Our current relationshipwith business customers Huge expense line in budget Lots of inefficiency Ad rates dropping Ad revenues dropping Lots of digital competition
15. C3’s digital marketplace Move beyond advertising Direct sales (tickets, reservations, gift registries, sports paraphernalia) Lead generation & targeted ads Sponsorships, memberships & events Mobile ads & applications Handle multiple needs (yes, competing ads)
16. The new relationshipwith business partners Revenue line in budget (maybe still expense line, too) Delivering high value, tailored to needs One-stop shop for connecting with customers
18. Driving How often do you buy a car? How often do you drive, gas up, service car? Databases, conversations, services focused on drivers’ everyday needs
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21. Driving How often do you buy a car? How often do you drive, gas up, service car? Databases, conversations, services focused on drivers’ everyday needs Connect auto services with drivers (emergency repair services)
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24. Personal content Births Youth milestones School Graduation College life Military service Weddings Parenthood Divorce Jobs, pets, holidays, food, interests, health Illness Empty nesters Retirement Reunions Obituaries
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26. Personal news Big news in small circles Some we do as formula, some we ignore Great opportunities
30. Business services Direct sales Local search Mobile applications Communication & marketing services
31. Enriched news content What’s happening now (Twitter, liveblogging, real-time video, traffic, scanners, live-streaming) Community engagement in news, enterprise, sports coverage Storytelling (narrative, multimedia) Aggregation, curation
32. C3 at Gazette Communications Reorganized to separate content, product Developing new processes, tools to develop content independently from products Content repository under development Long way to go Hoping to learn from your efforts
38. Mobile-first strategy Executives must emphasize mobile priority Journalists focus on mobile news & info delivery & presentation Tech staff focuses on mobile apps Sales staff meets business customers’ mobile needs
39. Mobile-first strategy Text messages Email Applications Tweets Easy-to-use mobile web sites Podcasts Location-based news & commercial info
I will note how newspapers’ audience is dwindling (to 13% of population in 2009)
And newspapers’ advertising is falling even faster than audience
I’ll talk about why paid content isn’t the solution for newspaper companies, why it’s a symbol of our continuing failure and refusal to innovate and how it sucks up energy and money we should be investing in innovation.
I’ll discuss how Twitter and other social media are helping meet people’s needs for news and business and news companies need to catch up quickly.
We’ll talk about separating content from product, using the example of NPR’s Create Once, Publish Everywhere model. Also will discuss efforts at GazComm to separate content from product.
I’ll tell participants they can read the full C3 blueprint (38 pages as a pdf) on my blog
I’ll note that the driving service presents great opportunities to help drivers and businesses that serve drivers. But national players are already moving into this space.
I’ll discuss my own experience with CaringBridge during my nephew’s illness and discuss how the concept of big news in small circles can open important opportunities in personal news.
I’ll discuss the mobile-first strategy I encouraged this month.
More and more people are getting information and connecting with their world on cell phones. Media companies need to think of phones as our primary publishing platform.
We’ll discuss C3
After the exercises and discussion, we will wrap up with a discussion of how printing and digital communication have changed and are changing the world, and the opportunities if we see them right.