ISOJ 2012

1. Becoming The Economist
of Metro Newspapers
&
The Pursuit of the Tablet
Audience
Jim Moroney
April 2012

2. WHAT IS THE SAME
The goal of journalism:
An informed public
that can make
wise decisions
to govern itself.

3. WHAT IS NOT THE SAME
2007
$42.2M
2011
$20.6M

4. WE ARE NO LONGER PUBLISHING
FOR A MASS AUDIENCE

5. WE ARE PUBLISHING FOR
“THE MASS INTELLIGENT”
As The Economist labels it.

7. DEMOGRAPHICS
MARKET SIZE
BIGSMALL
ELITE MEDIA
MASS
INTELLIGENCE
MASS
MEDIA
AUDIENCE:
THE MASS INTELLIGENT

8. AUDIENCE:
THE MASS INTELLIGENT
THE ECONOMIST
THE NEW YORKER
THE ATLANTIC
HBO
ART GALLERIES
LIVE THEATER
CLASSICAL CONCERT
People who read/watch/attend
at least two of…
PEOPLE MAGAZINE
US WEEKLY
THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
ESPN
FAMILY GUY
THE SIMPSONS
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
AMERICAN IDOL
39%
[ SOURCE: MRI, FALL 2007 ]

9. 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

10. Our writing will remain
the core of what we
and all other clever publications
reaching clever people do.
[John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist]

11. VALUE OF CONTENT
Relevance
Value
Differentiation

12. WHO, WHAT,
WHEN & WHERE
ARE COMMODITIES

13. is table stakes.
Consumers expect you to have
it, yet you can’t win at it.

14. TODAY
the value of reporting lies in
& WHAT
HOW, WHY
IT MEANS TO
ME

15. PICA
Perspective
Interpretation
Context
Analysis

16. 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.

17.  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

18. LEAN BACK
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-BACK
ONLY BETTER
O

19. 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]

20. IMMERSED IN THE CONTENT:
42% OF TABLET NEWS READERS REGULARLY READ IN-DEPTH
NEWS 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 Journalis

21. [ 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

22. Share of US Traffic:
Class web
91.8%
Mobile web:
5.2%
Tablets
2.5% Other
0.5%
WE AREN’T ABANDONING THE WEB

23. BUT OUR DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES
ARE FOCUSED ON THE TABLET
[ SOURCE: GARTNER, Emarketer ]

24. 2
1
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
4
5
6

25. 8
7
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
journalism
9
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.