The document discusses organizing models for news publishers as either aggregating content into a few daily stories or atomizing content into many short stories throughout the day. It also discusses the need for culture change at publishers to focus on growth, prioritizing digital platforms, experimenting with new products, and attracting new talent. The future will see both opportunities and challenges from declining print revenue and the rise of mobile connectivity.

1. The New Growth Path
and How to Get There
Earl J. Wilkinson
Executive Director and CEO
INMA
@earljwilkinson

2. Encyclopedia
Britannica
32 volumes
130 pounds
US$1,400
Print edition
Middle class buying a 1768-2012
dream

3. Encyclopedia
Britannica
1990 sales of US$650,000,000
Microsoft Encarta forces digital
encyclopedia (US$1,400 to US$40)
Digital business: libraries, schools
Revenue falls 80% to
US$130,000,000 Print edition
2/3 of revenue from online sales 1768-2012
Higher margins, smaller business

4. Overriding issues
facing publishers
Identifying growth
Being more relevant
Managing complexity

5. This presentation
Organising models
What we market: products to brands
Culture change and the growth path
What’s next?

6. Organising models

7. Organising model
Aggregate
1 deadline per day
Hundreds of OK stories
Be better at 15+ subjects
Deep engagement/platform

8. Organising model
Atomize
1,440 deadlines (minutes)
5 great stories per day
Own 3 unique subjects
Multi-media flickers

9. Organising models
Atomize Aggregate
1,440 deadlines (minutes) 1 deadline per day
5 great stories per day Hundreds of OK stories
Own 3 unique subjects Be better at 15+ subjects
Multi-media flickers Deep engagement/platform

10. Organising model
Based on how people consume us
Affects content, distribution,
marketing, advertising … everything
Can’t be both … make a choice

11. What we market:
products to brands

12. Marketing a
print newspaper
Home delivery
Content packaging
Shut out the world
Status symbol

13. Marketing a
Web site
Easy access
Infinite information
Get it quick
Sharing with friends

14. Marketing a
mobile app/site
News in pocket
Skimmable information
Get it anywhere
Fillers for your day

15. Marketing an
iPad app
Beautiful experience
Curated information
Second screen
Personal enjoyment

16. Marketing
your products
Newspaper Web site Mobile app/site iPad
Home delivery Easy access News in pocket Beautiful experience
Print packaging Infinite info Skimmable info Curated info
Shut out world Get it quick Get it anywhere Second screen
Status symbol Share with friends Fillers for your day Personal enjoyment

17. Multi-platform
subscription bundles
Overview: how to bundle print, Web, mobile, tablet
Axel Springer: + iPad2 @ €49.99 per month
L.A. Times: + membership model
Helsingin Sanomat: 33% of subscribers in bundle
New York Times: driving print sales with digital!
The Times: packs for weekday, weekend

18. Marketing a
news brand
Convenience
Relevance
Consumption choice
Empowerment

19. Marketing newspapers
No longer destination purchase
(producing and distributing important)
Now highly discretionary purchase
(selling and marketing important)
Re-create demand for products

20. What companies sell
P&G: shampoo shine to confident and sexy
Disney entertain to make dreams come true
Apple: make products that people will love

21. What newspapers sell
Not content but convenience and delight
Not the news, we help improve people’s lives
Transport hearts, minds to world of discovery

22. What we are not
marketing
Journalism
Trust
Role in democracy
Reflection of you

23. Not about how hard we
work (not about us)
Is your writing better?
Do you care more?
Have your people been doing
this a long time?
Has your brand been around a
long time?

24. Avoid muddled brands
Let’s not be old guy trying
to act young
Nurture brands with clear
characteristics
Grow old with today’s
subscriber base
Reposition for youth

25. Marketing a
news brand
Convenience
Relevance
Consumption choice
Empowerment

26. Culture change
and the growth path

27. Pew study on
business models
Powerless to change culture
Haven’t needed innovative people
Employees operationally focused
Battling inertia
Culture: contact sport, 1 collision at time

28. Google macro-culture
Speed over perfection
Low-cost innovation
Placing many small bets

29. Google micro-culture
Hire people smarter than you, get out of way
Hire generalists to deal with “what’s next”
Don’t reward good planning, reward results
Attending meetings not getting things done
Passion: feedback, don’t take it personally
Save staff time: food, dry-cleaning, red tape
Eat your own dogfood

30. Culture change (us)
1. Listen to the market
2. Focus relentlessly on differentiators
3. Prioritise expenditures to USPs, cut rest
4. Go where the growth is
5. Speed over perfection
6. Be willing to fail, but fail fast
7. Respect platform for its unique value

31. Culture change:
only path to growth
1. Operationally excellent
2. Raw content engine good enough
3. Structural advertising vs. order takers
4. Must change how we pursue revenue
5. Must change industry perceptions

32. VÄSTERBOTTENS-KURIREN (VK) | SWEDEN
Culture audit
Current: culture of hierarchy/clan
Future: culture of innovation, entrepreneurship
Business development fund = 5% of revenue
Cross-departmental, analytics, market focus
Seamless multi-media publishing model
Change must begin with senior management

33. DESERET MEDIA | UNITED STATES
Be true to your USPs
Family
Finance
Responsibility
Faith-based
Education
Care for the poor
Values in media

34. JOURNAL-REGISTER COMPANY | UNITED STATES
Digital first
New news ecology: prioritise platforms by
velocity (fast to slow)
Sell digital first, print a differentiating second
Cut legacy costs: infrastructure, Ben Franklin
Business plan changes valuation metrics
(25%-50% of EBITDA from digital)

35. SCHIBSTED | SWEDEN
News audiences as
lead generators
Owns 16 assets nationally
2 newspapers
Traffic aggregation, e-commerce
Blocket classifieds, Hitta search
Digital company owns newspapers

36. IDG | UNITED STATES
Print vs. digital
200 magazines, Web-centric company
Manage print for profit
Manage digital for growth
Pursue digital audiences: social, syndicated,
crowdsourcing
Cut print products by half

37. Culture change
Editorial
Advertising sales
The people equation
Organizing marketing
Managing, leading audience development

38. Advertising sales
Integrate at same pace as your advertising
community Why
teams“newspapers”
Keep print and digital separate, integrated
when you need them
Integrate everything, have platform
specialists

39. Audience
What we sell: bundled subscriptions across
Why
platforms (print, Web, tablet, smartphone)
“newspapers”
Selling and engaging 2 separate functions
Have to be willing not to force print

40. Marketing
Shift from pushing products to brands
Out:
Why
“newspapers”
Tactile benefits of print or shut out world
Wow of home delivery or “newspaper in digital”
In:
What associating with news brand means to you
Value proposition of bundle (portability)

41. Research
Need one over-arching metric
Why LUN)
Implement dashboard (FINN,
“newspapers”
Goal: know more about audience than your
smartest advertiser
Napkin data: advertisers, CEO, employees

42. Human resources
Can’t treat today’s young generation like recently
departed Why
“newspapers”
Training, coaching, memberships, conferences
(internal/external)
Innovation found mostly by exposing employees
to those outside company, country, industry
What to reward: over-arching metric

43. Editorial
No print or digital journalism, just journalism
Why
Platform managers looking across platforms
“newspapers”
Platform specialists for platform engagement
Social media specialists: make content social
Newspaper anywhere model
Same/similar content experiences across platforms?
Different content/experiences across platforms?

44. Management
Need brutally simple metric: rally all around
Why
In-your-face ways of communicating success
“newspapers”
Best practices to drive cross-platform growth
Reward numbers over “quality”
Make audience the rallying cry

45. Culture change
foundation for
multi-media model

46. Growth path
Understanding consumer behaviour
Rapid digital adoption
Product development pipeline
Smart marketing
Data analytics
Scalable transaction business

47. What’s next?

48. What’s next?
Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation

49. WHAT’S NEXT?
Future of print
Will decline as mass-market vehicle
Gradual reduction in frequency
Gradual reduction in pages + format
How to preserve print for mass market?
How much to find new opportunities?

50. What’s next?
Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation

51. WHAT’S NEXT?
New product
development
How many in pipeline at once?
1 big initiative or many small ones?
Time frame for success (print vs. digital)?
Role of editorial?
Loud vs. soft launches?

52. What’s next?
Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation

53. WHAT’S NEXT?
Core competencies
Companies that invent new markets,
shift consumer choice
Competencies engine for new business
development
Competencies spawn unanticipated
products

54. WHAT’S NEXT?
Competencies
determine products
Journalism
Story generation
Storytelling
Communication

55. What’s next?
Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation

56. WHAT’S NEXT?
Your crossover point
If print advertising is declining, what must
digital growth rate be to run a growing
business?
Digital First Media: digital growth of 50%

57. WHAT’S NEXT?
The new solutions
Search
Social
Mobile
Geo-targeting
Behavioural targeting

58. WHAT’S NEXT?
Digital First Media
Solutions Products
Geo-target audience Web site banners
Target behaviours Yahoo inventory
based on customer mix
Facebook contextual ads
Facebook “likes”
Directory package
Improve search engine
positioning

59. WHAT’S NEXT?
1 + 1 = 3?
What do these revenue solutions add up to?
How do we structure industry re-training?
Is this 100%/80%/60% print
replacement?
Unsatisfied and nervous … and anxious to
learn

60. What’s next?
Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation

61. iPhone’s impact on
mobile pageviews
2,000,000
1,800,000
1,600,000
1,400,000
1,200,000
+1,700%
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
0
v5
v9
v13
v21
v17
v25
v29
v33
v37
v41
v45
v49
ve 5
ve 9
ve 13
ve 17
ve 21
ve 25
ve 29
ve 33
ve 37
ve 41
ve 45
ve 49
ve 1 2011
v1 2010
v1 2012

62. Putting mobile in
perspective
Phase 1: connecting people (86% penetration)
Phase 2: connecting people to Internet (33%)
Phase 3: connecting everything (5%)
Source: Otto Sjöberg

63. Mobile: connecting
“everything”
Cars Security
Assisted living Traffic management
Clinical remote Meter reading
monitoring
Source: Otto Sjöberg

64. Impact of mobile
connectivity on you
Relevant services in embedded environment
Content with different screens
Enabling readers to access
content/services
Source: Otto Sjöberg

65. Economics of
smartphones
Processing power improving
Access speed faster
Smaller and thinner
Cheaper device + time

66. Economics of
newsprint
Demand will weaken
Paper mills: consolidate
Suppliers: contract
Prices will rise
Targeted opportunities

67. When platform
economics collide
Cheaper to give away $50 tablet than printing/delivering
Tipping point? Price? Speed? Device volume?

68. What’s next?
Opportunities in print
New product development strategy
Core competencies
Learning rulebook for digital advertising
Preparing for smartphone boom
The people equation

69. WHAT’S NEXT?
Attracting talent
Not attracting best/brightest
Creative class can’t overcome image
Nobody wants to climb the mountain
Liberate people: give time for new ideas
Newsrooms, advertising, marketing

70. WHAT’S NEXT?
Level the mountain!
Average age of newsroom: 58
Massively holding back change
Why not hire a young gun?
2 years of trying … nobody will take it

71. WHAT’S NEXT?
Employee oxygen
Internal training
External training
Access to information
Access to peers
Encouragement by you
Education about news industry

72. Conclusions

73. Why own a
newspaper
Profitability
Political influence
Business/civic influence
Audience trafficker
Content pool for niches

74. We need to buy time
Maintain print long enough for digital
advertising to scale
Lag between advertiser, consumer shifts to
digital
Lag between time mobile and smartphone
Need to finance transition period

75. Under-valuing
ourselves
How to price newspaper
How to price Web content
How to price apps

76. Pegging our value
Hotel chain breaks down
pieces of hotel room
Asks guests to place financial
value on pieces
Print newspaper worth $5
If newspaper helps find
job, worth $2,000!

77. Pegging our value
Uniqueness
Relevance
Authenticity
What does news brand do for
me?

78. Be creative (even
with an end point)
Life cycle: born, live, die
Arrogance from idea of living forever
Live: discipline, confidence, creativity
Don’t strive for “quality”
Do strive for relevance

79. The New Growth Path
and How to Get There
Earl J. Wilkinson
Executive Director and CEO
INMA
@earljwilkinson