Crafting Effective Media Strategies Today: One Example is NPR

It shouldn't be surprising that there's been a great deal of confusion among existing media companies about the words "convergence" and "multimedia" over the past decade plus.

The proliferation of tools and platforms is confusing -- from a relatively static world of radio, TV, newspapers, and magazines to a new world of websites, audio clips, video clips, streaming video, citizen reports, social media, aggregated content hubs, ecommerce apps, sharing tools, blogs, and mobile platforms, just to name a few of the major developments that have affected media.

At a strategic level, however, it is less important what the various media forms are than how your company must be able to adapt to them.

If your core product was print, now you need to have a strategy for broadening your channels to include video and audio; if you were primarily a radio station, you now need video and print components; from a past in TV, you've had to integrate print and audio.

At various points in this process, companies may seize upon one thing -- maybe podcasts or Twitter feeds -- as a key part of their strategy, to the relative exclusion of others, but this isn't smart.

Rather, today's media companies need to have content strategies that are agnostic as to platform; social media strategies that aren't depending on any one source in a rapidly changing universe; and mobile strategies that can adapt as the market there shakes itself out.

At a high level, executives should not get stuck on any one platform or channel, because the one thing we can say about this environment is that it is going to continue to change.

When I hear Anderson Cooper of CNN these days stress that you can "follow us on Twitter," I cringe. First of all, even though what people primarily do with Twitter is follow other people, that does not necessarily equate into a smart public relations plan.

Integrate Twitter, of course, but don't necessarily make so much noise about it, that's using a sledge hammer to deliver a message better delivered by a tiny bird's call.

Over and over again, however, media companies make this mistake, overly promoting their websites, their Facebook pages, their blogs, their iPad apps -- whatever top execs have been told is the latest and greatest trend.

The problem is that by the time they are talking about it, the moment for promoting it has already past.

Properly formulated, a media company's overall strategy encompasses every tool and channel mentioned above as well as some not yet invented. The capacity for digital technologies to remake our workplaces and work styles is endless.

Start from that perspective, remain utterly agnostic about channel, and you'll be off on the right course.

Thus, one of my favorite companies to date has been NPR, which has recognized the need to become a source for print articles to augment its traditional audio offerings. NPR can compete in text forms as well as anybody; video offers additional opportunities.

In that regard, today's announcement that NPR is leading the effort "to develop a digital distribution network that will allow public broadcasters and web producers to combine, create, share and distribute their news and cultural content" is a move in the right direction.

The effort is a joint effort by five national producers: American Public Media, NPR, PBS, Public Radio International (PRI) and the Public Radio Exchange (PRX).

Rather than a collection of multimedia bells and whistles, what is badly needed in so many companies is an old-fashioned editorial strategy, which is the guts of any content strategy.

Know what stories you are good at getting, how best to get them, and which of today's channels provides the best first option for communicating them. Strong visuals imply video, naturally; complex stories require long-form print or documentary capability.

We've seen enough come and go now to predict the future. There will be more tools, more channels, more options. Fine, if that's the way it is to be, we never have to commit so fully to any one option as we did in the past.

Stay open, be experimental, embrace change.

Good advice in all avenues of life, actually, not just in media.

Two Growing Trends: "Delete My Facebook Account" and Google's eBook Store

Could it be that all the recent controversy over privacy at Facebook is having an impact on the social networking site's business?

Search Engine Land reports that in the "how do I?" category of search on Google, one fast-growing question is "How do I delete my Facebook account?"

Meanwhile, Kyodo News Service is reporting today that Google has "the support of almost all publishers in the United States for its digital bookstore expected to be launched as early as the end of June," according to unnamed company officials.

This report says that more than 25,000 publishers and authors have agreed to participate in the search giant's effort to distribute digital books online, which if true would amount to a very large new e-bookstore indeed.

The project is called Google Editions.

Roger Ebert and the Joy of Writing

Recently, I saw the great film critic, Roger Ebert, onstage at the majestic Castro Theater. He was in town to receive another award; he's the kind of person who could never win too many. He's America's greatest film critic, but that is not what impressed me most about him.

It was his indomitable spirit. He's frail from many cancer operations, can speak only through his computer, and cannot eat or drink anything at all.

Despite all of this, the most memorable part of the evening at the Castro was Ebert's beautiful smile, which never left his face during a long ceremony that featured tributes from a number of film's top directors.

He exudes joy. He repeatedly gestured to the audience, indicating that his sense of humor remains undiminished.

In fact, he was the happiest person in the place.

It's hard to watch someone who has been so ill that he has lost almost all of his former robustness, physically. But he's lost nothing mentally.

He writes now more than ever. His website and his twitter stream are among the most engaging in the country.

Roger Ebert is a great writer, and like many great writers, he just keeps getting better.

Here's what he has to say about the current state of film reviewing.

"This is a golden age for film criticism. Never before have more critics written more or better words for more readers about more films.

"Twenty years ago a good-sized city might have contained a dozen people making a living from writing about films, and for half of them the salary might have been adequate to raise a family. Today that city might contain hundreds, although (the Catch-22) not more than one or two are making a living.

"What the internet is creating is a class of literate, gifted amateur writers, in an old tradition. Like Trollope, who was a British Post official all his working life, they write for love and because they must."

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Vocus Finds that Media Industry Outlook is Brightening

The latest report on the state of the media from Vocus Research is out, and it finds that the rate of newspaper closures has slowed considerably over 2009.

During the first quarter of 2009, as the report notes, almost 100 newspapers had folded, including dailies like the Rocky Mountain News and the Baltimore Examiner.

This year a smaller number -- 44 -- went out of business in Q-1 and most of those (30) were weeklies. That is not really what you'd call good news, but no major daily has failed so far in 2010.

Vocus notes that digital news sites are growing and that some new ones (around half a dozen) have been launched so far this year.

Meanwhile, there is one actual bright spot: "Starting in 2009 and heading into 2010, Hispanic media noticeably grew. In print media, the Deseret News launched the weekly Spanish-language El Observador in February. Other publishers expanded the distribution of their Hispanic-interest publications such as the Tribune Company’s Fin de Semana."

More magazines launched than folded in Q-4 last year, according to the report,and advertising revenue appears to be rebounding in that sector of the industry.

The report is bullish on the iPad launch and the implications for media companies, and in general sees digital platforms, including mobile, as driving a turnaround in the industry.

You can read mre about the research report here.


Thank you to Frank Strong for help with this post.

Related Post:

Vocus Report on the State of the Media: It's Really, Really Bad (1/13/2010)
"No one paying attention could have missed the massive downswing in fortunes for traditional media companies in the U.S. over the past two years.But just in case someone did, say by hiding in a cave at Tora Bora or wherever, the Vocus Media Research Team is out with a new report today detailing last year’s carnage..."

When the Business Model Problem Becomes Everybody's Problem

“We have a business model problem, we don’t have a news problem.”

That was Google CEO Eric Schmidt talking to the American Society of News Editors last night explaining that the Internet has replaced the era of content scarcity with an era of content abundance.

Tell me about it.

I've been actively involved with Internet news media since 1995, and over that time I've charted the digital news explosion and how it has buried old media business models that evolved in kinder, gentler times, (at least as it pertains to the speed of the news cycle.)

During all of that time I've been an enthusiast for new media, and I remain so. But it's hard not to notice that the disruptive technologies of today are seriously undermining the ability of those who report, write and edit the news to continue making a living.

Up until recently, many of those affected by the waves of layoffs that have plagued the print publishing industry have been able to find new positions in nonprofits, academic institutions, or new media companies.

But as the recession continues, and advertising revenues lag, the employment world for content creators appears to be shrinking even more rapidly than in the recent past. If so, this is bad news for the entire media industry because no matter what else changes, one thing will always remain the same.

It all starts with those who create the content.

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Murdoch's Paywall Bandwagon Has No Recruits

Rupert Murdoch has been on the warpath against Google for supposedly stealing his content for so long that he's become like Chicken Little: It's hard to take him seriously any longer.

Nevertheless, the media mogul just keeps prattling on.

"We are going to stop people like Google or Microsoft or whoever from taking stories for nothing, Murdoch said this week. "There is a law of copyright and they recognize it."

Murdoch is referring to the practice by Google News as well as the Google and Bing search engines to publish headlines and snippets of articles from News Corp. publications without paying for that right.

The search giants point out that by grabbing the snippets, they drive the majority of the traffic that Murdoch's web properties get, but he'll have none of that.

He calls their model "a "river of gold" and alleges: "They take [news content] for nothing. They have got this very clever business model."

Murdoch has been vowing to move his major British news properties behind a paywall like that around the Wall Street Journal. Of course, that is a very leaky paywall; all you need to do is copy a WSJ headline, enter it in a search field, and you'll import a free copy of those WSJ pieces.

Murdoch is already allowing that he won't charge much for online content, which sounds like back-peddling; plus he isn't going to institute these paywalls for another three months or so.

I've long felt that Murdoch has been waging this battle publicly mainly in the hope of driving a lucrative licensing deal with Google and Microsoft, but that also seems like a long shot now. Meanwhile, very few major news sites seem poised to sign up for the paywall bandwagon.

Here's a prediction: Murdoch will indeed institute a half-hearted paywall, it will fail, and he'll retreat. Then, he'll take up a new tack in his battle with the Internet as we know it.

In the end, despite his wealth and power, Murdoch's paywall threats will be nothing more than a minor footnote in the history of paid content online. This is largely because the next stage of the battle over content will be fought over the mobile web, not over the stationary computer platform that publishers have never been able to monetize.

Related Link:
Flush From Avatar, Murdoch Talks Tough Re: Ipads and Paywalls
"You’ve got to hand it to Rupert Murdoch. The Australian-born, British and U.S.-based media mogul’s empire is now so vast that he can squeeze a quarter-billion-dollar’s worth of profits out of any random quarter..."

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Information Junkies Love Obama's "Open Government" Initiative

The Obama administration promised more transparency in government and it seems to be delivering on its promise -- at least in a number of specific instances. Today on its "Open Government Blog," the White House pointed to a number of new developments in this regard:

*The Department of Housing and Urban Development is recording all public events and putting them online.

*The Department of Education is publishing Secretary Arne Duncan’s schedule.

*The Social Security Administration has a new toolset on its website to help people (including Spanish speakers) more easily find information and services on the web and schedule appointments.

*The Department of Labor published its new Online Enforcement Database, which makes all workplace safety data searchable and available in one place.

*The Department of Health and Human Services is publishing a large,downloadable database on community health care costs, quality, access, and public health.

*The Department of Justice is building a “Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Dashboard” to “shine a light” on the government’s compliance with FOIA. Two other departments -- Health and Human Services and Department of Energy -- announced more accessible FOIA programs as well.

Meanwhile, NASA has gotten into the act with a number of initiatives, one of the most creative of which is a partnership with the Internet Archive:

"NASA has implemented an agreement with the non-profit Internet Archive (IA) whereby IA manages an Internet site, nasaimages.org, to provide free access and downloads of NASA still photography, video and film, including High Definition. Therefore, in essence, IA serves as custodian of much of NASA's current and legacy digital imagery records. In addition, IA will help digitize NASA's historically significant, analog images for inclusion on the Web site, enabling digital archiving with the National Archives and greater public access to these records via the IA Website."

This is the kind of stuff journalists and other information junkies love, because when it comes to transparency in government, there is no right or left, there's just open or closed. The more information we can easily access, the better job we can do.

It's as simple as that.