Publishers are heading into uncharted territory with the wide range of digital media options. Perhaps the best guide is the experiences of similar media businesses, who have already been experimenting and learning.
MDs and publishers attending the conference listened to firsthand accounts of experimentation with digital media and events, questioned the speakers in panel sessions and round tables and picked up practical tips.
What was notable was the openness of the speakers and their willingness to discuss what was working on their business. Here are the highlights if you missed it:
Get obsessed with data on your customers
Ashley Friedlein, CEO of Econsultancy, suggested publishers become as obsessed with data as etailers, who have a far more sophisticated approach to identifying prospects among web visitors and converting them to paying customers. Publishers have a treasure trove of data from Google Analytics, and can easily assess whether traffic sources such as Twitter convert to high value customers. Interestingly, for Econsultancy, 95% of sales via social media come from existing customers, so it appears to be more of a retention than acquisition channel. Finally, Ashley demonstrated live how he can identify exactly which members are browsing which page on the Econsultancy site; how potentially valuable they are and even call them up. Every publisher in the room instantly wanted their own ‘web’.
Use content from everywhere, experiment and play games with readers
The consumer media speakers shared examples of packaging content for different channels and finding new ways to engage enthusiastic readers, so they contribute content. Some are finding success in hyperlocal editions. And, while the future is uncertain, it’s worth experimenting with new platforms, as you may uncover unexpected new revenues.
Ryan O’Meara, founder of Total Pet Publishing, hates the waste in traditional print publishing and exhorted publishers to reuse their content as ebooks and web articles. Editors should focus on creating content that is “evergreen” and repackage it to new audiences. Every time a new subscriber or member joins, the back catalogue is all fresh new content to them. Look out for ultra niches, highly valued by readers: in the pet market, this includes breed-specific content.
Duncan Tickell, MD of Magicalia, has been developing hyperlocal mini-sites in the parenting market; and now has 400 sites, populated with third party feeds and running local forums. They have recruited over 40 community managers: volunteers who curate the local content. Some local versions now have over 300 active members. This approach could apply to many niche audiences with local grass roots community and activities. In the outdoors market, Magicalia has been testing “gamification” by offering readers points for community activity such as forum posts and kit reviews. This drove gear reviews by 1700%.
Ben Greenish, MD of Spectator is a strong advocate of the “experimental” approach, and was disarmingly candid about the deficiencies of their early attempts in digital publishing. So far, the much-hyped “i-things” still only generate low subscription revenues, but the big win is likely to be sponsorship. Ben encouraged publishers to equip their sales teams with iPads and demo’d his iPad app-style media pack. He advocates positive engagement with Apple. His surprise success has been Kindle; for the Spectator it generates four times the revenue of the “i-things” and they have negotiated improved revenue shares. This inspired at least two publishers in the room to investigate putting content onto Kindle. Ben’s final piece of advice was to nominate a project leader for digital content delivery.
Miles Galliford, CMO of Subhub, shared the case study of niche publisher Preaching Today. They identified a need for illustrations for sermons, and an increasing use of PowerPoint and video in church. They encouraged members to contribute ideas for sermons to their existing database, and have now built up 10,000 subscriptions at $70. They charge members extra fees to download videos from a library of 1000 clips. A great example of using reader content to augment a database; Preaching Today are now expanding into events and extending beyond the US.
The consumer media panel were asked: Is print dead? Emphatically not, as many readers prefer a mixed package of printed magazine and digital content. This view is supported by the research carried out for the show. But the horizon is getting closer; where once we talked of twenty years, it now feels more like five… Whilst it’s easy to get obsessed with the abundance of quantitative data in digital publishing, it’s still important to get a direct view from the consumer with “old-fashioned” qualitative research. Several publishers noted that traffic from their own on-site forums seemed to be migrating to social media platforms.
Fit your B2B media into people's work lives
Business to business publishers are metamorphosing into providers of data and analysis that supports daily decision-making for their readers. This transition requires new skills and adopting processes used by service providers and software vendors. Bespoke marketing solutions around online activity and live events are a growing revenue stream.
Ben Heald, CEO of Sift Media, showed how Accounting Web has developed multiple revenue streams over the last ten years, with the most enduring being bespoke “marketing solutions” for advertisers around a free service for readers. The Q&A section attracts 600 questions and 3000 answers a month, and drives 30% of traffic. Editors need to write to engage, to start a conversation, rather than purely to inform. Commercial partners are interested in sponsoring surveys, forum reports or buyers guides partly created by the professional online community.
Andy Cook, group publisher of VRL Financial, described their shift from printed newsletters to data and charts online, and shared how he got editors to think in charts not words, becoming more expert analysts than journalists. Again, a strong revenue source is marketing solutions around round tables or bespoke content.
Jeska Harrington Gould, MD of Research explained how a site-licence business requires different skills to traditional publishing. Their media products are now led by product managers, with more technical knowledge and understanding of processes than the publishers they replace. Training is crucial to embed systems into the user’s organisation, and a good support team is essential to retention. Editorial teams need to think like analysts or researchers.
Jeremy Phillips, COO of Strategy Eye, shared his experiences of building premium-priced subscription content services, by understanding how content and functionality can support decision-making. Their Cleantech service looks more like an application than a news site, and has a high degree of personalisation. They combine original high value content with curated third-party content.
Peter Houston, director of content at Advanstar, reminded editors of the value of recycling and repackaging content for digital channels: it’s not a repeat if you haven’t already seen it! He also recommended enlisting others to write, including commercial partners, and documenting the process of creating a story to create more content.
Looking into the future for specialist media
Round table discussions after lunch on managing ad teams, mobile apps, paid content, digital editions and events were so animated people didn’t want to stop for tea.
Barrie Gunter, head of media and communication at the University of Leicester, drew out the contrasts between B2B and B2C from the show’s research into 200 publishers and felt that adoption of mobile apps was now at a tipping point.
Jim Bilton, MD of Wessenden, showed that print is still core to revenues for many publishing businesses, although digital is growing faster and events are becoming more important. Print brands still provide 64% of revenues, although this is expected to drop by 9.5% in two years time. Digital activity contributes 15% now, with a growth of 7% in two years. Live events are expected to see some growth in revenue contribution, from 10% to 11%. There’s plenty of digital plans in the pipeline; while only 20% of publishers polled have apps now, 37% have plans to launch. 23% already charge for online content, and a further 18% have plans to charge in future. (See Jim’s article For more detail on the research findings.)
The final panel felt the future was hard to predict accurately, so experimentation was the best route. Specialist media businesses are increasingly about developing a strong, niche community, but publishers don’t have an automatic right to host the community, and have to work hard at engaging readers before others get established.
The main takeaways
* Develop multiple revenue sources: marketing solutions, events and training
* Cultivate your community as a source of ideas, content and commercial opportunity
* Re-use and repackage content wherever you can
* Experiment with new mobile platforms (iPads, Kindle, smartphones)
* Understand reader workflow to develop online subscription services
Delegates and speakers valued the chance to discuss the changes in their business openly with other specialist media owners, and the day has sparked several conversations: we’ll follow up the results at future events.
