Vol.21: What To Learn From News Media’s Survival In Web 2.0 World?

In the previous article Vol.20: How Are News Media to Survive In Web 2.0 World? how news media as the organization need to change to survive in web 2.0 online world was discussed. The topic of this article is further discussing how they survive, clarifying methodologies, from which marketers, PR representatives and communicators in general can learn to become successfully social in web 2.0 online world.

Following how news media becoming collaborative mentioned in the previous article, the author would like to briefly explain the two primary KFS mentioned; controlling distribution channel and improving content quality, then conclude by how new media are to create establish infrastructure and create optimum environment for the KFS.

1. How are news media to control of distribution channel and/or improve way of delivery?

As in the previous article, control of content distribution channel is vital, which often is about new platform or way of delivery of content. According to Jaffe in his article The Changing Paradigm for Entertainment (2010) 65% of executives believe that main source of future revenue for entertainment industry will be from new platform/way of delivery, and as a same content industry, this is a learning that news media need to leverage. However, unlike entertainment industry, it is not easy and/or realistic for news media to close print media business, even though as Steiger (2009) says in his article Investigative reporting in the Web era, there are some news media that has gone web (online)-only such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Realistic measures for survival are as below.

1) Develop a new strategy that emphasizes leveraging multi-platform and multi-media.

Multi-platform and multi-media could include traditional media of print (newspapers, magazines, flyers etc.), TV and radio, and web. Differentiation among traditional media have been the issue before the Internet era, and now the issue is differentiation between traditional media (especially print) and web/online. This needs to be done based on the characteristics of each media and platform, and effectively mix them to generate synergy.

2) Develop multi-platform online strategy.

Online strategy no longer is exclusively of PC platform; it is of multi-platform including mobile and TV, with proliferation of mobile and advent of interactive TV. In addition, with video and audio podcast on the web, streaming content (of YouTube) is now quite popular. Also, with virtual world and gaming, social gaming and virtual content is becoming popular. Thus it is often said that (PC or mobile) web, TV and radio are converging. Integrated multi-platform web strategy leveraging such paradigm shift is critical for effectively developing and delivering content that maximizes revenue.

Use of online video is a new model of distribution and an opportunity to partner web with video. This is explained by Lewis (2009) in his article 5 Ways Traditional Media Companies are Using Online Video. The five ways mentioned by Lewis are as below.

(1) Adapting to new customers: e.g. Customer Report. Printed report is for depth of information and online video is for quick reference for customers deciding between different brands.

(2) Private-label news networks: e.g. Forbes started Forbes Video Network.

(3) A literacy video channel: e.g. Harpercollins.

(4) The video wire service: e.g. AP (Associated Press).

(5) Standardizing ad formats: e.g. French ad giant, Publicis Group.

3) Customized delivery is also a key for online strategy.

Customized delivery is also a key for online strategy, because this cannot be done with traditional media. Customization is one of the characteristics of the Internet, as mentioned in the previous article Vol.8: How to Start Web 2.0 / Internet Marketing. This can be a key for differentiating from traditional media.

2. How are news media to improve content quality?

News media needs to go niche. This means effectively segmenting for positioning themselves by to differentiate from competitors. The Huffington Post, as Lewis (2009) states in article e Social Journalism: Past, Present, and Future, is an example of successful; it is now a leader in today’s social journalism.

Whatever the positioning may be, needs for reporting remains regardless of the popularity of web 2.0, and some reporting can only be done by professionals, by news media, so it is all about content quality based on effective positioning. Moreover, there are some methodologies that can only be adopted by news media/ journalists, leveraging their professional expertise and/or network and organizational skills.

1) Breaking news and living story news content is of high value, especially with curation and contextualization.

It is no doubt that breaking news and living story news content is of high value, and although citizens can be journalists, many such news contents that can only be reported by professional journalists. Many of such news (e.g. news on politics/government, global/society/industry trend) require systematic and organizational information channel, high expertise of reporting and/or extensive and intensive planning/concept making and execution (meaning much resources as well as expertise required).

What is more, the news content value further enhances if content are curated and contexualized, which few citizen journalists are capable of.

2) Real time streaming/reporting is content of high value.

Real time streaming/reporting is also high value content, and although there are some exceptional cases in which citizen journalists sometimes happen to report real time by Twitter and streaming, it is usually difficult for them to report first hand information of such news. Some examples of such news include news of abroad, terrorism, and accident, to name a few.

Furthermore, in many cases, professional journalists specialized in a particular field alone can curate and contextualize spontaneously when reporting a news real time.

3) A better news search experience by directing consumers to the news organization that breaks the news adds value to news content.

This effort is actually ongoing as one way that news media is raising the value of news content overall. According to Curley (2009) in his article Crossing the burning bridge, this effort is called AP3P or Protect, Point and Pay, by AP’s aggregated body of unique news content called NewsGuide curated by news editors.

4) Geo-location is another solution.

Although there are no boundaries in the Internet world, geo-location is one of the current trend and location-based social networks are being established. Location is one factor of market segmentation and this is one way of segmentation and positioning for news media to go niche.

5) Content development leveraging social media ecosystem is also effective.

There are numerous ways of news content development leveraging social media ecosystem that adds value to the content. Some examples include blogozines, distributed social news, social news gaming, and UGC (user-generated content).

6) Building community is vital in social journalism.

This can be said as a type of UGC. There can be variety of community such as branded community and story-based community to name a few.

3. What news media needs to do to create an environment and establish infrastructure for social journalism?

There are mainly the following.

1) Encourage social journalists.

In fact, some media have actually explicitly announced policy of either their journalists become social or leave, as in recent article New BBC Director Mandates Journalists Use Social Media by Grove (2010).

2) Composite guidelines and policies for using social media tools.

Similarly to companies making guidelines, news media are starting to make guideline and policies for using social media tools, as explained by Betancourt (2009) in her article How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom.

3) Leverage web 3.0 or the semantic web.

News media may well get ahead by leverage web 3.0 or the semantic web. This means contents that used to be created manually are change to contents automatically performs heavy lifting, as mentioned by Callari (2009) in his article “Social Media Predictions for 2010”.

4) Find and acquire relevant resources.

This includes finding a strong technology partner and pitching the editor-in-chief. Acquisition of appropriate technology (by partnership is effective) and key person for effective delivery of high quality content are also vital.


Companies and individuals can learn much from how news media is doing to survive, and the above methodologies for the 3 KFS can be applied to their marketing and PR in the web 2.0/Internet online world. The author would like to discuss them in the upcoming articles.


References:-

Betancourt, Leah (2009) How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom
http://mashable.com/2009/06/08/social-media-newsroom/

Callari, Ron (2009) Social Media Predictions For 2010
http://inventorspot.com/articles/social_media_predictions_2010_35277

Crocker, Nick (2009) 4 Things Old Media Can Learn From the Music Industry’s Last Decade
http://mashable.com/2009/10/08/news-industry-music/

Curley, Tom (2009) Crossing the Burning Bridge
http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/internet/crossing-the-burning-bridge

Defren, Todd (2009) Mainstream Media Relations: More Important Than Ever
http://www.pr-squared.com/index.php/2009/09/mainstream-media-relations-more-important-than-ever

Fisher, Lauren (2009) 10 Industries That The Internet And Social Media Will Revolutionize
http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/10-industries-internet-social-media-revolutionize/

Grove, Jennifer Van (2010) New BBC Director Mandates Journalists Use Social Media
http://mashable.com/2010/02/10/bbc-social-media/

Jafe, Mark (2010) The Changing Paradigm for Entertainment
http://mobilemandala.com/2010/02/07/the-changing-paradigm-for-entertainment/

Joel, Mitch (2009), Six Pixels of Separation – Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. Business Plus

Lavrusik, Vadim (2009) 12 Things Newspapers Should Do to Survive
http://mashable.com/2009/08/14/newspaper-survival/

Lavruski, Vadim (2009) 7 Ways News Media are Becoming More Collaborative
http://mashable.com/2009/12/29/7-ways-news-media-are-becoming-more-collaborative/

Lewis, Woody (2009) Social Journalism: Past, Present, and Future
http://mashable.com/2009/04/07/social-journalism/

Lewis, Woody (2009) 5 Ways Traditional Media Companies are Using Online Video
http://mashable.com/2009/07/31/traditional-media-online-video/

Mohsin, Umair (2010) The Future of Paid Content http://animoney.thoseinmedia.com/2010/01/07/the-future-of-paid-content/

Steiger, Paul (2009) Investigative Reporting in the Web Era
http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/internet/investigative-reporting-in-the-web-era

Vol.19: What is Ideal Web 2.0 Social Journalism / Journalist?

In the previous article　Vol.18 – How Social PR in Web 2.0 World Should Be? possible methodologies of planning and executing social PR was discussed. The topic of this article is the ideal journalism and journalist, the primary stakeholder of PR representatives, in web 2.0 online world.

1. What do journalists need to know to succeed in Web 2.0 online world?

Journalist need to be aware of the drastically changing environment of journalism, and the paradigm shift in the business model of journalism. This is supported by Fisher’s article of 10 Industries That The Internet And Social Media Will Revolutionize (2009), which print media is #1, television is #3, and public relations is #9.

Journalists need to change their mindset. They need to know that the emergence of online content is not simply something additional to traditional content business. They also need to be fully aware that their stakeholder management is also changing.

2. How journalists need to become social to survive in Web 2.0 online world?

Journalist need to do the following and acquire skills and competencies necessary for them, in addition to fundamental journalism skills and systems/processes.

1) Be entrepreneurial and business savvy.

First, journalists need to know the value of content in the changing business environment and how their business model is changing. They cannot just be writers who collect materials and write articles, but instead, be business savvy.

In order to adapt and succeed in the new business environment, journalists also cannot be bureaucratic but be innovative, flexible and entrepreneurial. They need to cope with frequent update of news releases of companies and other online contents (news sites, blog etc.). Also, they need to be multi-skilled to be able to leverage multi-platform (traditional media platform and web/Internet platform). In addition, they need to be open and proactive to building relationship with bloggers and web audience/readers, in the online world there PR (public relations) has or is expected to truly become public and they as well as PR representatives of companies can directly reach bloggers and the public.

2) Leverage multi-platform and become multi-media storyteller.

Journalists need to leverage multi-platform in developing and delivering stories leveraging multi-media (print, TV, web/Internet etc.). This is one good way of making differentiation from bloggers, who primarily use only web/Internet.

Leveraging multi-media is, what the author calls, “media mix for online and offline synergy”, which is what marketers, communicators and PR representatives of companies need to do as well. For journalists, the biggest concern would be differentiation of print and online articles. In many cases, it seems that print articles are developed first and then the same articles are posted online, and it is quite natural that journalism business is shrinking and becoming unprofitable. They need to make re-define print and online articles, making differentiation. This needs further discussion and the author would like to do so in the next article.

3) Re-define and re-position journalism and journalists.

There are mainly 2 ways to re-define and re-position journalism and journalists.

(1) Make differentiation from bloggers as professional multi-media storyteller.

First way is to make differentiation from bloggers in re-positioning, and re-define themselves as multi-media professional storytellers. Key word is multi-media and professional. Meaning of multi-media is as mentioned above. Professional is about the high quality story and content.

Professional quality of content and story surpassing that of bloggers is one important factor for differentiation from majority of bloggers, and real-time reporting integration may well help further improve content quality and value. The importance of content quality including reliability (of source) is more than ever, with flood of information and contents in web 2.0 online world, in which everyone can be content developer/owner and quality rather than quantity of information really counts. As Defren (2009) say in his article Mainstream Media Relations: More Important Than Ever, bloggers cannot replace journalists, and mainstream media/journalism do have great value in web 2.0 online world as well.

(2) Become also curators and contextualizers.

Second way is radically change their standpoint and mindset, and re-define themselves as curators and contextulalizers. Journalists may well be annoyed by bloggers easily copying and pasting their articles, which is about copyright issue but cannot be eliminated. They may also well be annoyed with bloggers making links from their articles and excerpt their articles. With this kind of radical change in standpoint, it is better for them to re-define by positioning themselves as curators and contextualizers.

With their professional skills, curators and contextualizers is quite possible and ideal yet not easily imitated by bloggers and other web audiences, meaning this gives high value to their content and is of competitive advantage. Linking and exception is part of a dialogue with bloggers and web audiences, and chances of gaining loyal readers. Blog articles may well be good source of contextualizing. It would be far better for journalists to regard bloggers as people to collaborate with rather than compete with.

4) Become social journalist and make direct relationship with web audience (readers).

This is one big advantage that journalists can make most of in the new business environment. There are 3 KFS (Key Factors for Success) to become social journalists.

(1) Leverage social media ecosystem.

This is about leveraging multi-platform. Journalists themselves need to proactively leverage social media ecosystem (tools) mentioned in the previous article Vol.5 – What Social Media Ecosystem Does Web 2.0 Realize? In doing so, they first need to define objective of leveraging social media, which could be collecting sources, promoting their content, and/or building relationship with bloggers and web audience.

(2) Use social media everyday to make it a routine.

To leverage social media, journalists need to use the media everyday based on the objectives defined. Article of Betancourt The Journalist’s Guide to Maximizing Personal Social Media ROI (2009) introduces live examples of how social journalists use social media everyday as routine and summarizes 5 tips for building a social media routine as below.

a) Look at what web audience and sources already in use and meet them there.
b) Make time to connect to the people on social media platforms, and care about them.
c) Make social media tools one of the things journalists check several times a day.
d) Be willing to share expertise and knowledge.
e) Do not be afraid to involve web audience. Look for opportunities to enlist readers to tell story of journalists.

(3) Build community.

This is about the fifth tip of building a social media routine mentioned by Betancourt. Journalists need to be proactive in involving bloggers and web audiences to build online community by open and interactive conversation, remembering that they are representing company/organization. This enables public hearing and monitoring as well as winning their trust and engagement. This also helps journalists to be successful as curators and contextualizers.


Having briefly discussed ideal journalism/journalists in web 2.0 online world, in the next article, the author would like to touch on news media as the organization (i.e. employer of the journalists mentioned above) and their business.


References:-

Betancourt, Leah (2009) How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom
http://mashable.com/2009/06/08/social-media-newsroom/

Betancourt, Leah (2009) The Journalist’s Guide to Maximizing Personal Social Media ROI
http://mashable.com/2009/12/02/personal-social-media-roi/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

Defren, Todd (2009) Mainstream Media Relations: More Important Than Ever
http://www.pr-squared.com/index.php/2009/09/mainstream-media-relations-more-important-than-ever

Fisher, Lauren (2009) 10 Industries That The Internet And Social Media Will Revolutionize
http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/10-industries-internet-social-media-revolutionize/

Kim, Cindy (2009) Social Media reshaping journalism - how will you cope?
http://cindykimblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/social-media-reshaping-journalism-how-will-you-cope/

Lauby, Sharlyn (2009) 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy
http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/

Lavrusik, Vadim (2009) 12 Things Newspapers Should Do to Survive
http://mashable.com/2009/08/14/newspaper-survival/

Lavruski, Vadim (2009) 8 Must-Have Traits of Tomorrow’s Journalist
http://mashable.com/2009/12/09/future-journalist/

Lewis, Woody (2009) Social Journalism: Past, Present, and Future
http://mashable.com/2009/04/07/social-journalism/

Scott, David Meerman (2007), The New Rules of Marketing & PR. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.