Vol.23: How Media/Communication Channels Are Changing? (Part 1)

In the previous article Vol.22: What Distinguished Internet/Web From Traditional Media?characteristics of Internet/web were compared with those of traditional media to distinguish uniqueness of Internet media and clarify key factors that would contribute to effectively leveraging each media for online and offline synergy.

The topic of this article and the next is paradigm shift in media and communication channel attributed to web/Internet, that dramatically changing traditional media.

1. What kind of paradigm shift has been in process (and still is) in media and communication channel, with the advent of the Internet and Web 2.0?

In short, in addition to emergence of online media, online and offline media and communication channels have been converging, and this has been triggering emergence of many different types of media and communication channels. Moreover, online is truly becoming ubiquitous media and communication channel, attributing to the fact that web 2.0 technologies mean emergence and proliferation of social media, further driven by mobile (platform, applications, devices).

Based on the Media/Communication Channel Paradigm Shift chart, the author would like to briefly explain how such paradigm shift is in progress. In doing so, the author would like to explain changes in traditional media and communication channels in this article, and changes in spatial channel in the next article.

2. How are traditional mass media changing?

Although the speed and degree varies from media to media, online and offline convergence in ongoing for traditional (mass) media, and for some media it may well evolve further more, changing to something quite different from what it is today.

1) Newspapers and magazines

In addition to traditional printed media, newspaper and magazine companies (publishers) now have online content online. As discussed in the previous article Vol.20: How Are News Media to Survive In Web 2.0 World? publishers are trying to develop their own optimum business strategy to establish new business model in the Internet era, which are mostly converging of online and offline business. Examples include making differentiation of printed and online content for co-existence of the two. In fact, Nikkei net, Japan’s leading newspaper website specialized for business and economy, will position (change) their online website as “electronics version newspaper”. Some others are going online exclusively. A Japanese magazine from Recruit (company name) specialized for job hunting closed its offline business and went online only many years ago, establishing new business model. Since the group company also had recruiting business unit as well, which was the leader in this industry in Japan, it had combined the magazine business and recruiting business, leveraging the power of Internet.

2) TV

To the author, online and offline convergence in TV is quite interesting and dramatic. Concept of traditional TV is changing with Hulu.com from consumers watching broadcasting when the content they are interested in are available or recording and watch it later. But now with Humu.com they can watch anytime.

Moreover, interactive TV is emerging and this could change to make revolution in TV media and online interactive TV may well become one of the primary online media in addition to PC and mobile. Interactive TV concept already existed in a vision of a Japanese consumer electronic giant (the company the author used to work for and the author developed web content to deliver this vision) in 2001, with content service called “T Mode” (vs. mobile content service in Japan called “I Mode” that started in 1997). The pilot TV set and content service became available from around 2004, and the author rolled out one of her PC web content to interactive TV (T Mode) content. Interactive TV era might still be “future concept”, it would surely come in not a distant future.

And lately, TV has been collaborating with mobile Internet and phone, at least in some TV programmes in Japan. For example, MCs of the TV programme would ask audience to vote by mobile Internet or by phone, and the result would be announced later in the same TV programme. Voting by phone used to be popular but lately voting by mobile Internet is much more popular.

Another example of TV collaborating with the Internet is in cooking TV programme, MCs would recap the ingredience and recipe at the end then encourage audience to access online page of the recipe by introducing them the URL. Similar tactics/methodologies of linking TV with the Internet are often seen in TV commercials in Japan. At the end of the 15 sec/30 sec TV commercial, search page with the product/service/brand name typed in is shown to encourage audience to get more information by the Internet.

The author feels that Interactive TV and its platform/content services have potential to integrate everything to make it simple. Interactive TV would be ideal for quiz, voting and online shopping TV programmes. Interactive TV would be another driver of further innovation in content distribution.

3) DM and coupons

DM and coupons are no longer only in print. Rather, more and more consumers download them from the Internet, print out, and take it with them in shopping, dining, staying at a hotel etc. DM and coupons are already becoming paperless, and with further evolution of content/web service distribution and applications, it is quite possible that DM and coupons would totally become paperless in the near future.

3. Are similar changes in progress in other communication channel as well?

Yes, changes that are same in essence are in progress in other communication channels as well. Face-to-face communication in person and is offline but with skype, similar benefit can be obtained online. Same goes for phone. Benefit similar to radio can be obtained by podcast. Skype and podcast are both of web 2.0 technologies, as explained in the previous article Vol.5: What Social Media Ecosystem Does Web 2.0 Realize?


Changes in spatial channel are also dramatic and interesting. This will be discussed in the next article as Part 2.


References:-

Mitachi, Takashi (1998), Deconstruction: Disintegration and Reintegration of Value Chain. Diamond Harvard Business Review, October-November, in Japanese, pp110-123.

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.20: How Are News Media to Survive In Web 2.0 World?

In the previous article "Vol.19: What is Ideal Web 2.0 Wocial Journalism / Jourlist?", ideal journalism and journalist was discussed. The topic of this article is how news media as the organization (and employer of journalists) need to change to survive in web 2.0 online world.

1. What does news media need to know to succeed in Web 2.0 online world?

News media need to be aware of the drastically changing environment and the paradigm shift in the business model of journalism, attributing to the game change of news and all content business by Internet/web 2.0. This is supported by Fisher’s article of 10 Industries That The Internet And Social Media Will Revolutionize (2009), with print media as #1, television as #3, music as #6 advertising as #8 and public relations as #9.

2. What is happening in the news media and all content media industries?

There have been scrap and build (such as of AOL and NCB selling announcements), and staff cuts in news media and other content industries. Focusing on news organizations, some examples are mentioned by Steiger (2009) in his article Investigative reporting in the Web era, including closing of business, operating in bankruptcy proceedings, and drastic cut in team and staff/journalists. According to Steigner, newspapers have bought out or laid off nearly 26,000 journalists, which is the equivalent of more than 20 New York Timeses.

3. Are news and other content business market really shrinking?

No, it is not; it is actually on the increase in total. It may seem to be shrinking if looked focusing on traditional media business and/or as an extension of traditional business; however, total news and all other content business is not shrinking but potential demand is increasing. Take music industry for example. It is true that CD business is decreasing with the advent of online music business but with easier access to more online music content, more people are actually consuming more music content and thus total music business has expanded.

Many of the myth of news and content business are not quite right. Curley (2009) says in his article Crossing the burning bridge, under the new game in the Internet era, “it often appears as if the more our content is distributed, the more revenues decline”, but his stance is also that it all depends on how professional news media adapts to the changing business environment. The myth attributes to inappropriate, obsolete business model of many current news media and other content business organizations, not knowing the KFS under the new game rule.

4. What are the KFS to succeed in new game?

KFS to create demand and market to succeed in news and other content business are quality and distribution channel of content.

1) High quality content is a must.

It is true that news business seems to be on the decline in general, demand for high quality news content does exist and even seems to be increasing.

As mentioned in the previous article Vol.10 – How to Successfully Develop Web Content to Directly Reach Buyers, content is the king, and in addition, context the queen, as Joel (2009) advocates, and online consumers do pay for high quality content. This means that content business can be successful even thought many free content are available online. The issue is quality of the content.

According to Mohsin’s article The Future Of Paid Content (2009), global online consumers still place more value on content produced by “professionals” and pay for (perceived) quality content. Steigner (2009) is also of the same stance. This is the very reason why Comcast, the “content distributor” company decided to acquire NBC, the “content” company.

2) Controlling distribution channel to deliver content is also vital.

Controlling distribution channel to deliver high quality content is also a crucial competitive advantage under the new game with the emergence of Internet and web 2.0. Lewis (2009) says in his article Social Journalism: Past, Present, and Future, the future of social journalism will be driven by disintermediation, the replacement or removal of middlemen in the supply chain, and the author feels this has already started. This is also mentioned by a Japanese authority in this field in his online article series about IT and media/content business that he posts regularly on a prestigious media website.

Disintermediation is KFS for many traditional offline company businesses (manufacturers, retailers etc.), Dell model being an excellent example, and is indeed crucial KFS for online business. Some examples to name a few include Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! and iPod of Apple to name a few, all of which resulted to development and establishment of new business models. Such companies stimulated potential customer demand, created new market, and became the market leader, leveraging first mover advantage.

3) Collaboration is the key to achieve and leverage both quality and distribution channel of content.

With the objective of effectively and efficiently produce high quality content meeting customer needs and delivering them directly to online customers, collaboration has become a trend among news media organizations. This is quite natural when many companies in other industries (including offline traditional industries) are making alliances and collaboration to improve their competitive advantage.

Lavruski (2009) introduces with concreteness how news media are doing this in his article 7 Ways News Media are Becoming More Collaborative, mentioning the 7 points below. These are in line with what the author described as ideal social journalists in the previous article Vol.19 – What is Ideal Web 2.0 Social Journalism / Journalist?

- Curating and filtering the stream.
- Working with the audience.
- Leverage collaborative tools (e.g. Google Wave)
- Social media partnership.
- Large news partnering with blogs
- Local news organization teaming up
- University partnership

5. What do news (and other content business) organizations need to know and do immediately?

News media and all other content business organizations are required to change their mindset and overcome the mission in the next few years to survive. Curley (2009) describes this by saying “get all the way across the burning bridge, from analog to digital journalism, and make the difficult choices that this crossing presents”.

Leveraging learning from, for example, Crocker’s article 4 Things Old Media Can Learn From the Music Industry’s Last Decade, news media and other old media need to know that myth is exaggeration and change their mindset. They need to fully understand the essence of the paradigm shift in their business environment triggered by web 2.0/social media ecosystem and determine correct KFS. Social media ecosystem introduced in the previous article Vol.5 – What Social Media Ecosystem Does Web 2.0 Realize? could be of reference. Then they would be able to develop and establish new business model meeting the new era to win the new game.

It is with successfully adapting to paradigm shift and developing/establishing new business model that the value and importance of professional mainstream news media would increase more than ever, as Defren (2009) insists in his article Mainstream Media Relations: More Important Than Ever.


In the next article, the author would like to further discuss some of the actions news media (organizations), one of the primary content business players, are expected to take survive in web 2.0 world. The author believes that marketers, communicators, PR representatives and online business owners can learn from such actions how to succeed in their web/Internet marketing and online business.


References:-

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

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/

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/

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