strategy+business (s+b), a "thought-leadership business magazine," is a terrific business resource. In the current issue, an article called Reinventing Print Media offers four strategies to turn today's print media companies into the media companies of the future.
- Develop deeper relationships with readers around targeted interest areas. Strong print brands enjoy a trusted relationship with their audience; readers are loyal to print publications because they provide high-quality content about specific interest areas. Digital media afford opportunities to deepen and extend those relationships.
- Tap into revenue streams beyond advertising and circulation. New publishing models will include marketing services such as custom content, consumer insights, and lead generation, and new offerings for customers such as premium content and data-based applications.
- Reinvent the content delivery model (with a particular focus on lowering costs) and emphasize a “profitable core” of unique and brand-defining material. Print media companies need to avoid the formula-driven approaches to cost cutting that have been prevalent so far, and instead adopt approaches that better align their cost of content with the revenues generated.
- Innovate with new products and pricing models. As the pace of change continues to quicken in the digital world, as new devices for accessing printed content continue to emerge, and as new applications are developed to exploit online content, this will lead to as-yet-untapped opportunities for media companies.
Read the entire article, there's a lot of "meat" behind those strategies.
The authors' conclusions:
The survival of print media in some form is no small matter. At their best, newspapers and magazines enlighten, educate, and enable the smooth running both of the global economy and of civil societies.Today the pain is real, but their opportunities have rarely been so great. With aggressive action today to foster innovation and more aggressive cost management based on these new success strategies, media companies can position themselves for a bright future.
Discussion
By Adam Edelman on Sep 02, 2009
It's all about the customer database. The cleaner the database, the greater the results of these four strategies.
By MichaelJ on Sep 03, 2009
Adam, I think you've hit on the inconvenient truth about print media strategy. Very few of the people who need our technology have clean databases.
Perhaps there is a way that Print could help. If transpromo is used as "transinfo" it might get into the better database game.
Here's what I'm trying to say. Suppose a brand uses purls on their offer stream to see which works. The tools and process are pretty well evolved from the direct mail part of our industry. They are experts at testing, testing, testing. Then scaling once the numbers work.
The new thing might be that tests can be conducted at a fraction of the cost of a test mailing. Offers in a transpromo workflow can be sliced and diced at speeds and costs that have been previously unimaginable.
That puts transpromo in the "actionable information" business. Much higher margins than the print business by itself.
By Tim Ellis on Sep 03, 2009
On data cleanliness - all good points, but while the "bus" might be spotless... it might be wise to check if it is taking you to where you want to go?
One problem with sales & marketing data is that it normally represents a historical snapshot of where one has come from... which - given recent market conditions and industry upheavals - may well not be where one ought to be heading towards...
Yes, good "rich" data should provide some valuable clues such as the most profitable marketing veins to mine in...
But it might be the brave amongst us that see it only as a stepping stone - and to look for ways in which it can be enhanced... thinking 'quality' rather than just quantity. And then, by comparing it to the wider universe, show some sizable gaps. Which may well become the perfect strategic "compass"...
Discussion
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