So much is being written about the question of what consumers will pay for content online. The latest study by BCG says that US consumers on average will pay only $3/month, the lowest of any country surveyed. Newspaper companies and journalism organizations all over the country are stymied by the question, doing studies, crunching numbers, issuing pronouncements.
Well, from the consumer side it's just as schizophrenic. I'd hate to be called into a focus group on the subject. Let's see....
At our house we are avid Internet and TV news junkies, but we also subscribe (and pay) for a newspaper and 9 magazines (apart from business trade pubs). Let's break that out further: Last year at this time, we got one NYT and one WSJ delivered to the house. Then we decided, too much paper, too little time, let's streamline. We waffled about how we wanted to read the NYT, then realized that the key factor for us was behavioral: different formats were appropriate for reading in different venues. We decided to keep getting the 'paper on ink' version on the days we commute, and eliminate Satuday and Sunday, opting instead for the Times Reader on the weekend, an elegant download solution that's perfect for browsing with a cup of coffee on the kitchen counter. Times Reader comes free for paid home delivery subscribers, so that was easy.
Next, we discussed which paper we preferred for the morning commute: turns out that while we were each grabbing one paper for the train ride, we both really wanted the New York Times. On days when Mark was taking the Journal, he was buying a copy of the NYT on the newsstand at $2 per copy!That made no sense economically, if we both wanted the NY Times, we should get two copies at the home delivery price. So we let the WSJ lapse. I heard radio ads for half-price home delivery promotions, so I called the NYT 800 number, convinced them to cancel our account, re-start us as new subscribers, and give us the two-for-one 'introductory' deal. Mission accomplished, we now we get 2 New York Times home delivered weekdays for the price of one. The WSJ keeps sending cheaper and cheaper renewal offers (down to $10/month for home delivery AND the annual online subscription). Seems pathetic, it's worth more than that, but for now I'm not buying.
Now we get to the weeklies. Until a year ago we got both Time and Newsweek along with 4 other weeklies: New York Magazine, TheWeek (which only I read), The New Yorker (delivered to Mark's office to eliminate the paper pile-up at home), and TimeOutNY (delivered to our NYC apartment where it's most useful). New York has become a 'must have', I find no suitable substitute, so it's safe. But 52 copies of 6 magazines makes for 312 weekly magazines, too many dead trees for inside the house, especially if, like me, you have a hard time discarding. So we decided one newsweekly was enough; Newsweek announced a new strategy that seemed a good fit with our election-year media habits (issues-oriented, more thoughtful, less fluff, MSNBC-like) so we decided to stay on board and try it out. We get a good professional discount price, something less than $30/year, and it's worth it. Brownie points, too, for a publication that takes a stand and implements a new product and audience strategy! But six months in, we're wondering: the world's issues are daunting, we could use a LITTLE features fluff mixed in with the commentary, maybe we should resubscribe to Time again? So if we do, will we renew Newsweek? Jury's out, please don't send me a reader survey yet.
Then recently TheWeek came up for renewal and I was on the fence. The renewal offer by mail was buy two for $59. But no one else I knew wanted a copy (our 23-year-old daughter gets The Economist and Vanity Fair, she tried TheWeek but it didn't stick. Our younger daughter is still in college and only wants her People subscription). Instead I went online and the site was selling one year for $49, or $39 if you agree to auto-renew by credit card. I hate auto-renew, why commit now to next year's rate when they're so changeable, so I wasn't compelled. Then I clicked on an innocuous little link labeled 'to renew', and lo-and-behold, same annual subscription offered for $19. So I bought. (I told this story to a friend in the magazine publishing business who said I was taken; do a Google search for 'buy TheWeek', he said, and I'd have found it from a discount magazine agent for $4.99, which is what he paid). Oh well, I rationalized, a publisher deserves to make SOME profit.
Next on the radar: The New Yorker. Really, we'd be happier if it were a monthly.
What's the point of all this? I suppose my message is that the publishers' schizophrenia about pricing is mirrored in the consumer's indecision about the same. (And I haven't even addressed the role of the bloggers and online news aggregators!) It's a chicken and egg scenario, at least for the short term. We're confused about what we want and what it's worth; there's an explosion of news and information, much of it now offered free. Readers/subscribers/users - whatever we're being called - are like the patrons at an 'all you can eat' buffet, gorging on everything because we're not being forced to make trade-offs.
All the consultants in the world can do market research ad nauseam, but while we adjust, we're all going to use our own peculiar antennae to decide what to consume and what to pay for. Publishers need to get smarter about knowing their customers and serving them with the best content wrapped in the best user experience, and experimenting intelligently to find out where they fit in the new order. Eventually they'll compel us to make some hard decisions.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Sarah Palin's on LinkedIn
She's been on Facebook posting 'policy' statements for quite some time now, but Sarah Palin, ex Governor of Alaska and VP wish-a-be/wannabe has finally joined the ranks of the social media career-minded set, logging a profile on LinkedIn.
Palin's listing on LinkedIn was first reported yesterday by HuffPo, and since then, a second fuller profile has appeared, making one wonder if the first was a hoax or, more likely, an inept effort to edit the profile inadvertently resulted in the creation of a second. In itself, that's a clue to this crowd that someone at the helm isn't terribly confident with using the site.
As an executive recruiter, I'd counsel Palin to get herself a serious career coach. Her resume broadcasts a number of red flags (no media pun intended). Top three concerns:
1) Lack of staying power. A major hurdle for anyone above middle management; may be impossible to overcome when it's a thread throughout the career. First she switches among 5 colleges for no clear reason (only 3 are acknowledged on the LinkedIn resume) before completing a basic undergrad degree. Later she resigns a Chairperson role at the Oil and Gas Commission in frustration without finishing the job. Then she commits the ultimate faux pas: resigning the largest executive role in her career, the Governorship of Alaska, in mid term without apparent cause.
2) Inadequate preparation coupled with Lack of self-awareness. Palin's role as a small mayor of Wasila was inadequate experience for tackling the broader responsibilities of state and national office. Not acknowledging that for herself and failing to build her management skills in manageable (successful) stages indicates a critical lack of perspective and self-awareness --a key attribute on the emotional intelligence scale. Palin's most sustained executive experience, Mayor of tiny Wasilla, AL, is at best a first-rung small-town management training gig, poor preparation for the roles she subsequently attempted. In business parlance, this is like growing up in a seat-of-the-pants small business culture and thinking this qualifies you for a seat on the Executive Committee at GE. Not 'knowing what you don't know' is an immediate disqualifier for successful leadership. It's a real problem.
3) Personal Branding Issues: At the reference stage, a simple Google search will doom this candidate. What's all that stuff about ethics charges, gossip and dissonance on the home front, guns and animal cruelty, and incoherent TV interviews? And why has Senator John McCain, her #1 reference on LinkedIn, suddenly stopped endorsing her in public?
LinkedIn is a great site for a recruiter. This one will not be sending InMail to Sarah Palin.
Palin's listing on LinkedIn was first reported yesterday by HuffPo, and since then, a second fuller profile has appeared, making one wonder if the first was a hoax or, more likely, an inept effort to edit the profile inadvertently resulted in the creation of a second. In itself, that's a clue to this crowd that someone at the helm isn't terribly confident with using the site.
As an executive recruiter, I'd counsel Palin to get herself a serious career coach. Her resume broadcasts a number of red flags (no media pun intended). Top three concerns:
1) Lack of staying power. A major hurdle for anyone above middle management; may be impossible to overcome when it's a thread throughout the career. First she switches among 5 colleges for no clear reason (only 3 are acknowledged on the LinkedIn resume) before completing a basic undergrad degree. Later she resigns a Chairperson role at the Oil and Gas Commission in frustration without finishing the job. Then she commits the ultimate faux pas: resigning the largest executive role in her career, the Governorship of Alaska, in mid term without apparent cause.
2) Inadequate preparation coupled with Lack of self-awareness. Palin's role as a small mayor of Wasila was inadequate experience for tackling the broader responsibilities of state and national office. Not acknowledging that for herself and failing to build her management skills in manageable (successful) stages indicates a critical lack of perspective and self-awareness --a key attribute on the emotional intelligence scale. Palin's most sustained executive experience, Mayor of tiny Wasilla, AL, is at best a first-rung small-town management training gig, poor preparation for the roles she subsequently attempted. In business parlance, this is like growing up in a seat-of-the-pants small business culture and thinking this qualifies you for a seat on the Executive Committee at GE. Not 'knowing what you don't know' is an immediate disqualifier for successful leadership. It's a real problem.
3) Personal Branding Issues: At the reference stage, a simple Google search will doom this candidate. What's all that stuff about ethics charges, gossip and dissonance on the home front, guns and animal cruelty, and incoherent TV interviews? And why has Senator John McCain, her #1 reference on LinkedIn, suddenly stopped endorsing her in public?
LinkedIn is a great site for a recruiter. This one will not be sending InMail to Sarah Palin.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Business Week and the Price of Timidity
Today is the end of an era, the sale of Business Week to Bloomberg, at a value so low that would have been impossible to contemplate when I was on the management team there in the early-mid 90's. What a difference 15 years could have made.
Back then, new media was new and, yes, ancillary; a few of us had the privilege of moving into roles dedicated to early experimentation with online media. For us, that meant being the skunkworks team responsible for launching BusinessWeek Online on AOL before that online service had its first million members; and then, planning the launch on the Web. We got it done on the cheap, subsidized by AOL itself which needed some big brands to grow its own business. Sometime between AOL and the Internet launch, I realized that the oportunity for further innovation in that culture over the next few years would be slow. So in '96 I went to a downtown push technology start-up (which my kids at the time referred to as iConfusion, but it really had another name!) The start-up had its own set of unique and memorable challenges; eight months there was a roller coaster ride that 10 years at McGraw Hill would never have matched. But it was exhilirating. At least the start-up's mistakes were exuberant failures of execution, rather than failures to try to see and catch the future.
The time for media companies to support experimentation, to learn, and set the stage for today's challenges was back then; ad revenues were high, cash flow was good, there was no immediate threat to the status quo. Andthat was precisely why top management kept the blinders on. It's only now -- with the industry in crisis mode and no rational excuses left -- that 'traditional' media businesses are finally serious about the change mantra.
As today's headlines show, timidity has its price.
Back then, new media was new and, yes, ancillary; a few of us had the privilege of moving into roles dedicated to early experimentation with online media. For us, that meant being the skunkworks team responsible for launching BusinessWeek Online on AOL before that online service had its first million members; and then, planning the launch on the Web. We got it done on the cheap, subsidized by AOL itself which needed some big brands to grow its own business. Sometime between AOL and the Internet launch, I realized that the oportunity for further innovation in that culture over the next few years would be slow. So in '96 I went to a downtown push technology start-up (which my kids at the time referred to as iConfusion, but it really had another name!) The start-up had its own set of unique and memorable challenges; eight months there was a roller coaster ride that 10 years at McGraw Hill would never have matched. But it was exhilirating. At least the start-up's mistakes were exuberant failures of execution, rather than failures to try to see and catch the future.
The time for media companies to support experimentation, to learn, and set the stage for today's challenges was back then; ad revenues were high, cash flow was good, there was no immediate threat to the status quo. Andthat was precisely why top management kept the blinders on. It's only now -- with the industry in crisis mode and no rational excuses left -- that 'traditional' media businesses are finally serious about the change mantra.
As today's headlines show, timidity has its price.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Old Media Meets New
Sometimes you're just struck by the ironies. We re-visited Hyde Park this weekend, and meandered through the FDR Library & Museum, which is running an exhibit on FDR's First 100 Days. Lots of interesting things to compare. Back in 1933, FDR revolutionized political communication with the simple introduction of radio 'fireside chats', bringing conversation from a sitting president into the living rooms of American households for the first time. The museum is wall-papered with thousands of letters and telegrams to that president from all corners of the country, expressing support for the simple fact of his efforts to share his thoughts and plans informally in a time of national crisis . Fast forward, we've got a new president whose campaign showed us how to harness the grassroots power of the Internet to engage audiences, and who has recently taken some heat for 'over-exposing' his message through a marathon series of appearances on TV news and talk shows.
At the end of the museum visit we got back in the car for the 90-minute ride home. And did what along the way? Listened to a CD of personal short stories from a live event sponsored by The Moth, an organization that brings busy people together in cities to hear well-crafted stories from well and lesser-known storytellers. The next day, I took an early walk while plugged in to the latest Slate Gabfest podcast on my ipod. Marveling that the old radio magic of 'listening' is still with us today after all.
At the end of the museum visit we got back in the car for the 90-minute ride home. And did what along the way? Listened to a CD of personal short stories from a live event sponsored by The Moth, an organization that brings busy people together in cities to hear well-crafted stories from well and lesser-known storytellers. The next day, I took an early walk while plugged in to the latest Slate Gabfest podcast on my ipod. Marveling that the old radio magic of 'listening' is still with us today after all.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Eventful Media
This is a big week for events in NY. The world leaders are all at the UN. In other parts of town, though, I went to two forums celebrating innovation in media.
On Tuesday evening, Ashoka, the leading social entrepreneurs organization, hosted an event to introduce three Fellows from their News & Knowledge Initiative (http://knowledge.ashoka.org/) Senior Fellow Jimmy Wales spoke about the vision for Wikipedia, and the new fellows, journalist Juanita Leon from Colombia, film entrepreneur Stefan Kaspar from Peru, and tech entrepreneur Nicholas Reville, founder of the Participatory Culture Foundation, presented their programs and took questions from a group of NY media pros. Their ongoing initiatives - an independent, participatory online news site; a network of micro-cinemas in rural Latin America; and free open-source video players -- all serve the broad mission of providing access and inspiration to people globally through information. It was refreshing to be in a room of people who celebrate media for its social and political value.
Yesterday, I dropped in on several of the Advertising Week sessions at Times Center and the Paley Center - where the interests are far more commercial. All very well-attended. Most notable was COO Sheryl Sandberg's presentation about Facebook. Her pitch was aimed largely at making the case for Facebook as a marketing platform (a partnership was announced with Nielsen Online and Sony Pictures' Michael Lynton took the mike to share Sony's successes in promoting movies through the social network). More interesting was the opportunity to soak in the sheer numbers of people in 'the conversation' (300 million Facebook users, 50% who visit the site daily) and the mounting evidence about how Facebook has infused itself into the pop culture. Not just a platform for connecting friends but also, occasionally, a network that's filled in the missing links in a crime investigation or through which people have turned first to send SOS signals in an emergency. (Sandberg's advice: Call 911 first!)
On Tuesday evening, Ashoka, the leading social entrepreneurs organization, hosted an event to introduce three Fellows from their News & Knowledge Initiative (http://knowledge.ashoka.org/) Senior Fellow Jimmy Wales spoke about the vision for Wikipedia, and the new fellows, journalist Juanita Leon from Colombia, film entrepreneur Stefan Kaspar from Peru, and tech entrepreneur Nicholas Reville, founder of the Participatory Culture Foundation, presented their programs and took questions from a group of NY media pros. Their ongoing initiatives - an independent, participatory online news site; a network of micro-cinemas in rural Latin America; and free open-source video players -- all serve the broad mission of providing access and inspiration to people globally through information. It was refreshing to be in a room of people who celebrate media for its social and political value.
Yesterday, I dropped in on several of the Advertising Week sessions at Times Center and the Paley Center - where the interests are far more commercial. All very well-attended. Most notable was COO Sheryl Sandberg's presentation about Facebook. Her pitch was aimed largely at making the case for Facebook as a marketing platform (a partnership was announced with Nielsen Online and Sony Pictures' Michael Lynton took the mike to share Sony's successes in promoting movies through the social network). More interesting was the opportunity to soak in the sheer numbers of people in 'the conversation' (300 million Facebook users, 50% who visit the site daily) and the mounting evidence about how Facebook has infused itself into the pop culture. Not just a platform for connecting friends but also, occasionally, a network that's filled in the missing links in a crime investigation or through which people have turned first to send SOS signals in an emergency. (Sandberg's advice: Call 911 first!)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Saturday in the Park with David
So, on Saturday we're in from the 'burbs, staying at our Upper West Side apartment, and we decide to take in the Natural History Museum and then a walk in Central Park, where it's all sun and clear air, a perfect last weekend of Summer. The museum still has its glory but it feels dated and the dinosaurs seem trapped in another era, and anyway it's too dark to be inside on a sunny day. So we cross the street and into another world. We have entered the serendipity of Saturday in the Park.
We're watching the rowboats on the lake, when the sound of guitar music drifts in from somewhere across, and we're looking over at a hill of New Yorkers sitting on the grass listening to a guitar guy. Later we discover his name is David, and apparently he's a regular (we're not, so we didn't know) and he sings Simon & Garfunkel and easy mellow tunes that appeal to us baby boomers in the crowd. A bride and her photog entourage cross the field and everyone applauds, then he sings a love song in their honor. Turns out our David also writes songs, whose lyrics have a bit of bite that brings us back to reality, fittingly, because let's be honest, this was a week in which the 24/7 cable news cycle was all about outbursts of uncivility. He sings out his latest tune, "Glenn Beck Scares Me" whose verses include "Tom Cruise Scares Me" and "Dick Cheney Scares Me" and you can fill in the blank and sing all day. The audience is with it, he gets an easy laugh up and down the grassy hill, and some even sing along. It's New York after all, and we're enjoying a carefree day in the park, but we're never more than a few hours away from our ideologies. And then as fast as they came, things go from politics to whimsy, and ThatGuitarMan (turns out that's his URL) challenges the crowd to get up and skip.
And some people say New Yorkers are jaded? Have a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLoT1c43MW0&feature=related
We're watching the rowboats on the lake, when the sound of guitar music drifts in from somewhere across, and we're looking over at a hill of New Yorkers sitting on the grass listening to a guitar guy. Later we discover his name is David, and apparently he's a regular (we're not, so we didn't know) and he sings Simon & Garfunkel and easy mellow tunes that appeal to us baby boomers in the crowd. A bride and her photog entourage cross the field and everyone applauds, then he sings a love song in their honor. Turns out our David also writes songs, whose lyrics have a bit of bite that brings us back to reality, fittingly, because let's be honest, this was a week in which the 24/7 cable news cycle was all about outbursts of uncivility. He sings out his latest tune, "Glenn Beck Scares Me" whose verses include "Tom Cruise Scares Me" and "Dick Cheney Scares Me" and you can fill in the blank and sing all day. The audience is with it, he gets an easy laugh up and down the grassy hill, and some even sing along. It's New York after all, and we're enjoying a carefree day in the park, but we're never more than a few hours away from our ideologies. And then as fast as they came, things go from politics to whimsy, and ThatGuitarMan (turns out that's his URL) challenges the crowd to get up and skip.
And some people say New Yorkers are jaded? Have a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLoT1c43MW0&feature=related
Friday, September 18, 2009
Coming Late to the Party
To blog or not to blog? I've thought about it lots of times and come up with the standard excuses: time, commitment, what to say out loud, what to keep to myself, what hasn't already been said? No one will accuse me of being an early adopter on this one. But it's too compelling an opportunity, and a fascinating time to be inside the media business. So, I've decided to dive in.
I'm starting this blog, MediaCoordinates, for a couple reasons. In my day-to-day life, I have two perspectives: that of the avid consumer of media and information, and that of an entrepreneurial executive search business owner who consults to media companies and investors. I spend my days with (mostly) interesting people, ideas, and companies, in (mostly) one-on-one conversations. And I get to 'see' things from multiple angles. Here, I'll be able to weigh in occasionally with perspectives that pass my own idiosyncratic screen as interesting, thought-provoking, , or just worthy of a few extra minutes' consideration.
There we go. Let me know what you think. Looking forward to the broader conversation.
I'm starting this blog, MediaCoordinates, for a couple reasons. In my day-to-day life, I have two perspectives: that of the avid consumer of media and information, and that of an entrepreneurial executive search business owner who consults to media companies and investors. I spend my days with (mostly) interesting people, ideas, and companies, in (mostly) one-on-one conversations. And I get to 'see' things from multiple angles. Here, I'll be able to weigh in occasionally with perspectives that pass my own idiosyncratic screen as interesting, thought-provoking, , or just worthy of a few extra minutes' consideration.
There we go. Let me know what you think. Looking forward to the broader conversation.
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