Multi-Platform Comes to Ad Sales. At Last.

Summary:  The Tribune Company just launched Tribune 365 (www.trb365.com) that claims to provide integrated marketing campaigns—that is, ads across multiple platforms available within the Tribune media—newspapers (e.g., The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times), other print outlets and television stations.  In fact—and probably more important—it represents integrated ad sales:  one team to sell ad inventory across all of their platforms (and, with hope, others, as well).  We think this is a brilliant step—and long, long overdue.

The Details.

It is pretty straightforward—and both astonishing and understandable (OK, OK, so it’s a contradiction:  Call it a paradox)—that a major, and heavily indebted, media company has finally figured out one of their biggest assets:  multiple platforms.  The Tribune Company’s initiative is called Tribune 365 (www.trb365.com).

Selling ads across these platforms to an advertiser in what the ad industry calls “integrated ad campaigns” becomes a lot more attractive.  More to the point, they overcame one of the biggest obstacles, which is the silo-like ad sales structures of newspaper ad teams selling their ads, TV station ad sales teams selling their inventory, and so on.  Media reports point to a recent campaign for Target, with ads in newspapers, on Tribune TV stations and Tribune websites.

So What?

“Integrated ad campaigns” are not that new but what is new is that they are now available where they count:  where the inventory resides.  This makes it likely that we will see them with more frequency.  Moreover, think about it for a bit:  What the Tribune is doing is a classic case of the model that like very much, which is “audience integration.”  That’s what diversified media companies do best.  They bring audiences to advertisers.  The more diversified they are then the more audiences they can aggregate.

Aggregation recognizes that audiences get their content from multiple sources.  While there may be some overlap (someone who reads “The Trib” and watches a Tribune TV station), there are many people who use one medium and not another.  If those media happen to be owned by one media company, why not place ads across all of them?  That’s audience aggregation.

It’s not always so simple.  We have often seen civil war break out in media companies among the ad sales teams.  The sales team responsible for TV ad sales rebels when the website sales team for the TV station calls on the same clients for their inventory.  It can get ugly.

And it is understandable, because you are dealing with the livelihood of salespeople.  Someone who has cultivated the ad agency (or internal ad buyer) of a large advertiser for years relies upon the sales commission to pay the mortgage .  Why should he or she let a competitor—even someone in the same corporate family—put the salesperson in financial jeopardy?

And (we hope) that’s what the Tribune Company has figured out.  We hope that the integrated sales team means that commissions are not limited to one medium because that is the only way that you can (and should) change the ad sales culture.  After all, ad revenues amount to the lifeblood of most media companies.  And selling ad inventory makes that lifeblood pump.  And earning those commissions is what enables the sale of that inventory.

There is one more thing to add, which is that the ad sales team will be sitting on some of the most lucrative assets–the date from the various media.  User data are what advertisers want.  Multi-platform ad campaigns are what can generate rich data.

New Experiment in News & Coffee

Summary–Newspapers Innovate:  An innovative approach to newspapers is being launched in the Czech Republic:  A (very) well-funded group will open cafes linked to the newsrooms of hyperlocal papers (to be published by the group).  Many Europeans like their espresso with their newspaper (and vice versa) so why not?

Yes, we have promised that this blog is not about newspapers, but we cannot help but look for innovations while all around us people are singing dirges.  The New York Times reported that a new venture has launched in the Czech Republic to publish hyperlocal newspapers in four cities and to open associated cafes.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/technology/internet/11iht-papers.html?8ad&emc=seiab1

PPF Group will soon publish multiple local newspapers on a weekly basis, in addition to multiple websites (can you say “repurpose?”), plus they will open cafes that will be next to—we mean right next to—the newsrooms for these papers.  Literally, the door will be open to the newsroom of each paper.

In addition, visitors will get help on such matters as building their social network profiles or other training on Internet skills.  The entire project will be branded “Nasa Adresa” or “Our Address.”  They may try to scale the model to elsewhere across Europe.

Oh yes, a couple of minor bits of information:  PPF Group has about a gejillion dollars (though they are putting about $13.4m into it).  And, oh yeah, I knew we forgot something:  Google is a major participant, providing the training and, of course, the advertising.  It just so happens that Google is not first in search in the Czech Republic.

So What?

So, it might be a good model.  The cross-platform approach adds the “real world” to demand for news plus Internet access.  It is a recognition that a “Café Society” is an optimal place to create an intersection of social practices.

Then again, its “goodness” as a model may depend largely upon the unusual circumstances there, to wit:

1. Czech is not spoken by a large number of people, so there is not a lot of space for competition, especially from major players who need large scale;  only those who take localization seriously—e.g., Google—would have a chance.
2. The Czechs have a kind of “Cafe Society,” which in this case means that they like to sit at the cafe while sipping their latte and reading.  It is like Paris.  However, other European countries are not quite the same:  The Italians named their coffee espresso for a reason.  Most coffeehouses there do not even have chairs (only in the restaurant part of the place).
   
3. People in European countries tend to like their newspapers, very much.  The hyperlocal approach, though novel, could be appealing, especially in new democracies, where the local politics are a hot topic.  Think of the broadsheets and pamphlets of London over the centuries.

Shame on You, Twitterfeed, & All Those with Bad GUIs and Help Pages.

Summary:  Stop this nonsense about completely cryptic methods of sharing and interconnecting, especially through (and to) Twitter. 917 people posing the same question should raise some eyebrows.

I am truly annoyed.  Furniture-throwing kind of annoyed.  I just spent an hour trying to get Twitterfeed to work, which required me to create a NEW OpenID ID (no, they would not accept my usual one) and still it would not permit me to post my blogs to Twitter and the help pages took me to another place (Get Satisfaction) where I had to get ANOTHER ID to post my question-and I was one of 917 people with the same question.

My comments here should indict four groups of people and their management teams and their VC backers:  Twitter, Twitterfeed, OpenID and Get Satisfaction.  Stop it.  Now. I won’t even get started on Tweetdeck.  Or Twitterberry.  Oh yes, and FeedValidator.  It is simply evil.  Unless you have a degree in computer science.

What is it with the technology world and GUIs and help pages??????????????????? Is it some supercilious sense of superiority????????????  Is it supposed to be some kind of computer science exam when you go to the page on why your feed won’t parse on Twitterfeed?  When will they figure out that 99.999999 % of us DO NOT WANT TO SPEND OUR LIVES TRYING TO FIGURE THIS STUFF OUT???!!!! And I do not want to pay for our IT department to spend one minute on it.  Stop it.  Now.

Note to Get Satisfaction and OpenID:  Translate your sites into Romanian or Urdu.  It would be just as useful to me in those languages as it is in English.

Note to Venture Capitalists:  If you can figure out Twitterfeed, it does not mean it will be successful.  Try out its GUI on someone on, say, Main Street (or its equivalent) in Merced, not on Sandhill Road.  For brownie points, try the GUI of Get Satisfaction or OpenID. Come on.

Facebook as an Object Lesson. The reason that Facebook is so successful (not to mention LinkedIn) is that its GUI is really, really, really simple.  What’s the number of users:  220 million?  Twitter is fast catching on but it is sort of like a Microsoft product:  Very nearly 100% of the users only know how to post tweets and NOTHING ELSE.  No one knows how to use most of the features of it.  Very nearly 100% of the Facebook users know how to use everything on their profiles.

Now, true, Facebook’s GUI is kind of dumbed down.  So it is not a model for Twitter but it ought to be an object lesson.

I have been in the business (technology) since 1989.  I am not stupid.  For most of that time I have considered myself a beta testing group of one person.  It is simple:  If I don’t get it then something like 90% of the desired market will not get it.  And you know what?  My track record has been pretty impressive.

OK, so my blogs are not read by gejillions.  But they are accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.  And they do not have to go to OpenID and create an ID through myvidloop.com.  and Twitterfeed cannot parse them and someone in Nairobi can read what I write.  WHAT IS GOING ON??

Note to Twitter, Twitterfeed, OpenID and Get Satisfaction.  Pack a bag and go to Cincinnati.  Knock on the door of Proctor & Gamble and ask for help on determining consumer preferences for GUI design and, just as important, your help pages.  Help pages should solve the problem and if they do not, have a backup plan-for example, a screen capture button.

Anyone tried some of the Google apps?  What about Google Voice?  It isn’t a great GUI but, you know what????  It works.

Better yet, call up Apple.  They’ll help.

GUI design has been a science for over a decade.  Now make it an art for the masses.  Quickly.  Your competitors will overtake you.

Or I might start throwing furniture.  Along with the limited partners of the venture funds.

And remember this and only this if your brain has gotten addled from trying to sort out these sorts of glitches:  I am one of 917 people with the same question on Twitterfeed.  Shame on you.

European Newspapers Embrace the Digital Future

Summary:  The digital ventures of European newspapers look like they are paying off with new hopes for robust newspapers.  Plus, you get to lose weight, too.

We have posted quite a few blogs on newspapers (see others at globalstrategic.wordpress.com), an industry caught in a Chicken Little kind of depression.  So we turned to Europe to see what’s happening and it is digital and good.

Want to join a weight-loss club?  Pay $90.  Through the newspaper site.  Want to revise your profile?  Pay more.  In Norway, a tabloid newspaper, Verdens Gang, is affiliated with VG Nett, which provides news for free but charges for other premium services (like the weight-loss club).

Now, paying to upgrade your profile may be a bit much (unless the weigh-loss membership has not been successful) because of the nearly ubiquitous networking sites, but the point is to offer other services for a fee.

The Old Horse of Repurposing Content

Axel Springer, a large player in the publihsing space, revived an old concept, which makes perfect sense:  Write once, distribute many times.  Write the article and post it on multiple sites.  This is the old concept of “repurposing” content for different platforms and different audiences.

Data as a New Source of Revenue

And lest we not forget the lifeblood of newspapers is delivering audiences to advertisers.  If they think about it, the newspapers can mine vast amounts of data and deliver even better information to the advertisers.  This is a good thing.

So, new thinking–including some old thinking–gives these newspapers new revenue and new audiences.  They are not only building their brand, they are building it across platforms to reach both the same audiences and different ones.

And some of them get to lose weight, too.

The Paper Is Dead! Long Live the Paper!

As of St. Patrick’s Day, much had already been written about the “death” of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer print edition, which the parent company, the Hearst Corporation, shut down on that green day. The paper is now web only, with twenty in the newsroom, down from about 160.

This is not the only news about newspapers these days but, to me, what is most important is the content plan of the P-I site.  Here’s my take:

Little original content (weird).

Include existing blogs (good but unstable;  if they are that good they will leave for a better gig.)

Links to other sites: While many news sites do this, is it really wise?  Link to other sources within the Hearst family (see below).

Local government officials as columnists:  Now there’s a thriller.  Snore.

Hearst magazine content:  This is a good idea.  Hearst owns numerous magazines.  Repurpose the content AND link to the magazine sites.  Keep the traffic in the family. This is probably a good idea.

How they will differentiate themselves from the sites of local TV stations remains to be seen.  At least the inclusion of commentary may make it fresh.

What seems to be missing from the reports of the plans are social networking and UGC functionality.  Local Little League teams or AYSO teams should be invitted to create their pages there.  It would cost the P-I little to enable such additional pages to be created.

In that approach, they could become something of a virtual community center.  But whatever direction they take, they should build a brand–or build on the brand they have, which is a pretty good one.  And, the good news in all this:  the newspaper industry now has a testbed–one of many more to come in the very near future, like the next couple of months, given the  terror felt (rightly or wrongly) by newspaper corporate owners.

Long live the paper!

Full disclosure:  a variation on this blog will be (or has been) posted on the blog “Convergent Realities” at www.thectcnetwork.org.

Hollywood Pros to Post on YouTube?

The William Morris Agency just cut a deal with YouTube that will enable YT to display professionally-produced videos–presumably with the famous actors in the WM stables.  We like this idea:  In fact, it’s about time.  Here’s why:

1.  Low production quality is he standard on YT; it will be good to see something worth seeing.

2.  Almost paradoxically, that which is of good (production) quality is the copyrighted material from the studios–i.e., professionaly-produced.

3.  The problem with the material mentioned in #2 above is that most of it is pirated–or at least no one is getting paid for it.

4.  This (and their other deals with the studios) may actually make some money.

5.  Besides, YT is a good platform–now it can get better.

6.  Oh yes, I forgot:  YT now has credible competition in this space. Hulu.com.