Fernando Samaniego - International New Media Consulting

25 Tips for a Modern Newsroom

2009-07-05T11:28:25+04:00

While much gloom and doom has been heralded about newspapers the fact is that many of them have understood that their news gathering and delivering activity goes beyond their occasional paper support and are being highly successful at bringing a refreshing amount of innovation into the online world. Indeed, in many markets news companies are among the fastest growing players in the online world just because a mixture of right vision and management skills are increasingly getting the attention of their audiences. Under these circumstances media companies are asking themselves ‘How should my newsroom be?’ This rather long post intends to shed some light on this issue and is based in my own experiences as well as on conversations with experts on the matter.

Concepts before the onset:

1. Write down your reasons for change and share them with your management team

Let me start with the obvious. Change for the sake of it or just to please the Board or just to imitate successful competitors… is not an enough reason to move forward. Before embarking into such a task you need to state your Business Goal because only it should drive the design process. Also, a warning on the people around you who strive on changes; beware of them since you could move away from your business goal into senseless experimenting. Share your reasons for change with your management team and make sure you have their full support before the start.

2. Don’t go from Newsroom 1.0 to Newsroom 3.0

There are three basic newsroom models coexisting. As Dietmar Schantin mentions in his post “Moving tables is not enough to succeed in a multimedia world” in the Newsroom 1.0, online and paper are managed separately with dedicated editorial for each platform. In the 2.0 there is a cross-media newsroom which exploits some advantages of gathering content for different media. The 3.0 version aims to provide content on multiple channels by integrating the complete news flow across print and digital media from planning to production. For each type of newsroom there are excellent examples of successful newspapers since what counts are the vision and the execution. Still, if you have decided to move from 1.0 to 3.0 you are defying the laws of gravity: your IT and journalists’ skills will not be ready for it. Move slower, from 1.0 to 2.0 and gain the basic experience and skills. All along the process remember that each medium has its own internal logic and rules. If you place the responsibility of digital under a Chief Editor with no enough experience in it he may override some basic concepts and damage delivery.

3. Be eclectic

These are no chartered waters and you will not be able to rely on a textbook solution to guide you in the process. With a business goal in mind you will try to adapt your newsroom to a changing society since only playing a relevant role in it will ensure you play a pivotal role in the community and remain relevant and necessary. Any mechanisms you set to better “plug” yourself, your team and your project to the community and to other newspapers that are doing the same, the more chances you have of doing it right.

4. Commit some investment to R&D. Permanently

Just as the best companies in the world spend no less than 5% of revenues in R & D, in our modern newsrooms we have to maintain operations while at the same time being able to explore and experiment in innovative ways to deliver our merchandise, for instance on how to use today’s killer applications (the facebook and youtubes of the moment). As when referring to the Fortune 500 corporations, “Spending more doesn't necessarily help, but spending too little will hurt”. Even though the key is in how we do things, not just on how much money we devote to experimenting, we need to commit some figures beyond the initial design investment.

5. Get some help from the outside to move a little faster

When envisaging the transformation process top management tends to think of the conceptual challenges ahead and hence they hire consultants to address them. Nevertheless, equally or more important are the HR challenges because as a management professor of mine used to say, “most often the enemy is not outside but inside”, in people’s minds and in their fear of not being able to adapt to the new scenarios. If you decide to choose a consultancy firm, pick one with a track record in working with media and with journalists because the challenges are very specific to this industry. If your journalists are convinced and involved you will be half way through the process.

Concepts on the physical layout of the newsroom

6. Know the advantages of Open Space

You’d think most newsrooms are open space type, but it has been a surprise to me to see how many are divided by walls. Offices have traditionally been associated to hierarchy: the larger the office the more important the boss, and that mentality lurks in many of our people’s minds. Still, our new fast world needs to provide for easy, frequent, informal interactions among our personnel, beyond their own section or working group. Just by going open your operation will minimize barriers and provide a more stimulating setting for the exchange of ideas, among onsite workers and those working outside. Beware of complaints of your model which are nothing but status considerations. Create meeting rooms for people to go private when they need it, for work or just to make a personal call. Design a place where members of your teams can congregate and interact informally, such as a modern type of cafeteria. Last, one technical detail that is often overlooked when creating open spaces: many people gathered together tend to produce noise and which can be disruptive beyond a certain level. Flooring and ceiling should address the problem and contribute to noise reduction.

7. Install a movable layout

The process of implementing a modern newsroom will not lead to a comfortable final destination because it’s just one step forward. After the new newsroom is in place and the team has moved in you’ll need to tweak your design repeatedly to reflect the constant changing needs of your business. Ensure the furniture is movable and the electrical and digital plugs can be moved around. Raised flooring is a must, as well as Wi-Fi and adequate lighting, which will allow for permanent changes and low-risk prototyping.

8. Respect the characteristics of your market

Most likely your market has some special characteristics that your business process has built into its DNA over the years. You should not follow a standard design completely since you risk losing those special abilities that made you unique. Adapt your design to your business. There are no other rules to follow. Respecting the characteristics of his market, Rob Curley in a recent video mentions how in his Las Vegas Sun project a small team of sales people are located within the A&E editorial team allowing for cross-pollination.

9. Elements to include in your newsroom

When talking Newsroom 3.0 or a fully integrated newsroom, there are many basic designs you can find in the Web. Juan Señor has facilitated to me Innovation’s design which is very detailed (top post image by Innovation). According to them your new newsroom should include the following elements:

• Sections currently included in the paper.

• Hub or Super Desk: “the chiefs sit here, where the action is, not hiding in offices. They are visible, accessible and responsible.”

• Graphic Desk: “info graphics and photo desk, located next to the super desk, producing visual journalism where ‘show, don’t tell’ is the norm.”

• Radar Desk: “for monitoring the world via technology focusing on the why and what’s next as opposed to the who, where.”

• Community Desk: “for monitoring, moderating and integrating audience comments, pictures, videos, tips and opinions into every page and section of paper and digital media.”

• Assignment Desk: “planning and assigning resources…; the superdesk relies on the assignment desk to continuously track the whereabouts of reporters, photographers and correspondents and coordinate their schedules.”

• Mini TV/Radio Studios: for news updates; for that 1 min summary at the closing of the stock market; to interview the local celebrity in radio or video; for video chats…etc.

• Hot Desks: for the contributors and freelancers who need occasional desks as the modern newsroom maintain a less permanent staff.

• Other Possible Elements: Meeting Rooms, Public Gallery & Conference Rooms, in which city and community events take place next to “their” newsroom; an Innovation Desk to experiment across all platforms and introduce new products; Digital Walls, where live statistics are shown as well as tweets and inputs from users…etc.

10. Be transparent

By tearing down some walls you have opted for transparency which is a state of mind with physical consequences. Now you want your newsroom to stand for transparency and cooperation; if you need a wall, use glass and never opaque materials. Even meeting rooms should be transparent. Your quest for transparency will eliminate internal silos and push your organization away from comfort zones and ivory towers. The Spokesman Review has gone furthest in this direction by inviting community members into the making of the paper and even into the decision making meetings. Some difficulties in the form of persons with “agendas” may come in the way, but their desire for credibility is worth the trouble.

11. Allow for active networkers

With your new layout in place, pay attention to the networking that takes place within. The real success of your project will take place if the right networkers are able to operate freely across your established organization. They are the energetic people the organization trust and rely on. Regardless of their title, they move around irrespective of the organization chart connecting people and experience, transforming bits of information into added value. They are the energizers. Their enemies are the inertial authority figures who dislike active networkers and hold too high a respect for established channels of communication. By making sure that loose pieces of information are transformed into solutions this breed of employees will increase the possibilities of success of your project. Make sure they are not subdued by your “establishment.” Let there be a certain degree of noise. Total peace belongs to cemeteries.

Concepts on IT

12. To succeed your people will need a proper tool box

Confirm that your company is ready to invest adequately in technical infrastructure since the modern journalist needs the proper tool box to deliver content across media. The CEO and the Board should know that acquiring or developing a good WMS or CMS is an important step but other investments inevitably will follow. Smaller investments will be required in pursuing the adequate delivery of news to every user/reader or target group at any moment of the day.

13. Bring decisions at the beginning of the processes

When visiting newspapers, I still see that some of them strive at the end of the process to fix issues that should have been addressed in the planning stage. Unless they correct their work flow before totally merging operations into a new setting their problems will only multiply. As when Toyota decided to tackle production problems by stopping the production chain when a problem was encountered, thus “preventing defective products from being produced,” papers should make every effort to ensure that as many decisions as possible are addressed at the beginning of the processes since that will force definition of rules. The result will be music instead of noise.

14. Get the right tech people on board

The fast pace of change in the newsrooms makes it impossible to find a single piece of software that is able to handle all editorial needs. This fact reinforces the importance of counting on the best and most experienced IT minds if you are to build the right “technological architecture.” On the other hand, that relevant IT role should not prevent the company from paying attention to the support team which if well selected and trained will be able to overcome journalists’ difficulties giving them the confidence to try new ways to address their problems. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to find that the wrong IT support causes frustration on the part of journalists who end up blaming the technology for not being able to move forward. Last, technology has to be so good that the journalists don’t notice it. As with literary masterpieces, the style should not come in the way and steal the attention away from the content.

15. Don’t organize your newsroom around the production process

Randy Covington has repeatedly said that it’s easy to be carried away by an ideal work flow or by the beautiful simplicity of some work flow improvements, but the market usually acts disruptively on businesses. In a similar way, let the market enter the newsroom and have a say on your process. Let the needs of the reader/user and the advertiser’s change your initial thoughts. The market wants you to be fast, to take into considerations many sources of information and in many formats. It also wants the feedback and content of the users to be taken into consideration. IT will have to adapt to market needs regardless of the complexities this decision will add, because content is king.

On telling stories and journalists

16. Search out for the best journalists

Content is the material; journalists are the craftsmen. You cannot embark in transforming your newsroom if your journalists are not prepared for the task. If you have not done it yet, set a hiring policy by which only the ones with a certain tech experience are hired, and make only exceptions with proven story tellers. Train those who are willing to become more tech savvy, reward the ones who reach a multimedia level, ask new journalists to spend no less than one month in the medium they know the least. And while you plan your next newsroom, push for your organization to become fully updated and operational as it regards the current editorial system.

17. Your news site should excel at telling stories

News sites have been very concerned about their CMS and related technical issues, including the training of journalists…, which are all relevant issues; but often they have forgotten about the real strength of old dailies and the reason they have been able to endure and maintain their roots in their communities: telling stories. News sites have excelled at performing many complicated tasks and extending their reach; however, in general they have fared worse than newspapers in regard to owning well executed stories relevant to the audience. In the new world you are facing, you should keep in mind that news are first, technology/platforms/workflows come later. We all know this but it’s worth remembering.

18. In the process don’t overlook the watch dog role

It’s only natural that when newspapers become digital they start using their traffic and brand to enter into adjacent territories: job/house/car sites, coupons and promotions, community portals, deep A&E…etc. After all, they were traditional sections of the newspapers. Stretching the brand is not necessarily bad as long as it is continuously reinforced. As dailies have known for centuries, one of the best ways of strengthening the brand has been by fulfilling the watch dog role that the community expected from them. When thinking of news work flows and layout remember that investigative reporting cannot be lost in the process. The community needs to ascertain that ‘your brand’ still looks after the community.

19. Go back to where you once belonged!

Thanks to your investments in top class tech minds and in soft/hardware there are many things you can do now that before were simply impossible. Journalists can work from any location thanks to laptops, smart phones, photo cameras which shoot video…etc. For too long newspapers have either forced or at least accepted that journalists come to work in the newsroom and only go out for scheduled press conferences or events. Now is the time to push them back to the community, where the news not reflected by wires and agencies are happening. If you wait for wires you will be a “me-too-medium,” whereas if you create the news you set the agenda; you lead and others follow; you are the reference and thus become necessary. Experiment with this concept and work for the community from inside the community.

20. Promote the “journalist as a personality” profile

If we agree that papers and news sites should grow their roots in the community, it would also seem that the modern journalist, armed with many more ways to establish links with readers should also work in the same direction. Some journalists in the new setting should fit Steve Outing’s description of this new professional: “…she puts herself out there as a personality -- a human being you can get to know by following her, and who is an expert on a topic you care about (like medical news, or crime, state government, and the like). She will communicate with her readers, answer their questions and accept tips about topics she should cover, and accept criticism when she makes mistakes. In my view of the newspaper sans paper, every journalist is a personality, not just an anonymous byline.”

Last, some concepts on sales

21. Focus on your sales team

If you were relying on a third party for the job, hire in-house salespeople; be the master of your destiny. Dependence on a third party to obtain revenues will deprive you of walking along the learning curve of the sales process of the modern news operation which is complex because of its many new products and possibilities. Choose well trained, ‘coin operated’ individuals. Offer them a strong compensation system that they can understand and verify anytime they want. Your CCO should use a good CRM to control the operation. If however, this is not the case, do not complicate your life with it just now, instead experiment with a little “cloud computing” CRM such as salesforce.com. Lastly, keep training always in mind since it is absolutely a must. Your CRM will help you find out if selling of new products is being addressed and hence where to focus your training.

22. Sell audiences

Odds are you are selling media products. Soon you will discover that you will make more money if you become more relevant to your clients by selling audiences. If, for instance, your client’s target is high income individuals you can offer him an audience made of different products and media. When considering your layout, do not forget sales because matching the increasing degree of sophistication of your products with your clients’ needs is difficult. Some salespeople will need to have access to some of the Hot Desks we mentioned before, next to the product operators. In any case, it’s a good idea to expose your salespeople to the newsroom, by rotating them. Avoid at any price having them in a different building away from the newsroom!

23. Automate your sales

Automate your sales operation: call centers are bringing good results to many players, especially when they call on specialized clients with ad hoc offers (e.g. offering a good auto site to car dealers). For this type of sale, I also recommend in-house personnel. As your operation is turning digital, smarter clients may be ready to hire online solutions without your team’s intervention but with call center assistance. Start planning for it.

24. Get the right ad server or suffer

I apologize if this tip is obvious to most, but I have visited players who had not solved ad serving properly. A good ad server is used by media companies and advertising agencies to traffic, target, deliver, and report on their interactive advertising campaigns. It works with rich media, video, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium. It greatly simplifies the administration effort by all parties and minimizes unsold inventory for publishers. This choice is not a minor one. Ask, compare and get references. We are talking core organs here!

25. Wrapping it up

Our business is about delivering content when and how the audience wants it. To achieve it, media companies have to go digital and transform themselves completely. Not only do HR, journalists, technical personnel, salespeople…have to adapt, but the entire environment must adapt as well. In transforming the newsroom, do it in incremental steps, and don’t get distracted from your core “telling stories” by the means (design and technology). Read, ask, visit and if possible bring some proven consulting experience to interact with your journalists. Reassure them that they will be working differently, smarter, not longer hours. As always in the case of Change Management situations, involving and motivating your HR is the most important facet.

Finally, focus on marketing and your sales will follow. If you interpret well the changes in the market, revenues will come.

You are free to use this article in your publication as long as you credit the author Fernando Samaniego.

Reorganization of Media Groups

2009-04-27T09:08:22+04:00

During the last decade most Media Groups have organized themselves around their type of media properties, around their channels. That is, papers, TV, radio…were independent divisions responsible for that channel and its production and sales functions. Each division being very autonomous they were often located in separate buildings and also competed against each other.

There were numerous reasons for that: different types of expertise and skills were needed in each case, the strong medium was afraid of piggybacking the weaker ones…etc. Most important, the consideration went, each medium had to follow the internal rules and logic specific to it and being apart was the right thing to do. In the case of internet the real fear was that the more traditional and not very dynamic culture of newspapers would slow down the new medium. Indeed, all those considerations were correct and “life apart” has probably helped many online players to develop fast and be successful.

During that last half a dozen years numerous dailies have shown a remarkable ability to reinvent themselves. In parallel, online projects have shown a great ability to embed all other media and the leading media executives have discovered that the “living apart” solution had to evolve into a “back to living together” but in a radically different way.

The reorganization issue just reflects other strategic topics being debated. As our societies become richer and more sophisticated and as advertisers and agencies try to reach increasingly differentiated consumers, shouldn´t media groups facilitate their job by offering target groups across all media? On the content side, how come audiences are discovering multitasking and media groups are not doing anything about it? Those and many more questions are advising media companies to abandon production considerations in favor of concentrating their efforts on audiences.

Once top management begins to travel this road the way forward is not a simple one and any reference to the solutions other players are using becomes important. The consulting firm Innovation has either visited or led these experiments around the world and offers some advice on things to do and pitfalls to avoid. This article by Chris O´Brien and Juan Señor from Innovation sheds some light on how to organize a multimedia group and offers many examples around the world. It´s worth reading!

In my experience, only companies with a certain degree of performance in each of those media should try to move as far as it is mentioned in the article. For less developed companies, they first should prove themselves as adequate independent operators in each medium since bringing the online operations next to the offline ones should only happen when the internet people have been able to develop their own culture and rhythm.

Chart copyright Innovation Media Consulting Group

TV and Internet Merger

2009-04-03T12:16:38+04:00

Experiments to merge TV and internet have systematically failed but that has not discouraged new players from trying because most pundits believe that the right formula/s will eventually be found. Previous attempts by Microsoft and Apple seem to point at that moment where the two media will work together through the development of creative formulas still unknown to each of them. Multitasking, increasing lower third TV screens and the example of online video including support content are some of the trends heralding that moment.

A recent video in the Wall Street Journal showed the latest joint effort by Samsung and Yahoo! to achieve the active coexistence of TV and online. But as an innovation from previous experiments, the merger has been performed using Yahoo!’s widgets. It has allowed the internet to coexist with the TV programming, and the viewer-user the ability to surf the internet without having to opt out from TV. Like my first car of some 30 years ago - although the product can be improved, it does the job.

The implications for editors and local portals are not minor. As time goes by, the site-only strategy will simply not be enough. The past news portals have represented the logical extension of newspapers into the digital era; however the time has arrived for them to open up. Regardless of the beauty and size of the portals, users need more than merely accessing content through them. We should facilitate their access through doors- as many as possible-, windows, chimney, floor cracks…etc. Easy to say and hard to do? Yes, indeed, but a visionary company will slowly travel in that direction by developing easier access to its content: news portal/s, complementary sites, content conceived for mobile, widgets for specific pieces of information, IPod casting, presence in the big sites (YouTube, Facebook…)…etc, and now television.

Away from newspaper-like type of information where the content is mostly textual and long, online editors have to think in terms of data base type of content, ready to be complemented, expanded, commented, reused, searched…etc. An article published in the paper is less and less relevant in the new environment of the “percolated house” since our products require content elements that can be linked together and repurposed. A textual description of a new film is a short lived element in a newspaper, whereas the same film description can be formatted from its inception in smaller packages which can be permanently used online to support, for instance, even the movie protagonist’s bio many years later. Those smaller packages can merge with images and video, they can be part of the skeleton for other sites such as trivia contests, affinity evaluations…etc. They can be searched, reused, surfed in the PC, mobile…and now, thanks to Samsung and Yahoo! they will be repurposed when that very movie is being shown on TV.

Because of their tremendous content and their position in the cities, newspapers can count on a large network of collaborators. If they are to be the references of the on-goings on in their cities, the ability to gather “evergreen” information in the data base format will present an enormous competitive advantage.

News Portals: From Free to Fee?

2009-03-28T22:40:58+04:00

Almost from the beginning news portals have been trying to find formulas to charge their readers/users. Experiments abound. Most attempts have failed because the decisions were too radical and they neglected the existence of free audiences. A great example may be found in the following illustration: for a long time Spain’s elpaís.com had been open to subscribers and when it realized it had to change its business model it found out that its competitor elmundo.es had become the leader.

The Wall Street Journal provides another example in combining subscriptions with free and massive traffic in an effort to generate revenues from advertising. Only last week I was talking to a consultant who mentioned that some newspapers were studying the effect of establishing micro-payments. It would not be very different from the tolls being paid by cars when traveling along a highway, except that in the former case the editor would establish a daily limit to reassure the user.

Recently the New York Times featured an article on the Global Post (a.k.a. GP) which sheds light on the revenue issue. The permanent cost reduction strategy implemented by many large newspapers has had many casualties among correspondents around the world, and has offered GP its opportunity. Conceived as a for-profit project, GB has created a network of some 60 correspondents around the world who live in the countries they write about, to insure quality.

The project was funded with $8.5M and was launched in January, 2009. Although too early to judge its viability, it offers some lessons on approaching revenues. First, it relies on advertising as any other news portal. Second, it hopes to obtain subscription fees from avid readers desiring international coverage. The tag is not low: the cost is about $199 per year, and allows subscribers the opportunity to suggest ideas for articles, opening the newsroom to its audience. Finally, given its solid network of international correspondents (chosen from among over 500 candidates), some established media have subscribed to their syndication, which represents a third source of income. Willing to complement revenues, they reached an agreement with a CBS Radio News to play the role of its international network of correspondents.

GB is a non political line project based on storytelling journalism and top analysis covering international issues, as well as business, technology, and energy. Founded by America’s largest regional cable news company, and a foreign correspondent and innovator in multimedia, it boasts a correspondent’s network only second to the Associated Press. The project is ambitious and the market needs it. While waiting to see if it takes off, some teachings regarding revenue diversification can be used, especially as it concerns subscriptions.

I guess Global Post represents one of those experiments, such as The Huffington Post, that anyone interested in newspapers and news portals has to keep track of.

I have not written a new post for over one month

2009-02-16T09:26:40+04:00

There is an easy explanation why I have not written a new post for over one month. I am now working for a new media company and I do not have any more of those hours in between flights when I used to write a good part of my posts. My new job has taken me to Asia. As COO of Publications & Online of Arab Media Group, a Dubai company in the United Arab Emirates, my new job demands a series of time consuming initial tasks that I want to concentrate on. I do not know when I will resume my blog, but I am afraid it’s going to take some time. With this post I wanted to address those people who are wondering why Fernando is not writing anymore.

There is little to be added about the brand Dubai. Millions of tourists come every year to discover a city which invented itself on the shores of the Strait of Ormuz and the desert. They have been similar creations in which a city was built in the middle of nowhere, such as Brasilia, but Dubai’s experiment is quite different and goes far beyond. Personally, I had been following this project for the last couple of years and now I feel very grateful to have been given the opportunity to be part of it.

My best regards to my friends-readers and I hope to reestablish contact some time soon.

Aprovecharse de Youtube

2008-12-04T02:16:00+04:00

Aunque tradicionalmente los diarios sido el soporte en el que las empresas anunciaban sus productos, ellos mismos apenas han utilizado otros medios para comunicar sus bondades a la población. Centrándonos en internet, en los tiempos actuales existen grandes plataformas online que, utilizadas con astucia, bien pudieran ayudarles a atraer a sus sitios, e incluso a sus ediciones en papel, los usuarios y lectores a los que más difícil les resulta acceder, los jóvenes (nota: aunque me refiero a los diarios, los argumentos se aplican a cualquier otro proyecto, especialmente si tiene presencia online).

Observando el comportamiento de algunos de los grandes blogueros, especialmente los que cubren tecnología e internet, se puede observar que no es infrecuente que escriban en varios sitios, además de en su propio blog (me vienen a la memoria varios ejemplos, pero como este blog se lee en varios países, iban a ser muy limitados). Lo hacen porque suelen ser de “cultura abierta”, en línea con el carácter abierto de internet, porque saben que saliendo de su blog tienen la posibilidad de atraer a un público con el que normalmente no están en contacto y porque, finalmente, entienden que las referencias cruzadas son valoradas por los algoritmos de los motores de búsqueda. Avanzando en esa creencia del carácter abierto de la red, los blogueros cada vez generan más fenómenos innovadores, como los “blog carnivals”.

Si los blogueros saben que es difícil lograr una cantidad grande de usuarios que regrese fielmente al website en el que escriben y por ello se abren intentando un enfoque multiplataforma que les ayude a conseguir su objetivo, en mi opinión los diarios en internet debieran utilizar una estrategia similar. Uno pensaría que desearían salir de sí mismos para comunicar a los cuatro vientos lo buena que es su mercancía en vez de cerrarse en un portal en el que van realizando mejoras siempre con la esperanza (ilusión?) de que con buen trabajo y con buen SEO los usuarios vayan creciendo. La verdad es que hay tantas opciones ahí fuera que no hay otra solución que promocionar activamente lo que de especial y único tiene nuestro sitio, lo que nos diferencia de los portales segundones o que son tan sólo agregadores de contenidos e información. Para ilustrar esta estrategia que conviene a los medios tradicionales utilizaré Youtube como epítome de lo que se puede/debe hacer apoyándose en las grandes plataformas en las que residen/navegan nuestros públicos objetivos pero lo mismo sería aplicable a otros portales que en algunos países tienen una alta fuerza relativa.

Que cada vez se ve más vídeo en internet es algo que traté anteriormente y que ratifica la mera observación. Youtube no tardará en alcanzar los 100 millones de usuarios únicos por mes, cantidad astronómica para cualquier portal de noticias. Frente a la estrategia de oponerse a todo lo que tenga que ver con Google (propietario de Youtube) algunos medios han optado por aliarse y obtener de ese portal, de forma gratuita, algo que sólo los grandes pueden otorgar: notoriedad y tráfico. Mark S. Luckie publicó un mapa interactivo en el que aparecen los muchos diarios norteamericanos que están siguiendo esa estrategia de colocar anzuelos en Youtube para atraer usuarios a su propio portal. He intentado comprobar si los diarios que mejor conozco estarían en un hipotético mapa, pero la respuesta a mi exploración ha sido negativa.

Aunque entregar todo nuestro contenido de forma indiscriminada a unos de esos portales sería insensato, sí conviene utilizarlos para “abrir boca” para colocar en ellos vídeos que atraigan a nuestro portal. La forma de lograrlo es abrir un canal en Youtube y seguir las instrucciones que Mark S. Luckie ofrece en su blog (“personaliza la portada del canal, completa los datos clave para que te encuentren los buscadores,…” etc). Aproximadamente la mitad de los diarios norteamericanos siguen esa estrategia mientras el resto no le ve claro.

Responsables de Dallas Morning News and Tampa Bay comentan en esta entrevista en inglés cómo han colocado en Youtube material para atraer público a sus coberturas más especiales. Se trata de presentar piezas breves que son lo que los trailers a una película, vídeos breves y densos y/o sugerentes en los que intentan explicar a posibles consumidores de su zona de influencia lo que están haciendo y que puede ser de su interés. A menudo se trata de acceder a personas que de otra forma nunca conocerían lo que el medio (el diario, la televisión, el portal local…) está cubriendo. Si tienen un reportaje del que están especialmente orgullosos lo “anuncian” (el término no es casual) en Youtube incluso antes de colgarlo completo en su portal, o de pasarlo por TV. Se trata de acciones a muy bajo coste puesto que el material de base ya está generado. Una vez que un medio crea su canal en Youtube debe mimarlo y no olvidarse de él de la misma forma que una empresa no coloca una valla publicitaria y se olvida para siempre de ella.

Para compensar por el (pequeño) esfuerzo, Google ideó un “Programa de Partners” por el que comparte con sus asociados los ingresos que aporten sus vídeos. Además de compartir ingresos facilita algunas herramientas para controlar el canal y ayuda a la promoción de los vídeos en Youtube.

Entre los ejemplos destaca el tan admirado siempre en temas multimedia Orlando Sentinel. Quizá el recién llegado Las Vegas Sun dirigido por mi querido Rob Curley, uno de los mejores intérpretes de las estrategias locales que nunca relega su monetización, nos depare alguna sorpresa en el futuro. Merece la pena visitarlos y merece la pena reflexionar sobre lo que nuestro diario/portal/etc podría obtener de esos grandes portales para servir a sus propios intereses. No se trata de obtener grandes cifras de tráfico, sino de ir colocando señales en la gran autopista que es internet.

De la misma forma que ya es moneda común entre los diarios contar con un experto en SEO, empieza a ser relativamente frecuente entre los medios más avezados y que mejor entienden el carácter mutante y abierto de la Red la contratación de un profesional que se ocupe de promocionar sus mejores contenidos entre las diferentes comunidades que habitan la red, colocando migas de pan en el máximo número posible de ellas.

20 Tips For Newspapers During Recessions

2008-11-30T03:09:00+04:00

Even though I usually concentrate on the newer media forms, lately I’ve been in touch with some newspaper editors and I believe I should answer a question I’ve been asked several times: “What should be done in these times of crisis?”

Through my work with the press in Western and Eastern Europe as well as in the Americas and occasional forays into other emerging markets, I’ve come up with these 20 pieces of advice especially suited to the current situation. They do not mean to be comprehensive. Instead they intend to cover actions that, in my opinion, are usually overlooked.

When facing such a challenging economic situation it’s in one’s interest to keep some fundamental concepts in perspective to avoid guesswork and to not waste the opportunities that all crises can afford us. As I concluded in a previous post ”crises serve a function in the life of corporations and markets. It’s clear that among other things they prompt us to rethink projects and strategies, while making cost cuts, but also to kick start new tactics that will be very beneficial once the sun shines again. And a crisis is too expensive and scarce to be squandered.“

1. Don’t let the crisis drive your project
-The seasoned pros can be differentiated from the novices, who react to events as they come along, in that they’ve lived through similar situations and are able to detect common patterns and pre-empt them with adequate responses. They know how to adapt to rough weather without losing sight of the final destination. Lots of dailies are merely reactive and waste the great potential of a crisis.

-Don’t be reactive, don’t base your decisions on past data. Instead, forecast a fall in income for the next six months and adjust your costs to this new scenario. Otherwise you’ll always lag behind events and they’ll end up getting the better of you.

2. Cut costs aggressively
If you’ve tried for years to cut costs and have always had to proceed timidly now’s the time to get rid of that fat that all businesses tend to generate. This should be done for two reasons: if you don’t do it now, when the crisis ends you’ll be a lot worse off than those competitors who did; if in the case of HR you don’t take the initiative you risk losing your best talent and staying with that deadweight which will be unable to carry the business into the future.

3. Renegotiate everything
Your suppliers know you’re going through some tough times and will not want to lose you now. If you rent facilities ask for a 25% rent cut, if your distribution includes routes that are now of little use, reorganize them. If delivery trucks or vans do not carry enough weight due to union restrictions, negotiate it; speak to your newsprint suppliers and get price breaks or better financial conditions. Others are doing it. Check the cost of your supplies including ink, phone bills, connectivity ….. absolutely EVERYTHING. Negotiate also internally; too many concessions were granted to unions that now make no sense and destroy value. Now is the time to turn common sense into common practice.

4. Optimize your distribution
Manage your point of sale (P.O.S.). Lots of dailies think it’s the distributor’s job and nobody does it. Wrong! Managing your P.O.S. affects positioning and exposure of the daily in the street, your relations with the paper stand owner, the spotting of problems or information about areas to be improved. Among the people you could do without choose one who gets on well and train him to do this job. He should be supervised by someone who believes in P.O.S. management and is willing to use the inputs.

5. Waste less time (and money) on your press
It’s not your core business and will only distract you from it. If you don’t have one, OK. If you already have one, don’t think of investing more in it. Team up with the competition to reduce the investment or better yet outsource the printing. If you have a modern printing plant, consider spinning it off into a separate company to obtain new income from new clients. A press is only hardware that doesn’t pose an entry barrier and instead distracts managers from real strategic tasks and employs scarce funds for non strategic activities (while there are so many investment requirements to build bridges into the future).

6. Either have a Vision of the Future or sell your daily
Any decision you make should be a part of a larger project to avoid desperate and counter-productive actions. The much trodden “Strategic Plan” has contaminated us through overuse. I recommend you focus now on your company’s “Future Vision”. It shouldn’t be something you pull out of a hat but rather the result of having attended conferences, visiting the best examples around the world, hours of reading the best informed bloggers, conversations with specialized consultants….. and should constitute a product of team work shared with the talented members in your company. The words crisis and future may seem an oxymoron but they aren’t at all. If you can’t conceive a clear vision of the future, sell your daily or else it will end up being a costly liability.

7. Turn your vision of the future into roles that your daily should fulfill
As with any other consumer item, a daily should aspire to develop certain roles in the community. In the case of the more geographically limited press, -local, regional-, find out what roles your company should fulfill in the future. Do this using by using your imagination, analyzing your positioning, other dailies’ experiences, gaps in the market and your capabilities….etc. In the end, you’ll be dealing with an ambitious project that will compel you to define those roles and to imagine the new community relationships you’ll be progressively focusing on thanks to your vision and the skills your people will need to deploy. If your only role for the future consists of news, “game over” (this point requires further explanation but is not the objective of this blog).

8. Map out the key posts
Before going about a harsh reduction of costs, analyze which key positions are necessary for each area, including the newsroom. I’m referring to blank boxes, without names. If these positions are already filled by qualified professionals, let them know you’re counting on them. If they aren’t make sure to fill key posts with top notch professionals. Previously, momentum could help, but now we need “thinking heads” to play the role of locomotives that pull the rest of the team. Build your map with a cool head and in a calm atmosphere. This will avoid talent drain when confusion reigns.

9. Train those who stay aboard
Indiscriminate training for those who don’t actually desire it is expensive, of little use and a complete waste of working hours. Once you’ve got your vision as well as “buyers” for your main strategic lines, train your crew adequately to sail in the rough waters that await us. Not everyone will put into practice what they’ve learned, but have faith in the arrowhead effect. Count also on the positive psychological impact as you will transmit that you aren’t just cutting costs but addressing the challenges facing the company. There are many sources for training, including the internet. Try NewsU.org or any other alternatives to start the journey.

10. Make sure your newspaper only produces what makes a difference
The organization of work in your newspaper was laid out for many reasons many of which are now irrelevant. Depending on the type of daily, -local, regional, national-, and on other factors, there are parameters that are still reasonable and others that aren’t. On many occasions I visit dailies that shouldn’t write so many pages on topics that can be found elsewhere and of better quality but there are always internal arguments for own production. If you’re not dealing with contents related to your territory there should be a precise reason for the daily to produce them. Habit or inertia isn’t a valid answer since all cost should offer a clear compensation. Keep track of this ratio, own production vs. third parties’.

11. External contributors
When it comes to interpreting reality, more so when it’s near us, our journalists have been our only solution. The world changes quickly and there are more and more people out there willing to contribute. Open your windows to the world, there are plenty of examples in other fields that make use of external resources to innovate. Many a talented person would be willing to contribute to the daily, in many cases for little more than warm gratitude. Myself being an example. In Spain I contribute to finanzas.com in analyzing internet and the media without asking for anything in return, as a byproduct of my consultancy work. Building a network of external contributors can be very rewarding work that should be taken up by dailies not just because of the savings it can entail, but to improve the product and bring it closer to the ground. After all, between 87% and 60% of the public (depending on the age group) consider that bloggers (external contributors) add value and discernment in forming public opinion.

12. Play local. In everything. Always
When it comes to analyzing their territories is when our dailies really stand out. Our readers are learning to easily access valid sources with content of their interest, but the press stands out when dealing with everything local issues, analysis, layout, opinion…etc. That’s where your best human resources should be redirected, that may have been distracted up to now on other objectives. Local events, or at least the local effect of events in foreign places, are the objective to seek. Obviously the term local is used here in reference to the scope of the daily, be it local, regional or even national.

13. Narrating what has already happened is no longer the paper’s main function
Other media are fresher and for main stories the paper is always late. Recounting what’s happened is sometimes simply not enough. The daily should add its own differentiating value. Linking stories, discovering trends, gathering expert opinion, offering a satellite view or an accurate dissection depending on the circumstances, discovering the possible effect on the life of the community of an apparently isolated event…etc., are objectives a daily should try to reach to assure client loyalty. Even in the case of reporting a story, there are always a variety of ways of going about it. In a previous post I mentioned a brilliant example to follow, of a North American daily which confirmed its leadership as the information leader of its community just by informing on a local event. Of course there’s a long series of minor stories where the daily acts as a witness and has a narrower margin to elaborate.

14. Take advantage of your media’s advertising capabilities
Let’s suppose your media can use the equivalent of a page per day to promote your own projects. That potential represents a lot of money (multiply the Sunday rate by 52 and the weekday rate by 310 and add them up) and a great percentage is wasted. Again thousands upon thousands of USD, €, or whatever currency are thrown to the garbage every day. Quite often, according o my experience, self promoting ads are the result of negotiations between different parts of the business, and not of wisely made decisions. What is now in line is, with your Vision of the Future in hand, to decide from the top which strategic projects should be backed by all possible means. Don’t throw your money, or your future, down the drain.

15. Either use your daily or get rid of it
A daily made out of tree fibers hasn’t got an objective in itself. I’m aware that this is a harsh and shocking statement, but businesses should project themselves into the future, not be the administrator of any closeout. Dailies are getting roughed up and sooner or later the current model will die out. That’s why paper dailies should explore the new roads that the medium is bound to follow and should facilitate it by means of economic and other resources, promotions….etc. If your daily is a facilitator in that migration that’s happening and helps you explore it, great. If your paper doesn’t have a clear plan for its future and does not help you in travelling that road, do yourself a favor and get rid of it.

16. When in a crisis, push your online projects
Now is the time to launch those projects which can be developed with very low budgets and which can use these lethargic months to mature. I think of those Web 2.0, or social, ones requiring a rather long time to adjust and get traction. All these initiatives could benefit from something very expensive that your medium can offer at no cost, online traffic and intelligent promotion in your newspaper. Now is the right time to cook those types of projects to have them ready when spring will return.

17. Be ready to deliver your contents in various formats
Most likely your vision of the future includes offering your contents in different media, in as many as necessary and possible. Your technical skills in presses are probably being replaced by technological ones and once your company has reached the standard level, you will be ready to deliver across media. If your site doesn’t offer good iPhone visualization, fix it. The real objective is being prepared to lead your market once one of these new devices starts becoming popular. If at that moment you haven’t travelled the learning curve, sorry, you lose.

18. More than ever, learn from your readers
Dailies in both Americas are more marketing savvy than European ones, while their expertise represents a skill to imitate. Explore your readers opinions as never before, use your subscribers to know what they like/dislike and what they miss in your paper. Find out what they really need and offer them more references and help for their day to day lives. While I was working in Argentina in 2002 the Gross National Product decreased 20% in 18 months and some papers (La Voz del Interior was the best example) were able to reduce their number of pages while increasing their usefulness to readers by offering concrete solutions to their huge difficulties (for instance, how to eat, dress, decorate with little money). Against all odds they were able to retain their basic readership. That reaction was only possible because the papers were experts at listening to their clients. Squeeze the juice out of them just now: they are devoting more time to read your paper, they have more time to talk to you and you need them more than ever.

19. Talk to your advertisers and agencies
While opening your company to your readers you should also talk to your other clients, agencies and advertisers. But before that, you and your team should be convinced that “online advertising is more profitable than it seems” (see post). At this time of limited cash many of your clients are more worried about lowering their stocks than about other image or positioning issues. They are becoming more transactional and they want your company’s advertising to shorten the response time of clients (more on this here). They require a different kind of advertising and if you talk to them they will be happy to provide you with some cues to help both themselves and you. Listen to them, help yourself.

20. Explore new ways to get revenues
I will not go into detail in this post about alternative ways to obtain revenues, but they have to do with online promotions, e-mail marketing, video as a commercial tool for your clients…etc. If you are not acquainted with them or you have not started to use them, now is the time to choose one and start your learning curve in a very stingy way so that when the money returns to the market you obtain a bigger share of it. Do not get obsessed with Google’s might. Many companies just bought the return ticket since, according the New York Times, some keywords have multiplied their price by four during the last 18 months, and they continue to climb.

In brief:
-Reduce your costs energetically since it was an overdue task even before the crisis started. Established media should reduce their cost structure before being reborn in their new roles (isn’t it some kind of Phoenix image?)
-Open up your company. Include more external contents for what is not core, use more external contributors, bloggers and local reporters. Demand your readers’ opinions and requirements in these troubled times.
-Develop the skills of the future: the technical knowledge to work cross media, to show contents and attract revenues in whatever support is necessary.
-Evangelize your people on the above work lines. Help them to understand that now people read differently, that they are now facing a more intelligent reader who demands a different product.
-Explore the digital world: find a solution to online classifieds, go beyond news and practice the new roles you’ll be playing in the future.
-Get closer to advertisers and listen to them because they can help you build the bridge to your future.

In these times of crisis, cost cutting is a very necessary condition but not a sufficient one. Open your mind to new things and explore them. Most big internet businesses started in a garage with lack of resources. Take advantage of your walk through the tunnel to tackle the pending jobs and to start those actions which will carry your company forward.

20 consejos para los periódicos...(Parte II)

2008-11-25T17:45:33+04:00

11. Utilice colaboradores externos
A la hora de interpretar la realidad, sobre todo la más próxima, nuestros periodistas han sido la única clave. El mundo cambia rápido y cada vez hay más gente ahí afuera dispuesta a colaborar. Abra la ventana al mundo, hay muchos ejemplos de otros sectores que utilizan recursos externos para innovar. Muchas personas con talento estarían dispuestas a colaborar con el diario, y en muchos casos por poco más que algunas muestras de “cariño”. Mi caso es un ejemplo. En España colaboro con finanzas.com en el análisis de internet y los medios de comunicación sin pedir nada a cambio, como un subproducto de mis trabajos de consultoría. Construir una red de colaboradores externos es una hermosa labor que los diarios debieran abordar, no sólo por la reducción de costes que pueda entrañar, sino por mejorar el producto y pegarlo más al terreno. Después de todo, entre el 87% y el 60% (según edades) de las personas considera que los blogueros (léase colaboradores externos) aportan valor y criterio en la creación de opinión.

12. Juegue de local. En todo. Siempre.
Cuando se trata de analizar lo próximo es realmente cuando puede resplandecer nuestro diario. Nuestros lectores saben cada vez mejor cómo acceder a fuentes válidas para contenidos de su interés, pero la ventaja de los diarios sigue siendo la conexión con lo local, su análisis, ordenación, valoración…etc. Es ahí a donde deben reconducirse los mejores recursos humanos que se han podido distraer hasta ahora con otros objetivos. Los hechos locales, o cuando menos el efecto en lo local de acontecimientos allende nuestras fronteras, son el objetivo a perseguir. Obviamente utilizo el término local referido al ámbito del diario, sea éste local, regional e incluso nacional.

13. Piense que contar lo que pasó ya no es la función del periódico
Los otros medios son más frescos y para las principales noticias el diario siempre llega tarde. Relatar lo que sucedió es a menudo claramente insuficiente. El diario debe aportar un valor diferencial propio. Relacionar noticias, descubrir tendencias, recabar opinión de los expertos, aportar visión satelital o disección escrupulosa según las circunstancias, descubrir el posible efecto en la vida de la comunidad de un hecho aparentemente aislado…etc., son objetivos que un diario debe intentar para asegurar la lealtad de su clientela. Incluso en el caso de informar de una noticia, hay siempre varias formas de hacerlo. En un post anterior mencionaba el brillante ejemplo a seguir de un diario norteamericano redactando un hecho local que lo ratificó como el líder informativo de su comunidad. Por supuesto, hay una larga serie de noticias menores en las que el diario funciona más como notario y posee menos margen de elaboración.

14. Aproveche la capacidad de promoción de su medio
Supongamos que su medio podría utilizar el equivalente a una página diaria para impulsar/promocionar sus propios proyectos. Ese potencial vale mucho dinero (multiplique el precio de domingo por 52 y el precio de laborable por 310 y súmelos) y un gran porcentaje es desperdiciado. Repito, se tiran a la basura miles y miles de USD, €, o la moneda que sea. Muy a menudo, según mi experiencia, los anuncios de autopromoción son el resultado de negociaciones entre varias partes de la empresa, no de decisiones sabiamente tomadas. Lo que ahora corresponde es, con la Visión de Futuro en la mano, decidir desde “arriba” los proyectos estratégicos que se deben apoyar de todas las maneras posibles. No tire ni su dinero ni su futuro a la basura.

15. Utilice su diario o deshágase de él
Un diario hecho de fibras de árbol no tiene un objeto empresarial por sí mismo. Soy consciente de que esta frase es llamativa y dura, pero las empresas deben proyectarse hacia el futuro, no ser administradores de ninguna ruina. Los diarios están sufriendo muchos rasguños y tarde o temprano el modelo actual acabará exangüe. Por ello, el diario de papel debe servir para explorar los nuevos caminos que los diarios van a seguir y potenciarlos a través de recursos económicos, de promoción...etc. Si su diario es un facilitador en esa migración que se está produciendo y le ayuda a explorarla, bienvenido sea. Si su diario no tiene un plan de futuro claro y no trabaja en esa dirección, deshágase de él.

16. En la crisis, impulse sus proyectos online
Hay muchos proyectos que se pueden desarrollar “a lo pobre”, y que son ideales para ser lanzados ahora puesto que necesitan del tiempo de maduración para implantarse en la Red que nos ofrece el letargo invernal de esta crisis. Pienso especialmente en aquellos de carácter más Web 2.0, o social, cuyo periodo de aprendizaje y corrección requiere de un cierto tiempo. Esos proyectos se beneficiarán de algo costoso pero que su medio puede ofrecer de forma gratuita: el tráfico de internet y la promoción inteligente en las páginas del diario (por favor, ¡faldones no!). En esta época no toca el fasto y la fiesta, sino madurar proyectos para que estén listos cuando llegue la primavera.

17. Prepárese para entregar sus contenidos en diferentes soportes
Seguramente su visión de futuro incluye mostrar los contenidos en diferentes medios, en todos los que sea posible. La competencia técnica en rotativas debe ser rápidamente sustituida por competencia tecnológica. Una vez que su medio haya alcanzado un nivel tecnológico adecuado esté alerta para entregar su mercancía en diferentes soportes. Si la visualización de su portal en un iPhone es complicada, corríjalo. El objetivo es estar muy preparado para liderar la plaza en cuanto uno de los nuevos soportes comience a popularizarse. Si no está listo en ese momento…suspenso y la banca se queda con todo.

18. Utilice al lector más que nunca
Siempre me ha parecido que los diarios de ambas Américas han sido más marquetineros que los europeos, siendo ésta una virtud a replicar. Explore las opiniones de sus lectores como nunca antes, utilice a sus suscriptores para conocer lo que realmente opinan. Indague en lo que de veras necesitan en estos momentos difíciles y ofrézcales más armas para vivir su vida, su día a día. En la Argentina de 2002 que me tocó vivir, el Producto Interior Bruto cayó un 20% en 18 meses y algunos diarios (destaco La Voz del Interior) supieron reducir paginado pero incrementando al mismo tiempo su utilidad entre los lectores. Les ofrecieron soluciones concretas a sus ingentes problemas (por ej. cómo comer, vestir y decorar con poco dinero) y contra todo pronóstico mantuvieron su base de clientes. Estas respuestas sólo se pueden ofrecer cuando se está habituado a escuchar al cliente. Sáqueles jugo. Ahora más que nunca: porque Vd. lo necesita, porque leen el diario más a fondo que otras épocas y porque tienen más tiempo.

19. Hable con anunciantes y agencias
Una vez que ya utiliza las aportaciones de sus lectores, debe reforzar la comunicación con sus otros clientes, los publicitarios, pero antes Vd. y su equipo comercial deben estar convencidos de que “la publicidad online es más rentable de lo que parece” (ver post) En estos tiempos necesitados de efectivo, muchos clientes están más preocupados por aligerar sus inventarios que por crear una determinada imagen de marca. Es decir, se están haciendo más transaccionales y requieren que su medio les acorte el tiempo de respuesta de sus clientes (más detalle aquí) Necesitan otro tipo de publicidad y en el post mencionado ofrezco algunas claves. Estas y otras muchas conclusiones se las dirán gratuitamente sus clientes, deseosos de que Vd. sepa y pueda ayudarles mejor. Escúcheles e intente darles soluciones.

20. Capture ingresos por nuevas vías
Existen alternativas para la obtención de ingresos, cuya presentación aquí sería demasiado extensa, que tienen que ver, por ejemplo, con las promociones online, el e-mail marketing o el vídeo como herramienta publicitaria para sus clientes. Si no las conoce o no las ha puesto en marcha, quizá sea el momento de escoger una de ellas y comenzar la curva de aprendizaje muy a lo pobre para que cuando el dinero vuelva al mercado Vd. pueda incrementar su participación en él. No se deprima por el poderío de Google. Hay muchas empresas que están haciendo el camino de vuelta ya que, según The New York Times, los precios para algunas palabras se han multiplicado por cuatro durante los últimos 18 meses haciéndolos inaccesibles para muchas empresas. Y las subidas siguen galopando.

En resumen
-Reduzca sus costes con energía ya que independientemente de la crisis lo tenía que hacer. Los negocios informativos deben reducir el peso de su estructura antes de renacer en sus nuevos roles. La figura del Ave Fénix no se me antoja muy ajena a lo que les espera.
-Abra la empresa. Ábrala de verdad y a fondo. Cuente con más contenidos externos para lo que no es “core”, utilice más colaboradores externos, blogueros e informadores locales…etc. Solicite con mentalidad muy abierta la opinión de los lectores y sus deseos en estos momentos de penuria.
-Desarrolle las competencias del futuro: capacidad tecnológica para trabajar “cross media”, para plasmar contenidos y obtener ingresos en el soporte que sea necesario. Para ello, rodéese de una plantilla preparada, con curiosidad por aprender, que pueda captar la noticia y la información en el medio que sea preciso.
-Evangelice entre su gente sobre todo lo anterior. Hágales entender que ahora “se lee distinto”, que el lector tiene más filtros que antes, que es más inteligente y demanda otro producto.
-Explore activamente el mundo digital: encuentre su solución a los clasificados online, vaya más allá de las noticias, pruebe a desempeñar los nuevos roles que serán su futuro.
-Acérquese a los anunciantes y escúchelos ya que ellos le pueden aportar mucha luz sobre lo que debe hacer su empresa

En estos tiempos de crisis le reducción de costes es condición muy necesaria pero no suficiente. Abra su cabeza y su empresa a lo nuevo y explórelo. Los grandes negocios de internet han empezado en un garaje casi sin recursos. Aproveche su obligada estancia en el túnel para abordar los trabajos pendientes y poner en marcha las acciones que supondrán su puente al futuro.

20 consejos para los periódicos en época de crisis (Parte I)

2008-11-25T15:47:28+04:00

Aunque me suelo centrar en los nuevos medios, últimamente he estado en contacto con varios editores de prensa y me ha parecido oportuno responder a una pregunta varia veces formulada “¿Qué conviene hacer en estos momentos de crisis?” De mis trabajos con la prensa en Europa occidental y del Este, así como con las dos Américas y alguna incursión en el mundo árabe, destilo en este blog 20 recomendaciones especialmente adaptadas al momento presente y que he dividido en dos posts dada su dimensión. No pretenden ser exhaustivas sino que cubren aquellas actuaciones que, en mi opinión, se suelen quedar en el tintero.

Ante una coyuntura económica tan desafiante interesa tener claros algunos conceptos fundamentales para evitar dar manotazos y desperdiciar las oportunidades que toda crisis ofrece. Como concluía en un post anterior, “las crisis tienen una función en la vida de las empresas y los mercados. Está claro que, entre otras cosas, sirven para replantear proyectos, estrategias e importantes reducciones de costes, pero también para poner en marcha tácticas nuevas que nos serán muy útiles una vez el sol vuelva a brillar. Y una crisis es demasiado cara y escasa como para desaprovecharla”.

1. No deje que la crisis pilote su proyecto
Los “pilotos de tormenta” se distinguen porque a diferencia del novato que va reaccionando a los acontecimientos, antes han vivido situaciones similares y siendo capaces de detectar patrones comunes adelantan respuestas válidas. Saben adaptarse a las malas olas, sin perder de vista el objetivo que se han marcado. Muchos diarios en épocas de crisis son meramente reactivos y desperdician el gran potencial de las crisis.

2. Reduzca gastos agresivamente
Si hace años que intenta reducir sus costes y siempre ha tenido que avanzar con timidez, ahora es el momento de eliminar esa grasa que todo negocio tiende a generar. Debe hacerlo por dos razones: si Vd. no reduce los costes ahora, al final de la crisis estará mucho peor que los que han aprovechado la coyuntura; además, si en el caso de los RRHH no es Vd. el que toma la iniciativa, se le irán yendo los mejores y se quedará con “peso muerto” incapaz de trasportar su negocio al futuro.

3. No sea reactivo
No tome las decisiones por lo que ya ha sucedido. Proyecte el descenso de ingresos durante los próximos seis meses y ajuste sus gastos a ese nuevo escenario. De lo contrario siempre llegará tarde y los acontecimientos podrán con Vd.

4. Renegócielo todo
Sus proveedores saben que lo está pasando mal y no querrán perderle ahora. Si alquila locales pida una bajada del 25%, si su distribución incluye rutas que ya no tienen sentido, reorganícelas ahora. Si los camiones o furgonetas no transportan suficientes kg por condicionantes sindicales, abórdelo; hable con sus papeleros y consiga bajadas de precio o mejor financiación. Otros lo están haciendo. Revea el coste de todos sus insumos o bienes necesarios para la producción, incluidos tinta, coste de telefonía, conectividad…TODO, absolutamente todo. Tanto con proveedores externos como internamente. Hay demasiadas concesiones que se hicieron a los sindicatos que ya no tienen sentido y que destruyen valor. Ahora toca convertir al sentido común en el más común de los sentidos.

Hablando de distribución, gestione el punto de venta. Muchos diarios no lo hacen porque piensan que es trabajo de la distribuidora. Error! La gestión del punto de venta afecta al posicionamiento y la exposición del diario en la calle, a la relación con los kiosqueros, a la identificación de problemas o áreas de mejora. Entre las personas que “sobran” seleccione una con facilidad de trato y ordenada que realice este trabajo. Debe supervisarle alguien que crea en ello y que esté dispuesto a utilizar los inputs.

5. Pierda menos tiempo (y dinero) en su rotativa
No es su “core business” y sólo puede alejarle de él. Si no la tiene, bien. Si ya la tiene, no piense en invertir en una. Asóciese con competidores para reducir su inversión o, mejor, subcontrate la impresión. Son hierros que ya no suponen una barrera de entrada y a cambio entrañan una doble distracción: por menor atención de los gestores hacia lo realmente estratégico, y porque se distraen fondos de la empresa a actividades no estratégicas existiendo tantas otras necesidades de inversión para construir puentes al futuro.

6. Tenga a mano su Visión de Futuro o venda el diario
Cualquier decisión que tome debe ser parte de un proyecto mayor, lo que evitará que dé manotazos de ahogado. El manido “Plan Estratégico” nos contamina por el uso que hemos hecho de él muchas veces. Le recomiendo que se centre en la Visión de Futuro de su negocio. No debe ser algo improvisado sino el resultado de haber asistido a conferencias, de haber visitado los mejores ejemplos por el mundo, de horas de lectura de los blogueros mejor informados, de conversaciones con consultores especializados…y debe constituir un trabajo en equipo, compartido con las personas de talento de su empresa. Crisis y futuro pueden parecer un oxímoron, pero no lo son en absoluto. Si no consigue tener una clara visión de futuro, venda el diario, porque acabará siendo un pasivo costoso.

7. Traduzca su visión de futuro en roles que el diario debe satisfacer
Como cualquier objeto de consumo, el diario deberá aspirar a satisfacer ciertos roles en su comunidad. En el caso de la prensa más limitada geográficamente, la local-regional, descubra qué papeles, qué funciones debe desempeñar su empresa a futuro. Hágalo con imaginación, analizando su posicionamiento actual, las experiencias de otros diarios, los huecos del mercado y sus capacidades…etc. Al final se tratará de un ambicioso proyecto que le obligará a visualizar esos roles, imaginar las nuevas relaciones en las que se irá centrando gracias a su visión, su equipo humano y las competencias que irá desempeñando. Si el único rol a futuro consiste en el desarrollo de las noticias, “game over”. (Este punto requiere más desarrollo pero no constituye el objetivo del presente post).

8. Haga el mapa de los puestos clave
Antes de llevar a cabo una enérgica reducción de costes, analice cuáles son los puestos clave que necesita cada una de las áreas, redacción incluida. Me refiero a cajas en blanco, sin nombres. Si esos puestos están cubiertos por buenos profesionales, hágales saber que cuenta con ellos. Si no están, asegúrese de colocar a profesionales potentes en los puestos claves. Antes, la inercia podía ayudarle, pero ahora necesita de “cabezas tractoras” que arrastren a los demás. Haga el mapa de talento con la cabeza fría y las circunstancias tranquilas. Le ayudará a evitar fuga de talento.

9. Ofrezca formación a la gente con la que se quede
La formación indiscriminada a personas que realmente no lo desean es cara, sirve de poco y roba tiempo. Cuando ya tenga la visión y “compradores” para las líneas principales de actuación, dé la formación adecuada para que su tripulación pueda navegar en las movidas aguas que nos esperan. No todos pondrán en marcha lo aprendido, pero confíe en el efecto punta de lanza. Además, el efecto psicológico será positivo ya que el mensaje lanzado no será que Vd. está sólo reduciendo costes, sino que lo está haciendo para abordar a fondo los retos de la empresa. Hay muchas fuentes de formación, incluso en internet. Intente NewsU.org o cualquiera de las alternativas para ir abriendo apetito.

10. En redacción, revise el ratio producción propia versus producción de terceros
La organización del trabajo en su periódico se hizo por muchas razones algunas de las cuales han perdido vigencia. Dependiendo del tipo de diario (local, regional, nacional) y de otros factores, hay parámetros que siguen siendo razonables y otros que ya no lo son. En muchas ocasiones visito diarios que no deberían escribir tantas páginas sobre temas que se pueden hallar en otros medios y con mejor calidad, sino que debieran comprar ese contenido. Siempre habrá argumentos para no hacerlo y defender la elaboración propia, pero en muchos casos sólo añade coste y no ofrece un producto mejor. Si no se trata de contenidos de su territorio, deberá haber siempre una razón clara para que el diario los elabore. La costumbre o inercia no son respuestas válidas porque todo coste debe ofrecer una contrapartida.

(continúa en post siguiente)

Consolidación en los directorios locales (iYP)

2008-11-21T22:04:00+04:00

Hasta hace bien poco el camino más emprendido para acceder a los ingresos por búsqueda local que tanto han estado creciendo durante los últimos años era a través de la generación de iYP (páginas amarillas digitales). Replicar Google era poco menos que imposible, pero liderar un mercado local en iYP parecía más accesible. En los EEUU y otros países desarrollados, editores locales y jugadores provenientes de internet fundaron decenas de competidores locales confiando en que su estrategia sería la adecuada una vez pasados los duros inicios que tiene que soportar cualquier negocio. Si los jugadores tradicionales, los propietarios de las páginas amarillas de toda la vida, confiaban en su capilaridad comercial y en que los clientes que contrataban internet lo hacían a menudo arrastrados por la oferta combinada de papel más internet, los jugadores aspirantes, a menudo editores, confiaban en su capacidad de generar tráfico y en el poder de su marketing y prescripción, seguros, además, de que con tarifas más ajustadas convencerían a un determinado porcentaje de comerciantes de pasarse a sus proyectos.

Como si se tratase de una justicia compensatoria por lo mucho que internet les había hecho padecer, los editores de prensa querían operar como “pure players”, sin tener que proteger el papel, y se veían esta vez no ya como defensores sino como atacantes de los jugadores tradicionales offline a quienes achacaban su lentitud a la hora de hacer evolucionar su negocio hacia lo digital (!). La crisis, ya mutada en recesión, se ha encargado de ofrecer algunas aclaraciones. Si bien algunos clientes avezados saben manejarse en internet, una gran parte de ellos se da cuenta de que necesita ayuda para posicionarse en el ilimitado mundo online y en ese momento las empresas con más capilaridad comercial se han beneficiado de su posición para asesorarles, lo que equivale a decir las empresas tradicionales de páginas amarillas. También a su favor, la crisis les ha podido limitar su capacidad de inversión pero no les ha alejado de su “core business,” de generar y explotar grandes directorios mientras que en el caso de los editores son muchos los que se han visto obligados a abandonar sus proyectos renunciando así a los frutos de los esfuerzos económicos realizados. ¿Quiere esto decir que “los páginas amarillas” son los ganadores? Si así fuese, su victoria sería pírrica. Por un lado su negocio offline perderá al 39% de los ingresos durante los próximos cuatro años, según Borrell. Por otro, los comerciantes que a duras penas llegan a fin de mes permiten pocas alegrías. Al final, una vez más, la lapidaria frase de “el mercado nos está obligando a sustituir euros analógicos por céntimos digitales” también se aplica en este caso.

El Wall Street Journal mencionaba la ralentización del tráfico para estos jugadores y cómo algunos habían caído en bolsa un 99%. Todos están depurando sus operaciones, abandonando mercados poco rentables y olvidándose de nuevos territorios. Las crisis son implacables depuradoras que a través de cierres y concentraciones ayudan a la consolidación de los mercados. En el fondo, si hay que encontrar fórmulas exitosas de enfrentarse al acoso de Google, es necesario que unos pocos jugadores, los supervivientes de la carrera, puedan intentarlo con la experiencia y los medios suficientes (refiriéndonos a Google, siempre escasos).

¿Significa lo anterior que los editores deben olvidarse de todo proyecto vinculado a la generación y explotación de bases de datos? En absoluto, tan sólo aconseja no intentar una aventura con grandes bases de datos estructuradas y comercializadas con amplios equipos ya que el mercado no ofrece gasolina para ese viaje. Lo que no se debe descartar es la posibilidad de trabajar con bases de datos más localizadas geográficamente y más verticales, aprovechando la “capilaridad” de la que disponen los editores, su tráfico, para crear presencia, notoriedad y base para un negocio futuro. No es mal momento para retener a los mejores recursos humanos cuyo proyecto se va a cerrar. Estos años de vacas flacas son el preludio de otros tiempos mejores y ofrecen la oportunidad de poner en marcha, a lo muy pobre, proyectos que utilicen bases de datos locales revestidas del atractivo que sólo la valoración y participación de otros usuarios puede proporcionar. A un coste ínfimo se puede estar poniendo la semilla que florecerá cuando salgamos de este invierno económico.