A New Strategy for the New York Times
The events of the past two weeks at the Times have revealed the need for a new plan and direction. There are new realities that have emerged:
Where’s the Romance? – Journalism is a idealistic and romantic industry. There is honor in journalism and love in holding a newspaper in your hands. Many people enter the business chasing these ideals. They have committed themselves to investigative journalism, and seeing their name on the front of the paper. But they are not in the journalism industry anymore, but in the story business. The sentimental romance is gone, replaced by a single distribution channel and multiple displays.
Its the Story Business – Kodak never knew that they were in the memories business, they thought they were film makers and developers. So when the digital camera emerged(even though Kodak invented it) they didn’t think it was a threat. The internet has done this to the newspaper, music, and now the television industries. Competition is on a story by story basis. The Times is not only competing with other newspapers, but television stations, radio, and internet news sites. And stories rarely fit in 3,000 word sections between ads from Macys and Sears.
News is More Engagement than Broadcast – There is always more to the story; more questions that can be answered. Stories follow an arc. There is now tech that allows for the reporting of developing stories and social networks also allow for more engagement with consumers. The late night twitter ‘broadcast’ of the pursuit and capture of the Boston Marathon bombers is a perfect example of the reporting that can be done realtime.
A rallying cry I hear is “Digital First”. While understandable, it builds walls that exclude valuable monetization channels. “Digital First” is a distribution strategy, not a story strategy.
The Times future lies in a holistic approach rather than the silver bullet(ie paywalls). The mission remains the same, but the execution is much different. An important point is that content is king, and the Times creates great content.
A New Strategy-
I call this strategy the “Push AND Pull” model. It can be summarized by pushing content to the consumers where they want it, and pulling them back into participation. Since the quality of content is not the issue, then the strategies entail distribution and engagement.
Different Types of Content Require Different Engagement Strategies – There are several different types of stories. Long form, either video or just text, breaking news, nuggets, and opinion/columnists. Each of these have purposes that they fulfill, including serving the needs of the consumers. Engagement strategies will vary between insider access to a columnist, Twitter town halls with the reporter, to insider access to the ‘rest of the story’.
Making Money – News is viral. Only 33% of the visitors to the Times website go straight to the homepage. But since it is viral, it is also copied and distributed by aggregators. Many of which don’t get to the Times site. Paywalls lead to high bounce rates and discourage engagement. But money must be made.
If the college football recruiting craze has taught us anything its that people love to be the ones in the know; to have insider information. There are several ways to capitalize on this.
The content that entices enrollment must be discerned. The Times top talent is the differentiator. Now this is determined, then a balance must be struck between insider membership and advertising revenue.
Insider Subscription Content:
- Social access to reporters and columnists – Have social media town halls with the talent to discuss topics and establish relationships. This could look like a Q&A session for an investigative journalism piece, detailed analysis and opinion from topical experts, or talk show format with popular columnists.
- Events and conferences – Use reach and relationships to create engaging events with talent. Possibilities include dinner with a columnist, to large conferences on relevant topics. Insiders get first chance at tickets or free invites to exclusive events.
- Paul Harvey’s “Rest of the Story” – One of the most legendary hooks in radio, this can be used in the news story industry. Stories have always had word limits, even if there was more to tell. Use the insider section to provide more contextual content and supporting research to stories that are in front of the paywall and in the paper.
Living the Story Focus – Stories are based on events, and the value of the stories decrease rapidly as soon as the event is over. It is very rare for someone under 40 to get the score of the Yankees game from the paper the next day. The daily release is too slow for stories that people care about. But it is still a very valuable aggregation of the news of the day. When the paper is seen as an aggregation of the previous days events, with the human focus and opinion pieces mixed in, then the story based model looks realistic. News stories should be reported on the web and social channels as they happen, and a review/summary published the next day. Add some expert analysis, and it still is a very compelling product.
Summary – Value is in the talent and brand of the Times. Not in the distribution. Compete with talent, not workflows and printing presses. If the Times follows this model, their Insider subscriptions would skyrocket, and it won’t cannibalize their advertising revenue.