channel

The Curated Future Of News Radio

The digital content disruption continues. Whilst print media have been grappling with this for some time and the music industry has also been coming to terms with new forms of content distribution such as Spotify, it appears the next frontier of curation could be news & information content. Whilst this has typically been the domain of public radio, with a combination of location services and curated content from around the world we have started to see a new wave of applications which empower the user to curate their own news rather than rely on local radio to do it for them.

Early examples of this are Agogo and Swell. Recently launched, they pose a new challenge to traditional media outlets by creating new listening experiences for consumers of talk and news. They bring together segments of audio from news sites around the world into customizable and curated streams based around themes such as Business & Finance or Sports. Whilst they can also provide limited local information such as traffic reports based on location services, public radio still has the upper hand in terms of local content creation with the power of their own local journalists and talent. This is something that still gives public radio the upper hand for the moment – somebody needs to create the content in the first place.

However continuing the overarching trend of media money moving into digital, these types of platforms will no doubt over time see more of our traditional media money moved into digital and mobile whether they are independent apps or locally owned by networks, watch this space!

Alex

Big Data & In Memory Computing

BT Tower - London - A Monument To The Broadcast Era

Big Data is a term coined to describe the data deluge we are currently experiencing. It’s no secret that we are living in a technology driven society that generates an ever increasing amount of data as we go about our daily lives. “Always on” is a term that is often heard and more often then not, when we are “on” we are creating data about ourselves, our likes and our dislikes, our network of friends both professional and social, and even our travel habits. At the same time, businesses must also retain more and more information to manage themselves more efficiently across the board. In tough economic times there is an ever increasing recognition that organisations must use every single resource at their disposal to get ahead. This results in information and data that once might have been given little attention is now seen as worth its weight in gold if any perceived value can be derived from it.

Looking at the sources of this data, to start with there is of course the sales, operational and customer data that the business collects. On top of this there’s social media data from the likes of Facebook and Twitter including information around friend groups, likes/dislikes and sentiment analysis. There’s web search data, with transactional information or online customer reviews. There’s also data generated by location-based services and data from sensors, moniters and GPS embedded in a growing array of products from vehicles to appliances. I believe if we as advertisors can offer solutions to our clients of how we can process and utilise the growing amount of data available to help inform creative business solutions we could offer real value. To quote a recent Financial Times article

“The challenges are two-fold: First, to recognize the value of big data in mining customer needs and desires, and second, to devise a data management strategy that integrates big data into the front end of the innovation pipeline.” 

So how do businesses harness all the data that is being created and use it to inform their strategy and decision making? The challenge here is being able to process large amounts of data at speeds that make it useful. It’s very difficult to really make use of data in business decisions on an ongoing basis when it takes weeks to gather and process. Large software powerhouses such as SAP & Oracle have been bringing new tools to market for businesses to help solve this problem. In memory computing software is designed so organisations can analyse vast quantities of data in near real time across many sources. Essentially in-memory computing takes advantage of a better understanding of how data is formed and housed and the ever decreasing price of memory (discussed in my Technology vs Advertising post). Instead of housing data on a hard drive, data is stored in a computers memory. Therefore, when it needs to be analysed it is available in near real time. This increased power and speed also means that the computers can handle more unstructured data, important when data can come from so many different sources. On the back of this there would need to be a process for managing and delivering the data in an efficient manner and most importantly, in a way that is easy to understand and glean insights from.

Whilst I think caution must be taken not to let our ability to measure granular details bog down the creative process, at the end of the day, the more you know about your customers and can integrate those insights into your business strategies the more likely they are to improve revenue, margins and market share. Who wouldn’t want that leg up over the competition?

Alex

Newspapers – Product & Positioning

I was recently reading an article in Monocle magazine about a newspaper in Norway, Dagens Naringsliv, http://www.dn.no/ which targets the premium end of the news market with their printed editions with thorough, quality, investigative journalism whilst utilising their website & tablet editions for breaking and up to the minute news & comment. Could this be the future for newspapers? Will printed paper stand for quality like it once did when the internet and digital devices are ubiquitous? In my opinion we are seeing this trend to an extent with magazines already.

It’s no new concept however that in advertising and media we need to look beyond just the product itself as a basis for our strategy. In our over saturated & communicated market, this is no longer enough. Even if we have the best product we now need to look at how the product is positioned in the minds of the receivers/consumers to really find our space in the market. Technology and the internet are forcing newspapers into a transition phase where their old model of being a printed advertising delivery system where journalism takes a back seat is rapidly becoming obsolete. Readership is dropping as people turn to the internet for their daily news rather than the traditional printed edition.

Could a new product & positioning strategy perhaps help to both revive the printed edtions and innovate the business model into the future? With some clever positioning and quality content this could be the case. I’m sure there will always be people willing to pay for quality journalism on a tangible medium such as paper, especially if we can make people feel more sophisticated for doing so. Let’s face it, we by nature are tactile creatures and there is something about the feeling of a good quality paper stock in your hands that no amount of digital technology can replicate.

So how could a newspaper go about doing this? For a starters it would most likely take a refresh of brand design and some self promotion.

For the printed editions the below points could be considered:

• Improve the quality of the content (look at longer form journalism, perhaps investigative content & content with strong editorial influence)
• Improve the quality of the paper stock
• Consider the distribution quantity (perhaps reducing the printed circulation and targeting specific geographic regions to control costs)
• Consider the distribution channels (could the channels be more carefully considered to portray a premium image?)
• Increase the price to reflect a premium pricing strategy

Then, back it up with an “always on” site which can be viewed across multiple devices from laptops to tablets or mobile. Content here could be up to the minute, with far less editorial control & could cover a wider variety of stories & commentary. As you compete on a global scale online, keeping content curated to the region your printed in would most likely serve best against competition from strong international news powerhouses. Paywalls should most likely become the norm for certain content here also.

All this aside, the biggest challenge facing the industry is that with the web it is impossible to monetise to the same extent as print since the advertising space isn’t as valuable. Unfortunately for them, I doubt this hurdle will ever be able to be overcome, they may simply never be as profitable as they once were and the focus must go back to quality content. As it should be.

Alex