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December 18, 2006
Business Media Strategies Diverge at Year-End
I have spoken in the past two weeks with senior editors at Business Week, the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. All of them recognize the inexorable move of readers to on-line media and acknowledge the problem of delivering high quality but high cost news while advertising revenue declines. They have quite different strategies for 2007 that are important for PR people to consider.
Each of the media executives described a world of two axes. The first axis, the vertical, has at its left extreme commodity news, at the right extreme the most complex feature reporting. The second axis, the horizontal, has at its top the broadest spectrum of coverage, at the bottom the niche coverage focusing on specific industries. Forbes.com, by taking information from 125 different outlets and acting as an aggregator, is in the bottom left quadrant. Paper versions of media have the highest chance of success the further to the top right quadrant, with a big world view and proprietary feature stories.
The Economist is at a Web 1.5 stage. Its journalists are expected to do audio recordings of important stories, which are made available as podcasts on I-Tunes. The beat reporters are asked also to write short news analysis articles during the week on breaking stories, such as a merger or CEO change. There is no commodity news on line or in the magazine. Approximately 25% of stories in a given issue of the magazine emanate from the US, with half of those from the New York bureau, the balance from Washington or LA.
Business Week is clearly at a Web 2.0 stage. It has changed the content of its weekly publication, with more coverage of evolving stories such as Second Life, less on older industries such as auto or housing. The total content in print and on the web is nearly equal (55% print, 45% web), with the cross over point expected this coming year. Journalists are expected to conduct interviews with CEOs for print or on-line, then to do short video clips to post on-line. The goal is to tell readers where business will be, not just to cover where business is today.
The Wall Street Journal is closer to the Business Week model. In its new iteration starting January 1, with a 10% reduction in its paper size and thus in its news hole, the print edition will have enough commodity news to keep readers up to date but will really aim to educate through analysis. Earnings, executive changes and plant closures will be in the on-line edition, unless seen as part of a trend story. Reporters with real industry understanding are expected to file short stories in minutes based on today’s news, then turn out 1200 word articles that are news analysis.
What are the implications for PR people?
First, we have to provide a multi-media press release that can be repurposed across platforms. It is now assumed that digitized video and photos are attached, to help tell the story. Links to third party expert sites are also helpful.
Second, speed matters more than ever. Spokespeople must be ready to comment immediately to assure equal treatment of a company. We have always been vigilant about accuracy of articles by wire service reporters because they have been the on-ramp for stories in accountability media. Now the same must apply to the accountability media who are filing in Internet time for the on-line versions.
Third, a story is never over. In fact, there is now a greater likelihood of a negative story gaining traction. It will likely be repurposed across platform and could well move from an industry specific outlet to a mainstream media aggregator such as Forbes.com then into other mainstream media. A company in crisis needs to move faster to acknowledge the problem, set a context for curing the problem, then follow up relentlessly to assure that stakeholders are aware of improvements. The Taco Bell situation is indicative of the new expectation.
Fourth, we will need to offer more than hard news because reporters will have to sell feature concepts to their editors to earn space in the paper editions. This will mean that our people will have to be better informed about the industries, not simply the company or the product, to pitch effectively.
To all of my faithful blog readers, I want to wish you a Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas. I am off to India with my family on Wednesday and will write to you next from Delhi.
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Media, New Media, MSM, PR, Public Relations
Posted by Edelman at December 18, 2006 12:25 PM |
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Comments
Richard, thanks for an insightful year of blog posts. Happy Holidays and greetings from a rainy Sacramento.
Posted by: Eric Hansen at December 21, 2006 10:38 PM