Newspapers & Digital Disruption: State of the Union

HEARST NEWSPAPERS STRATEGIC
ASSESSMENT: STATE OF THE UNION !

PREPARED BY: ALISA LEONARD
VICE PRESIDENT, STRATEGY & PLANNING I ALISAMLEO@GMAIL.COM

February 2012

A WORD…!

§  This document is an edited and abridged version of a larger strategic
analysis assignment I was engaged to lead in 2011-2012

§  As such, competitive insights and particular sections and slides have been
omitted

§  This presentation is intended to present insights into what it means to be in
the business of information exchange in today’s socially-connected,
always-on world

ALISA LEONARD // ALISAMLEO@GMAIL.COM

CONTENTS!

§  Introduction

§  Insights

§  SWOT Analysis & Hierarchy of Needs

§  The Path Forward


INTRODUCTION 
!

BACKGROUND I PERSPECTIVE

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE  
DISRUPTION & THE NEW INTERMEDIARY!

§  I n t h e 2 0 t h c e n t u r y , t h e n e w s m e d i a t h r i v e d by being the
intermediary others needed to reach customers

§  I n t h e 2 1 s t t h e r e i s a n e w i n t e r m e d i a r y : S o f t w a r e p r o g r a m m e r s ,
content aggregators and device makers control access to the public

§  T h e n e w s i n d u s t r y , l a t e t o a d a p t a n d c u l t u r a l l y m o r e t i e d t o c o n t e n t
creation than engineering, ﬁnds itself more a follower than leader
shaping its business

PEW RESEARCH


THE QUESTION!
W H AT I S S O C I A L M E D I A’ S R O L E W I T H I N A N E W S O R G A N I Z AT I O N "
( I . E . H O W C A N W E L E V E R A G E I T T O C R E AT E V A L U E ? ) …

THE QUESTION RE-FRAMED!

W H AT I S T H E R O L E O F A N E W S M E D I A O R G A N I Z AT I O N I N
T O D AY ’ S A L W AY S - O N , S O C I A L LY C O N N E C T E D W O R L D
( I . E . H O W D O W E C R E AT E V A L U E ? ) …

ADAPTING TO SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT ABOUT CHOOSING  
A SET OF PLATFORMS OR TECHNOLOGIES 
!

•  Social media reﬂects changing shifts in how consumers behave – the web is an
entirely social space that connects people in real-time to other people, places and
information. Almost every touch point on the web has some aspect of social
connectivity– from comments and shares to +1’s

•  Social media represents a change in standard communications protocols,
disrupting the means and control of content production and distribution

•  Ultimately, social media impacts news organizations in almost every aspect of
the newspaper value chain

CONTENT CONTENT AUDIENCE SALES &
DISTRIBUTION
DEVELOPMENT
MONETIZATION
SOURCES
PRODUCTION


DIGITAL EVOLUTION, AND IN PARTICULAR SOCIAL MEDIA, HAS
DISRUPTED THE NEWSPAPER VALUE CHAIN!

LINK
THEN
NOW

•  Journalists / AP
CONTENT •  Journalists
•  Data sources (APIs, DMPs, databases)
SOURCES
•  AP
•  Consumer content + conversation
•  Partners

•  Printing press
•  Printing press
CONTENT
•  Text & photos
•  Text & photos
PRODUCTION
•  Expensive multi-media for the web
•  Expensive multi-media for the web

•  Fixed timing
•  Always-on, real-time 24/7
•  Newsstand
•  Myriad of channels / consumer social spaces
DISTRIBUTION
•  Home delivery
•  C2C and C2B push-button distribution through
•  B2B & B2C
sharing

•  Readership growth through •  Myriad of digital means: social spaces &
AUDIENCE newsstand & B2B distribution
databases, SEO, email, mobile
DEVELOPMENT
•  Subscriptions
•  Digital audience profiling
•  Web site traffic
•  Product development

•  Ad sales (offline + online)
•  Sales (offline + online) & marketing services
SALES &
•  Static/ implicit performance
•  Audience monetization / exchanges
MONETIZATION
•  Subscriptions
•  Dynamic implicit & explicit performance

A NEW MODEL EMERGES 
THE BUSINESS VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA LIES IN HOW IT IS"
LEVERAGED ACROSS THIS NEW VALUE CHAIN

PRODUCT
INNOVATION & MARKETING
MARKETABLE SERVICES
CONTENT

SALES & MONETIZATION

MULTI- AUDIENCE
CONTENT CONTENT
PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT
SOURCES
PRODUCTION
DISTRIBUTION

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

FEEDBACK LOOP TRENDING DATA REPORTING &
KPIs TO
GOVERNANCE
TO CONTENT FOR SALES & PUBLISHING &
CREATORS
EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL


THIS IS THE STATE OF THE UNION!

T R E N D S – D ATA – I N F O R M AT I O N – I N S I G H T S

INSIGHTS 
!

F I N D I N G S I I M P L I C AT I O N S

INSIGHTS FROM A MACRO TO MICRO PERSPECTIVE!

Social Media Diagnostic
Tactical-practical

Value Chain Assessment
Strategic imperatives

Trend Analysis
Big picture


HOW TO READ THIS ANALYSIS!

TREND
VALUE CHAIN
SOCIAL MEDIA
ANALYSIS
ASSESSMENT
DIAGNOSTIC

•  Audience behaviors, trends •  Findings from our ecosystem •  Quantitative and qualitative
and expectations that affect analysis in the context of the review of existing
the state of news
newspaper value chain
newspaper social spaces

•  Competitors and market •  This section is designed to •  Deep-dive into individual
forces that are shaping and identify core opportunities branded spaces in order to
re-shaping the industry
for Hearst newspapers as it asses practices and
pertains to leveraging social performance that impact
•  Technologies, tools and across the value chain
the value social media
products transforming the
could provide
news industry

[EDITED] [EDITED // ABRIDGED] [OMITTED]


MAJOR THEMES EMERGED THROUGH  
OUR RESEARCH & ANALYSIS !

PEOPLE
PROCESS

•  Critical need for tiered (basic-advanced) •  Critical need for central Governance and
training curriculum across newsroom oversight with localized rules of
editorial, sales and marketing teams
engagement

•  Audiences must be embraced and utilized •  Must implement standard rules of
as content co-creators & distributors
engagement and social media editorial
style guidelines, and processes for
•  Need to re-deﬁne R&R and daily individual journalists to use social media
processes for Journalists
for sourcing, distributing content and

engaging audiences
•  Need dedicated talent, discipline and
process for managing brand-level social •  Need standard process and tools to
spaces and conversations across the create insights-driven social media
Hearst newspaper platform
editorial programming and daily social
engagement activities/optimization by

brand-level community managers


MAJOR THEMES EMERGED THROUGH  
OUR RESEARCH & ANALYSIS !

PRODUCT
PLATFORMS

•  The future of news is visual storytelling.
Visual content creation needs to be •  Critical need for knowledge management
developed as a core competency
platform and reporting feedback loop to

inform journalists, editorial, sales and
•  Growth requires product innovation marketing
leveraging social data and a consistent
user participation framework across all •  Need standardized social media
digital channels
management and monitoring tools with

advanced permissions for central
•  Greater social integration with mobile, site management across the newspaper brand
and search is critical for maximizing network and custom, local implementation
content sourcing, distribution through by journalists, social media community
social spaces, audience development and managers, and marketing teams
sellable marketing services

•  Development for Facebook’s Read, Listen,
•  Online ad products must keep up with Watch API’s is crucial in the next 6 months
marketing trends, and the services model
needs clarity and scalability across brands


TREND ANALYSIS!

L O O K I N G AT T H E B I G P I C T U R E

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE  
SOCIAL MEDIA SIGNALS BIG SHIFTS IN PUBLISHING DYNAMICS!

§  I n a m e d i a w o r l d w h e r e c o n s u m e r s d e c i d e w h a t n e w s t h e y w a n t t o
get and how they want to get it, the future will belong to those who
u n d e r s t a n d t h e p u b l i c ’s c h a n g i n g b e h a v i o r "
"

PEW Research

DISINTERMEDIATION AND THE EMERGENCE OF  
A NEW SOCIALLY-IMPACTED VALUE CHAIN!

•  We are experiencing the rapid
acceleration of Moore’s Law: Means of
content creation and production have
become cheaper, faster and more
ubiquitous

•  Content scarcity has given way to
content overload

•  Fixed and controllable channels of
distribution have been displaced by open
networks

•  Audiences are no longer passive
recipients but co-creators and
distributors of content and conversation

•  Advertisers are becoming their own
publishers, giving rise to a focus on
“earned media”

NEWS CONSUMERS ARE VERY SOCIAL,  
DIGITAL CONTENT “SNACKERS” & CREATORS 
OPPORTUNITY TO LEVERAGE NEWS AUDIENCE FOR CONTENT CO-CREATION !

•  Online surpassed print for news
consumption for the first time in 2011

•  65% of 18-29 year olds get their news
primarily online

•  48% of 18-34 year olds see news first on
Facebook

•  Consumers of print and online news
index in the highest, most active brackets
of Forrester’s Technographics ranking:
Social “Creators”, “Joiners” and
“SuperConnected” mobile users

•  Consumers prefer to follow specific news
topics, and will bounce around multiple
Sources: sources “snacking” on topical content
PEW Research
Facebook and gaining multiple perspectives
iCrossing news consumer panel & Forrester Research


WHAT ARE THEY “SNACKING” ON & CO-CREATING?  
VISUAL CONENT 
LEVERAGE SOCIAL DATA & DATA VISUALIZATION AS SOURCES OF VISUAL CONTENT

•  12% drop in text-based content
consumption over last year

•  Over 2 billion video views on YouTube
per day

•  60 billion photos are uploaded and
shared on Facebook every month

•  Infographic content dramatically risen in
popularity as with increased access to
data presents opportunities for visual
storytelling

•  Popular and fastest growing content
platforms focus on visual, curated and
co-created content: Pinterest, Hulu,
Hufﬁngton Post, Tumblr, Flickr,
Facebook, YouTube, Buzzfeed,
Flipboard
Sources: PEW Research

THE FUTURE OF NEWS IS VISUAL STORYTELLING 
VISUAL CONTENT SUCH AS INFOGRAPHS & VIDEO ARE AMONG THE WEB’S MOST CONSUMED
CONTENT ACCORDING TO A RECENT COMSCORE STUDY

NEWS MEDIA IS THE THIRD MOST “PINNED” CONTENT ON
PINTEREST, FASTEST GROWING INDEPENDENT SITE IN HISTORY


IN ADDITION TO CONTENT INNOVATIONS, NEWS  
ORGANIZATIONS MUST INNOVATE THEIR AD PRODUCTS 
OPPORTUNITY TO LEVERAGE SOCIAL DATA FOR HIGHLY TARGETED ADVERTISING PRODUCTS

A recent 2011 PEW study found:

•  21% of all ads on news sites are in-house
ads

•  News organizations’ online properties are
not attracting fast growing types of online
advertising, including video which is
expected to grow 43% in 2012

•  Only 3 of the 22 news organizations
assessed (New York Times, CNN and
Yahoo!) use highly targeted, dynamic
advertising based on audience behavior or
social data

•  Hearst is uniquely positioned now with
iCrossing’s Core Audience to aggressively
capitalize on product innovation


NEWS LEADERS ARE EXPERIMENTING WITH  
SOCIAL MEDIA ACROSS THE VALUE CHAIN 
OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARST TO EXPLOIT AREAS OF THE VALUE CHAIN IN WAYS COMPETITORS ARE NOT!

•  Content Sources: consumer conversation
data, social trends, bloggers, UGC and
curated consumer content, social data
visualizations

•  Content Production: On-the-ground and
live-streaming journalist videos, dedicated
data visualization production teams

•  Distribution: Branded & journalist social
spaces, viral distribution through Facebook
apps, partnered social syndication

•  Audience Development: Audience growth
through community management, app
development and co-creation opportunities
allow the audience to feel part of the story

•  Monetization & Sales: NYTimes rewards
responsible social activity with paywall
credits; Washington Post sells inventory in
their SocialReader app

COMPETITORS ARE EXPERIENTING WITH CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 
OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARST TO CURATE HYPER LOCAL CONTENT "
THROUGH COMBINED DATA + AUDIENCES APPROACH!

Social Content Development/Product Social Content Development/Product
Innovation: Data Curation
Innovation: Consumer Co-Creation

COMPETITORS ARE TAKING EITHER A TALENT OR  
TECH APPROACH TO DISTRIBUTION 
OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARST TO DRIVE INNOVATION WITH A TALENT + TECH APPROACH!

Social Distribution & Audience Social Distribution & Audience
Development: Technology
Development: Talent

AND THEY ARE EXPERIMENTING WITH  
INTEGREATED SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT/CONNECTIVITY 
TRENDS TOWARDS SURFACING CONTENT MERCHANDISING BASED ON SOCIAL ACTIVITY!

Audience Development:
Audience Development:
“Like-gating” content on-site
Driving deep site engagement by
surfacing content users are reading

THE NEW YORK TIMES IS TRANSPARENT ABOUT  
ON-SITE SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION 
BY EDUCATING THEIR AUDIENCE ABOUT SOCIAL INTEGRATION, THEY DRIVE GREATER PARTICIPATION!


SOCIAL CONTENT AGGREGATORS & CREATORS ON THE RISE  
NEWS ORGANIZATIONS SEEK TO SCALE CONTENT THROUGH CURATION!

Percolate aggregates social content and allows for
push-button publishing to sites and social spaces

Contently crowdsources
content for publishers and brands

PopTent curates pro-
sumer video content


SOCIAL TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES HAVE BEGUN TO MATURE 
CRITICAL TO IMPLEMENT STANDARD TOOLS FOR MANAGEMENT & MONITORING!

MANAGEMENT: AUDIENCES
MANAGEMENT:

CONTENT

MONITORING
MEASUREMENT

*Categorizations based on core capabilities

IN ADDITION TO TOOLS & TECHNOLOGY, NEW DISCIPLINES AND
SKILLS ARE EMERGING, REPLACING CHAOS WITH CAPABILITIES!

•  In addition to great content, social media
success requires talent with speciﬁc skills
and training

•  Two key disciplines are emerging:
1)  Engagement Planning
2)  2) Community (Audience)
Management

•  Engagement Planning focuses on
answering the who, what, when, when and
“how often” of content and engagement

•  Community (Audience) Management
focuses on daily publishing and audience
development and require both soft people
skills and hard analytical skills


A SPECIAL NOTE ON FACEBOOK: STRATEGICALLY FOCUSED 
ON DISTRIBUTING THE WORLD’S ENGAGING CONTENT !

•  Facebook cannot be ignored: 800 million
users, half of which are mobile

•  20% of all web page views

•  56% of all content shared online

•  38% of click-throughs on content that is
shared on the web

•  New API’s and Timeline feature illuminates
critical Facebook strategy: they are
focused on being the central hub for
multi-media content

•  Facebook’s API’s encourage apps that
allow users to Read, Listen & Watch– and
news organizations are quick to develop
for this platform


A SPECIAL NOTE ON GOOGLE: STRATEGICALLY FOCUSED ON
SOCIAL DATA ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS & PRODUCTS!

•  Similar to Facebook, Google is making
an aggressive play for premium content
and social connectivity

•  Google has stated in 2011 Social Media
Council meetings it anticipates to embed
social data/connectivity into every
Google product by 2013

•  With the launch of YouTube’s premium
content channels and the intersection of
G+ with search, Google stands to
dominate content access across the web

•  Google will continue to be a critical focus
for publishers, particularly as social
interaction with content continues to
impact visibility in search


THE FUTURE OF NEWS LIES IN THINKING  
MORE LIKE ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPERS!


KEY TAKE-AWAYS!

INSIGHT
IMPLICATIONS

Audiences want
One of newspaper’s biggest opportunities with social media is to
to co-create,
leverage it as a source for content – both through audience co-
empower them
creation initiatives and through publicly available social data

Because consumers are overloaded with content everyday, share of
The future of news is attention will go to highly desirable, high quality visual content. Developing
visual content
visual storytelling as a core newsroom competency is critical

Product innovation The future success of the news business requires thinking more like
leveraging social
entrepreneurial developers. Opportunity to re-deﬁne “what the news
data is critical
is” through leveraging social for product innovation

Talent must go
A “talent & technology” approach, developing expertise and
hand-in-hand with
excellence around new skill sets beyond the traditional newsroom,
technology solutions
and investing in critical technologies is crucial


VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS!
THIS SECTION EXAMINES OUR FINDINGS THROUGH
THE LENS OF THE NEWS VALUE CHAIN

WE TRIANGULATED FINDINGS FROM OUR ECOSYSTEM  
ANALYSIS AGAINST THE NEWSPAPER VALUE CHAIN !

PRODUCT
INNOVATION & MARKETING
MARKETABLE SERVICES
CONTENT

SALES & MONETIZATION

MULTI- AUDIENCE
CONTENT CONTENT
PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT
SOURCES
PRODUCTION
DISTRIBUTION

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

FEEDBACK LOOP TRENDING DATA REPORTING &
KPIS TO
GOVERNANCE
TO CONTENT FOR SALES & PUBLISHERS &
CREATORS
EDITORIAL
SALES TEAMS


RE-THINKING CONTENT SOURCING:  
SCALING BEYOND TRADITIONAL SOURNCES!

•  Competitors are increasingly leveraging
consumer content in addition to search and
social data to create relevant, contextual, on-
demand content
Data &
API’s
•  Across the board, social is not being
leveraged as a source for content on the
Journalists, Consumer newspaper brand’s web sites and mobile
AP & Link content & apps
partners
conversation

•  Some journalists are using social tools to
follow people and topics for story ideas, but
NEWS
their process is sporadic and the tools they
use are disparate

•  Expanding how Hearst newspapers sources
content (from social audiences and data
Currently leveraged feeds) is key to reaching increasing digital
scale, and deliver highly local, customized
Not currently leveraged
content

NEWS ENTERPRISES MUST HAVE A DUAL CONTENT STRATEGY:
TRADITIONAL “NEWS” AND MARKETABLE CONTENT!

•  Sales teams desire more on-
demand, topically-driven
“marketable content” to package
Data &
Consumer Marketable
Journalists &
content & content and sell against
AP
API’s
conversation
team
•  Current newsroom structure
leaves sales teams needing to
“beg, borrow and steal” from the
newsroom to capitalize on
marketable content opportunities

MARKETABLE
NEWS
CONTENT
•  There is need for dedicated
teams /center of excellence to
both create marketable content
and deliver digital marketing
services to local advertisers

Currently leveraged

Not currently leveraged


CONSISTENT AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION  
FRAMEWORK ACROSS ALL CHANNELS & PLATFORMS CRITICAL!

•  User participation capabilities vary by
channel, creating inconsistencies in meeting
audience expectations

•  Sites allow for commenting and sharing

•  Mobile does not allow commenting and only
some sharing

•  Social spaces do not foster consistent
engagement or feedback loop into other
channels

•  Opportunity for a user single-sign/centralized
proﬁle across all channels to control
subscriptions on different platforms,
comment and share seamlessly across
channels, and consistent personalized
content experiences (a saved or Liked article
on the site would be surfaced on other digital
platforms)

MONETIZATION & SALES REQUIRE PRODUCT  
INNOVATION ANCHORED BY A NEW SERVICE MODEL !

•  Potential to leverage localized “Live
Media Studio” service delivery model for
creating marketable content and
providing local digital marketing services
Marketable
Content
•  Opportunities for monetization through
product innovation that focuses on
Social-
Mobile utilizing social data at its core (e.g.
Marketing Facebook app or social content hub)
Centric
Services
Product
Innovation
•  Opportunity to leverage Red Aril in more
meaningful ways, including monetization
through an audience exchange, and
“Live Media dynamic, audience-based content
Data & Insights
experiences
Studio”

•  Need for knowledge management / data
Service Delivery Model
feedback loop for quarterly sales
planning, product development &
services optimization

THE UPSHOT: FROM > TO!

FROM
TO

NEWS VALUE CHAIN THAT LEVERAGES
TRADITIONAL NEWS VALUE CHAIN
SOCIALLY-CONNECTED DIGITAL
INNOVATION ACROSS ALL TOUCH POINTS

NEWS + MARKETABLE CONTENT +
NEWS + AUDIENCE
SOCIAL EQUITY

CONSISTENT AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
FRAGMENTED AUDIENCE EXPERIENCES
FRAMEWORK ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS

SALES
SOLUTIONS


SWOT ANALYSIS &  
HIERARCHY OF NEEDS 
!
INSIGHTS IN PERSPECTIVE I CONTEXT

NEWSPAPERS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS 
THE NEXT STEP: DEVELOPING A COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS STRATEGY

CONNECTEDNESS HOLISTIC
VALUE

EMPOWERMENT,
OPTIMIZATION MEASUREMENT &
INSIGHTS

SOCIALLY-CONNECTED VALUE
FORMATION CHAIN, BEST PRACTICES,
CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE

GOVERNANCE, PROCESS,
SAFETY EDUCATION & TRAINING

FOUNDATION GOALS, OBJECTIVES, VISION, CULTURAL READINESS


THANK YOU!

ALISA LEONARD I ALISAMLEO@GMAIL.COM

Newspapers & Digital Disruption: State of the Union

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