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Metamorphosis: Digital Presence of Print Newspapers (Lecture Notes)

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 7/12/2011

Stage 1: Brainstorming

PAPERNAME ONLINE / ePAPERNAME SUGGESTED BRAINSTORMING AGENDA

I. STRATEGIC AIMS

Print versus Web primacy
Content flow models
The Web as an income or profit center
The Web as a marketing tool
The community aspects of the Web (interactivity, UGC - User Generated Content, social media strategies)
The Web as a shopping mall (e-commerce)
Integrative function of the medium's Web presence
PAPERNAME Online/ePAPERNAME as a brand and brand differentiation (the problem of cannibalism)

II. CONTENT and TRAINING

Audience-driven content
Web literacy training
Collaborative content vs. Authorship model
Content types and their roles and interactions (text, video, audio, mesh)
Raw materials and drafts as content
Transparent content generation (the Wikipedia model)
Research techniques (archiving, data/knowledge mining, online research, databases)
PAPERNAME's universally accessible database of contacts, info, ledes, histories, cases, ideas, suggestions

III. BUSINESS MODELS, SALES, and MARKETING

Content and income incentive and profit centers
Subscriptions and combined subscriptions (annuity models)
Advertising-sponsored models (monetizing eyeballs)
PPV (pay-per-view) and PPR (pay-per-read) models
Training of sales personnel
Proprietary and third party e-commerce
Derivative products

IV. DRM (DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT)

DRM: advantages and disadvantages
Viral marketing
Intellectual property considerations (income streams models vs. investment models)
Selective implementation of DRM (DRM as a management and traffic flow control tool)
Website accessibility and permissions (username, password, https, tokens, promotions)
DRM software and hardware overview

V. AUDIENCE, READERSHIP, PUBLIC

Distinguishing audience from readership and public: using web analytics
Market research and focus groups (quantitative and qualitative)
Customized content (personal newspaper)
Reader and location-specific advertising (targeting with cookies, Google ads, and geolocation)
Narrowcasting (see section on PORTAL)

VI. COLLABORATION

Collaboration softwares overview (from wikis to MS Project)
Permissions policies and their effects
Leveraging social media
Real-time reporting and live feeds
Desk models: integrated, semi-integrated, open, discrete, hierarchical (wheelspoke)

VII. PORTAL

Liferay software
Carryover content, replicative content
Freemium considerations in portals/gateways
iPAPERNAME (citizen journalism)
Delivery vehicles and distribution channels: RSS, wikis, blogs, storefront, newsletters, social media
PAPERNAME Corporate Gateway
PAPERNAME Forum and PAPERNAME Seminars
Intern program

VIIa. FREEMIUM

Reference desk and library (free)
PAPERNAME Reports (behind paywall)
e-Books (free and pay)
English-language content
Laws, regulations, opinions (by lawyers and the authorities)
Work and study abroad
Crosswords, treasure hunts, and puzzles (awards)
How to obtain credits
Price comparisons and linked advertising
Intel newsletters (EIU model) and leaks
PAPERNAME Open Directory

VIIb. iPAPERNAME

Dialogs
Blogs and submission area
Wiki collaborative area
Office hours: real-time chat with a journalist
Ask a Question
Town Hall podcasts

VIIc. PAPERNAME CORPORATE GATEWAY

(Subscription only, discount or free to founding sponsor firms)

Tenders: domestic, EU, and other
Corporate library: exclusive news, reports, and analyses
Journalists as consultants
Experts Exchange (ask a professional: lawyer, accountant, stockbroker, appraiser, Revenue Service, Customs, other authorities)
Employment fair
B2B exchange

VIII. SOFTWARE and HARDWARE

Computing requirements: servers, bandwidth, client-side (terminals), applications
Collaboration software
Content creation hardware: cameras, videocams, netbooks/tablets, smartphones, Internet access
Delivery vehicles: apps, webpages, downloads
Archiving and data/knowledge mining and management

IX. BUSINESS PLAN

The outcomes of the above brainstorming sessions should be presented in the form of a classic business plan + PowerPoint presentation and mock website for the management.

Stage 2: Agendas for Change

1. PRESENTATION Experiences of newspapers around the world and innovative, creative solutions

2. CONTENT CREATION revenue sharing models: fixed, per hits/views, mixed, ad revenue sharing

3. READERSHIP

3a. Readership, audience, public

3b. Market research and focus groups

3c. Personal (customized) newspaper

3d. Targeted (reader- and location-specific) advertising ---> Cookies, geolocation, account signup/login (with added features and access to premium content), context-dependent ads, website search engines (see: Yellow pages, JPost), privacy considerations in behavioral marketing

3e. Membership levels (from free to PAPERNAME Gold) ---> Website accessibility and permissions (username, password, https, tokens, promotion codes)

3f. Narrowcasting

3g. Social media integration and restrictions on linking and copy-pasting

3h. Diaspora and Metropolitan subdomains as examples of potentially-profitable niches

BUSINESS MODELS

4. Advertising-sponsored models (monetizing eyeballs) ---> pageview generating media properties

5. Subscriptions and annuities (mixed subscriptions) ---> info gathered on subscription or signup

6. PPV/PPR models ---> freemium and paywalls, self-generated niche content, community-generated niche content and forums/blogs

7. Ad-sponsored mobile site and push technologies (e.g., RSS, apps)

8. PAPERNAME toolbar and PAPERNAME Reader (Adobe AIR)

9. Proprietary and third-party e-commerce

10. Proprietary and third-party products

11. PAPERNAME Affiliates and reader mobilization: leveraging PAPERNAME Community

12. DRM

12a. Advantages and disadvantages

12b. Viral marketing

12c. Intellectual property issues and fair use

12e. Selective implementation of DRM

12f. DRM software and hardware

13. Training of sales persons

14. Mixed subscriptions

15. Use of Flashplayer container with Apple products vs. Adobe AIR

16. Proprietary and third-party products

17. Business Plan: priorities, mock website, timetable

18. Journalist training and social media presence (obligatory updated pages)

PAPERNAME COMMUNITY PORTAL

PROGRAMS

Content integration
Delivery vehicles and distribution channels: RSS, wikis, blogs, storefront, newsletters, social media
PAPERNAME Forum and PAPERNAME Seminars
Intern program
PAPERNAME Affiliates and reader mobilization: leveraging PAPERNAME Community

NICHE FOR-PAY CONTENT

English-language content ---> foreigners, Diaspora
Laws, regulations, opinions (by lawyers and the authorities)
Work and study abroad
Crosswords, treasure hunts, and puzzles (awards)
How to obtain credits
Price comparisons and linked advertising
Intel newsletters (EIU model) and PAPERNAMEleaks
PAPERNAME Open Directory (with evaluations/rating/ranking by journalists and public)
Reference desk and library (free)
PAPERNAME Reports (pay)
e-Books (free and pay)

iPAPERNAME (citizen journalism)

Dialogs
Blogs and submission area
Wiki collaborative area
Office hours: real-time chat with a journalist
Ask a Question
Town Hall podcasts
iPAPERNAME Community Happening (annual?)

PAPERNAME CORPORATE GATEWAY (PCG)

PAPERNAME will establish a space (subdomain) on its website and servers dedicated to the provision of services to corporate firms in general and members of Chambers of Commerce in particular.

PAPERNAME Corporate Gateway (PCG) will reside behind a secure (https) paywall. Access will be granted only to subscribers who log into their online accounts (The Administrator of PCG will provide subscribers with their account details: username, password, and one-time tokens).

Members of Chambers of Commerce will be entitled to a discount on the subscription fee.

The PCG will incorporate the following services:
" Prominently-displayed hyperlinked weekly bulletin of the Chamber of Commerce, optimized for viewing on various browsers and computing platforms, including PCs, laptops, smartphones, and other mobile/wireless devices. PAPERNAME will assist with the production of the bulletin.
" Access to tenders and auctions: domestic, EU, and other countries;
" Corporate library: exclusive and timely news, reports, and analyses from PAPERNAME staff and other sources;
" Access to journalists as consultants on specific issues or news stories;
" An Experts Exchange, which will allow firms to pose questions to a professionals such as lawyers, evaluators, stock brokers, and accountants as well as obtain opinions from state authorities such as the Revenue Service, Customs, other state organs;
" Employment fair coupled with a classified ads area to allow firms a first crack at qualified, skilled, and educated personnel in search of a job;
" B2B (business-to-business) exchange to facilitate the exchange of goods and services between member firms (subject to a transaction fee collectible by PAPERNAME).
STAGE 3: CONCLUSIONS

1. In the first 2-3 years, PAPERNAME Online will be a subordinate brand to the print edition of PAPERNAME.

2. Online content will largely reflect print content with added "web exclusives" and moderated, selected, and edited input from PAPERNAME Community (Portal).

3. PAPERNAME Online will be designed primarily to create a community of loyal readers and users around the content of PAPERNAME Print and PAPERNAME Online.

4. The aim would be to monetize such a Community (convert "eyeballs", hits, unique visitors, views, etc. to money) and to leverage it to market the print edition virally (word-of-mouth on social networks, etc.)

5. Content will not be audience-driven, although input from the Community Portal will be taken into account or even used by editors and journalists.

6. PAPERNAME will acquire and implement a collaborative software, such as MS SharePoint or SAP WorkStream. Work on future content will be collaborative with varying permissions and degrees of access, including allowing for input from the Community Portal.

7. Text will be accompanied by video sourced by journalists and readers/users. While the videos will be hosted on the Community Portal, they will be displayed integrally with the text.

8. PAPERNAME will not implement transparent journalism (allow the history and process of authoring content to be publicly accessible.)

9. Journalists, editors, and, when the Community Portal is up, users and readers will be trained for Web literacy and practical use of specific applications. A course of basic skills for all journalists and editors will be implemented with immediate effect by the IT department. Emphasis will be put on research techniques.

10. IT department will strive to create a PAPERNAME-wide database of contacts, info, ledes, histories, cases, ideas, and suggestions to which all journalists and editors will contribute and which will be used for data mining, knowledge management, and research.

1. Journalists who create content for PAPERNAME Online will be paid a small fixed sum + an amount to be determined per 1000 hits ("incentive pay structure"). Journalists who create content for PAPERNAME Online and who are employees of PAPERNAME will be offered the option to switch from a regular pay to the incentive pay structure.

2. PAPERNAME will conduct quantitative and qualitative market research (including an online poll and focus groups).

3. PAPERNAME Online will implement a "personal newspaper" technology (based on cookies and other tracking options and subject to the user logging into his or her account). "Personal newspaper" means that each reader will see a different front page based on his browsing history, stated account settings and preferences, and real-time tracking data.

4. PAPERNAME Online will implement path-dependence: readers will be offered additional content based on the authorship and text of the article or item they are perusing. This requires that journalists enter as many keywords as possible to describe their articles and multimedia submissions. Additionally, metadata - such as geotagging - should be generated automatically by the software.

5. IT Department will implement targeted and context-dependent advertising and will look into the possibility of implementing GPS-based geolocation. PAPERNAME Online will continue to use its own search engine, but IT will look into the advantages and disadvantages of using Google's search API.

6. PAPERNAME Online will offer its readers membership levels: free, registered (free), subscriber, and PAPERNAME Gold. IT will provide for various permissions-based accessibility options and applications needed to tackle usernames, passwords, and token authentication as well as https (SSL) and the use of promotion codes.

7. PAPERNAME Online will offer push technologies such as SMS, RSS, and ticker. These will provide breaking news and headlines. Readers will be able to define what sort of news they wish to receive to their mobile devices in addition (sport, economics, etc.)

8. PAPERNAME Online will be optimized for reading on mobile devices, such as smartphones.

9. All content on PAPERNAME Online (including the Community) will be integrated with social media: Twitter and Facebook Like and Recommend buttons, YouTube one click uploads, etc. PAPERNAME Online will have a fair use policy: users will be allowed to post on their websites and in social media links to articles and multimedia items plus an excerpt - but not the entire text or the multimedia item itself.

10. PAPERNAME Online will launch its Community with for-pay niche content written by journalists. Examples: Diaspora, Metropolitan, how to learn and work abroad, how to obtain credits, etc.

11. All the content available on PAPERNAME Online (as distinct from the Community) will be free, advertising-sponsored, and aimed at maximizing page views. Niche content on the Community pages will be for pay (behind a paywall).

12. PAPERNAME will offer mixed subscriptions (print+online) as well as PPV (pay-per-view) and PPR (pay-per-read) options (FREEMIUM model).

13. At this stage, it was decided not to develop or offer a PAPERNAME Toolbar or PAPERNAME Reader (except for the for-pay PDF files of the print editions offered daily.)

14. Mixed subscriptions (print subscribers will receive free online subscription) will be encouraged.

15. IT will migrate future products from Flash-based applications (which are incompatible with Apple devices, such as the iPhone and the iPad) to HTML5 and/or Adobe AIR.

16. PAPERNAME Online will integrate with an e-commerce platform to sell third-party and proprietary products.

17. Business Plan - including a PowerPoint presentation and a static mock website with CGI forms - will be finalized by the beginning of September.

18. IT will provide two Saturdays of training to all of PAPERNAME's journalists in small working groups.

19. All PAPERNAME Online products and for-pay services will be subject to full DRM (disallowing printing, copy-pasting, and full-text sharing, but allowing linking).

20. All the content on PAPERNAME Online and the Community - with the exception of the niche products and services mentioned above - will be completely DRM-free.

21. PAPERNAME Online will have an affiliates program to sell its products and services, both digital and physical.