Transcript Document

Not the Same Old News:
Where the Media is Headed
Barbara Pierce,
Chief Public Relations Officer, Hughes
April 23, 2009
How News Travels Today
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The Facts
 Newspaper revenues down
23% in last two years
 Local television crews
slashed; Revenues down
7% - despite being an
election year
 Cable news remained
steady through election,
then fell off
Project for Excellence in Journalism
State of the News Media
www.journalism.org
Trends
 Audience migration to the Internet is accelerating,
creating an “on demand” news culture
 The number of Americans who regularly go online for
news jumped 19% in the last two years
 In 2008 alone, traffic to the top 50 news sites rose
27%,
 But online ad revenue has not followed
The Perfect Storm
for Traditional Media
 Hastening migration to Web has forced media to
accelerate online, but it’s too little, too late
 Recession doubled revenue losses to newspapers in
2008
 Classified revenue is disappearing and will be totally
gone in five years
“Imagine someone about to begin
physical therapy following a stroke,
suddenly contracting a debilitating
secondary illness.” -
State of the News Media Executive Summary
Americans Consume
News in New Ways
Audiences:
1. Hunt and gather
2. Comb the Internet for news
3. Receive much of their
information via mobile modes
of communication
Audiences Turn to Cable and Web
Percentage Change in Audience, 2007 to 2008, Across Media
Source: Arbitron, Audit Bureau of Circulations,
comScore Media Metrix, Nielsen Media Research1
The Move to the Web
 The top four news sites:
 Saw unique visitors grow 22% to 23.6 million visitors
a month
 Twice the rate of increase of 2007
 More than five times the rate in 2006
The Move to Cable
 For 2008, the average monthly audience of the three
major news channels throughout the day and evening
grew by 38%. But after the election, the audience
began to drift away.
A Snapshot View of 2008
 The decline in the three commercial evening
newscasts to just 1% —or 300,000 viewers
(compared with roughly a million lost annually over
the last two decades).
 A combined 22.8 million people still watch the three
programs each night, and 13.1 million watch the
networks’ morning news.
The Grim Reality for Newspapers
 Circulation fell 4.6 % daily and 4.8% Sunday for the
latest period compared with a year earlier
 Since 2001, circulation down 13.5% daily and
17.3% Sunday
 Traffic to newspaper websites is growing Unduplicated Web audiences are now estimated to
add 8.4% to the average newspaper’s readership
 Ad revenues have not followed
Outlook is Bleakest
for News Magazines
 Less than 1/4 of American adults say they read a
magazine the day before – down from 1/3 in 1994
 Of the 8 publications that PEJ tracks as news
magazines, circulation dropped 4.8%
 U.S. News & World Report – announced it would no
longer be a print news weekly, converting instead to
a monthly focused on its popular rankings of colleges
and other consumer topics
Social Media is the New Means of
Communication
Twitter Use Explodes
Source: www.pcworld.com
Twitter
 Up 700% over last year
 Drew 10 million worldwide visitors in February 2009
 Attracted 4 million US visitors in Feb. 2009 –
a 1000% increase
Surprising Demographics
 Average age for Tweeters was between 25 and 54
 The 45-54 sub-set stole the bulk of the user pie
 ComScore says people aged 45-54 are 36% more
likely to use Twitter than the rest of us, while those
aged 25-34 are 30% more likely.
 Generation Xers aged 35-44 come in third and are
only 9% more likely to use Twitter than everyone
else.
Businesses Are Turning
to Twitter
 Public Relations
 Brand Management
 Customer Service
YouTube* Is Exploding
 More than 200,000 videos uploaded every day
 78.3 million uploaded by March 2008
Source: Digital Ethnography site, Kansas State University
Insights
 Traditional Media is now participating in/following
Twitter
 News coverage is being generated via Twitter
 Many businesses are starting to manage their brands
via Twitter
 Twitter is easy, fast and has a low-barrier entry
Trends cited by Peter Shankman –
New Media Guru
 4 major changes coming in Social Media
– Transparency, relevance, brevity, top of mind
presence
 Life stream ticker / one network / relevant to you
 Press release will be dead in 2 years
 Failing newspapers missed the mark by telling us
what to think
Audience Survey
 How many of you are Tweeting?
 How many of you are on Facebook?
 Do we have any bloggers in the
audience?
 Who is LinkedIn?
Key Business Trends
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Budgets shifting from traditional to social media
B2B leading B2C in adoption of social media tactics
Social media leveling the playing field
#1 barrier is lack of knowledgeable staff
Agencies specializing in social media are most
effective in getting results
 Most effective tactics also least measurable
Source: Marketing Sherpa 2009 Benchmark Research
Why Social Media?
 SM most effective at reaching branding goals
 SM strategy needed to cultivate interactions with
customers, prospects, journalists, other influencers
 Consumers/influencers hold the power
– Your brand is what “they” say it is, not what you
say it is
– SM sites lead information source for consumers
(3rd party credibility)
– High pass along rate from SM Web sites
Consumer Participation
 Technographics: 2008 vs. 2007
– Creators up 3%
– Critics up 8%
– Collectors up 7%
– Joiners up 10%
– Spectators up 21%
– Inactives down 19%
Source: Base: US online consumers. Source: Forrester Research
What does all this mean for you?
Your City/Municipality Needs
To Join The Conversation
Benefits
 Build your city’s brand w/your stakeholders
 Enhance service to constituencies through a two-way
conversation
 Maintain/strengthen relationships with media
 Develop relationship with key influencers
 Be seen and be heard
 Increase your city’s reach / opportunities
 Build additional online brand awareness
 Your news/events/activities will move virally over the
Web
Steps To Take Now
For Your Organization
 Get Tweeting, Get LinkedIn, Post Video to YouTube,
Establish Facebook Page
 Establish Twitter Feed
 Set up Digital Newsroom
 SHOW BP Twitter Page?
Why Set Up a Digital Newsroom?
 If done correctly, will be your #1 SEO tool
 Your info is out there – you should be the #1 source
 Your home page is Google Search (Google golden
triangle)
 Creates another “basket for your eggs”
 24/7 1-stop-shopping
 News Room vs. Press Room (for all, not just media)
 Platform to tell your story vs. posting items
 Blog without the conversation
Why Digital Newsrooms?
Why Digital Newsrooms?
Digital Newsroom Components
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SEO positioning - url: http://news.codellamarketing.com
Strategy for incorporating keywords - Google keywords
Company media contact info. (including SM contacts)
Announcements
Search functionality
Links to stories in the news
Press kits
Industry news
RSS feeds, e-mail subscriptions
Digital Newsroom Components
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Share This / Tweet This
Links to supplemental info.
Multimedia galleries (tell more of the story)
Calendar of events
Use SM Tools Effectively
 Analyze people and objectives before deciding
strategy
 To maintain budget, measure what matters most
 Where to start?
– Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube
 Observe
 Join and watch, listen
Use SM Tools Effectively
Use SM Tools Effectively
 Follow the influencers, be an influencer
• Follow
• Engage
• Interest
• Market
History Can Tell Us Much
 In 1895, when William
Randolph Hearst purchased
New York’s Morning Journal, it
was a feeble money-losing daily
in a city of great newspapers
and great newspaper men
 Within months, Hearst engaged
Joseph Pulitzer in the most
spectacular newspaper war of
all time.
History Can Tell Us Much
 They, too, were in a 24/7 news environment, with 20+
newspapers in several languages publishing 4+
special editions a day.
 It was a “noisy, restless population, hungry for news”
(not unlike today)
 We have exactly the same dynamic today – just a
new means of delivering the news
History Can Tell Us Much
 Today we are experiencing the media battle of all
time and we’ll see how it turns out!
Pierce Predictions: Where the Media
is Headed in the 21st Century
 Many traditional news outlets will die a slow and
painful death
 Those who figure out a workable revenue model will
survive
 Niche and highly localized publications will succeed
 Viewpoint/Opinion pieces will come primarily from
501c (3) new newspapers
Pierce Predictions: Where the Media
is Headed in the 21st Century
 SM will continue to dominate the landscape
 We will each have our own “life stream” new media
and will be the main way we communicate with each
other and our constituencies
Q&A
Let’s Connect!
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E-mail: [email protected]
Twitter: @PRPierce
Facebook: Barbara White Pierce
LinkedIn: Barb Pierce
Phone: 314.571.6296
Cell: 314.580.8593