“Digital Transformation” Items

Driving Web to Print

At the 2002 IFRA Asia Conference in Bangkok (held March 20–22, 2002), I presented findings from a research project close to my heart—one that explored how newspapers could actually increase print subscriptions using their websites. Yes, increase. At the time, this idea ran counter to the conventional wisdom that digital only eroded print. [This is is a summary from my presentation slides.]

The project was a collaboration between my consultancy, Finberg-Gentry, and a number of forward-thinking circulation and online leaders across the industry. Our research included:

  • Over 100 site reviews
  • 290 responses from circulation managers
  • And dozens of in-depth interviews with media professionals

We asked a simple but often overlooked question: What if the web could help sell the newspaper?

What we found was encouraging—and revealing.

Some newspapers were already leveraging their digital platforms to drive subscriptions, but these successes had something in common: cooperation. When online and circulation teams worked together, when they shared goals and data, the results followed.

Unfortunately, that kind of collaboration was rare. Too often, subscription links were hidden “below the fold.” Technology systems didn’t talk to each other. Customer data wasn’t shared. And the user experience—especially for signing up or managing delivery—was clunky at best.

We identified several key challenges:

  • Most newspapers didn’t have an integrated system for online and print circulation.

  • Subscription buttons were buried or mislabeled—making it hard for users to take action.

  • Only 15% of papers offered web-exclusive pricing.

  • Many didn’t even allow basic customer service functions—like stopping or holding delivery—online.

But there were bright spots.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune used contests to generate over 6,000 subscription orders a year. The Poughkeepsie Journal tracked retention of web-generated subscriptions and found they performed just as well—if not better—than other channels. The Houston Chronicle developed a user-friendly online service center that set a new standard for self-service.

What all these examples showed was that technology and strategy must go hand-in-hand. We couldn’t just slap a “Subscribe” link on a site and hope it worked. We needed to design digital experiences that respected what users had come to expect—speed, convenience, clarity—and we needed to do it without forgetting the power and value of the printed product.

In the end, my presentation message was simple: web and print aren’t rivals—they’re partners. But partnership requires intent. It requires shared ownership. And, perhaps most importantly, it requires that we stop thinking in silos.

The opportunity for newspapers to increase their audiences across platforms is still very real. But it’s up to us to build the systems, culture, and customer experiences to make it happen. The full report is available on this site.

Editor & Publisher column from Nexpo 2002 advising newspaper CEOs to take stock of their digital infrastructure

Dancing To That Old Nexpo Beat

A column for Editor & Publisher, published June 24, 2002, timed to the Newspaper Association of America‘s big equipment and technology show, Nexpo, then under way in Orlando, Fla. The piece argues that the trade-show season is the right moment for a newspaper to take stock of its digital infrastructure — and that the review should not be left to the production and technical managers who happen to be walking the show floor.

It is important that the CEO be directly involved in these discussions. The CEO needs to bring all departments into the discussions, not just the production or technical managers who made it to Nexpo this week.

The column lays out a midyear technology review in four steps. Assess: each manager prepares a brief report on how well the department’s systems are working — including the smaller ones that “just hum along in the background” — and on how successfully employees actually use them, distinguishing technical problems from human ones such as lack of training.

Does the technology help employees do their jobs as effectively as possible? Does the technology work all the time (99.5% uptime)?

Review: go over projects already under way, led by the information-technology director in partnership with each department manager, and not as a finger-pointing exercise. Theorize: look two to five years out at revenue trends, readership trends (including interactive products such as the Web site), demographic trends — the column uses Spanish-language publishing and billing as an example — and technology trends, asking whether broadband, high-definition TV, or TabletPCs will change how advertisers reach customers and how readers get news. Plan and Coordinate: sort the resulting needs into short-term, midterm, and long-term buckets of 12 to 18 months, 18 to 24 months, and 36 to 60 months.

The closing advice is about the show itself: departments attending Nexpo should compare notes while they are still there.

Don’t wait until you get back in the office. Better yet, drag your colleagues to booths that have the technology that is important to your department. Make Nexpo a company event.

The column’s tagline reads: “Finberg, managing director of Finberg-Gentry, the Digital Futurist Consultancy, has worked in newsroom, information-technology, interactive-media, and corporate-strategy roles for several leading papers.”