Never Quit and Be Honest With Yourself – An Interview with Tristan Harris
Posted on 07. Jan, 2009 by David Cohn.
I’ve had the good fortune to run into Tristan Harris and finding out that we live in close proximity.
Tristan is the founder of Apture. Similar to two other Stanford computer scientist, Tristan understands and wants to improve how people find information on the web. Apture allows reporters to link out easily without necessarily losing the reader to another page.
More intriguing to me, however, is Tristan’s general experience as a young journalistically minded entrepreneur.What has he learned and what is advice to those that may come after him?
The first half of this interview focuses on Apture and his experience creating it – the second half about working on a startup in general. Never quit…..and be honest with yourself.
Untitled from Digidave on Vimeo.
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Five Fatal Flaws that are killing local Internet plays
Posted on 03. Jan, 2009 by David Cohn.
From Dave Chase
One of my observations from attending the New Business Models for News conference was that virtually all of the new business model discussion was about ways to lower production costs or new ways to fund journalism. While those items help, I’m convinced the only path to long-term economic viability is to directly address the revenue problem. The level of innovation happening on the production and funding side of the equation needs to be matched by innovation on the revenue side. I hope this post contributes towards that objective.
In my “lightning round” talk at the New Business Models for News, I spoke about some of the successes and lessons learned that we are having with the local sites (NewWest.Net & SunValleyOnline.com) in our new venture (NextNewsNet). Since a core purpose of NextNewsNet is to help other publishers succeed, it has given us the opportunity to talk with many other local publishers. Unfortunately, I have observed 5 fatal flaws that will lead local Internet plays to fail as many before them have. These are entirely avoidable but most are falling into these traps. Laid out below are the flaws and a high level summary of how to avoid those fatal flaws.
1. Farming Hunters.
I have blogged previously about Farming Hunters and Hunting Farmers which is a common mistake present in sales organizations. That is, people who are skilled at managing an existing customer base is a far different talent than “hunters” who know how to find new business. We strongly believe in having clear role definitions throughout the sales process with accompanying job descriptions and compensation models. We define 4 main types of reps — Lead Qualification, Acquisition, Development and Retention. In our experience, many of the newspaper organizations we’ve worked with only have “farmers” that have managed a book of business for a long-time. They not only are ignoring 80-90% of the advertising market that has been out of the reach of newspapers but they simply have a different skillset than those with skills to develop new business.
2. Expensive sales people and processes for low dollar advertisers
It’s a mistake to think that an advertiser still relatively new to online advertising will spend at the same level as an advertiser that has been in the newspaper the last 20 years. The aforementioned 80-90% of the local advertising market that didn’t advertise regularly in the paper is generally going to spend less per year. Nonetheless, traditional and expensive shoe-leather sales models are the rule rather than the exception. In my consulting business, I have seen technology and media companies closing business into the low six figures via phone-based sales models. With the dramatically lower cost of sale of a telesales organization, one can service a segment of advertiser previously out of reach of most local media organizations. Unfortunately, most media organizations have little experience building and managing a telesales organization which is fundamentally different than a field-based sales organization. I’m convinced that building or buying this competence is absolutely vital and should start tomorrow.
3. Inability to quantify the value of your audience and articulate a return-on-investment to a prospect.
For most local advertisers that are relatively small businesses, Internet-based advertising is still quite new. They have a hard time understanding online advertising. Consequently, they don’t know what to make of the numbers thrown at them by a typical sales reps. [Some reps further confuse the issue by not knowing the difference between “hits” and “pageviews” or “unique visits” and “unique visitors”.] They might ask themselves “is a million pageviews good or bad?” or “if they have millions of pageviews, should I expect hundreds of thousands of visitors from them when I advertise?” A successful online seller needs to not only know the basics of their site (e.g., quantity of visitors, demographic summaries, etc.), but they also need to have data specific to a typical advertiser’s business and be able to calibrate expectations of what they should expect out of an online campaign (hint: it’s probably closer to dozens of customers vs. hundreds of new customers). Taking this information and enabling the advertiser do a basic return on investment calculation is vital.
4. Cluttered sites with postage stamp sized ads
I’m not the first one to write about this but it is still the norm for most local media websites. They are extremely cluttered with tons of ads per page. One of experiences from my last role at Microsoft was being on the Executive Board of the IAB following the dotcom bust. I was integrally involved in forming the Universal Ad Package ad standard. In order to arrive at that standard, we did a boatload of ad effectiveness research about ad sizes, placement and quantity. The short version of the findings is that fewer, bigger ads not only perform better but also sell better.
5. Rate card as after thought vs. a strategic selling tool
The typical way an online seller deals with a rate card is just lobbing the rate card across the transom without explanation. To make it a strategic selling tool, there are two elements that are critical. First, it is important to recognize that a drawback to online advertising is you can’t tell the advertise to look at page A6 or watch the News between 5:30 & 6:00. Unless it’s a permanent sponsorship slot, it is likely that Murphy’s Law will rear its head and the advertiser will never be able to see their ad when they go to the site. One way to combat this is to sell your site at a more granular level than most sites. This increases the odds of the advertiser seeing their ads as well as gives your site a range of ad prices depending on the advertiser’s appetite. Second, creating scarcity by only allowing a certain number of advertisers in a particular section creates a sense of urgency that is often absent with online. The deadline of print creates urgency whereas online is viewed as having no deadline. Done right, this can also set the stage for improved advertiser retention as you should be able to overdeliver against the impression levels that the advertiser originally bought their campaign under.
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Scott Meyer – This Too Will Pass
Posted on 14. Dec, 2008 by David Cohn.
Scott Meyer from Warburg Pincus talks to us about the future of advertising, how to grade a successful startup and is kind enough to give us a positive vision of journalism’s future.
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Leonard Witt on Representative Journalism
Posted on 13. Dec, 2008 by David Cohn.
This interview with Leonard Witt is relatively old. It was recorded at the NewsTools conference in April. I originally recorded this for my own blog at Spot.Us which is very related to Lenn’s Representative Journalism project. In full disclosure – we are now each on each others board of advisers.
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Howard Weaver – Leaves McClatchy
Posted on 06. Dec, 2008 by David Cohn.
…
I take my leave feeling sure about two things.
First, that the challenge faced by McClatchy and its newsrooms is immense and fundamental. Navigating to success through the coming months will be painful, sometimes torturous work.
Secondly, that the mission of public service journalism will emerge from this transformation in tact, and that McClatchy will remain in control of its own destiny. I have deep faith in McClatchy’s ownership, in its leadership, and in its journalists.…
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Introducing BarCamp – NewsInnovation
Posted on 04. Dec, 2008 by David Cohn.
I am such a HUGE fan of bringing barcamps to journalism. I’ve talked about this with Chris Messina and I’ve even (unsuccessfully) tried to spur the movement for this myself. But now it may be time.
Jason Kristufek has proposed the following.
I agree with my friend Tom, my CEO Chuck Peters and all those IBM commercials: It is time to stop talking and do something. And I need to heed to that advice as much as anyone.
So here is one attempt at doing something. My last post floated the idea of getting smart, cool, tech-savvy media industry folks together in an environment that doesn’t acknowledge rules or boundaries to help solve problems and create best practices.
My idea is that these kinds of people, on the front lines, are better prepared to create real change in our industry than anyone else. We also have to combine those efforts with those ideals and innovators outsider our industry.
I received a tremendous amount of feedback from too many people to mention them all. But the idea that has resonated loudly is what I’ve been calling BarCamp NewsInnovation.
I, by no means, want to play dictator, but here is what seems like a decent three-prong approach, and I welcome your feedback either by commenting below or via email.
1. Hold regional NewsInnovation BarCamps in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Lake Tahoe, Portland, Ore., Denver and Atlanta by the end of January 2009.
Potential regional BarCamp leaders could be: Matt Neznanski, Portland; Jason Kristufek, Chicago; Will Atwood Mitchell, Washington, D.C.; Joe Boydston, Lake Tahoe; need a volunteer for Denver; and need a volunteer for Atlanta
2. Hold BarCamp NewsInnovation 2009 in New York City in April. Jeff Jarvis has offered to donate space at CUNY, and I am more then willing to take him up on it. This would be the big event where be bring ideas, solutions and best practices from the regional BarCamps in front of a larger group.
3. Capitalize on opportunities where a good number of us are already going to be to meet, talk, propose BOF sessions and just simply start conversations that can help lead to change.
For example, Peters will be at the Information Valet Project Dec. 3-5 in Columbia, Mo. Who is going to be there too and wants to chat? Who is willing to form BOF session where a problem can be looked at critically and a solution proposed?
Others have suggested meeting at Media Exchange (formerly known as Nexpo) March 9-11 in Las Vegas. Who is planning to attend?
Ok, so you might be saying to yourself that I have not really proposed anything new. That may be true. The power of this movement will not be in the organization of it, but rather the people who chooe to participate and the ideas, solutions and best practices that come out of it.
I am still a believer that CEOs have a roll to play in that change, something like a community liaison. But the most significant force for change is going to come from people on the front lines, like me, who are full of ideas but need more empowerment to unleash creativity, critical thinking and innovation without all the constraints placed on us.
Here is one thing that I will ask of CEOs, editors and all those media industry check writers: Help drop the barriers and allow the skilled, energized people do something. Don’t just be a community liaison outside your company, be one inside it as well
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Alan Mutter – The Next Six Months for Newspapers
Posted on 24. Nov, 2008 by David Cohn.
Alan Mutter’s blog “Reflections of a Newsosaur” is a must read about the economics of newspapers. It is also one of the most depressing blogs out there right now. Alan doesn’t hold back any punches. He only serves cold dishes of reality. At this time, however, the view is merited and contains important information to head. If there is anybody who can give you the straight talk about newspaper economics – its Alan.
[The video is a bit shaky but clears up after a minute].
I tried to find some positive near the end of the interview (tunnel) but Alan didn’t want to add any obvious silver lining. From his view this really is a time to hold on tight, because we are going down a steep hill for at least 6 months. After the interview he jokingly said that as a depressing person “this is his time to shine.” That may be true – but if you need a positive jolt after this video interview I still go back to my recent blog post “Why We Should Feel Bullish About the Future of Journalism.”
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Scott Karp: Changing the Wheels While the Car is in Motion
Posted on 20. Nov, 2008 by David Cohn.
I had the opportunity to meet up with Scott Karp briefly on Wednesday. Scott is currently on the move spreading word about his startup Publish2 which can be described as the digital equivalent to a reporters notebook (a way to quickly jot down links and take notes).
Scott probably has a unique view of the situation news organizations are in right now. He is visiting lots of them and discussing different tools and mindsets they can adopt to help them in what can best be described as trying times. I took this as an opportunity for him to report on what he has been seeing.
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Leonard Witt Interviews John Yemma from Christian Science Monitor
Posted on 17. Nov, 2008 by David Cohn.
Both of these gentlemen attended the New Business Models for News Summit. Leonard Witt was in the “Public Support for Journalism” working group with myself while John Yemma was a roaming journalist.
Before the conference Yemma had alluded to CMS making some sweeping changes but at the time I didn’t give it a second thought. Sure enough the next week they gutted the paper program. Their print edition is now limited to once a week while the rest of their work will live online.
Newsroom cuts are still on the table but Yemma sounds as though this leaner newsroom can still get the job done. In hindsight I wish we had put Yemma in the Newsroom Efficiencies working group.
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Innovation: An interview with GlobalPost.com co-founder Charlie Sennott
Posted on 07. Nov, 2008 by David Cohn.
Chris O’brien writes at the Next Newsroom Project….
Charlie Sennott, a former foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe, likes to say he had one of the last great rides in international reporting. He came up as a metro reporter, got sent overseas, and got to do international reporting for the paper he loved. But when he returned to Boston a couple years ago, he learned the Globe was pulling the plug on its international bureaus.
That set off some soul searching that has turned the career journalist into an entrepreneur who wants to reinvent the model for international reporting with GlobalPost.com. The online only international reporting site launches Jan. 12, 2009 and will have 70 correspondents around the world covering international news from an American perspective.
Sound crazy? I thought so. But I changed my mind after listening to Sennott. I saw him speak at the New Business Models for News Summitt in New York a couple of weeks ago (see the video above). And I got to talk with him last week to fill in some of the details of what he has in mind. Sennott is passionate about journalism, and clearly believes he and his partners have a sustainable model for a new international news organization.
“I’ve covered cops, courts, war zones, huge stories,” Sennott said. “I’ve never done a start-up. I’ve never been so busy in my life. But I’ve never been so excited about an opportunity to try to build something.”
You can listen to my interview with Sennott here:
