Social Media Week #2 – Digital Journalism for Pay

Toronto – Canada

The one thing that is news, but you mind not find in a newspaper, is the fact that “the news” is going digital. This has wreaked havoc on the paper based business model of journalism. Papers are finding it hard to stay relevant, keep costs low, attract advertisers, retain staff or pay them at reasonable levels. These were some of the issues participants at Social Media Week’s Digital Journalism for Pay were trying to solve. The aim of the night was to discuss alternative business models to print and how a journalist can make money considering their is less money available.

This just in, I might get paid soon.

The panelists for the night were Wilf Dinnick of OpenFile, Toronto writer and novelist Bert Archer of Younge Street Media, and Navneet Alang of the Toronto Standard. With the help of moderator Nate Hendley these three tackled the topic of how to provide the news in the digital era and still make money doing it.

First Wilf Dinnick hit the stage and introduced his new hyper-local news site OpenFile. The idea behind open file is that the news is local and suggested by website followers. There is a chief editor for each locale and they decide and allocate resources according to the reader’s desire. Wilf mentioned that OpenFile’s most popular stories are the ones from professional journalists that are paid at competitive rates. He explained that paying journalists a reasonable rate is an important element of providing news in the digital era. He also elaborated on funding models not reliant on advertising, he stated that OpenFile currently is funded by an investor but also concentrates on strategic partnerships with Universities and national news providers such as the CBC and Global. Although OpenFile still gets revenue from advertisers, Wilf should be commended for his approach to offering an alternative news source and his ability to attract funding from different sources.

Secondly Bert Archer explained the alternative funding model of his employer, Younge Street Media. It is an interesting approach where advertising is not considered an essential component of funding. Instead the company seeks to attract “silent investors” who underwrite a particular issue or topic they are interested in. An issue is not commenced until full funding is received after which the editorial staff directs the writers on what to write about and what to avoid. To maintain integrity the underwriters are not mentioned the articles and they do not advertise. This seemed like a viable alternative to advertising, since as Bert mentioned during his talk, online advertising can be fickle and withdrawn swiftly if advertisers are not satisfied with their results.

Navneet Alang focused more on the elements of what makes a successful writer online. He mentioned that generally there are three types of online writing: light quick, opinion and research based, and long form journalism. These are the types of articles he identified as important for a news site to maintain engaged readership.

The three speakers were incredibly well spoken and did a great job of conveying their enthusiasm for the future of digital journalism. For me the most important take away from that night was what Wilf Dinnick explained as a “Journalism business model problem, not a journalism problem.” According to the panelists within 5-10 years a viable business model will emerge, but no one has figured it out yet. This is an exciting opportunity in an industry that has been struggling for some time. Big news to still to come!

Toronto Adweek – An Ad is Not Just An Ad

Toronto – Canada

By the time this post hits the web Toronto Adweek will be all wrapped up in a little bow. For those who missed it, you will have to wait until next year. By all accounts it was a great success, Google, Yahoo, Astral Media, Facebook, and many others hit the town to pitch in on the new trends shaping the advertising playground. I was fortunate to catch the tail-end of the week with a presentation by Yahoo!, aptly titled An Ad is Not Just An Ad. The speakers included Bryan Segal from Comscore, and Yahoo! shape shifters Nick Drew and Tony Marlow.

An advertisement for Adweek, funny how these things happen innnit?

To get the morning started (yes it was an early 9AM start), Bryan Segal warmed up the crowd by speaking about how a consumer’s perception of ads in a digital environment is affected by the placement and surrounding environment of the ad. Bryan spoke about how the internet ad sphere was- at its outset- was primarily a “direct response” medium that provided little opportunity for brand building, in Bryan’s words “Online Ads did not match the quality of the medium”. According to Bryan this is changing, ad format, quality, content, and layout are improving to provide better prospects for brand building and engagement. Apparently from 2008-2009 there has been a 10% decrease in the amount of advertising clutter on websites. Great! Advertisers get better space, and consumers get better ads.

Nick Drew came on stage as the second speaker of the morning, he was discussing the similarities between print and online ads. Drew’s goal was to compare how the three most important elements of print ads: size, richness, and environment; translate into the digital world. It turns out that, similar to print, the effectiveness of a digital ad is largely dependent on the ad’s size, richness and surrounding environment. Drew elaborated on the size issue by explaining that the bigger the digital ad, the more likely the viewer will be to recall the brand, however the likelihood that a viewer will remember the brand increases if the media is “richer”. Drew explained that ads which incorporate “rich media” such as, video or flash, elicit a greater response, but if these ads use flash and are bigger in size…they are better. Drew rounded his discussion off by saying that even though you may have the right media and size, you must also present your ad in the right environment. The surrounding environment affects the consumers perception of your ad, so the environment must also be an important consideration in strategy formulation. So yes, size is important, but the motion in the ocean still matters.

Do you get the fact that it's Adweek yet?

The final speaker was Tony Marlow, director of strategic insights at Yahoo! His research was grounded in a neuroscience study conducted by Innerscope research. The research involving neuroscience was done in a similar vein to that of Martin Lindstrom. Marlow’s presentation was predicated on the fact that 95% of our decisions are made at an unconscious level, and his research focused on how our mind reacted to various stimulus that affects buying behaviour. The study focused on tracking study participants’ reactions to ads that were relevant on a personal level, but were placed in the right context. According to the research, ads with personal and contextual relevance significantly increased the reaction from participants. This is an important consideration because online advertising enables companies to pick their ad placement more so then other medias. Furthermore, because the context has been thoroughly customized an ad’s message can change because the stage has already been set for the product. Thanks to Yahoo’s research there are now scientific metrics to back up many of our assumptions on internet advertising.

All in all, the talk was great in factually supporting many of the assumptions we have on internet advertising. Now that these metrics are established it will be easier for advertisers to create internet ads that are engaging, have impact, and are influential.

Lets Get Digital – The Canadian Marketing Association’s Digital Conference

Toronto – Ontario

The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) hosted an insightful conference at the Sheraton Hotel yesterday. The conference was focused on how digital technology can provide solutions and help businesses adapt to ever changing consumer behaviour. There were speakers from: Comedy Central , Rogers Sportsnet, Ipsos Reid, The Globe and Mail, Zoomer Media, Google, Microsoft, Ariad Communications and many many others. Needless to say, with so many speaks from such reputable companies the problem was not finding actionable insights but remembering them all!

If you are just seeing this you just missed Digital Day on November 7, hosted by the Canadian Marketing Association

The day started off with half open eye balls, staring sleepily into coffee cups, but the pace quickly picked up with the first panel discussion. The speakers were Marc Dinsdale, Senior VP of Rogers Digital Media Sports, Walter Levitt, Executive VP of marketing at Comedy Central and Chris Taylor, an Entertainment Lawyer at Taylor Mitsopulos Klein Oballa and owner of the record company Last Gang Entertainment.

Levitt and Dinsdale explained how they are connected to: twitter, facebook, television, radio, and print media to reach their target audience. Comedy Central and Rogers Sportsnet are unique in their approach to social media, because unlike other companies – they use it well. Their audience is well connected and passionate about the content that these two provide, at one point Levitt explained that Comedy Central has amassed a monstrous 32 million Facebook likes. Despite the effective use of social media Dinsdale and Levitt are clearly concerned about the threat that the internet poses to TV. This is where Chris Taylor chimed in, he explained that although record companies have become less profitable due to the internet, they still make money by diversifying the products they offer, dabbling in new media, and offering different price points for their products. So while he isn’t making the same money he would have made 15 years ago, he is still making money. This might be a valuable lesson for the TV execs but probably not one they want to go home with.

Next up was Steve Levy of Ipsos Reid – the market research firm. Levy was presenting the results of his market research into the use of digital technology by marketers and advertisers. His results revealed that marketers and agencies alike are moving away from traditional media outlets such as: print, radio and TV and shifting to mobile, internet and out of home digital. While the shift to newer digital media is important, he stated that the majority of spending is still allocated to traditional forms of media. Levy also pointed out that agencies are currently behind but very closely shadowing what in-house marketers are doing in terms of media focus. What seemed to resonate most with the audience and other speakers was his comment that many companies feel like they need to use social media, but in fact have no idea what they are doing. It seems as though companies are aware of these wonderful tools but not quite sure how to incorporate them into an effective long term strategy.

Steve Levy dropped some serious knowledge on the crowd at Digital Day.

A great panel followed Steve Levy’s talk and it consisted of Angela Scardillo, VP of marketing for Best Buy, Erin Green, Director of Marketing for Dealuxe.ca and Lisa Bradner of Geomomentum. The panel discussed how retail shopping and digital shopping is effected by the new “informed” and “connected”customer. Scardillo mentioned that the more educated the consumer, the less physical visits a store can expect. While this could lead one to the conclusion that staff should be cut, Scardillo mentioned that the quality of staff is an important element of differentiation and can add value to the in store experience. The panel reached a great conclusion regarding the use of social media, they stated that social media connects like minded people into a type of community, and if businesses want to connect with these people they must recognize the community aspect – rather than use those tools for selfish promotion. Having a presence is good, being pushy is bad.

These three talks were the highlight of the day for me, however there were many other great speakers, and informed conference participants. With the conference’s strong focus on how businesses are currently using and could be using digital technology I noticed that three themes were echoed throughout the day:

1. For social media – know your target audience, there might be some great technology out there but if your audience doesn’t want it – you don’t need it
2. Many companies are using technology as a short term tactic, but few have it fleshed out into a long term strategy
3. Those who do not accept technology will be left behind.

It seems like companies are getting more connected to reach you, do you know of any companies that you think are doing it right?