Articles by: "Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist"

Theresa Cramer is the editor of EContent magazine, author of the upcoming book "Inside Content Marketing," and an avid gardener.

Rise up against AI by doubling down on direct traffic

March 14, 2024 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

From Google to Facebook and Instagram to TikTok (and so many more), publishers have spent the last couple of decades chasing their audiences from one platform to another—only to be betrayed by changing algorithms and shifting platform priorities. For years, popular wisdom held that you had to go where the audience is. Now, despite the fact that audiences (particularly younger ones) seek out news and information on social platforms, those platforms are “backing away” from making that content visible. But regardless of a media brand’s position on social media, search has remained the undisputed path to traffic.

Now, publishers face a whole new threat: generative AI search. Years of fine-tuning search engine optimization strategies may all be for naught as Google embraces AI-driven answers in lieu of links to relevant content. Meanwhile, Gartner predicts that traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026 as users shift to AI chatbots and virtual agents for their answers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that publishers expect a 20% to 40% drop in their Google-generated traffic if the search giant rolls out its AI search tool to a broad audience. So, what are media executives supposed to do in the face of yet another shift in the technology landscape that threatens to put them on the outs once again? There’s really only one solution: devise a plan to regain control of their audience relationships once and for all.

Discovery: a problem as old as algorithms

AI search has yet to reach its full potential, but referral traffic is already taking a hit. AI-driven search results that fail to link to the content they scrape from is just one part of the problem. Searchers are often satisfied with AI “answers” and have little need to click through for more. And platforms from across the web are trying to keep more users within the walls of their gardens, and that means the likes of Facebook and Google have gone from partners in traffic acquisition to the opposition.

“We’re seeing an industry in real crisis,” says Jim Chisholm, a news media analyst. While Chisholm says he is not seeing evidence that AI is impacting traffic just yet, that does not mean publishers are not already feeling the squeeze from elsewhere.

Liam Andrew, Chief Product Officer at The Texas Tribune, says that while his team expects generative AI to impact search traffic, they are still waiting to see a substantial impact. The bigger problem facing the Tribune now is social media traffic or the lack of it.

Once a significant source of traffic for news publishers, social media networks are shifting away from promoting outside content. As AdExchanger’s Anthony Vargas reports, we need to look no further than “the many ways X (formerly Twitter) has messed with referral links this year – from throttling page load times for certain sites to overhauling its external link cards in an attempt to get publishers to post full-length content on the platform instead.”

While social platforms across the spectrum are pulling the rug out from under publishers, our old friend search is slowly changing the rules of the game. “Search is still working,” Andrew says. The Texas Tribune sees that explainers and guides still drive traffic and even subscriptions. However, other sites have not been so lucky.

Back in October 2023, Press Gazette found that of 70 leading publishers, half saw their search visibility scores drop—and 24 of those saw double-digit dips. That was the result of one update—more bad news is certain to follow as new updates make their way to the masses.

AI bots: To block or not to block

Publishers may be preparing for a more significant battle when it comes to traffic. However, right now, there’s another fight on their doorsteps: bots are crawling their sites and using their work to train the AI poised to steal their traffic. Some are already taking steps to stop the free—and possibly illegal—use of their content. The Reuters Institute found that 48% of the most widely used news websites across 10 countries blocked OpenAI’s crawlers by the close of 2023. Far fewer—just 24%—blocked Google’s AI crawler.

For Andrew and The Texas Tribune, blocking AI crawlers is not a major concern. They already have an open-republishing model and are used to seeing their content scraped and used on other sites (often without the requested attribution). “It improves our readership and impact, but we compete with ourselves for SEO,” he says. He also says they see versions of their stories on news sites where the content is entirely AI-written. However, it is “not affecting our core audience traffic,” according to Andrew. So — at least for now — The Texas Tribune is not planning to block the bots.

Meanwhile, Google is reportedly paying publishers to use its AI tools to write content. While in the short term, this may offer (smaller) publishers relatively small sums as well as an easier way to create low-lift content, like other Google News Initiative (GNI) projects, there’s an underlying concern that Google is not focused on publisher health in the long term.

Developing a direct-to-reader strategy

As Andrew and the product team at The Texas Tribune look toward a less search-dependent future, they are changing strategies. For 2025 and beyond, “we are not going to be focusing on a really good SERP [Search Engine Results Pages] unnecessarily,” Andrew says. Instead, they’ll focus on products built directly for readers.

“Newsletters have been part of our model for over 10 years. It’s nothing new, but we’re continuing to see success with it,” Andrew says. Not only do the newsletters still drive traffic, but they also drive conversions. Subscribers become members at a higher rate, vital to a publication that does not depend on paywalls for revenue.

DCN conducted an informal survey on concerns around the impact of AI search on traffic, and while the sample size may not hold up to scientific scrutiny, it was clear that newsletters are a crucial tactic for publishers looking to own their audiences. Other stats suggest this is a good move. Storydoc research found that 90% of Americans subscribe to at least one newsletter. That number goes up for younger audiences as 95% of Gen Z, Millennials, and even Gen X receive newsletters, compared to 84% of Baby Boomers.

Experiment with engagement approaches

The solutions to the Google problem don’t end at email, though.

“We also have a big robust event system,” Andrew notes. The Texas Tribune holds dozens every year. They range from “pre-gaming the Texas primary” to deep dives into transportation in the Austin/San Antonio area. They gather experts and pundits to share their expertise on topics that interest readers. The team also live-streams these events — a universally important tactic for engaging younger, more diverse audiences. These events also turn out to be effective for converting casual readers into subscribers and members.

Andrew alluded to products his team is working on that are still under wraps. Still, it’s clear that, like many publishers, The Texas Tribune is preparing for a future when search no longer drives most traffic.

Chisholm thinks mobile apps are another excellent direct-to-reader strategy, and research backs this up. Pew reports that “A large majority of U.S. adults (86%) say they often or sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, including 56% who say they do so often. This is more than the 49% who said they often got news from digital devices in 2022 and the 51% of those who said the same in 2021.” Cultivating a relationship with readers through their mobile devices—where you can use push notifications and other native capabilities to grab their attention—will likely be one of the many tools publishers must deploy going forward.

“I’ve been in the news industry – which I love – for 48 years. Now we are at a crossroads,” says Chisholm. “Either we choose the road to recovery, rebuilding relationships with our readers, or we continue down the road we are on, subject to algorithms, more confusion between legitimate news and social media infested with AI nonsense.”

Advertising | Featured Post

How NPR’s audience-first approach drives advertising success

November 30, 2023 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

Savvy publishers know that balancing user experience with the need to drive revenue is key to thriving in today’s media marketplace. For NPR—where donations from an engaged and loyal audience are as important to their diverse revenue streams as sponsorship dollars—building trust is paramount to continued success. That’s why the National Public Media (NPM) team (the corporate sponsorship subsidiary of NPR) strives to uphold the values that NPR exhibits and years of data says its audience has come to expect, even as it develops content and advertising campaigns for sponsors.

Erica Osher, Vice President of Sponsorship Products and NPM Creative, says years of affinity research tells her that 72% of NPR’s audience has more positive feelings about NPR sponsors. Why? Because of a phenomenon called trust transference. NPR’s audience trusts the organization and its personalities, and that trust transfers to brands that support the news organization.

Furthermore, NPR’s research shows that its programming and journalism are “personally important” to its audience and that, all things being equal, they will buy products that are advertised on NPR over competing products. “We understand that maintaining the trust in journalism translates to our sponsors,” says Osher. With that in mind, the NPM team works “to obtain user feedback, especially when implementing new programs.” Keeping the user in mind at every turn allows NPM to create ad products that are beneficial for everyone involved.

Facts over flash

In order to maintain that all-important user trust, NPM enforces strict standards for sponsors who want to reach NPR’s digital audience with their advertising. In many ways, the guidelines sponsors must adhere to are not all that different from the standards journalists must uphold. Sponsors can only make substantiated claims in their ads, and even “broad claims” are rejected by the NPM team. No misleading creative or messaging is allowed, and sponsors cannot use disparaging language. Certain categories of sponsors are held to an even higher standard.

Another best practice suggestion for brands looking to reach NPR’s audience is to avoid inauthentic messaging. Osher says she often urges brands to speak for themselves, and feature speakers who can communicate genuinely, rather than just hitting a list of talking points. Avoiding jargon and technical language also helps keep the messaging relatable.

Holding sponsors to a higher standard is just the start of building better ads. Osher’s team thinks about how many ads per page—or podcast—the audience will tolerate. They use lazy loading to ensure content does not shift on a page because of an ad, and always test how any new major placements will impact a page. In essence, they strive to meet and sometimes improve on Better Ad Coalition Standards.

“We have these guidelines that we stick to and need to be balanced with the need for revenue,” says Osher. “When we do it well, the audience is receptive… but they hold us accountable.”

Best practices in action

So, what does it look like when sponsors take NPM’s standards to heart and deliver the kind of content NPR audiences want to see? In the case of Mattress Firm, NPM Creative (with the help of Spark Foundry) crafted a campaign around the science of sleep as part of its Brand Soundscapes product offering, which includes Center Stage. Interviews with sleep experts lead to tangible advice for readers on how to calm their minds and get better sleep.

Osher says that, as with most campaigns, her team tested different images and headlines to find what resonated best. “Featuring people is always effective,” she says. The Mattress Firm campaign, which strives to educate readers and listeners about how to get good sleep and why it matters, uses doctors to lend legitimacy to the topic. Listening to one of the segments, it’s easy to forget you are listening to sponsor content rather than a story segment about health and wellness. Year-over-year, Osher says, NPM has increased the play rate on its Center Stage Soundscapes product by about 33% and the average completion rate by roughly 19%.

Mass Mutual worked with NPM Creative to create custom Spotlight Mid-rolls to run across NPR podcasts. A case study describes the campaign: “The creative featured director Brian Trzcinski, Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA). He shared how MassMutual financial professionals can help business owners balance the needs of today and tomorrow, including planning for a comfortable retirement.” Mass Mutual also used NPM’s research and measurement services to measure “campaign insights, optimize for success and ultimately make an impact.” According to the case study, the custom audio yielded a conversion rate (CR) 18% higher than standard 30-second mid-roll placements.

The success of NPM’s campaigns is due, in large part, to its commitment to producing sponsor content that feels true to NPR’s brand. With that in mind, the team has also moved away from traditional banner placements in its newsletters and switched to incorporating a native sponsorship unit. Taking a more text-based, story-driven approach has increased the click-through rate by 1,850% for the same campaign, says Osher.

The “facts over flash” approach that NPM takes when developing and implementing campaigns for sponsors has reaped rewards for sponsors as well as its own bottom line. A laser-like focus on what its audience expects and a willingness to hold sponsors to a high set of standards has created a virtuous cycle of great content that informs readers and listeners, creates a halo effect for brands, and keeps NPR in business.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Featured Post | Video

The Boston Globe leans into video to build and diversify its audience

October 19, 2023 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

In New England, we have a saying: “An ounce of experience is worth a pound of theory.” At The Boston Globe, New England’s largest news organization, the team is taking that saying to heart as they carefully launch and implement a video and larger marketing strategy designed to engage current subscribers and reach new, younger, more diverse audiences. Underpinned by an audience-centric mentality, the team focuses on understanding exactly what its users want and finding innovative ways to give it to them.

Engaging existing subscribers with video

The centerpiece of the 150-year-old publication’s video strategy is Boston Globe Today. Just celebrating its six-month anniversary, the 30-minute show is broadcast five days a week at 5 p.m. on Globe.com, NESN 360, and NESN’s linear channel. (NESN is the New England Sports Network.) The show focuses on mostly news topics Monday through Thursday, and on Friday, they switch to sports. Rather than just reporting the news, Boston Globe Today focuses on taking a closer look at the news, often from a journalist’s perspective. Host Segun Oduolowu talks to Globe journalists about their stories, sometimes even telling the story behind them.

“We know our readers watch television… but they weren’t doing it with us because we are traditionally a words-driven platform,” says Peggy Byrd, Chief Marketing Officer at The Boston Globe. The priority for this team is to engage current subscribers by meeting them where they are, no matter the channel.

“Conceptually, it was coming from who we are rather than what’s out there,” says Michelle Micone, Vice President, Innovation & Strategic Initiatives at The Boston Globe. Over a year in the making, The Globe hired a television producer and other industry pros to help bring this vision to life and ensure its quality is up to readers’ expectations. The TV team is constantly conversing with the newsroom, keeping an eye on interesting stories coming up and deciding which ones will translate well to the television format.

Boston Globe Today is available online for subscribers. However, a segment from each episode is available to all site visitors — potentially giving them a reason to subscribe. “We built this in segments as well as a full show,” says Micone. This allows viewers to engage with the content they are most interested in. Not only does this let audiences use their time wisely, but it also gives The Globe team an idea of what people are most interested in, which allows them to create an even better product moving forward.

While new subscribers are always nice, engagement of existing, loyal readers comes first. Byrd says the goal is to “expand a habit” and that the team wants to “expand the expectation and the experience and give people a new way of consuming.”

So far, Byrd says they are seeing traction when it comes to engaging existing subscribers, and they have just started to measure conversion for new subscribers.

Reaching audiences wherever they consume video

Giving your audience what it wants is always critical to building loyalty and retention, but no publication can grow without new audience members. As Byrd says, younger audiences and people of color “over-index” when it comes to video consumption, so The Globe knows that video is an essential part of finding those subscribers.

Having The Boston Globe Today available to NESN subscribers is part of that strategy. However, TikTok is also always a part of the conversation whenever publishers talk about engaging younger, more diverse audiences.

From topics to geographies to channels, The Globe tries to serve its broad audience in several ways. As Micone puts it, “We do feel like we have to do it all, and these are the ways we’re trying to service everyone in a modern way.” On TikTok, that means creating content specifically for the audience in ways that feel authentic to the platform.

“We’re definitely committed to video for the long term,” says Micone. “Part of the reason for even starting this conversation with the TV show is to become an organization that’s very skilled at video.”

Strategic approach to audience growth

YouTube has played a slightly different role at The Boston Globe and its many brands. It’s primarily been a marketing tool, which Byrd says provides valuable feedback, allowing the team to take the data they collect into its content rollout on YouTube. “This is a long road we’re on,” Micone adds. “The TV show, YouTube, TikTok, all these pieces are part of it.”

However, engaging younger audiences isn’t all about TikTok and video. The B-Side is an “email and social forward product,” according to Micone, the idea for which came from a Globe employee during the company’s biannual innovation weeks. After some massaging of the idea, the B-Side emerged, which the website describes as “a hyperlocal email- and social-only daily newsletter that provides authentic and relatable news to keep readers up-to-date and in the groove on local happenings in and around Boston.”

Up next, The Globe team is turning to SMS to expand the publication’s reach. As many mobile marketers know, getting users to opt-in is the biggest hurdle to messaging users on their phones. It’s “another way to meet people where they are,” says Byrd, and as is typical of The Globe’s methodical approach, “we’re taking our time with it.” It will be more of a marketing tool in its first iteration, eventually moving to the content distribution part of this puzzle. “The point of SMS is to learn what people want to get,” says Byrd, “and then once we discover what they want we can start to give it to them through their phones.”

Staying true to their New England roots, The Boston Globe team will continue to prioritize experience over theories as it experiments and innovates with ways to reach and serve audiences old and new.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Industry-Research

Inclusivity makes dollars and sense for the media

September 5, 2023 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

If you want to understand the importance of DEI as it relates to the media business in 2023, there’s just one word you need to know: imperative. When you start leafing through the research, you’ll find “imperative” pops up a lot. Why? Because research universally reveals that a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is of vital importance — crucial, even — to success in today’s media and entertainment environment.

The business case for DEI

The moral case for creating media that takes representation into consideration is clear. But for years, media companies have lagged at becoming more inclusive, sometimes even arguing that it just didn’t make good business sense (even when that obviously wasn’t true). Now, a trio of research reports further refutes that thinking.

Deloitte’s “Media Reimagined” study found that Black, Latinx, and LGBTQIA+ audiences represent a third of the $717 billion U.S. media and entertainment market. “Combined, these three audiences spend more than $250 billion annually and contribute an even higher percentage (52%) among U.S. adult Gen Z entertainment spend,” according to Deloitte.

And lest you think you can entice this audience with any old content, think again. Deloitte found:

71% of current media and entertainment spend among Black, Latinx, and LGBTQIA+ audiences is driven by feelings of inclusivity
54% of current media and entertainment spend tied to inclusivity can be traced to women-identifying audiences
13% increase of incremental and/or stabilized revenue potential across all audiences when they feel more included

Dollars and cents aside, inclusivity also leads to better content that all audiences can appreciate. “Our new research reveals that improving equity in the media and entertainment industry increases brand loyalty, drives growth, and results in fresh content that more closely aligns with consumer needs and expectations,” Deloitte summarizes.

Source: Amazon’s 2023 Higher Impact report

But it’s not just movies, television, and podcasts we need to think about moving forward. Inclusivity in ads matters, too. According to the 2023 Higher Impact report from Amazon Ads, 79% of consumers are more likely to purchase products or services from brands whose values align with their own — and increasingly, DEI is among those values.

Nearly half (45%) of consumers are willing to pay more for a product that reflects and promotes DEI, according to the Amazon report. And 46% of consumers say they go out of their way to choose brands that have corporate commitments to DEI. In other words, consumers are watching — and they reward corporate efforts (and authenticity) when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The full picture

It’s one thing to put out a DEI statement, it’s another thing for media companies to hold themselves accountable and achieve diversity at all levels. Deloitte found that three in five respondents “do not feel empowered to prioritize equity in decision-making” while one in three “feel their leaders don’t understand what diversity and inclusion means.” Another quarter of people “say the lack of diversity at senior levels is an issue.”

And in the film industry, that lack of diversity leads to a dearth of diverse stories. Annenberg Foundation research finds that female directors tell stories with more female characters, more characters from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, more women over age 40, and they hire more women working in other notable behind‐the‐scenes positions.

Unfortunately, The Annenberg Foundation’s latest report, The Inclusion List, produced in cooperation with The Adobe Foundation, finds that inclusion in Hollywood is lacking in diversity and shows few signs of improvement in recent years. With regards to the representation of women on screen, the report’s lead author Stacy L. Smith said, “What’s even more powerful about this list – and consistent with our previous work – is that films from women and women of color directors on the list earned the highest average Metacritic score. These women are excluded from the industry when we know that they are some of the top performers, telling some of the strongest and most compelling stories. This list celebrates women of color in an industry that doesn’t.”

Source: USC Annenberg’s “The Inclusion List” a new data-driven ranking that provides the titles of the 100 most inclusive theatrically-released films from 2019 to 2022. The list goes beyond movies to rank distributors and producers as well, holding the entertainment industry accountable.

“These trends suggest that any improvement for people from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups is limited,” according to Smith. “While it is encouraging to see changes for leading characters and for the Asian community, our data on invisibility suggests that there is still much more to be done to ensure that the diversity that exists in reality is portrayed on screen.”

The price of not paying attention to DEI

Those who continue to ignore the role DEI plays in media’s success, will be missing the boat — and significant revenue opportunities as well. The undisputed king of e-commerce knows this, and that’s why one of the ways that Amazon segments its advertising audience is “Allies of Diversity”, which it outlined in a sponsored post on Ad Week. The Allies of Diversity audience “aims to provide a solution to reach an array of consumers at scale that have demonstrated signals of allyship. Amazon infers allyship based on aggregated first-party shopping and streaming signals. The company says, “Inclusive advertising helps brands connect with a wide range of people, promotes innovation and ensures that ads can be enjoyed by a variety of audiences.”

Clearly, Amazon has recognized the revenue potential DEI offers its advertisers but we’ll have to wait to see if Hollywood has the same epiphany. Though, as movies like “Barbie” — which sport diverse casts and women at the helm behind the scenes — rock the box office, the fiscal case for inclusion will be easier to make. However, one may have said the same thing when “Waiting to Exhale” opened at number one back in 1995 or when, in 2018, “Black Panther” became the highest-grossing superhero movie. Will the underlying facts and numbers that all support an authentic commitment to DEI be enough to move the needle?

Advertising | Featured Post | Revenue

Retail media: Friend, foe, or something in between?

August 31, 2023 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

Brands have paid for premium product placement in stores as long as there have been stores. Whether it’s book publishers paying to get their books turned face-out on the shelves or your favorite cookie company splurging for an end-cap display in the supermarket, companies are used to paying for placement. But now, like so much else, that trend has gone digital.

Retail media networks [RMNs] are not exactly new, but they are growing in popularity, especially with U.S. advertisers, where interest has traditionally lagged. As more shoppers move from brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce, retailers are looking for new ways to engage buyers and advertisers on the web. That’s led to retailers becoming their own ad networks, charging advertisers to promote products on their sites — and this has the potential to impact revenue for media companies.

Sizing the retail media market

According to Bain & Company, “Retail media is expected to be a $61 billion business by 2024—double its 2021 numbers.” This increased spending is indicative of an overall shift toward digital ad spending, says Bain: “In 2019, about 50% of ad spending went to digital campaigns, and by the close of 2021, about two-thirds of US advertising was digital.” But that’s not the end of the story.

While digital ad spending in the U.S. has been on the rise for years, retail media has not traditionally been a big draw. In fact, historically, retail media advertising has been a much bigger player in China. Now, however, interest is growing stateside. Not only is it growing faster than China’s spending, but it’s got more room to grow, according to Insider Intelligence.

There are a few factors at play here, says Li Lu, Research Director at Digiday Media. First, Lu says, retail media has become a more robust channel, and companies like Omnicom make it easier to get more information as retailers build out their networks. But they say there is another factor at work here: the loss of the third-party cookie.

Digital publishers know the story well: As third-party cookies go the way of the Dodo and the web becomes a more privacy-conscious place, first-party data is imperative. And RMNs have first-party data in spades. Retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target are close to the customer at the point of checkout and know the kinds of products an individual user is searching for and often what they may have bought in the past. This makes it easier for advertisers to target users based on their personal preferences and positions retailers as excellent partners when it comes to driving actual sales.

In fact, Lu says, the KPIs are really what’s driving a lot of this change. Retail media traffics in actual sales, while on social media, success is often measured in impressions or clicks. “You’re so close to the customer at their checkout point,” Lu says of retail media networks. People there are “shopping with a purpose in mind.” Naturally, they are further up the funnel and ready to make a purchase.

It’s also important to note that revenue from RMNs is a completely new and discrete income stream, not just a replacement for flagging in-store opportunities. McKinsey reports, “Our research suggests that more than 80 percent of spend flowing into retail media networks is incremental and comes from all sources, including net new spend and reinvestment of brand and performance budgets. So for retailers, RMNs provide an incremental source of high-margin revenue, and substitution for shopper or co-op marketing can be managed.”

Who is leading the retail media pack?

Of course, not all online retailers are created equal — and ad spend can tell us a lot about who the leaders are. Lu says that Digiday’s research found “Amazon was the most popular media retail partner.” A whopping 76% of respondents said they partnered with Amazon, and that Walmart and Target came in next, with more than 30% saying they partnered with these retail giants. Other research backs this up.

Still, Amazon’s dominance is sure to wane eventually, according to Lu. As other retail media networks improve their search capabilities — search is currently one of Amazon’s biggest benefits over other options — and new competitors emerge, advertisers are bound to shift their spending priorities. In fact, delivery apps like Instacart are already becoming a destination for some brands — and are even driving some of the growth in a post-pandemic world where people have gotten used to shopping online, even for things like groceries.

Increasingly, price is also a problem. Lu says Digiday’s research revealed that the cost of retail media placements was a concern. From CPC models to actual conversions, they are all getting pricier. Lu says, “Advertisers may start diversifying if it gets too expensive and can’t scale.”

Content and commerce is the way forward

Publishers may have yet another competitor to deal with when it comes to vying for dwindling ad dollars, but hope is not lost. On top of the price concerns that Lu mentioned, ANA found that “A major concern expressed repeatedly throughout the study was that although [retail media networks] are being credited for driving brand sales, they have not yet convinced advertisers of their ability to drive brand growth. We found that 67 percent of our respondents cited ‘to drive conversion’ as their most important objective with RMNs, while only 7 percent cited ‘to drive awareness.’” This presents an opportunity for publishers.

While RMNs may have an advantage when it comes to down-funnel actions, publishers can still leverage their first-party data to help drive awareness. But publishers also have some potential to become a commerce-driven partner for brand advertisers as well.

Last December, just after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Digiday reported, “Hearst Magazines’ total product sales increased by 50% year-over-year” and “Foundry’s U.S.-based brands saw a 57% increase year-over-year in the total dollar amount they generated for retailers through sales.”

Embracing commerce media may just be publishers’ best bet to help win some of those RMN dollars; while retailers may have an advantage for funneling consumers who are already close to purchasing toward advertisers, publishers may be able to reach people who are still contemplating a purchase. From review seekers to people looking for gift ideas to browsers who are open to discovering new products, media companies can compete if they are willing to embrace new, commerce-driven strategies.

Industry-Research | Innovation

Research suggests business as usual with AI and the media

August 29, 2023 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

You wouldn’t know it from the breathless coverage of new AI tools like ChatGPT, but the use of AI in the media is old news. While many media companies have been using AI-generated content for years, only the closest media watchers knew they might be reading news generated by a bot. A new report digs into the reality of how AI is — and has been — used by media companies, how AI’s limits necessarily constrain its use, and where new media models may be able to put this technology to profitable use.

News media and AI are old pals

A recent report “AI and the media. Now.” from Di5rupt and FIPP collects media leaders’ thoughts on how AI is impacting global publishers. In exploring media companies’ relationship with AI through the years, it’s clear that this symbiosis began earlier than even those in the know may have realized. According to the report, the earliest use of automated content “dates back to the early 1960s, when computer systems were first used to generate news articles.” More recently, news organizations have been using AI tools to churn out data-driven content — like sports recaps, stock price updates, or weather reports — often creating their own solutions to do so.

From the Associated Press to Axel Springer to China Daily, automated content has been on the editorial calendar for years. These tools have been used largely to free up human resources for reporting, analysis, and other in-depth work. Meanwhile, other types of AI tools make light work for people by doing the front work of transcribing interview recordings, analyzing data, looking for copyright infringements, or even helping with audience segmentation. But these uses all belie the continued limitations of AI, which are many.

The limits of AI for the media

While publicly available tools like ChatGPt may have put AI-generated content squarely in the limelight, the truth is not much has changed about AI’s capabilities or how media organizations are using it. As the report puts it, “Essentially think of ChatGPT as a search engine on steroids. You ask it a question and it skims the data that it has stored to construct a response for you.” So, the report cautions that any companies planning on replacing writers with machines, must first consider the limits of AI.

It cannot actually write breaking news (yet!) as it was only trained on data through 2021.
Not only can AI make mistakes, but it has no real way of fact-checking its sources.
It does not cite its sources — and is often found to be plagiarizing.
It has its own unconscious bias.
AI is only as good as the data it has access to, so it is often biased, wrong, or lacking important context.
Analysis is not AI’s strong suit, at least when it comes to ChatGPT and its ilk. The report says, “It presents what it sees as fact and leaves the reader to make their own mind up.” This is why it works well for basic, data-driven content creation and not much else.

Ironically, the algorithms rely on journalists to create new content — or maybe we should call it data — to train on, ultimately making AI dependent on humans, at least in its current state. In fact, The AP and ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, struck a deal to let its large l anguage model use The AP’s content to train. These limitations mean AI will likely continue to be relegated to simple content creation tasks that allow humans to do more important work.

The potential for AI-driven news

ChatGPT’s limits aside, some startups have already launched AI-only news sites. Despite these sites being subject to the limitations above, the report thinks that the trend may be more than just a novelty.

John Barnes, Chief Digital Officer, William Reed Business Media, explains what these new media outlets could look like: ”Model around advertising and affiliate revenue and gobble up traffic by being quick and comprehensive, or find highly-targeted subscription and B2B channels where speed of information matters much more than grammatical flair or particularly special insight — results, events, and data-driven types of products.”

However, when one stops to consider the kind of content where speed matters more than insight, one will likely arrive at where AI and media first started their relationship: at financial, sports, and other data-driven news. As these sites proliferate, they will face the same challenges as other media organizations: differentiation. And when you don’t have original, investigative reporting — or even celebrity profiles — to set your publication apart, it all comes down to who can be the most accurate while maintaining speed.

Ultimately, AI may help the next Woodward and Bernstein dig through piles of data to find a story or transcribe the Watergate tapes, but it will never be able to meet Deep Throat in the parking garage.

TikTok’s Pulse Premiere partners with media brands. Will it work?

August 17, 2023 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

TikTok and media companies across the globe are teaming up to write the next chapter in the epic saga of the media and its complex relationship with social platforms. In early May, TikTok announced Pulse Premiere, a program designed to place advertisers alongside the premium content created by trusted media brands — and share the revenue 50/50 with those content creators.

The first question that might bubble to the surface for media companies is, “How is this different from all the other revenue-sharing schemes with social platforms?”

“Some publishers have had good relationships with some platforms,” says Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He points to Snapchat as an example of a platform that has led to reasonable revenue for some media companies. But revenue is not the main impetus for them to embrace TikTok. “Cultural genres are things that premium publishers are pushing into, especially to reach younger users,” says Newman. And TikTok has been a key partner in that strategy all along.

This strategy aims to combat news avoidance and engage new audiences, says Newman. Add to the mix a decline in brand revenue and media buyers who find it easier to buy through platforms, and it’s clear why premium publishers are eager to partner with a wildly popular platform like TikTok. From TikTok’s point of view, Newman adds, it also makes sense to reward media companies for creating content that helps fuel the platform’s ongoing success.

But as it turns out, there are a few key differences between TikTok and its social media competitors that have media companies feeling bullish.

Embracing TikTok as a content creation platform

TikTok is unique. Facebook and X/Twitter, at least for publishers, are places where publications and audiences share links to content, which drives traffic back to a website. This dynamic has been a source of tension over the year, which continues to play out. TikTok, however, is more of a content-creation tool than it is a distribution platform. Publishers who are successful on TikTok understand and embrace the peculiarities of TikTok and create content designed specifically for this audience.

Reuters Institute’s 2022 Digital News Report cited TikTok as the fastest-growing social network for news consumption. This is driven, in part, by publishers’ desire to reach new, younger audiences. Reuters found 40% of people 18 to 24 use TikTok, and 15% of them use it for news. It only makes sense that news brands with robust TikTok audiences would seek to cash in on that engagement through advertising.

One of those media brands is Vox Media, which joins Condé Nast, Buzzfeed, Dotdash Meredith, Hearst Magazines, MLS, NBCUniversal, UFC, and WWE as one of the initial Pulse Premiere partners. “Our editorial brands and video franchises reach millions of highly engaged followers on TikTok, and we are now excited to work with TikTok on a new ad product,” Ray Chao, SVP & GM of Audio and Digital Video at Vox Media, said in a statement to DCN. “We are hopeful that this partnership will help us strengthen our digital video revenue model through a new revenue stream.”

Similarly, Deb Brett, Condé Nast’s Chief Business Officer, Digital, says, “Our audience demands us to be on TikTok.” That’s not a problem for Conde Nast’s publications, which have been “digital first” for years, according to Brett.

Importantly, Condé Nast also avoids taking a one-size-fits-all approach to its social media channels. “We tailor what we create for every platform. We want to hear from our brands in different ways,” says Brett. Before TikTok introduced Pulse Premiere, that often meant creating branded content integrations and custom programs for advertisers who wanted to reach the brands’ audiences. Condé Nast even tried live streaming and shoppable content. Pulse Premiere is now making it easier for media organizations to monetize their presence on the platform.

Thinking about brand safety

Pulse Premiere comes on the heels of TikTok Pulse, launched in 2022, which places brand advertisers next to the top 4% of trending videos on TikTok across a number of categories. Throughout the history of social media advertising, brands have run into the problem of unpredictability. Historically, this problem was only addressed once it boiled over, sometimes in the form of a boycott. As ads follow users around one social platform or another, there has been no telling what content an ad will be placed beside. At this stage of the social game, it’s no surprise that TikTok is being proactive about providing a solution to that ongoing issue.

In its announcement, TikTok said, “Pulse Premiere gives brands the control to choose where their ads are placed, adjacent to content from our premium publishing partners in lifestyle and education, sports, and entertainment categories for specific tentpole events as well as evergreen, ongoing content.” In other words, TikTok is giving advertisers the ability not only to avoid being placed next to the latest viral conspiracy theory video — or even just dance trends irrelevant to a brand’s messaging — but to easily continue existing publisher relationships.

Extending existing brand relationships

As a publishing community, we love [that TikTok Pulse Premiere is] turnkey, its low lift, and its scalable,” says Brett. Rather than devising ad hoc solutions to advertiser demands to be part of the TikTok conversation that Condé Nast’s brands create, the publisher can now take advantage of a native ad platform.

Condé Nast will kick off its Pulse Premiere participation by aligning a campaign with what it calls one of its “cultural calendar moments”: Vogue World. The event takes place on September 14 in London, and Brett says Vogue will align its TikTok content with the event. “It’s an exciting intersection of their ad product and our cultural calendar moments,” she adds.

While it’s still too early to tell whether the economics add up for publishers, Brett says, “It has indicators for a huge potential.” Newman, however, points to a problem publishers have come to know well: “Fundamentally, people’s attention is the problem. The first few publishers do well, then other pubs follow, and the rates go down.” Only time will tell if TikTok proves to be different from its competitors in the ways that matter most for publishers.

Listen in: Lessons on sustainable podcast strategies

June 1, 2023 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

When Stephen King calls your production the best true crime podcast he’s ever heard, you know you’ve done something right. It was quite the win for a tiny New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) podcast team, which goes up against big-name production companies in an increasingly crowded and volatile podcast market.

But while NHPR basks in the glow of this win, big names like NPR and Spotify—a traditional radio stalwart and a digital-native streaming company—find themselves stumbling after making big bets on podcasts. So, why are podcasts such a boon for some while they seem to be weighing other companies down? As is so often the case in the media industry, you have to look at the strategy.

Trouble in podcast paradise

According to data from Edison’s The Infinite Dial Report, podcasts have more listeners than ever—and those listeners are engaged and affluent. Well over half (64%) of people over the age of 12 in the U.S. have listened to a podcast; 42% have listened in the last month; 31% have listened in the last week. That audience skews young, with 40% of people between the ages of 12-34 tuning in weekly. With an estimated 89 million people listening to podcasts on a weekly basis, the audience is also diverse — 45% of Black Americans and 34% of Hispanic Americans listen monthly. It was only a matter of time before the money started to flow.

In 2019, Spotify paid a reported $340 million for Gimlet and Anchor. In 2020, The New York Times paid $25 million for Serial Productions. But in January 2023, Spotify announced it would lay off 6% of its workforce and that Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff was leaving. Ostroff was the driving force behind over $1 billion in podcast spending to get exclusive deals with big-name podcasters. As Morning Brew Reports, “Although the layoffs don’t specifically target Spotify’s podcasting staff, the departure of Ostroff is yet another sign that the company is slowing down its full-steam-ahead approach to the space.”

In March of 2023, NPR made a similar announcement, declaring that it would cancel four podcasts as it looks to cut costs. The story is the same across the board; diminishing ad revenue gets the blame. But it’s hard not to acknowledge the elephant in the room — an over-reliance on the podcast craze to boost the bottom line.

Betting big on podcast revenue

Part of the appeal of podcasts has always been their guerilla nature. From Marc Maron’s garage to the original “My Favorite Murder” pod-loft, there was a certain informality to it all. Then “Serial” came along, bringing a more refined sound to podcast players and changing the way listeners — and investors — perceive podcasts. Suddenly, a medium best known for off-the-cuff conversations and sometimes-questionable audio quality was a viable channel for journalism.

Still, it wasn’t until the Covid-19 pandemic pushed people even more online that the podcast acquisition market truly heated up. “The podcast megadeals of the pandemic may have been premature—podcasting made up just 7% of total listening on Spotify in Q1 2022, the company said, despite the massive investment in tentpole shows,” according to Morning Brew “And the exclusive show model that makes popular shows available only to subscribers of a given streamer hasn’t proven wildly successful. The Gimlet and Parcast unions announced that making certain shows Spotify exclusives reduced their listenership by as much as 75% in some instances.”

Not only was a general decline in ad revenues an issue, but so was a massive decline in listenership. In short, Spotify bet that making popular podcasts available exclusively on its platform would drive subscriptions. That bet did not pay off. This dynamic has played out across multiple providers where the investment outweighed revenue.

Podcast strategies that work

While some networks are still figuring out where and how podcasts best fit into their content strategy, others are seeing big success. For instance, Vox Media forecasts that its podcast network will reach more than 500 million in 2023. According to Hollywood Reporter, “The audience figures, which Vox Media is releasing for the first time, represent a measured approach to growth for the media brand’s podcasting business, which began in 2011 with the launch of Vox’s first podcast but didn’t become formalized until 2017 with the debut of the standalone Vox Media Podcast Network.” In the ensuing five years, the network has acquired Preet Bharara’s Cafe Studios as well as Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer’s Criminal Productions. It’s also brought in Esther Perel, and other new talent.

So what’s the difference between Vox and Spotify, both of which are investing in popular podcasts? The most obvious is that Vox is not limiting access to the content. But there is more to the story. “They’re getting into the podcast business as an extension of their journalism,” says Rebecca Lavoie, Director of On-Demand Audio at NHPR and a podcaster in her own right, as host of Crime Writers On… and Netflix’s You Can’t Make This Up. And this happens to be the same way the NHPR team approaches its podcasts — just an extension of its journalism, or another way to tell stories.

Bear Brook may be Stephen King’s favorite NHPR podcast, but it is not the only podcasting juggernaut put out by the team. “Civics 101” launched in 2016, and is — almost inexplicably — still growing. “Our audience grew by…almost 30% just this year,” says Lavoie. Meanwhile, when we spoke, Bear Brook’s second season had just surpassed 2 million downloads for eight episodes. Importantly, however, the team behind Bear Brook is small and nimble — so small that host Jason Moon also writes and records the music. NHPR relies largely on swapping ad spots with related podcasts to help spread the word, and has a diverse number of revenue streams for its podcasts.

“So, my show outside of NHPR, we’ve got ads, and we’ve got Patreon. That’s it. You know, if you’re a bigger show, you could also do live shows, you could do merch, there’s a limited number of things you can do, but they’re all commercial,” says Lavoie. While NHPR has a commercial advertising partnership with Stitcher, it can also ask for member support, can apply for grants because they are nonprofit, and make appeals to major donors to support special projects. “We’re not relying on venture capital seed money, we are relying on nonprofit stewardship,” she adds.

A public radio podcasting renaissance

Up until six months or a year ago, Lavoie says she was chagrined by much of what she heard from the NPR-verse; “Because public radio has never really behaved like it’s part of the podcast industry, right? We have some of the most talented people, we have all of the infrastructure, we have the best microphones, we have these great narrative storytellers. But there’s all this hesitancy to just get into it.” But that’s changing. From stalwarts like WBEZ and little-known stations like KCUR out of Kansas, public radio is finally “getting” podcasts.

Importantly, NHPR and other member stations don’t have to make a profit, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t lessons to be learned from this scrappy team. Podcasts have the ability to experiment with new revenue streams. Grants may not be possible for traditional for-profit media companies, but finding individual supporters interested in funding the work you do is — especially for highly focused, narrative podcasts. From live shows to merch, podcast listeners support their favorite shows in a variety of ways that journalists just are not used to. So, it’s time to get creative.

The ethical and economic rationale for investing in climate coverage

April 13, 2023 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

The climate crisis is on everyone’s mind. But journalists have an extra burden when it comes to the biggest challenge of our time: telling the story. Traditionally, this has been a tough topic to tackle because it is big, complex, and even polarizing. However, the media seems to have turned the corner when it comes to climate coverage — learning how to walk the fine line between doom and gloom, education, and impact.

Climate coverage: How it started

Reuters’ “Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2023” report reminds us that media hasn’t always achieved the right tone when it comes to climate coverage: “The news media are routinely criticized for covering these stories breathlessly, without joining up the wider dots or following through on the lasting consequences. Others argue that the media have too often treated climate as a discrete subject, rather than as an integral part of wider political and economic decision-making.”

Meanwhile, attempts to present “both sides” of the climate story have ultimately led to a credibility problem and audiences with a distorted perception of the issues at hand. A Northwestern University study “found that false-balance reporting can make people doubt the scientific consensus on issues like climate change, sometimes making them wonder if an issue is even worth taking seriously.”

With the problems clearly articulated, the media has taken note and is adjusting accordingly.

Climate coverage: How it’s going

Better coverage of the climate crisis takes many shapes, but there are some overarching goals. An EBU News report, “Climate Journalism that Works: Between Knowledge and Impact” suggests journalists must help “audiences find the facts, understand the magnitude of this crisis, and discover opportunities to act.” For many organizations, that means dedicating resources to climate coverage.

The Reuters report found that 49% of respondents have created a climate team. Among them is The Washington Post. Speaking at Aspen Ideas: Climate, Sally Buzzbee, executive editor, explained why the Post developed a “Climate Solutions” section. “We’re trying to actually capture what we see as a change in the audience and push that forward to what journalism is needed now,” said Buzzbee.

In order to provide the kind of journalism the world needs now, Austrian publishers “recently got together to create a set of guidelines for newsrooms including the accurate use of language, coverage of solutions as well as problems, separation of fact and opinion, and the creation of resources and structures to support better coverage across disciplines,” according to Reuters. In practice, that’s translating into bigger staffs and a wider lens through which the media is examining the climate crisis.

One of the key ways editorial teams are rethinking how they cover environmental issues is by recognizing the need to find the climate angle in every beat. As the EBU News report puts it, “the protection of our planet and our lives must be the frame through which all of journalism operates—just as it is with democracy or human rights.” And the media has gotten the message. Reuters found 44% of respondents are “integrating dimensions of the climate debate into other coverage (e.g. business and sport).”

Making climate coverage a priority isn’t just a moral imperative, it’s good business. Buzzbee said that she’s seen a shift in recent years and that audiences are hungry for this kind of coverage. On the same panel, Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of The Guardian, said that climate coverage is a revenue driver. In fact, The Guardian noticed readers often donate to the publicly supported organization immediately after consuming content about climate change.

Significantly, organizations like The Guardian also seem to understand the importance of establishing credibility by walking the walk when it comes to climate. Reuters found that 33% of news executives say they have taken steps in the last year to improve sustainability. For some, that means reducing their carbon footprint and putting out a sustainability report. At The Guardian, Viner said they have committed to no longer taking ad dollars from fossil fuel companies, to show readers “we mean what we say.”

Opportunities remain for climate coverage

As the media finally finds firmer footing on this topic, it’s only natural to wonder what’s next. Well, there are still challenges to be met. “People from the climate units keep telling us, the gatekeepers at the news desk pay lip service, but they don’t really get it,” Mark Hertsgaard, Executive Director and Co-Founder at Covering Climate Now, told EBU. “They still think it is optional.”

This may be changing as more newsrooms put together climate teams and instruct every desk to look for climate-related angles to the stories they tell. Still, to break through the noise, journalists should think about better ways to tell those stories. Other Reuters research found that“more people say they pay attention to documentaries (39%) than to major news organizations (33%) for information about this topic. This is the case across all markets in the aggregate, as well as across age groups.” This suggests that there is an opportunity for long-form content that takes the time to deep dive into the intricacies and nuances of climate science. If a documentary is out of the question, think about other visually compelling ways to tell the story.

Reuters also states that, “audiences express more interest, pay more attention to climate change news, and feel more inclined to support journalists taking a stand in places where the direct impacts of climate change are acutely felt.” This makes sense. However, it may also suggest that driving home the story requires journalists to find the local angle. That makes it the role of local journalists especially important in this fight.

Moving forward, news organizations cannot afford to fumble the ball on climate change. Whether you look at it from an ethical or an economic point of view, finding ways to reach audiences with environmental stories is a must for every editor.

Perspectives

Prove the value of thought leadership with the FT’s new framework

March 4, 2020 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

Marketers know that thought leadership is an important part of a strategy to build awareness and trust, and to help their companies get a seat at the table. But until now, they have had a hard time proving it. The reality is that marketers are under pressure from all sides to prove their contributions to the bottom line.

While metrics are available to track many marketing activities, thought leadership efforts have been nearly impossible to measure. With this in mind, the Thought Leadership Network (TLN)—a joint venture of Longitude and The Financial Times—has released its first-ever framework for measuring the effectiveness of thought leadership in its report “Proving our Value: Measuring the effectiveness of thought leadership.”

After years of talking to clients about their challenges, Rob Mitchell, CEO of Longitude and Chairman of Thought Leadership Network, says he saw a gap in the market for a network devoted to promoting thought leadership as a career and to promote best practices. Thus, TLN was born, to bring “together thought leadership practitioners to share knowledge, experiences, and ideas.”

Mitchell thinks of TLN’s mission as “Thought leadership about thought leadership.”

Tia McPhee, Global Brand Director of The Financial Times and a Thought Leadership Network advisory board member says that she hopes the group’s annual slate of events allows thought leaders to learn from and support one another. But as the group started coming together, it was clear there was one challenge members were struggling with more than any other: measuring the effectiveness of thought leadership.

What is thought leadership?

The term “thought leadership” is familiar. However, defining it is difficult. Some might say, “You know it when you see it.” But in the age of content marketing—when every company is pumping out content—it can be even harder to separate real thought leadership from more run of the mill content marketing efforts.

“Content marketing can be part of a strategy to develop yourself as a thought leader,” says McPhee. She adds that content marketing is really the “delivery mechanism.”

“Good thought leadership starts with the strength of the ideas,” says Mitchell. To be a true thought leader, you need an original idea. Content marketing is just the avenue through which you deliver that idea.

What’s the goal?

More importantly, content marketing often focuses on short-term engagement metrics—think downloads and clicks. However, TLN’s research shows that the key to measuring the effectiveness of thought leadership is all about taking a long-term view.

When thinking about thought leadership efforts, it’s important to understand what this branch of marketing is really designed to do. According to the report, campaigns can do three things:

Reimagine—Pivot the business to a new reality.
Renovate—Build on past successes and move into new areas that will attract attention from both new and existing customers.
Reinforce—Strengthen customer loyalty and retention for existing, mature products and services.

But the question remains: How do you know if you’re achieving those goals?

A measurement framework

In order to help TLN members better prove the value of their work, the group has compiled a report that details the metrics that matter most, six principles of effective measurement, and provides a checklist to make sure efforts align with business goals. Mitchell says the report is the result of “trying to distill” his years of experience, combined with primary research—speaking to clients and advisory board members—and even bringing in outside experts to get a new perspective.

“Alignment” is the foundation of the three-tier effectiveness model presented in the report. “It is all about ensuring that there is buy-in from every relevant function in the business, as well as agreement about the overall goals,” says the report.

Next, you have to take a look at engagement, though Mitchell warns against putting too much weight on short-term metrics. He wants to “shift the focus a little bit.” Mitchell says, “Right now we measure what’s easy to measure.”

He sees a need for a “shift toward alignment, influence, and impact.” Mitchell suggests spending 40% of your time tracking alignment, 40% on impact, and 20% on engagement. Ask yourself, are you changing behavior? That’s how you really know you’re having an effect on customers.

“These longer-term metrics are harder to measure,” says Mitchell. And therein lies the challenge. In order to determine if your thought leadership is moving the needle on influence and impact you need to track whether your perception of expertise is increasing, customer lifetime value (CLV), meetings generated, and profitability. You’ll also want to understand how your content is contributing to the marketing pipeline and generating qualified leads.

Reading that list may have you scratching your head. Really, how do you know how your expertise is perceived? Can you really know how many meetings your thought leadership campaigns have generated?

Admittedly, the “influence and impact” metrics are the hardest to track. They will require that you invest in customer surveys and other in-depth outreach efforts that go beyond simple engagement efforts. However, Mitchell and McPhee promise that putting in the effort to track these numbers will go a long way to understanding your effectiveness.

Ultimately, says McPhee, TLN and the report give you “the tools to make your case.”

“Tribal subscription marketing”

But for publishers like The Financial Times, thought leadership is a slightly different animal than it is for other brands. After all, McPhee asks, what are you doing as a publisher if you aren’t regularly putting out interesting new ideas? Good journalism isn’t necessarily the same as thought leadership. But publishers are embracing the practice as a way to build loyalty and enhance CLV.

For instance, The FT launched its New Agenda which McPhee describes as “a rallying cry to business leaders to think about responsible capitalism.” In practice, it’s a collection of the publishers’ best pieces around the idea of protecting “the future of free enterprise and wealth creation by pursuing profit with purpose.”

She says she’s seen the model replicated across other publishers—think Washington Post’s “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” It has led to what some in the industry are calling “tribal subscription marketing,” which creates a sense of belonging among readers.

“Thought leadership can get people behind you,” says McPhee. That’s as important for publishers as it is for any other brand—especially in the age of digital disintermediation and a near constant fight for every subscriber.

“Providing expertise in thought leadership—both in terms of the content itself and the measurement of its impact—is an obvious addition to what the FT can offer clients,” adds McPhee. Ultimately, thought leadership may be just what you need to find new ways to add value for your subscribers and potential sponsors.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Innovation

Outside takes on diversity in media at the newsstand

April 11, 2017 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

It can be hard to make heads or tails of gender equality in the media landscape. One minute we hear that women are rising on media boards – and the next we hear that news is controlled by white men. When 46 of 50 U.S. media boards have at least one female director, it’s easy to be optimistic about the state of women in media. But then the wind is taken out of our collective sails when we hear Wall Street Journal employees are so distressed about the state of their newsroom that they wrote a letter “expressing concern about the roles of women and people of color in the newsroom.”

Additionally, the Women’s Media Center found that at “20 of the nation’s top news outlets, men produced 62.3% of news reports analyzed during a studied period while women produced 37.7% of news reports.” On a slightly more encouraging note, the WMC also found, “At least one woman was among the top three editors at 77% of responding ASNE organizations.”

So, with all of this conflicting information at our fingertips, what’s a girl to do?

Girl Power

Well, if you happen to work at OUTSIDE Magazine, you strike a blow for gender equality by putting out your first ever all-female issue. Also known as the “XX Factor Issue,” the May installment will feature nothing but women, and will be created by them too. From the writers to the photographers and subject matter, this content is by women, about women.

“There have been studies done on newspaper sports sections that show most publications cover women far less than they cover men,” says Mary Turner, Deputy Editor, OUTSIDE—who received a promotion for this issue to run the show. “That’s true in the outdoor industry, too, in both [editorial] and advertising creative.” At the same time, she says, “women have never been a stronger force in our world, representing 51% of all outdoor consumers and spending billions on gear and travel alone last year.”

OUTSIDE isn’t stopping at just the one print issue. They plan to run additional women-centric stories and bylines at Outside Online. This includes an Outlook episode on Outside Television, a podcast series hosted by Florence Williams, as well as a documentary film produced in partnership with sponsor R.E.I.

Finding Balance

“During our 40 year history, OUTSIDE has always covered women. The issue we’re trying to address is overall balance, and we wanted to start a conversation about that,” Turner says. “We know we can do a better job, and we want to be a leader in this space. It was very important to us that the women on our cover and in the magazine represent all parts of our world and a diverse range of ages, sports, ethnicities, and professions. We’re very proud of how it worked out. And we’re also proud of our partnership with REI, who launched their Force of Nature effort in the issue, announcing their multiple initiatives to get more women into the outdoors and challenging the industry as a whole to do more as well. As R.E.I says, you can’t be what you can’t see.”

R.E.I isn’t the only sponsor getting in on the XX Factor. “Not only did a number of advertisers juggle budgets and campaign timing to be in the issue, several went as far as to create female-focused brand ads specifically for the issue,” says Turner.

For some publications handing an issue over to the female staff might have presented some logistical challenges, but the team at OUTSIDE was ready for it. “I’m happy to report that OUTSIDE’s [editorial] and online staff is almost 50% female, so yes, we had enough women on staff to manage the issue,” Turner says. However, they didn’t do it entirely alone. She adds, “it’s important to note that while all of the writers and photographers we used in the issue are women, the men on our staff did edit stories and contribute in other ways. They were so excited about the issue, which was really cool to see. Creating this issue brought a lot of good energy to our staff as a whole.”

What Real Diversity Looks Like

Diversity (in media or elsewhere) is not only about gender, which is why OUTSIDE wanted to make sure they represented a wide range of women of different, ages, ethnicities, and interests in the XX Factor Issue.

“In the issue, we have everyone from 8-year-old Girl Scouts to 93-year-old Gert Boyle, the Chairman of Columbia, who we interview on the last page,” says Turner. “And there are a wide range of subject matters covered, from how women are better endurance athletes than men, to a poignant memoir from writer Rahawa Haile on hiking the Appalachian trail alone last year, to a hilarious romp that writer Taffy Akner takes into the billion-dollar wellness industry.”

And OUTSIDE took the same approach when it came to creating its fold out cover. It features everyone from soccer player Abby Wambach, who is fighting for equal pay for women, to GirlTrek cofounders Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison, who aim to have one million African Americans walking by 2018.

The XX Factor issue hits stands April 11, so it’s still early gauge audience reactions to the issue. Will men skip picking it up at the store? Or will it fly off the shelves? Considering that women drive 70-80% of the economy, it’s a safe bet that quality content aimed at their interests and concerns is a good investment.

Innovation

What it’s really like to produce a weekly virtual reality show at USA TODAY

December 12, 2016 Theresa Cramer – Independent Journalist

Creating a weekly news program is a lot of work no matter what format it takes—but when you throw virtual reality into the mix, everything gets exponentially more complicated. That’s not stopping USA TODAY. Back in October, USA TODAY NETWORK announced VRtually There which it calls “the first branded news experience presented in virtual reality.”

USA TODAY has been producing Virtual Reality (VR) content since 2014, starting with Harvest of Change, a piece about the realities facing farmers in Iowa. Keira Nothaft, Director of Innovation, says that VR offers “an immersive way to bring the news to people in their homes in a very personal, interactive way.” But don’t be fooled, she says, “Creating VR or 360 news is a laborious process.”

In the case of VRtually There, each episode has three segments. The first is the “thrill me” segment, which features exciting stories about things like rollercoasters or a ride on an F18. The second is the anchor of the show, concentrating on storytelling. And the third segment which slows the show down, allowing viewers to pause and explore a place. It was original imagined as a daily show, though it was quickly scaled back, according to Niko Chauls, director emerging technology at USA TODAY NETWORK. He envisioned it as a way to “attract a new audience, create an incremental new revenue stream and build habit/routine/return visits with a regular publishing cadence.”

There’s a team in place to make it all happen; David Hamlin, Executive Producer of VRtually There, works with three staffers. Nothaft heads up the innovation team of four people, and there are also freelancers across the country ready to work on these VR stories. But it all starts with finding the right story.

“There has to be a physical imperative to do the story in VR,” says Nothaft. If someone at USA TODAY thinks they have a story that might be a fit, they bring it to Hamlin, who then talks about it with Nothaft and her team. From there, Hamlin drills down into the story with producers and much of the preproduction is similar to any video endeavor. They confirm locations and characters with the people working in the field. Once the team is in the field, Hamlin says often all he can do is pray—especially if his team is shooting in a remote location.

Despite working with a team of people who are fairly well versed in VR, Hamlin is a realist. “Nobody really has a ton of experience in 360…It’s a very collaborative process,” he says. The real difficulty begins when the content gets back to the studio and it’s time to stitch the recordings together. Right now it all has to be done by hand. Hamlin doesn’t even see the footage until after it’s been stitched together. At that point the producer usually becomes the editor, and they start working the footage into the final project we eventually see.

In a given week, Hamlin says. “Monday and Tuesday is spent assembling the pieces of the show that’s about to air. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are spent cutting next week’s show.” The fastest the team can put together a segment is two weeks, and although many segments are produced well in advance, the team also tries to leave room for timely content. For instance, they did a segment on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which needed to be aired in a timely manner.

In order to keep up with the demand for content, Hamlin and his team have to stay ahead of the game by working on multiple stories at a time. He says that in order to make the model sustainable, they are going to need to stockpile stories. As demanding as the schedule is, Hamlin says, “I do think what we’re doing is new and groundbreaking. And I’m proud to be a part of the effort. It’s brave of USATODAY.”