Category results for "Perspectives"

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of November 16, 2023

November 16, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

Bloomberg | Hollywood’s labor stoppage is over, but a painful industry-wide transition isn’t (5 min read)
Digiday | Media companies announce more layoffs to cut costs, blaming a relentlessly challenging ad market (5 min read)
The Conversation | Researchers warn we could run out of data to train AI by 2026. What then? (4 min read)
The Vanguard | We thought Apple made a fortune from Google’s search engine. We were wrong: it earns much more (2 min read)
NPR | Spoken Word Audio in U.S. Hits New Highs for Audience Reach and Share (3 min read)
The Wall Street Journal | ‘Digital Discrimination’ in the Crosshairs of New FCC Rule (4 min read)
The New York Times | Google’s C.E.O. Takes Another Turn on the Antitrust Witness Stand (8 min read)
Slate | The Supreme Court Is Reconsidering Its Entire Approach to the Internet. Uh-Oh. (7 min read)

If you love them, let them go: the case for easy subscription cancellations

November 9, 2023 Chris M. Sutcliffe – Independent Media Reporter

There are countless reasons why consumers cancel their media subscriptions.

It could be as simple as a subscriber deciding their affiliation with a publication has run its course after a change in the tone of the journalism. It might reflect financial circumstances. Or it could simply be too many things to read or watch and too little time. The National Research Group found that 23% of people who cancel subscriptions say they do so because they weren’t using them enough, which in many cases is not a failing on the media company’s part.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism also found that a proportion of subscribers do not want to feel “tied down” to any one news source. Other media companies – always in competition – might make active efforts to lure subscribers away through aggressive and antagonistic advertising campaigns.

However, there are macroeconomic factors that publishers cannot control that lead people to cancel subscriptions. In the face of challenging financial times, it won’t surprise any newspaper or magazine publisher that “poor value for money” is cited as among the most common reasons for cancellation. That’s a difficult barrier to overcome – although it is one some publications try to address by reminding consumers of the value of their subscriptions through newsletters and content recommendations.

Media companies may have to grapple with more churn in the near future. While suggesting that consumers have not reached “peak subscription,” research from Toolkits has found that a large percentage of people who have taken up news subscriptions expect to cancel some in 2024, for a variety of reasons including those mentioned above.

These factors are likely to be impacted by new legislation coming into force in the UK and EU (as well as proposed legislation in the US), which aims to streamline the process by which consumers can cancel subscriptions. For media companies – many of which argue they are not responsible for the trends that have made such legislature necessary – that presents two main challenges. The first is that they would have to bear the cost of enabling cancellation through new channels, which UK broadcaster Sky says will add significant costs to its businesses. The second is that, at a time when the rush to find sustainable subscription revenue is hotting up, it could increase the levels of churn.

For example, Sky argues the government’s proposals to tackle the problem of customers being billed for unwanted subscriptions were “too prescriptive.” This call is echoed by many media companies, which in some cases still require consumers to call to cancel a subscription.

But there is a growing body of evidence that such pain will be short-term, and that it is in media company’s favor to enable one-click-cancellation.

Proof of value

Research from McKinsey finds that of the 40% of consumers who choose to cancel subscriptions the majority that do tend to cancel do so early in their subscriptions. Those early terminations have a deleterious impact on the data that can be gathered on the consumer, making attempts to prevent cancellation more difficult.

However, it is also the case that the relationship doesn’t end as a result of cancellations. Some media companies, including Guardian News & Media, use a cancellation as a cause for further contact. Its subscriptions and sales teams will often reach out to a subscriber who has cancelled a direct debit or regular payment to find out why.

It is a technique used by other subscription-based businesses, which make distinctions between lapsed and unengaged consumers. While the latter require much more work to bring into an ecosystem, the former already have an emotional connection with the brand. Most importantly for digital subscriptions, many will continue to share their data with a brand following cancellation, making efforts to re-engage and remonetize them quicker and easier.

Given that the maxim that new consumers are five times as costly to acquire as existing subscribers are to re-up, that creates a huge incentive for media companies to continue their marketing efforts towards lapsed subscribers. Doing so mitigates the risk highlighted by McKinsey that lapsed subscribers do not continue to provide data for use in honing subscription strategies.

Cost of cancellation

In the US, the risk of more churn and less certainty around subscription revenue has been exacerbated by what the Federal Trade Commission considers effectively duplicitous activity from subscription-based companies. FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said: “Some businesses too often trick consumers into paying for subscriptions they no longer want or didn’t sign up for in the first place.”

Just as in the UK, media companies in the US feel that their businesses are going to be unduly impacted by the bad behavior of other actors in the subscription space. As a result, they are largely opposed to the implementation of “ease of cancel” rules that could lead to consumers cancelling more easily.

However, there are early signs that such efforts would not impact media companies quite as badly as might have been expected. Toolkits conducted a study of over 1,000 consumers in the US who have subscribed to digital publications. It found – in the face of expectations – that over two thirds (67%) would “more readily purchase new subscriptions if they thought those subscriptions could be cancelled easily”. Over three-quarters (77%) percent of consumers also said they would support the proposed laws requiring “one-click cancelation” mechanisms.

Zamir Walimohamed is head of digital, marketing and subscriptions at Motor Sport Magazine. He acknowledges that as a legacy brand the magazine has an advantage in converting paid print subscribers to digital: however he also notes that even niche titles face challenges around churn and re-upping subscribers.

Despite those challenges he argues that easy cancellations are not necessarily the end to the relationship between media companies and consumers. Instead, he says, it is an opportunity to better understand readers and what makes them subscribe in the first place: “If a customer is on a bundle and cancel a pop up appears saying ‘Are you sure you want to do this? Or would you also be interested in a lower offer’, which is only digital only, for example.”

He states that it is on media companies to demonstrate an understanding of why consumers would want to cancel in the first place. Moreover, he argues that the relationship is better served by making that process as easy as possible.

However, as he and other subscription managers note, the data collected throughout the active lifecycle does not lose its value the moment a subscriber cancels. Instead, the data points about why a consumer has cancelled are valuable not just enticing them into the fold, but for preventing other readers choosing to cancel as well.

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of November 9, 2023

November 9, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

CNN | Actors’ union reaches tentative deal with Hollywood film and TV studios, ending historic strike (6 min read)
The Verge | AI companies have all kinds of arguments against paying for copyrighted content (5 min read)
Bloomberg | For Every Hit TV Show, There Are More Than 100 Misses (6 min read)
Future Media | What we’ve learned as Google’s antitrust trial nears an end (4 min read)
The Guardian | 85% of people worry about online disinformation, global survey finds (3 min read)
Washington Post | A newspaper giant tried to diversify its staff. White workers sued. (10 min read)
The Hollywood Reporter | How Netflix Conquered Hollywood — And Then Broke It (15 min read)
The Wall Street Journal | Can Congress Save MrBeast and Tom Hanks From AI Deepfakes? (5 min read)
The Verge | The people who ruined the internet (43 min read)

Innovation | Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

How media companies can leverage AI wisely–for immediate benefit

November 6, 2023 Heather Allerdice-Gerow, Media Industry Lead – 3Pillar Global

The phrase “content is king” may sound cliche, but it has never felt more true across the media industry. The rise of generative AI has pushed the media industry to a crossroads, with many companies looking across a landscape where agencies are using AI for creative and content seed ideas.

Media companies, which own decades worth of content, need to decide not just if they want to use AI, but how they want to use it. There are advantages and risks in using different AI tools, and a misstep at this critical juncture could be costly for any media company’s long-term prospects.

Fortunately, there are ways to introduce AI for productivity improvements while also accounting for the various challenges associated with AI adoption.

The benefits of AI adoption

The media industry is full of challenges. Traditional newspapers and magazines are looking for new revenue opportunities amid declining ad revenue. Streaming services are trying to stem the tide of subscriber churn. And every single media company is competing for consumer attention and engagement in an era of unprecedented choice.

AI can help. Whether it’s buzzy generative AI or the more established predictive AI, there are applications that solve some of the media industries biggest challenges.

At a very basic level, AI can help with user personalization, creating unique experiences based on consumers’ interests, behaviors, connections, and other patterns. This can happen on a webpage, a streaming content library, or in an email newsletter. AI also has a firmly established track record with ad optimization, utilizing consumer behavior to match the best ads with the best prospective consumer on a website.

Then there’s the prospect of content creation, which is one of the capabilities getting the most attention right now. The ability to quickly produce small pieces of content, be it voiceover or an article summary, can be extremely helpful.

Protecting IP in the AI era

While those are all clear benefits, there are challenges as well – some obvious, some less-so. There are lots of off-the-shelf tools available, and brands can also pay to develop their own, which would live behind a firewall. Many media companies will look at the open-source platforms that are getting a lot of attention and think these are no-brainer choices, in part due to their recognition among consumers.

The availability and efficacy of these platforms may be appealing, but it is important to consider the danger in using open-source AI solutions. Many free platforms own the data, queries, and outputs, for every use of their platform. This extends to everything from articles, video voice over, animation, and images. Media companies that utilize these tools to build anything may run into ownership and licensing issues down the line, even if the original input was the media company’s own intellectual property.

Where to get started

To leverage and innovate with AI, media companies should first focus on cloud optimization and data cleanup. Since content IP is king for many media companies, the wise near-term solution is to focus on AI solutions that improve productivity while protecting IP. These solutions are available today, and offer a great deal of utility around productivity, automation, and, ultimately, cost savings.

One big area is search engine optimization (SEO). AI can aid with both external SEO (how pages appear in engines like Google) and internal SEO (how pages appear in on-site search). Any improvement to search across helps customers and internal teams, encouraging more traffic and deeper engagement.

There’s also digital asset management (DAM), which uses AI to index and leverage in-house content. DAM systems can ingest and index every media asset, including video, photos, written content, and audio, that has been published or that has never been shared with the public. The resulting index of these assets creates an amazing content discovery tool, allowing your team to leverage work that has already been produced.

Finally, there’s dynamic content optimization (DCO), a cutting-edge digital advertising technology that uses AI to optimize the best version of ad creative to an audience. Media companies can leverage DCO within their own advertising to ensure greater campaign performance.

Navigating AI’s future

There are certainly pitfalls with adopting any nascent technology, and AI is no different. However, there are easy ways to lean into AI with simple, safe use cases while determining the risk of more complex applications. SEO, DAM, and DCO are all instant productivity tools that can be put into place without running into issues of ownership. All of these provide help, something that no media company can afford to turn down right now.

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of November 2, 2023

November 2, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

The New York Times | Inside Google’s Plan t o Stop Apple From Getting Serious About Search (6 min read)
The Hollywood Reporter | Artists Lose First Round of Copyright Infringement Case Against AI Art Generators (6 min read)
MIT Technology Review | Three things to know about the White House’s executive order on AI (8 min read)
Digiday | As news aggregator referral traffic slips, publishers turn their attention inward (4 min read)
Vanity Fair | Why a Murderers’ Row of Media Barons Want to Buy The Telegraph (9 min read)
CNN | AI Chatbots are scraping news reporting and copyrighted content, News Media Alliance says (3 min read)
The New York Times | Tug-of-War Over N.B.A. Rights Provides Glimpse of Media’s Future (7 min read)
NBC News | Supreme Court wades into social media wars over free speech (3 min read)

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of October 26, 2023

October 26, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

The New York Times | Silicon Valley Ditches News, Shaking an Unstable Industry (7 min read)
Variety | ‘Pause Ads’ Creep Onto Hulu, Peacock and Max as Streamers Seek New Revenue (6 min read)
Press Gazette | Half of top newsbrands see fall in search visibility after latest Google core update (5 min read)
NiemanLab | Here’s a look at how the newly up-to-date ChatGPT reports the latest news (6 min read)
Associated Press | States sue Meta claiming its social platforms are addictive and harm children’s mental health (1 min read)
The New York Times | What the U.S. Has Argued in the Google Antitrust Trial (7 min read)
The Guardian | TechScape: How the UK’s online safety bill aims to clean up the internet (7 min read)
The Verge | Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig on why AI and social media are causing a free speech crisis for the internet (45 min read)

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of October 19, 2023

October 19, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

The Verge | The Google antitrust trial has been frustratingly locked down — the NYT just filed a motion to open it up (2 min read)
The Financial Times | ‘Netflix effect’ returns as studios license old shows to their streaming rival (3 min read)
Forbes | In A New Era Of Deepfakes, AI Makes Real News Anchors Report Fake Stories (7 min read)
Bloomberg | Netflix is still the only profitable streaming company: Analyst (6 min listen)
The Wall Street Journal | How the NBA Plans to Remake TV Deals and Net Billions of Dollars for Its Stars (6 min read)
Pew Research | How Americans View Data Privacy (1h read)
Poltico | How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington (12 min read)
Bloomberg | EU Plans Stricter Rules for Most Powerful Generative AI Models (5 min read)

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of October 12, 2023

October 12, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

The Financial Times | How will TV’s streaming wars end? (14 min read)
Bloomberg | Google’s Search Antitrust Case Is Also About the Future of AI (3 min read)
Poynter | An illustrated guide to ‘pink slime’ journalism (2 min read)
Rest of World | How AI reduces the world to stereotypes (19 min read)
Palewire | Who blocks OpenAI, Google AI and Common Crawl? (1 min read)
The Financial Times | Broken ‘guardrails’ for AI systems lead to push for new safety measures (6 min read)
Press Gazette | Publishers adapt to Twitter dropping headlines from story snippets (7 min read)

Featured Post | Innovation | Perspectives | Revenue

Harness the power of generative AI to develop winning revenue strategies

October 5, 2023 Richard E. Brown, Media Revenue Consultant

Throughout my career, I’ve cultivated a deep appreciation for the practice of bookmarking articles and posts. This practice has enabled me to amass and retain knowledge across various subjects, whether it be in organizational oversight, crafting revenue strategies, or exploring financial management.

I know I’m not alone. We all accumulate fundamental wisdom over our careers, enriched by learning from opportunities, technological advancements, cultural shifts, and environmental events. In the ever-evolving news and digital media industry, preparing for the unexpected is crucial, requiring us to understand how and when to adapt effectively.

Recently, an epiphany has reshaped my perspective. What if I could synthesize and apply the wealth of knowledge I’ve amassed throughout my career, the content I’ve diligently studied, and even the articles I’ve saved and bookmarked in one seamless strategy? This introspective journey led me to a profound realization about generative AI, enhancing my perspective on its potential and application.

Initially, the concept felt theoretical, but it soon revealed its significant potential. I envisioned harnessing generative AI to amalgamate career-spanning learnings into practical revenue strategies. Thoughts of organizational structures, compensation plans, mission statements, value propositions, close ratios, and DMA strategies flooded my mind.

Theory and practice

However, I must note that this is not something that would only work for me or another individual. It suggests an approach that has the potential to revolutionize the way digital news organizations operate, paving the path for a new era of data-driven decision-making, innovation, and growth while also representing a paradigm shift that could reshape the competitive landscape, ushering in a more efficient, agile, and forward-thinking business environment.

By harnessing generative AI’s power to synthesize accumulated knowledge and adapt it into practical revenue strategies, organizations can streamline their approaches, enhance innovation, and excel in a rapidly changing environment.

Consider an example of a hypothetical organization aiming to boost advertising revenue in a specific designated market area. Generative AI—armed with local business data, industry insights, and demographic information—can be used to draft strategies suited to the organization’s unique characteristics and needs.

It might also be used to help craft strategies tailored to specific circumstances, leveraging real-time and historical data. For example, it can be used to systematically flesh out specific details regarding go-to-market strategies, revenue planning, or quarterly and annual goals and break them down into weekly and monthly output objectives in an organized format. These sorts of applications demonstrate the possibility for generative AI to help media organizations shape their futures.

Generative AI is a rapidly developing technology with the potential to revolutionize the way we develop and execute strategies. While it is still in its early stages, the evidence of its practical applications and case studies is undeniable.

Responsible use

Of course, it is important to caution that any theoretical or draft strategies developed by leveraging generative AI should be well vetted and assessed among peers and committees. Not everything that generative AI suggests should be implemented, and you should not disregard your instincts and experience-based reasoning. However, the evidence of its potential is clear. Neglecting the potential of generative AI for strategy means potentially missing out on invaluable insights and efficiency gains.

Like knowledge, generative AI is a tool. And both must be leveraged effectively, in the right hands, with the right guidance to have a positive, significant impact. If you’re considering or hypothesizing about how generative AI may be leveraged within your organization, consider first establishing a guiding North Star mission—a central theoretical outcome that offers purpose and direction beyond mere intentions.

From there, generative AI can then be leveraged to create or enhance multiple distinct revenue strategies, consolidating them into one comprehensive approach. This AI-driven approach allows for the crafting of specific prompts that guide generative AI to execute precise tasks, all aimed at achieving the overarching goal.

Generative AI’s ability to tailor strategies to specific circumstances and prompts could be a game-changer in the world of digital media revenue strategy. It may provide a level of precision and adaptability that isn’t always readily available, especially for startups.

For example, a senior vice president of sales or a chief revenue officer could create a prompt requesting a step-by-step plan to increase EBITDA by 5% and achieve an annual advertiser account and revenue growth of at least 10% would utilize every available dataset and avenue effectively. With this information, you can further clarify and expound upon the North Star mission. This means breaking down goals and objectives into tangible, actionable terms, and translating improvements into practical implications for your organization.

Practical application

While I can only provide a high-level summary of the most important results and insights from my theoretical exercise, it’s important to note that everyone’s needs and circumstances will vary. For instance, when I created a North Star strategy for a made-up organization and expanded it, I received hypothetical guidance on achieving specific revenue goals. This guidance encompassed expected percentages and insights based on the data used in my prompts.

Viewing it from a startup perspective, I prompted generative AI on CPM, pricing structures, and product offerings strategies. Generative AI provided valuable input, considering margins, commissions, and salaries. It also offered industry-specific advice and recommendations for advertising in the area specified. Additionally, it provided insights into salary expectations for sales and editorial staff, vital for an organization’s growth, and suggested strategies to increase website traffic and expand our audience base.

Reflecting on this experience, I found the process valuable for my strategic thinking. What stood out was that the information’s quality hinged on the input. To utilize generative AI effectively for strategy, understanding its limitations, investing time in learning, and acknowledging the input’s importance are crucial. Proper training, domain expertise, and adaptability are key in determining generative AI’s value for less-experienced users in news media or any field.

Act wisely

Generative AI is already transforming various industries, including digital news media and startups. Through interactions with news organizations of all sizes, I’ve realized that despite naysaying to the contrary, our industry is abundant with innovation, enthusiasm, and focused development. We’ve heard a lot about its use for content creation. However, generative AI can uniquely contribute to streamlining and illuminating the process of uniting innovative ideas, creative concepts, and revenue-generation strategies into one cohesive overarching strategy centered around a clear organizational objective—a guiding North Star for long-term industry sustainability.

While larger companies often have ample data resources, startups and organizations at different stages may not. And every organization can benefit from streamlining knowledge-based processes. Generative AI can be a powerful tool to guide decision-making and provide insights that may otherwise be elusive.

I encourage you to take small steps. Experiment and pivot with the wealth of information and ideas at your disposal. Let your imagination run wild. It’s time to transform our knowledge into a deployable strategy, as the potential awaits exploration. This journey is just beginning, and collectively, we are all in the process of discovery.

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of October 5, 2023

October 5, 2023 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

The Wall Street Journal | Peak TV Is Over. A Different Hollywood Is Coming. (9 min read)
The New York Times | Fact Checkers Take Stock of Their Efforts: ‘It’s Not Getting Better’ (9 min read)
Digiday | Publishers reckon with declining Facebook referral traffic as the platform pulls away from news (5 min read)
Time | Global Internet Freedom Declines, Aided by AI (4 min read)
The Verge | Google adds a switch for publishers to opt out of becoming AI training data (1 min read)
The Guardian | China’s manipulation of media threatens global freedoms, says US report (2 min read)
Financial Times | US Supreme Court to hear cases over free speech and social media (2 min read)
The Atlantic | The End of Companion Television (6 min read)

Perspectives

It’s been six months. WSJ reporter Evan Gerskovich is still being wrongfully detained in Russia

September 29, 2023 Joseph Rosenfeld, Senior Vice President, Partnerships – Dow Jones

September 29, 2023

Today marks the six month milestone of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich’s wrongful detention by the Russian government. For Evan, this means 184 days without his freedom, without seeing his friends and family, without the ability to do any of the things you or I take for granted as we go through our day.

This difficult milestone also marks six months of a brazen assault on press freedom. The fact is that Evan is innocent of the accusation levied against him. He was simply doing his job as a journalist, reporting for The Wall Street Journal, an organization that I have been proud to have been associated with for over 20 years.

The Journal has been the byword for responsible and accurate reporting since its founding in 1889. Its very existence as an ongoing concern is predicated on its reputation as an unbiased and accurate reflection of the world it lives in. The quality and care of Evan’s reporting (which we encourage you to read here) speaks for itself.

It’s not difficult to imagine a world in which journalists cannot freely exercise their trade. Tyrants and bullies would win. Worse still, we would live in a world in which we are ill-informed at best and deliberately mis-informed at worst.

DCN members compete vigorously with each other to ensure they are bringing the most exciting scoops, the most entertaining content, the most relevant news to our audiences. But, as a group, we always coalesce on the safety and security of our reporters, who are often in the field in dangerous situations.

Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal and Evan’s family are all grateful for the support DCN members have shown to date. Evan’s case must remain front and center as much as possible. Every day that goes by brings the normalization of this atrocious detention that much closer. We cannot let this happen to either the free press or to Evan.

Wearing the “Free Evan” button in public sparks conversations. Using the #IStandWithEvan hashtag on your social media posts keeps Evan’s cause top of mind. Reading and sharing Evan’s articles (which we’ve made free to the world) reminds all of us what a remarkable journalist is sitting in a Russian jail cell, fearlessly representing our collective mission around the world.

You can read more about Evan and the latest on his case here. Please help us keep Evan’s message front and center and join us in demanding Evan’s immediate and safe release.