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DCN Research Unveils Strategic Focus Areas Vital to Niche Publishers’ Sustainability
Owning a space and establishing a clear voice are critical to success
NEW YORK– (January 24, 2017) – Digital Content Next (DCN), the only trade association exclusively dedicated to trusted, high-quality digital content brands, today released “Niche Publishers: How to Create Sustainable Business Models in a Digital Marketplace”, a research report funded by the Knight Foundation. The research examines how 11 digital publications, including Axios, Gimlet and Recode, each capture a unique space, and the tactics they use to attract, monetize and grow their audiences.
“The publishers interviewed aren’t chasing scale, but rather focusing on how to develop their own unique brand and content that will deliver a very specific audience,” said Jason Kint, CEO, Digital Content Next. “They also have a culture of experimentation that encourages testing different revenue streams, something all publishers – large or small – must focus on today.”
DCN’s research found that niche publishers need to combine an innovative business strategy with a unique content strategy to secure the financial resources required to deliver on their core mission. Seven key strategies uncovered, include:
- Content Development: Unique, compelling content that will capture the attention of readers is required.
- Editorial Brand: A singular voice and point-of-view are necessary to break through the clutter of a crowded digital landscape.
- Audience Development / Delivery: Publishers must deliver attractive audiences to advertisers and sponsors; niche publishers primarily rely on audience loyalty as it demonstrates audience engagement.
- Data: Data is required for a solid business strategy however compilation and analysis is often hampered by funding and available staffing.
- Revenue Streams: Given the challenging media market, it’s a necessity for niche publishers to develop multiple revenue streams.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Niche publishers should develop their KPI’s early and review them often with all staff to make sure that they maintain focus not only on their editorial and business strategies but on their core mission.
- Operational Efficiencies: Growing revenue while maximizing resources often means coordinating with other publishers to optimize exposure, flattening hierarchies and streamlining staff functions
Interviews were conducted from November 30 to December 13, 2016 with executives from a range of niche publishers – from profit to non-profit and from national to local, some with targeted content and others with broad-based content. Participating executives were:
- Axios, Jim VandeHei, founder
- Billy Penn, Jim Brady, founder and CEO of Spirited Media
- Cheddar, Jon Steinberg, founder and CEO
- Gimlet Media, Jim Grau, VP finance and operations
- Independent Journal Review, Alex Skatell, founder and CEO
- ProPublica, Celeste LeCompte, director of business development
- Recode, Kara Swisher, co-founder and co-executive editor
- Spanfeller Media Group, Jim Spanfeller, CEO
- The Marshall Project, Carroll Bogert, president
- The Texas Tribune, Evan Smith, CEO and co-founder
- Voice of San Diego, Mary Walter-Brown, COO and publisher
“Niche Publishers: How to Create Sustainable Business Models in a Digital Marketplace” was first unveiled on Thursday, January 19 during a panel discussion at DCN Next: Summit, an annual members-only conference. Participating panelists included Jim Brady, founder & CEO, Spirited Media; April Hinkle, chief revenue officer, Texas Tribune; Jim Spanfeller, founder & CEO, Spanfeller Media Group, Inc.; and panel moderator Martin Nisenholtz, special advisor & founder, DCN and professor of Digital Communication, Boston University.
View the full research report.
With a focus on all types of revenue, DCN has expanded its scope to share additional intelligence and industry findings through its InContext website, public events and research. In 2016, the Knight Foundation awarded DCN a grant to offer memberships to smaller, independent online news organizations and other online content publishers. For the latest, follow DCN on Twitter.
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ABOUT DIGITAL CONTENT NEXT
Digital Content Next (DCN) is the only trade organization dedicated to serving the unique and diverse needs of high-quality digital content companies that manage trusted, direct relationships with consumers and marketers. The organization was founded in June 2001 as the Online Publishers Association (OPA). Comprised of some of the most trusted and well-respected media brands, DCN produces proprietary research for its members and the public, creates public and private forums to explore and advance key issues that impact digital content brands, offers an influential voice that speaks for digital content companies in the press, with advertisers and policy makers, and works to educate the public at large on the importance of quality content brands. Digital Content Next’s membership has an unduplicated audience of 223,098 million unique visitors or 100% reach of the U.S. online population. * More information about Digital Content Next is available at https://digitalcontentnext.org/.
*Source: comScore Media Metrix Multiplatform Custom Audience Duplication, June 2016, U.S. DCN Member Entities
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TrustX, DCN’S Premium Digital Advertising Marketplace, Adds CRO; Guardian US and Viacom Sign On
Nearly 30 magazine, TV, newspaper and native digital brands on board including ESPN, Hearst, CBS Interactive, Condé Nast and News Corp
New Orleans, LA—(January 19, 2017)—Digital Content Next (DCN), the only trade association exclusively dedicated to trusted, high-quality digital content brands, today announced additions to the TrustX leadership team and two new premium publishers to its cooperative digital advertising marketplace. TrustX, which is scheduled to launch later in Q1 2017, is designed to address the industry’s trust, transparency and accountability challenges in digital advertising. Guardian US and Viacom join 27 leading DCN members that signed on to the platform in September 2016. The announcement was made during DCN Next: Summit 2017 from New Orleans, LA, an annual members-only conference.
TrustX, a subsidiary of DCN, operates as a public benefit corporation (B Corp) for the sole purpose of building the sustainable future for trusted advertising. Participating members include: ABC, ABC Owned Television Stations, AccuWeather, A + E Networks, Atlantic Media, Business Insider, CBS Interactive, Condé Nast, Daily Caller, Edmunds, ESPN, The E.W. Scripps Company, Financial Times, Fox News.com, Guardian US, Hearst, IJR, Meredith, NBCUniversal, News Corp, Newsday, Purch, Slate, The Washington Post, The Weather Company, Time, Inc., Univision, Viacom and Vox Media.
The TrustX leadership team now includes John Vilade, a seasoned media industry veteran, who joins as Chief Revenue Officer and David Kohl, leader of TrustX’s design and launch team, who will assume the role of President and General Manager.
Vilade, a 20-year media industry sales and business development executive with experience in digital, broadcast television and national cable advertising, has led sales, strategy and revenue growth with leading media and entertainment organizations, such as NBC Universal, CBS, Discovery Communications and The Weather Channel, and was an early sales leader with Hulu where he scaled ad sales significantly. Vilade will also serve as Senior Vice President, Advertiser Relations for DCN.
Kohl, who has led the TrustX design and launch team with DCN since the project’s inception over a year ago, will transition to President and General Manager over the next six weeks. He brings more than 25 years of media and entertainment industry experience in business strategy and operations consulting, and a proven track record of driving quantifiable performance improvement with some of the largest cable and broadcast networks, global advertising agencies, media trade organizations and emerging-growth digital businesses. His consulting clients included The Walt Disney Company, ABC Television, NBCUniversal, Viacom, Time Warner Cable, WPP Group, IPG, Thomson Reuters and Hulu.
Additional TrustX hires include Paul Wyrembak, Technical Operations Manager.
“Fraud and a general lack of transparency have cast a cloud over the entire digital advertising space,” said Leo O’Connor, SVP Digital Platforms, Viacom. “Viacom is aligned with TrustX’s mission of high quality standards for the supply chain, which is really a return to a very simple value proposition: premium content attracts quality viewers, and remains the best place to advertise.”
“Programmatic offers a great opportunity if underpinned by the direct and transparent supply of quality publisher inventory, to the mutual benefit of buyer and seller,” said Daniel Spears, programmatic director, Guardian News & Media. “TrustX represents a move towards this by bringing the buyer and publisher closer together. We, at the Guardian, are delighted to support the development and launch of this premium private marketplace.”
With no outside investors and no profit motives, TrustX is distinctive from other alliances in that it’s singularly focused on driving long-term benefits to marketers, publishers and consumers. TrustX is grounded in these trust-based principles:
- A guarantee to monetize only human and viewable advertising transactions;
- Total transparency about the cost of campaign delivery, thus dramatically reducing the mystery of lost media value so common in the complex digital supply chain;
- Cooperative development, testing and measurement of innovative ad monetization models and desktop and mobile ad units; and
- Advertising that improves the consumer experience and reduces the motivation to block ads.
In short, advertising traded through the TrustX marketplace will be certified to meet the highest standards for performance, quality, security and privacy.
This announcement marks the continued rise of DCN as the definitive market leader and voice for premium publishers. Since its relaunch as DCN in September 2014, the organization has seen a record 45% growth in its membership. Now 74 members strong and exclusively comprised of trusted, digital content companies, the organization shares industry intelligence through its InContext website, public events and research. Follow DCN on Twitter @DCNorg.
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ABOUT DIGITAL CONTENT NEXT
Digital Content Next (DCN) is the only trade organization dedicated to serving the unique and diverse needs of high-quality digital content companies that manage trusted, direct relationships with consumers and marketers. The organization was founded in June 2001 as the Online Publishers Association (OPA). Comprised of some of the most trusted and well-respected media brands, DCN produces proprietary research for its members and the public, creates public and private forums to explore and advance key issues that impact digital content brands, offers an influential voice that speaks for digital content companies in the press, with advertisers and policy makers, and works to educate the public at large on the importance of quality content brands. Digital Content Next’s membership has an unduplicated audience of 223,098 million unique visitors or 100% reach of the U.S. online population. * More information about Digital Content Next is available at https://digitalcontentnext.org/.
*Source: comScore Media Metrix Multiplatform Custom Audience Duplication, June 2016, U.S. DCN Member Entities
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Press Contact: Kaitlyn Kurosky, HIGH10 MEDIA, 212 918 2040; [email protected]
Digital Content Next Sets 2017 Agenda, Adds To Executive Committee
Trade association will continue to lead on the value of premium and trust in digital media industry in next year
NEW ORLEANS, LA – (January 19, 2017) – Digital Content Next (DCN), the only trade association exclusively dedicated to trusted, high-quality digital content brands, today announced updates to its 2017 Executive Committee at its members-only DCN Next: Summit from New Orleans, LA. In 2017, DCN will remain focused on advancing the future of the digital content industry by demonstrating the power of content to forge trust between consumers, publishers and marketers, while also shining a light on any misconceptions in the modern digital marketplace.
The 2017 Executive Committee Officers, as announced at a members-only board meeting on January 18, are: Co-Chairs: Christy Tanner, SVP & GM, CBSNews Digital, CBS Interactive and Marty Moe, president, Vox Media; Vice Chair: Michael Silberman, GM, Digital, New York Media; Treasurer: M. Scott Havens, global head of Digital, Bloomberg Media; and Secretary: Jed Hartman, CRO, The Washington Post.
DCN also welcomes new Executive Committee members Michael Finnegan, president, Atlantic Media; Loren Mayor, COO, NPR; and Darcy Keller, chief communications & marketing officer, Financial Times Group. Rounding out the 2017 Committee is Beth Buehler, COO, Rodale. John Kosner, EVP, ESPN Digital & Print Media, ESPN and Martin Nisenholtz, founder of Digital Content Next (formerly the Online Publishers Association), will continue to serve as special advisors to the organization.
“In the past year, the importance of environment has become clear again and advertisers are beginning to seek assurance their ads and investments are running across our brands. In addition, the November election results bring a new set of challenges to the press and the policies that support the content business,” said DCN CEO Jason Kint. “Now more than ever, it is important for us to create an environment where our leadership, research and public voice are the drivers of change. We look forward to the work ahead with the expertise and commitment of our new and returning committee members.”
The organization has experienced a record 45 percent growth in membership over the past two years. Premium digital content companies joined in the last year include Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Guardian Group, The Enthusiast Network (TEN), and Knight Foundation Membership Companies Billy Penn, Gimlet Media, The Marshall Project, The Texas Tribune and Voice of San Diego.
The Board of Directors provides DCN with an on-the-ground perspective on the important issues that are impacting their various business areas and the digital media industry overall. This information helps DCN formulate research that educates the industry and marketplace and advances important discussions, like the Niche Publishers: How to Create Sustainable Business Models in a Digital Marketplace, released at the DCN Next: Summit event.
With a focus on all types of revenue, DCN has expanded its scope to share additional intelligence and industry findings through its InContext website, public events and research. For the latest, follow DCN on Twitter.
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ABOUT DIGITAL CONTENT NEXT
Digital Content Next (DCN) is the only trade organization dedicated to serving the unique and diverse needs of high-quality digital content companies that manage trusted, direct relationships with consumers and marketers. The organization was founded in June 2001 as the Online Publishers Association (OPA). Comprised of some of the most trusted and well-respected media brands, DCN produces proprietary research for its members and the public, creates public and private forums to explore and advance key issues that impact digital content brands, offers an influential voice that speaks for digital content companies in the press, with advertisers and policy makers, and works to educate the public at large on the importance of quality content brands. Digital Content Next’s membership has an unduplicated audience of 223,098 million unique visitors or 100% reach of the U.S. online population. * More information about Digital Content Next is available at https://digitalcontentnext.org/.
*Source: comScore Media Metrix Multiplatform Custom Audience Duplication, June 2016, U.S. DCN Member Entities
Press Contact: Kaitlyn Kurosky, HIGH10 MEDIA, 212 918 2040; [email protected]