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A few ‘pointers’ from Ken Doctor

Ken Doctor, author and media analyst, moderated the World Publishing Expo opening ceremony, posing numerous hot-button questions to Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner and Guardian CEO Andrew Miller. To set the stage for that session, he highlighted a number of “pointers” heading into 2014

by WAN-IFRA Staff executivenews@wan-ifra.org | October 7, 2013

  1. Print ad decline looks unabeted. He cited a 39 percent global decline between 2007-2012. That is US$ 51 billion less than it was 6 years ago.
  2. Long-term private investors getting involved in US. There’s Warren Buffet: “Who would have thought years ago that Berkshire Hathaway would be associated with newspapers?” Then, of course, there is Jeff Bezos who appears ready to “Amazonize” the Washington Post. “He sees the future, not the past. An enduring brand, massive metro penetration, hundreds of thousands of paying customers, and a rich trove of data.”
  3. Paywalls 2.0 debut. “Mark Thompson (New York Times CEO) says, ‘it’s all about working the engagement curve.’”
  4. We’re on the  brink of mobile majority. 33% of news traffic comes from mobile.
  5. New strategy experiments. There’s Aaron Kushner’s all-out print push with Orange County Register and other titles; publishing companies like Advance in the US going to three-day-a-week print; and at the other end of the spectrum, Digital First Media.
  6. Digital services + events sponsorship , content marketing , plus ads, i.e. Integrated Marketing
  7. 2014-2016 is about selling more stuff. Many new types of products will be sold, beyond the one-size fits all strategy, from digital marketing, commercial storytelling, new paid reader products, etc.
  8. We may get closer to Netflix for News… Think Flipboard, et al.
  9. News Crisis Continues: newsroom layoffs go on and on. “There are so many fewer stories being written because there are fewer journalists working.”
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