Can Publishers Make A Better Audience?

The dominant talk in newsrooms, boardrooms and in the Twitterverse is the health and stability of news publishing. Even as our economy adds jobs and in a sustained period of economic growth we see major adjustments within the news industry including big players, such as Buzzfeed, Financial News, The Guardian and continuing bad news in places like Tampa. (There are other counter examples as well with Digiday, The Atlantic, etc!)

While conversation about the health of the news business is important, it often overshadows another important conversation: the concrete value the publisher brings to its audience.

There is a high road on the question of the utility and value of the news to society in a democracy and one of the best thinkers on that subject is my friend Josh Stearns, a nuanced and thoughtful writer. A good place to start is his recent post on designing newsrooms for conversation.

And there is a low road, which is the one I am going to attempt to plow. The low road is that in order to build loyalty, engagement and ultimately a strong consumer funnel (plus, clear benefits for advertisers) news publishers need to think about aiding and even solving specific problems of their consumers.

My jumping off point is the smart move by the New York Times Cooking section to partner with a meal delivery start-up, Chef’d. In a recent article by Bloomberg, New York Times to Start to Deliver Meal Kits to Your Home, NYTCooking users will be “able to buy food kits a la carte or enroll in a subscription service [via Chef’d]. They’ll also get recipe suggestions based on their preferences.”

The Times is not the first company to launch brand extensions from their content verticals. The Guardian has a rich program of member benefits that enables you to interact with newsmakers, cultural icons and even take master classes.

However, it is the other Times, the Times/Sunday Times of London that does it best. In terms of brand extensions, benefits and just visual design they are setting the bar with their MyTimesPlus membership. It is a creative and clever mixture of early previews, contests, discounts, events and exclusive access to newsmakers. It is also powered by a network of business relationships, including the largest concierge company, the Ten Group, in the world, which usually is powering member benefits of rich investors in banks and trading companies.

My sense is that “brand extension” or “the benefits of membership” is too reductive, too much commodification, for the opportunities of publishers to move off of the page and engage in consumer’s lives.

Perhaps you can take the low road as a useful short-cut to the high road?

At the core of any publisher their most strategic asset is their editorial judgment, the skill and track record of finding the signal within the noise.

If anything is being taught in this wonderful network age, it is that the noise is reaching deafening proportions. And to be frank, too many members of our audiences are lost in that noise. They need the editorial judgment of smart publishers to help them find their way.

And that road can lead through “back of the book” content verticals in travel, fashion, weekend, lifestyle, and all of the other sections that are directly applicable to the daily lives of their audience. Whether it is as small as connecting young parents with a great weekend activity for their children or helping professionals to improve their health through smarter meal planning/execution there is a clear need for publishers to re-think a “news you can use” approach for their whole publication.

[Let me be clear here, I am now discussing the benefits and operations of the business side of publications and not the newsroom!]

The key is to move from helpful information to action. And that is where the networked economy holds value for publishers; there is a service for everyone to practically do anything. In the course of my research for my work I investigated dozens and dozens of small to mid-sized platform companies in meal planning/food delivery, apartment/real estate, fashion, travel and online education. Each of these companies is a particular solution to a publisher’s audience desire or problem.

In large measure publishers are hesitant to get involved in picking services for their audience members in fear of damaging their brand or distracting from their editorial mission. It is somewhat ironic that the same brand value and [non newsroom] editorial judgment of the publications is the reason why it may be in a better position to sift through the marketplace to find valuable services, the signal, for its members.

On the other side, I have too often seen B2C technology companies look askance at the publishing world in favor of connecting directly with the consumer. While I have spent my career on the digital side of things, even I can recognize that publishers are in the business and have spent decades assembling markets of consumers.

I am increasingly seeing a role for publishers to open new pathways for engaging in the lives of their audience beyond the distribution and discussion of hard news. In fact, it is the ability to use these back of the book vertical to drive positive revenue, increase customer loyalty and create generate positive externalities that will support the critical public mission of news.

[I plan on writing more specifically about how publishers can engage consumer services to drive the funnel, improve propositions with advertisers (including native!) and build customer engagement.