Media execs learn to navigate the changing media landscape

Media company executives received advice on contending with two major challenges -- increased competition and the changing relationship between consumers and the media -- during this year's API Publishers' Forum: Near and Far Horizons, the Road Ahead for Media Organizations.

Related Links
Capably coping with consumer demand could be music to media executives' ears

Media execs learn to navigate the changing media landscape

Helpful resources from API's 2004 Publishers Forum

"It's probably never been as competitive as it is today and it will never be less competitive than it is today, " said Cody.

Driving the competition are technological advances?wireless handheld devices, access to broadband and the move to digital networks?that allow consumers to have more control over where, when and how they receive information.

"We have an Internet, we use it, " said Cody. "We have a remote, we use it, which is why I think it makes sense to put your product across as many platforms as possible. "

Cody updated the audience of media executives on the status of the FCC's cross-ownership rule that would relax a nearly 30-year-old ban on ownership of newspapers and television stations in the same market. The FCC is still waiting for a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, where a group of lawsuits challenging the new FCC regulations on cross-ownership were consolidated into one lawsuit. The court should hand down a decision any day, he said, adding there is a 50/50 likelihood the court will uphold the regulations. (The court rejected the rules on June 24 and sent them back to the FCC.)

"While I understand that you would rather be in a better position, you're not in a terrible position, " Cody said.

Think beyond TV

Jonathan Cody speaks to media executives about the status and future of the FCC's cross-ownership rule.

"You're about five to 10 years from the first digital generation of people who have lived with it forever, " said Cody. "You will be able to find them as long as they can find you. "

Decker Anstrom, president and chief operating officer of Landmark Communications Inc. in Norfolk, Va., suggested that publishers follow technology and consumer demand, and look toward broadband on the Internet rather than television.

"Instead of chasing TV, look at where the consumers are going, " said Anstrom, whose company owns several newspapers and television operations including The Weather Channel. This year 40 million U.S. households have broadband, Anstrom said, adding that number is expected to jump to 62 million by 2008. "There are no gatekeepers with broadband, " he said. "The Internet is wide open and free. "

Broadband delivers the audience newspapers are desperately trying to attract?18-to-24-year-olds, said Anstrom. Online users age 18 to 24 are at least 30 percent more likely to prefer the Internet as a source for entertainment and local information than the average adult is, he said, citing statistics from a recent Jupiter Research study.

"There are no gatekeepers with broadband, " Decker Anstrom said to attendees of the forum. "The Internet is wide open and free. "

J. Stewart Bryan III, chairman and chief executive officer of Media General, agrees that broadband will play a role in the future of news organizations.

"Whether talking about newspapers or television stations, the experts believe?and we do, too?that convergence and broadband must be part of our future, " said Bryan. "Furthermore, research and testimony before the FCC show clearly that newspaper-owned television stations are among the best electronic providers of strong local news. News is fundamental to newspapers, and, when they are allowed to practice their trade across multiple media platforms, better local news is likely to emerge from them all. "

Harness the power of mobility

Other platforms to pursue are mobile devices, including PDAs, pagers and cell phones with cameras?all of which have changed the relationship between consumers and media.

"The power used to rest with the media to control what type of information individuals receive and when they receive it, " said Andrew Nachison, director of The Media Center at The American Press Institute. Mobile devices and the Internet have given consumers the power and capacity to select the type of information they receive, where and when they receive it, and how they contribute to it. Consumers are no longer just receptors to the information flow.

News organizations need to harness the power of mobile devices, Nachison said. "Newspapers can do it or they can let Nokia do it, " he said. "Nokia is creating a media strategy. It's rethinking itself not as a provider of devices but as a media company in between the audience and content creators. "

One day instead of being branded as a Sprint cell phone, cell phones will be branded to the news organization providing content, said Dale Peskin, co-director of The Media Center.

Futurist John L. Petersen agreed that newspapers are best suited for providing content across media platforms.

"The one thing that your industry knows better than anyone else is how to gather and organize information, " he said.

Don't underestimate partnerships

Petersen, president and founder of The Arlington Institute, suggested the media executives in the room get together and buy online marketplace eBay. "Think of what you can do with it if you could marry content with all that advertising, " Petersen said.

While newspapers might have missed out on the opportunity to own eBay, that doesn't mean they shouldn't collaborate on other products across media platforms.

For instance, newspapers have partnered on several employment sites including CareerBuilder, which is owned by Gannett Co., Knight Ridder and the Tribune Co., and CareerSite, which is owned by the Hearst Newspapers and Scripps Howard Newspapers.

The key, said Petersen, is to get people's attention when they are looking for something such as a job or a car and tie content to it. Newspapers know how to gather and organization information much better than anyone else, he said, regardless of platform.

"There still is time for newspaper companies to collaborate on traditional classified verticals and/or lifestyle verticals, " said Publishers Forum participant Alan M. Horton, senior vice president/newspapers at Scripps Howard Newspapers, and a member of the API Board of Directors. "There is no limit to the possibilities. If you think about one jointly-owned entity building or buying best-of-breed solutions for multiple newspaper companies, you can envision a lower-cost, higher-quality, more universal new world of access to these verticals that lead to new readers, viewers, users and revenue streams.

"In the past, such jointly owned ventures failed because of the selfishness, arrogance or pettiness of many of those involved, " said Horton. "Today, we can learn from past mistakes and try again, or sit on our hands because of the painful past. I say we should keep trying. There are success stories out there already."