Guest post: Digital publishers need a spine
Digital publishers need to find something they’re excellent at, argues Ben Shepherd, of media agency Maxus
We know that for humans, the spine is an important part of us. The spine is central to the skeletal system. It supports the head and encloses the spinal cord. Without it, we’d be in trouble.
I’m all for analogies and will take the opportunity to use one whenever the opportunity exists. A strong spine is as important for a media company – it’s what keeps the market interested and keeps employees motivated and focused. By a strong spine I don’t mean a strong sense of ethics (although that would be nice), I mean a strong product that is easily identified.
Being excellent at one thing is underestimated in this market, especially within digital media. It’s often considered better to be okay at loads of things than exceptional in one core area. Trouble is, to have a strong spine as a media company you need to be truly excellent at something.
Being excellent at one thing is what opens agency and advertiser doors. It’s what makes you attractive as an employer and gives your brand a sense of identity. In a market as competitive as ours it’s a mandatory.
Now before anyone points out my blatant hypocrisy I will point it out now. I work in a media agency and the media agency world is most probably worse than it’s publisher cousins at creating meaningful points of difference, spines if you will, that distinguish competitors. Similar tools, similar fee structures, similar buying clout, similar ‘strategic’ offerings, similar offices, similar structures, similar acronyms, similar parents .. you get the idea. It’s something we’re working on.
So anyway, when you read the trade press and see the almost weekly announcements around digital media product enhancements you wonder whether what the point of them is as most don’t seem to address what is really important.
In the last 2 weeks we’ve seen PR drummed up around
- News Digital’s new First Impressions product
- Fairfax Digital’s new Behavioural Targeting product
- Yahoo!7’s segment targeting
- Adconion’s Video product
- YouTube’s ‘new’ ad offerings
Here’s the question:
Are these products?
More about PR column inches to show that the media brand is doing something to appease investors and internal stakeholders?
An attempt to extract more revenue out of the market by tapping into what they believe will be a high growth area in the future?
A way to sort out an immediate yield issue?
A quick, smart response to a legitimate demand from advertisers?
Now, it really should be about the last point … but I’d say that, as I am an agency guy and my motivation is to get the best for the client. However, sometimes you get the impression it’s about the first two. Again – the same points can be asked of advertising and media agencies.
It’s often said it’s easier to invent new problems rather than solve existing ones. The hardest and most important problem for a media company (and any company) is defining what makes you unique commercially and making that stronger and stronger. This isn’t easy.
Locally the market leaders all have strong spines either through historical legacy, connections or just bloody good product development. Google is exceptional at search and organising information. Fairfax Digital is the strongest player in news. Ninemsn is the leader at high volume entry points (Homepage, Hotmail, Messenger). These strong spines ensure the door is always open for these operators.
Look at the mid-tier and it’s dominated by best-in-breed. CBS‘s backbone is its excellence in technology content. Sound Alliance is the leader at nurturing community around music and creating meaningful advertiser integration. Kidspot knows mums better than the rest of the market. They focus on what they do best and continue to make it stronger and more nimble.
When it gets to the second tier of large players it’s not so clear.
Yahoo!7 is the market leader within Lifestyle but seems to want to be all things to all people (mobile, network sales, news) and as a result doesn’t have a clear identity 3 years on. Mediasmart‘s real jewel is the Bigpond Network and the potential around this, however still has dominant legacies from the old Sensis days which show when they approach the market. News Digital Media’s real strength is local mastheads (which is the core of the News Ltd business overall too), but like Yahoo!7 their belief appears to be to play in as many areas as possible and often they ignore the strength of this local offering. When you look at these players, their spines are weak. This can make doors hard to open.
And when that happens it can be difficult to focus … which can result in creating products that perhaps the market doesn’t really need and products that don’t help you build on your core. It’s hard to build on your core if perhaps you don’t know really what it is.
Here’s the thing. Media companies are great at creating products that people, ie their readers, want. If they’re not … the audience will go elsewhere. Sometimes, maybe, they don’t apply this simple principal to their advertising products and in doing so create products that serve to satisfy internal motivations and not external demand. Sure, it’s tempting to indulge your own motivations and ego (on all sides) … but in our industry the client is king and your focus needs to be on helping him/her satisfy their motivations (and ego sometimes).
I can’t speak for the market, but right now what I want is partners that are exceptional at what they do best and I think advertisers do too. Less is more.
Ben Shepherd is the national digital director at Maxus. He also writes the excellent Talking Digital blog which Mumbrella wholeheartedly recommends
Thanks Ben!
I like to think CBS indeed has a backbone 🙂 We’re diversifying a lot these days but we still do great technology content.
Cheers,
Renai LeMay
News Editor
ZDNet.com.au
(Published by CBS Interactive)
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Ben,
A couple of items for I always take into consideration before forming an opinion and making opinions public.
1.I feel that less is often more
2. I seek the thoughts of experts within their fields and companies before issuing opinions and especially when making these public.
3. Remind myself of the industry I work in and the side of the fence I am employed on before taking a stance.
I feel that Maxus should take the same stance Stokes may of bundling digital in with traditional media.
The Bull
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“I feel that Maxus should take the same stance Stokes may of bundling digital in with traditional media. ”
Great idea … that is exactly what is being done at Maxus Bull …
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We’re based in Auckland. I was forwarded this article and read it without realising it was about the AU market. Ben it’s exactly the same here. They continue to mess up the media and then cry when they don’t get what they think they should have.
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The spine is moved by the brain and the lower spine houses the guts.
Common sense, forward thinking and a bit of courage…
Some digital media have no content whatsoever, they are still unavoidable.
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Unfortunately almost all corporate media sites in Australia are dominated by one thought – how to suck more revenue out of exactly the same market at a greater rate than the competiton. Senior execs do not understand any of the new concepts of Web 2.0 and will not invest in assets that do not drive pure revenue. Simply adding your company to Twitter is NOT making the most of new technology.
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Not sure I disagree with the emotive argument here about participants.
I wonder if perhaps there is too much emotion.
Lots of opinion in this cottage industry, be better if there was lots of data.
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I get that from a competitive point of view it helps publishers to be able clearly to differentiate from each other, but is it really too hard for agencies to understand a publisher’s offerings that are built on more than one strength?
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“Digital publishers need to find something they’re excellent at”
yes exactly – some publishers are excellent at providing focussed content (cbs, kidspot) – and they will pick up their traffic for those interested (even though there has been considerable content dilution over the past few years).
other publishers are excellent at providing a broad range of content – and their is absolutely nothing wrong woth that either.
Ben – I think nearly all publishers have a spine – its that it looks different sometimes. You’re last paragraph is a real throw away line
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chops – “is it really too hard for agencies to understand a publisher’s offerings that are built on more than one strength?”
no it’s not … but with the amount of supply around being good at a lot of things isn’t probably enough
jm – “other publishers are excellent at providing a broad range of content – and their is absolutely nothing wrong woth that either.”
It’s just my opinion but i think moving forward there’s not going to be much value in being a generalist. i could be wrong.