Tag Archives: media convergence

How will media convergence affect the production and distribution of news?

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I thought you all may be interested in this brief interview, conducted online by Jenna Batchelor a student at Nottingham Trent University, UK.

Firstly how has media convergence and the switch to the use of so much technology affected the production and distribution of news?

At first the newspaper/magazine industry reacted poorly and to me a major part of the cause of their steep decline has been in part their own inaction and lack of preparing for the future, a predicted future, which they themselves had reported and covered.

Rather then embrace the “future” I think many newspaper or media groups expected the new technology to be a temporary inconvenience and things would soon go back to the past (slightly changed) model. Technology was offering change, but the change in consumer and advertisers perception, the change in the use of news and how would valued news would be viewed by the consumer and the advertiser was also part of the convergence. Industry did not see this change and they should have or at least they should have started to ask questions and define their path to growth. Add the massive worldwide economic decline and you have additional reasons to see the need to change.

Many then made the move to offer “free” access to online editions and reductions or eliminations to traditional printed editions. They soon realized that free news was not as important since nearly all news was now free. Removing the traditional printed editions also was for some a knee jerk reaction. Recent data indicates that the 18 to 24 age group may be moving back to “printed” sources. Convergence also means a planned integration of media not a chaotic integration of media.

An example of this change in gathering and distribution of news can be seen in the recent Boston bombing. Many people received news of the attack via personal or internal networks. News has become simple to gather, review and choose, most media groups until recently did not understand this switch. Live action videos had been available to “friends” before they made it to many of the networks.

Technology is also part of the mix, a major part of the mix; the consumer’s perception of the process accelerated the technology and adaption of the technology. Media Convergence is a composed of Content, Communications, Distribution (Cloud) and the Consumer. If you add the need to support the advertising model and the need to be targeted with branded content you will start to see a greater impact of change to the industry as well.

In summary, the perfect storm of media, technology and behavioral change hit an industry in transition and nearly destroyed the vertical.

Secondly how have newspapers attempted to overcome this challenge and remain relevant with the audience?

A basic rethinking of their current model, they responded to what was working and what was not working and have succeeded in adapting to the change and being prepared for future changes.

Adding branded content, there are some examples that have allowed subscribers to select their media mix, the type of stories they wish to review and in the near future select the advertisers they wish or not to review. Newspapers are looking to technology (BBC reports a RFID embedded paper being offered) across all media as well as new media such as NFC, RFID and mobile technology being used to support future plans.

Since content is a critical component of media convergence, you will start to see in the US politically directed media groups. For example the Koch brothers, politically conservatives are considering purchasing a bastion of liberal media The Tribune Group. Their stated plans are simple; offer a more conservative (regionally as well) based version of national and international news. And possibly offering the news via new media channels like iTV, Google TV and paid Internet or cable channels will only add to the convergence and hopefully growth of news distribution.

Newspapers and media groups will also need to establish dialogue with the consumer and the advertisers as well. Newspaper and newsmagazines will also need to develop and provide measurable engagement processes to prove their new model.

Finally do you think media convergence is good for the news industry?

Yes, as simple as this may sound, I believe change is always good. Change is part of the natural selection process that drives industry. It is when change is ignored that the problems occur.

My belief is that in the next 10 years you will see newspapers and magazines being reborn as a hybrid of real news, editorial, feature based stories and a combination of all, offered across all media based on the needs of the consumer. The convergence of media and the tools or technology of media are here to stay and will continue to change in new yet unseen ways.

People are starting to ask what had once been the foundation of journalism, the why something happened, without bias!

Reporting on the incident is fine, but how will that incident impact the consumer/reader, how can a consumer respond to the news, WITHOUT political interpretations? Just the facts and those facts and data that provide an in depth understanding of the news, a 360 degree understanding of the news.

I also look to readers of newspapers and magazines not as readers but as users, since the future of newspapers and magazines is a portal to even more information, perhaps free, but most likely paid for information, defined by the knowledge of the users.

I also see a greater and more defined use of media groups replacing the traditional advertising agency as the main source of client support. Advertisers should be going DIRECTLY to media groups for their needs, the media groups have the most critical aspect of the “sell” they own the customer data – Scientific Marketing is based on dialogue and engagement is part of the newspaper and magazines future.

Thaddeus B. Kubis
Chief Evangelist Media Convergence
The Institute For Media Convergence
Media Convergence | Curriculum Development | Strategic Messaging
Direct: 917.597.1891
email: thad.kubis@tifmc.org
Twitter: thadcmce
www.tifmc.org

Interested in engaging customers, across publishing, direct marketing or targeted verticals read my latest article. http://www.pubexec.com/blog/the-pez-strategy-for-publishers-seeking-convergence-engagement

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If you have followed my writings you will know that I am a very strong supporter of the process of media convergence, integration and engagement. Engagement to me is a more important result than the immediate or impulse sale, since the term engagement defines a long-term relationship, which under the correct conditions will provide your advertisers with long-term sales.

The main obstacle to establishing engagement are the prospect themselves, (your clients potential customers) they will place multiple barriers, mislead and miss direct any marketer that they the prospect, has found to be unworthy to engage. The aware and engaging publisher, printer, marketer, advertiser or creative person will look to enter what I can the PEZ, or Prospect Engagement Zone.

Entry to the PEZ is a highly restricted, carefully regulated process that begins with defining the media trail, offering customer/product/service relevance, ease of interaction and brand integration.

PEZ is a multi leveled and dimensional zone of profit that once established can become the Holy Grail of the sales process. PEZ is the red carpet of red carpets, the last minute touchdown, and yes, it is the gateway or portal to the prospects long-term and ongoing spending habits.

How do you enter the PEZ?

Well in this complex world of media convergence you need to find what I call the enabler media. It seems from recent data that your prospect may have a favorite media or the vertical you are targeting is best reached by a defined media(s). Once the enabler media has been defined (it may change) you need to have an engagement media/process defined and linked to the correct media or combination. Your call to action or sales based media/process will also need to be defined and ready to go.

For example, it can be said that to achieve greater results when asking for donations, the first step to engage a prospect would be direct mail, but the enabler media for existing contributors is a digital approach. The same can be said if you are looking to introduce your product or service to a new audience, print, direct mail or other “offline” technologies work the best. Yet, today, media convergence has made the term offline as antiquated as buggy whip. The key to remember is that all media when planned correctly have a degree of online interaction, integration and an online interface.

Adaptation of a PEZ strategy broadens the range of available media and marketing opportunities because the marketer will need to establish an enabler, engagement, and call to action media (plan) that can change often, change is a big part of the BIG data link to media convergence, integration and results!

An in depth understanding not only of desired media and the types of media but a complete understanding of how the media, all the media is prospect relevant, integrates, interacts, converges and yes the attribution characteristics of your media selection MUST be understood.

Today as the world of print converges into the expanded world of communication, any printer or print provider has the base of needed products within their own shop. If you are offering “marketing solutions or services” you are close to fulfilling the first step of the need, you have the tools. A PEZ strategy will allow you to make the most of these tools and provide new avenue of profit.

Need to enter my PEZ; I will make it simple thad.kubis@tifmc.org.

* My apologies to the PEZ Candy Inc., I grew up eating PEZ and I still long to renew that most enjoyable engagement.

Doing Print Forensics Brings New Business

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If you are a printer, creative, print provider, marketer, end user or an agency, you MUST read this blog!

http://www.piworld.com/blog/doing-print-forensics-integrated-marketing-campaigns-brings-new-business-thaddeus-b-kubis?e=thad%40nakinc.com#utm_source=today-on-piworld&utm_medium=enewsletter_headline_story7&utm_campaign=2012-09-18

The Death of the Internet

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Will the disaster of the FACEBOOK IPO be the final nail in the coffin of the Internet?

No I don’t think so. However, I do think that the Internet and all that is lumped together under the Internet and the term “e”, are going to be redefined. That’s good for media convergence. Why you ask? The “e” stuff was gaining overwhelming momentum in the plan to move to new media without in many cases a valued reason to move to new media. Other then “Well I need to be there and everyone else is there”. The NEW Internet will become in the next few years a strong part of any media and marketing convergence plan, an integrated and converged part may I add. It will be a strong part, but not the only part. The days of print is dead and there will be NO other media but “e” media are over. It is an integrated and converging device sensitive world, and time will not only prove the argument but the proof has started to be developed.

A question that must be asked, can print and its related media be considered a device?
I have stated before that the answer is yes, device, screen, tool, all integrated in one media.

Need proof just click on any or all of links below:

http://www.inma.org/modules/article/index.cfm?action=articleView&articleId=50064

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/03/11/direct-mail-alive-and-kicking/

http://printinthemix.com/fastfacts/show/546

http://printinthemix.com/fastfacts/show/560

http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/12/nicholas-carr-2012-will-bring-the-appification-of-media/

At the Internet week events held in New York City, I spoke to a few people who also are starting to wonder is the Internet, web 2.0 and the like are more then a bubble. To be a bubble you need to have a surface to contain the air inside the bubble and the air or gases that make up the bubble. I am not sure which is missing; the outer skin or the interior “gas” but I do have my own opinion.

A friend and creative associate also at the event and he was somewhat stunned to hear the “Captains of the Internet” starting to doubt the gold”e”n of “e” commerce. On the other hand, he was most impressed by the presentation by Jim Taylor, Vice Chairman, Harrison Group. Jim’s presentation “Devices, Consumption and the Digital Landscape 2012” was for many a dynamic view of the future’s future. See for your self, look to http://www.slideshare.net/digiday/harrison-group. I have been telling many people in the industry that the stuff is about to hit the fan and the fan will provide a new pie chart of what we will use in the world of media, media convergence and marketing. This report is the beginning of the new stuff.

No, the Internet will never be dead, nor will print, ads, magazines, newspapers and other offline technology. The Internet as did print and the offline media arena will need to change, change is good and that kind of change is good for media convergence. Device centric or not, what is happening, media convergence can now be viewed as a valid new media.

Remember media convergence is composed of the cloud/computing, communications, content and the consumer/customer, as I have been saying for a while now, without the customer the other three “C’s” are getting an “F”. If what many of the studies I have been reading are correct then the consumer is looking EVERYWHERE not INTERNETWHERE to link, touch engage, contact and yes, buy. Everywhere is a small word with a very large meaning, particularly in media. Media that they the customer/consumer are defining and shaping to meet there own demands.

Media needs to provide a measured ROI, and if digital media cannot or the user wishes to have an ad free digital environment, think where the ads, messages and other communications will need to placed.

Guess where; email me at thad.kubis@tifmc.org.

Print and Media Convergence – A Commonality

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There are five (5) common attributes that print and media convergence share, I consider these five to be the basic elements of coexisting in the world of print/media convergence. I believe that most printers will find the five attributes familiar if not downright recognizable and will agree that print and the world of media convergence have a common future.

1. Communication
2. Cloud Computing
3. Content
4. Customer
5. Commerce

Communication
Print is largely a communications based business. What printer’s produce or manufacturer communicates multiple messages across multiple media to a near endless list of targeted markets and verticals. The key to Media Convergence is the ability to communicate multiple messages across multiple media, targeting multiple contacts.

Cloud Computing
Once called computing, the term cloud now defines the media of exchange via a computer network of information. Print needs the cloud to “communicate” with its customer base and Media Convergence uses the Cloud, as it’s main avenue of exchange, yes to communicate with its customer base as well.

Content
A recent study indicates that personalization of direct mail is on the rise, with an increase from 28% in 2009 to 34% in 2010, a 21% increase, in one year! Clearly the link between personalized print based marketing and personalized print based content is on the very near horizon. Look to media convergence and you will see that content, specific to the customers need is critical to the future of this new media.

Customer
Both print and media commerce have as their panel of judges the customer. I would say that at this stage print has moved from a score of 1 out of 5 to a score of 3.5 out of 5. Print simply works, and works well with other media. Media convergence is another media, yes all other media is media convergence and media convergence is all other media, point made.

Commerce
I am a strong proponent of “prnt commerce”, the SMS friendly name I offer as an option to the simple term print. Print makes people, corporations, agencies, marketers, and printer’s money; why deny that proven fact. Print can be looked upon as a proven moneymaker when compared to most new media. Media Convergence offers the same outcome. Commerce will occur over multiple media with a simple formula, create once, distribute everywhere, develop a strong data model and track, track and track the results.

Agree?

Disagree?

I would like to hear your thoughts, thad.kubis@tifmc.org

Media Convergence: Gaining traction.

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There are four stages of Innovation: Invention/Concept, Early Adoption, Standardization and Mass Acceptance.
Media Convergence currently sits between concept and early adoption. Recently I have presented the concept of Media Convergence to a variety of organizations all with broad national exposure. These organizations included the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in New York City and Washington D.C., and at the XTech2012 show in Chicago, an offering of IDEAlliance.

Later this week, on April 4th, I will be presenting the concept of Media Convergence via a Dscoop seminar, this presentation will link print, prnt commerce and media convergence into a tool that most printers will finding not only informative, but one that can positively impact their bottom line.

If you would like to attend the free webinar please register at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/421546424.

For a long time I have felt that one of the serious problems printers face when trying to grow their business has been the lack of what I call cross industry information. There is no doubt that printers are receiving quality information from many sources within the industry about workflow, products and production, but related information, information that brings printing into the chain of communication as an enabler is often brief, quickly mentioned and poorly defined.

Print, as is Media Convergence is not and has never been a stand-alone industry, it is part; an important part of the team of communications, printers and equipment manufacturers MUST never forget that fact.

I fully understand the limits of information transfer since the main goal for this industry is to sell new technology, services and yes, equipment. However, it’s possible that exchanging some vertically related news items to keep the industry informed will help achieve the main stated goals of the industry. Related vertical information, applicable now or applicable later is the key to this industries future success. We MUST not allow our industry to be blind sided again. Media Convergence and other new emerging technologies need to be discussed and understood, not ignored.

Media Convergence, in the very near future will impact OUR industry, perhaps not by selling more equipment, but by impacting the process which will generate a printer providers profit and then just maybe sell some equipment, products or expanded services.

I hope you will enjoy the webinar and I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

The “P” word and the convergence of Print

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In my opinion the printing/graphic arts industry needs two things, 1) A futurist, and 2) a new name. Let’s address the new name first.

In the course of an industries life cycle a new “brand” for that industry sometimes needs to be developed. For example, what once was the Department of War is now called the Department of Defense, within an industry, name changes have a history as well. A most recent switch within The Food Industry is the name change of their front-of-package (FOP) labeling scheme from “Nutrition Keys” to “Facts Up Front.”

The list can go on and on, perhaps the Print industry needs a new brand, a new name, a new face, a name that reflects the commerce based nature of print, and the need to align the segment with the other revitalized and emerging industries. I suggest (and I am certainly not the first one to suggest this concept) that print from this article on be known as Prnt-Commerce. P-commerce has a history and it just sounds too yellow to me.

The term print is aged, a bit old and being challenged from many quarters.

Have you heard of the Gutenberg Parenthesis? No, well you should. Thomas Pettitt explained the way in which he uses the term the Gutenberg Parenthesis: the idea that oral culture was in a way interrupted by Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press and the roughly 500 years of print dominance; a dominance now being challenged in many ways by digital culture and the orality it embraces.
Read on http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/forums/gutenberg_parenthesis.html.
A recent article in the New York Times also states the need for a New English language, so why can’t Print (prnt) lead the way? To me prnt alone does not define the process; no prnt needs to be directly linked to commerce, for that is a key part of the print model, not only to print money but also to allow money to be made, using prnt as the vehicle of choice in this money making process.
Print just sounds old, limiting and in some cases ancient, and I am a very strong supporter of print. The facts are the facts, or as a business associate once said, it is what it is. Print is dead, long live prnt-commerce.

Topic two, a futurist. Many industries have a futurist, these are people who look beyond today and tomorrow to a path yet defined and start to write or at least define some of the rules that are needed to take full advantage of the future as they see it. The industry currently has a few prnt futurists, there have been some great ones in the past as well and there are still some very talented and active prnt-commerce futurist, but I don’t think this is enough. We need a new type of sage, a new type of futurist, not limited just to our industry. I think prnt-commerce needs a futurist that looks far and wide and very much outside the current print industry and the current applications using print.
Our futurist needs to dream on how prnt-commerce will be used in the future by industries and verticals that exist today and those that are still on the drawing board. Our new futurist needs to be linked to as many industries as possible, not just to marketing, creative and production. No, our futurist needs to be “touching” technology, mobile, science, banking, food processing, defense and many more. Not as a partner, but as an equal or at the least an observer, a sage, an oracle of how prnt-commerce can support these industries and verticals as they evolve and how prnt-commerce can evolve with them. We can no longer be seen as the distribution end of any process, we need to be an enabler, start the engagement, keeping the flow of communications active and valid.

As media convergence gains traction, and it is and will continue to gain traction, the commerce or money making end of any future business will drive the end results. Is Facebook worth 100 billion or is the commerce based on Facebook worth 100 Billion, see what I mean?

Prnt-commerce crosses multi channels as well. Magazine and book publishing are clearly prnt-commerce driven, as is direct marketing. With the growing acceptance on integration of the marketing marketplace to include online and offline components, such as e-commerce, m-commerce prnt-commerce fits right in.

Agree with the branding change from Print to prnt-commerce and you must agree to the need for the futurist. Why? Because the future of print as we know it is not a future which the industry controls, prints future is as are most other “traditional” industries linked to those new technologies that need to use older technologies to deliver the new messages, the new media, print is the same.

BTW, I think I would make the perfect prnt-commerce futurist, not only because I’m raising the flag, but because of my deep belief in the convergence of all print media, verticals and partner industries, and my very open mind and broad point of view.

Send me your thoughts; I can be reached at thad.kubis@tifmc.org.