JacoBlog - Jacobs Media's Blog

It's The Pitts

Respected newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. recently had an epiphany about his business and the Internet.  In a revealing column, he essentially threw in the towel over the issue of saving the newspaper industry, and said "We must blow it up instead."  If that sounds a bit like Jason Calacanis' take on radio at our Summit two years ago ("Surrender"), keep reading.

Pitts, who has not been a major fan of the Internet, now concedes that digital is the only way out for newspapers.  Consider these quotes, not just in terms of newspapers, but all traditional media that are now struggling for answers:

"We still tend to regard our Websites as ancillary to our primary mission of producing newspapers.  But I submit that our primary mission is to report and comment on the news, and that it is the newspaper itself that has become ancillary.

So maybe we should regard the Internet not as an extra thing we do, but as the core thing we do.  Maybe we should maximize the fact that we know our cities as no one else does.  Maybe we should make our Websites not simply online re-creations of our papers, but entities in their own right, destination portals for those who want news and views from and about a given city, but also for those who want to find a good doctor in that city, or apply for a job in that city or reach the leaders of that city or research the history of that city."

The only difference between his industry and ours is that they are a bit further down the same road. 

What's the digital strategy?

W.T.D.S.

I'm now thinking that the better question for radio might have been, "What's the digital strategy?"  Gordon Borrell's newest report, "Local Web Revenues," is very revealing.  Of course, local online advertising is exploding, but it's the hurting newspaper business that is garnering the lion's share of the $8.7 billion that was spent in 2007.  While print journalism is hurting, they are finding a way to attract $3.1 billion of this growing piece of revenue pie.

Now you could argue that newspapers have been in more trouble for longer.  Necessity being the mother of invention, they have made more significant and serious moves to take a hefty share of the Internet turf.  And while they are still struggling mightily as circulation figures continue to erode, they are much farther down the interactive path than any other medium.

Where's radio?  Overall, it has attracted only $189 million in '07 - a paltry percentage of the total.  As Mark Ramsey notes in a recent blog, there is indeed a lot of headroom.  But does radio still see the newspaper business in the same old light where sales managers buy the local print edition, cut out the ads, and implore the salespeople to call on these accounts?  That is so 1987.

The newspaper "threat" is that they actually have an avenue to get healthy again.  They've spent the money, the time, and invested in talent who can help them turn the Internet corner.

Where's the overriding strategy for radio that's going to earn a larger piece of this Internet business?  While just about every radio company has now hired an "Internet guy" (who in turn has hired an "Internet team"), how is radio going to seriously improve these numbers?  And are these methods being communicated to the rank-and-file that make stations go on the local level?

Back in the old days when Ries & Trout's Positioning book was the Holy Grail, stations were encouraged to develop a position, stake it out, and execute it up and down the line.  The concept was to make sure that everyone from the morning guy to the salespeople to the receptionist knew what that big umbrella position was all about.

Well, we're in that same position with digital strategies, content development, and revenue generation right now.  If you ask local programmers and managers about their company's digital strategy, many would shrug and give you a blank stare.  How are their stations supporting web content efforts?

How does video fit in, and who will create it?  How are the various departments working together to generate content and revenues?  Will there be a local online sales staff that's dedicated to selling a station's online products?

These are all key questions that point to the need for a big-time strategy and a long-term map.  While there's always been a "Wild West" quality about the Internet, a plan that everyone understands at all levels is necessary.  We're going to cover a lot of these issues at Summit 13, but the heavy lifting needs to happen inside companies, and it needs to happen soon.

No, I'm not going to make new bracelets with new initials.  Hopefully, our now-familiar W.T.D.A. green wristbands are having the necessary effect.  It's time to develop and articulate a strategic plan now.

When Waterfalls Go Up - Part 1

As technology moves at lightning speed, it is increasingly difficult for radio companies (and all businesses) to track and respond to it - much less get ahead of it.  When you consider that iPods, Google, YouTube, and MySpace have only been around a few short years, it can be mind-boggling to even think about what we'll all being doing in 2010.

But that's precisely what we're paid to do.  Because as radio has learned - the hard way - continuing the same repetitive motions leads to stagnation, and ultimately being usurped by new media, and perceptions that we've become passé.

So how do we keep up with what's next?  Well, the auto companies are grappling with the same issues.  Finally, cassette decks in dashboards are vanishing.  But do consumers want satellite radios, HD radios, GPS systems, or wireless communications systems?

Tom Steenman, VP of Intel's digital enterprise group puts it this way: 

"It will waterfall up instead of down."

That is, in-car technology is something that young consumers "get" and appreciate, so car makers would be smart to load up affordable cars with the latest gadgets and services.  "It is evolving rapidly, Steenman said.  "The car is becoming the next frontier."  Eventually, telematics (as the automotive business calls it) will work its way up to older demos who have more money to spend.

From our Tech Polls and the Arbitron "Bedroom Project" ethnographic study we conducted last year, that logic rings true.  If you want to know what you'll be doing a few years from now, talk to a few 14 year-olds.  One of our "Bedroom" respondents told us "Email is for old people," and that finding made us stop and think about the differences between adults and teens.

A few years ago, I remember watching my tween-aged daughter IMing seven of her friends simultaneously.  At the time, I wondered who in their right mind would do this, and why she wouldn't just pick up our landline phone and call them all.  A couple of years later, I found myself IMing my co-workers two doors down the hall.  And who needs a landline?

The same might be said for social networking sites, blogs, cell phone texting, and many of the other tech trends that have taken societal hold in the past few years.  They start with youth and "waterfall up."  Radio has all but lost the teen audience, and technology mixed with corporate denial and arrogance ("Where else are they going to go?) have been the culprits.  But it doesn't have to be that way.  Teens will tell you what they want - and don't want - and their preferences are "techno-omens" about what's to come.

Tomorrow, we'll look at teens and Tech, along with Jon Coleman's new study about how we're at the techno "tipping point" when it comes to young people and music consumption.

Seizing the Moment

What goes up on your home page when your hometown team wins the big championship?  If you're WRIF, you play it up big, provide great resources, and make it the big deal of the day - because that's what the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup means in Detroit.

It's this flexibility and understanding "What's The Digital Application" that radio stations need if they want their web efforts to be timely, relevant, and worth the audience's time.

(Don't even talk to me about the Tigers.)

Your Wildest Streams - Part 2

In Part 1, we talked about all the weird and lame reasons why many stations still aren't streaming.  I'll bet the majority of you who read this blog smugly read that post, comfortable in the knowledge that your station has been streaming for years.

Well, I'm here to tell you that many broadcast radio streams aren't ready for prime time.  Recently, a programmer we worked with invited me to check out his station during a special feature his station was presenting.  It was one of the worst streaming experiences I've ever had because the stream would run for a couple of minutes, and start buffering.  Or I'd have to refresh and even sign back in.  It was not a user-friendly experience, and I started thinking about all of the accessible, quality streams his station competes against.

If you don't believe me, do what we do here at Jacobs Media, and check out your station's stream on a great pair of speakers.  Is it steady and reliable?

Does it fade in and out, or start "buffering" every so often?  Does it sound like a tinny, phased-out signal?

Just like how good programmers "drive their signal" by jumping in a car and driving around the market looking for "picket fencing" and nulls, do the same with your own stream.  You may be surprised by what you hear, and if that's the case, consider the consumer experience.  Even if you love a station, you're not going to put up with a stream that comes and goes or is of rotten quality.

When you consider that more and more consumers are listening to digital streams on great speaker systems or on Bose headphones, ask yourself whether your stream is ready for prime time.

Streaming your station is now the equivalent of having a high school diploma.  It's mandatory, but it's not going to get you anywhere.  Having a quality player, an easy-to-access experience, and a quality, reliable stream are the necessary next steps in the process.  Just test drive your own stream for a couple hours, and tell me I'm wrong.

Webtallica

Jacobs Media's Eric Holmes weighs in on Metallica's new website:

I’d like you to meet the newest Jacobs Media client, our first band - Metallica!  Well… OK, so we’re not consulting Metallica, but it definitely looks like they got the W.T.D.A. memo.  (Or maybe they could have written it!)

Their new website is called Mission: Metallica.  While they could’ve just sat back, released the new album and hoped for the best from their old fans, they decided to step it up.

After the debacle called St. Anger, it was obviously clear to Metallica and their management that a different approach was necessary.  And in this case, they’ve done a nice job integrating a standard event – the release of a new album – with a cool digital platform.

The new site includes video blogs of the band writing and recording in the studio, riffs from the new album and more.  The message states, “Experience the new album before it’s done.”  While it’s clearly fan-centric, this is a band that needs to embrace its minions – their original believers and those who discovered the band in the mid-‘90s.

This kind of site is the smartest thing Metallica could’ve done.  By creating solid digital content, they’re going to help raise awareness through e-mailing, IMing and MySpace/Facebook postings of their material.  When you give people a reason to check you out every day, you create an excitement and relevancy that hasn’t been there.

Digital content is going to be the key to almost every industry going forward.  Even through all that loud head-banging, it looks like Metallica got the memo.

What Is Community?

In a recent post to "Online Spin," Seana Mulcahy wrote a great piece about the quest for brands to build communities, and the struggles that many face.  We're going through a similar dialogue in radio.  The good news, of course, is that many radio listeners have profiles on MySpace and Facebook.  The challenge for stations, however, is how to build these communities as a part of their overall digital strategies.

Or is it?  In Seana's article, she references a recent Adweek article that featured a quote from Brian Morrissey who noted that brands like craigslist, Zappos.com, and the T-shirt site, www.threadless.com "are quietly building powerful brands online on the strength of communities.  For these companies, community is not a tactic or marketing plan line item, but core to what they do.  It means being hyper-responsive to customers, laser focused on usability, unapologetically human and OK with customers determining the course their businesses should take.  The bonus: When they take off, these brands don't need to do much in the way of advertising, instead letting their customers spread the word."

These companies don't just drop a social networking component onto their websites, a la Seth Godin's Meatball Sundae warnings.  Instead, they organically allow their communities to form by their overall behavior and relationships with their customers.  Apple is another great example.  Their products, their customer service, and their behavior have created a powerful community of fans who do all the viral heavy lifting.

It's about more than having a database, and doing email blasts each week.  It's about empowering the audience, giving them a voice in what stations program, being transparent when jocks are fired or formats are changed, and giving fans a seat at the table.  Several years ago, we called that "NeoRadio."  Today, it's called communities.

No matter what you call it, most radio stations are a great distance away from creating them.  But the potential is always there if we stop talking and broadcasting, and do more listening.  It goes against the grain of what we've been doing for years.  And that's why we have to do more of it.

From The Email Bag

Since the release of our W.T.D.A. initiative last month, we've had some great comment responses to the concept from clients, pundits, and even a broadcaster in India.  Recently, we heard from Bob Bellin, a guy who has managed radio stations and also been involved in digital ventures.

Here's Bob's "take" on W.T.D.A. and how radio needs to approach the digital challenge/opportunity:

I couldn’t agree more about digital applications – radio needs to meet its customers where they live, work and play digitally.  The world is moving toward customized, portable stratified entertainment (all digital) yet radio often seems clueless about the details.  And that’s really going to hurt any attempt to implement the W.T.D.A. strategy.

The problem is that when the uninformed try to “get digital” their digital applications to often miss the mark.  Start with the typical radio station website, which is often nothing more than a crude station brochure combined with some photos of local servers in tank tops and bikinis.  I haven’t been on the inside in awhile, but I can almost hear the sounds of station management whining about how sales “can’t sell the website.”  If there isn’t much value, there isn’t much traffic and if there isn’t much traffic, why would there be advertiser interest?

If radio really wants to play ball in this arena, it needs to:

1) Hire people who really understand how the digitally-initiated use those products.  Restrictive, half-baked proprietary versions of what is already out there will not create any groundswell.

2) Do the hard work (research, beta testing, etc.) and find out what new ground can be broken by combining radio’s considerable programming skill, available promotional inventory, listener communities and massive cume into digital applications that provide enough user benefit to attract people in large numbers.

3) Be willing to trade off some terrestrial listenership for these digital apps.  More digital entertainment choices will slowly siphon off terrestrial radio’s audience no matter what they do – why not walk those people into another house that radio owns – (albeit a new house) rather than let other companies do it?

4) Recognize that building a digital application is as difficult and complex as building a new radio station – and that its ability to generate revenue is tied to eyes and/or ears delivered, just like terrestrial media.  Radio hasn’t learned that lesson and until they do as an industry, failure is, well, an option.  HD Radio proves my point.

5) Ask their biggest clients… and some advertisers that are big, but not radio clients, how integration of terrestrial and digital assets could work best to help them meet their marketing challenges - and build some of the key answers into the applications.

The dialogue continues, so please post any and all comments you have.  And thanks to Bob for his thoughts.

W.T.D.A. Gaining Traction...

W.T.D.A.?  They get it, do you? 

Well, maybe not everyone...

What's The Digital Application? - find out more at jacobsmedia.com