Junta42 blog

Everyone is a Publisher...and Why this Really Matters (for you Media companies too)

Thanks to BoSacks for passing over this Time article on Content Becoming a Pauper. 

The story is worth the read, but here is a little snippet that sums up the author's point. As you can tell, he is taking the viewpoint on the value of content as it pertains to traditional media companies.

"The value of content has never been ethereal. It has always been directly tied to what owners could 'get' for it, either through advertisers or subscribers. For content to have a value, it could never be free. Its position as royalty depended on that.

Content is rapidly being devalued."

BoSacks Speaks Out
Okay, before I make my comments, I wanted to include BoSacks comments on this topic:

"I'm not sure where to begin with my comments on this article, and perhaps I should wait a day or two before responding.  But then again, that is just not my way - vent first and think about it later.
 
The author keeps referencing the decreased value of content.  I admit that I need to ponder the question, but right now I say that perhaps it is his company's content that is devalued, but not content itself.  That may be splitting hairs, but somebody is always going to make money on content.  Right now it is Google; next year or in ten years it will be somebody else.  Google doesn't make the content, but they sure as heck have figured out how make money on the content.  So it still has as much value as before, but perhaps not by the same companies.  Get over it and start thinking in 21st century terms and actions."

@juntajoe Speaks Out
I think BoSacks' points are close to the mark.  Who can deny that Google is making money off media content? And yes, someone always makes money off content. But the issue goes much, much further and needs to be looked at outside the eyes of the media model itself.

• Content is more valued than ever before. When consumers need to find solutions, they actively seek out content (90% of buying decisions start on the web - Forrester, 2007) to find answers to their problems. It's content that supplies those answers, in the form of text, video, audio, and social media - and consumers have almost unlimited ways to get the content. The difference today is that consumers are finding those answers coming from their peers and their favorite brands as well as the media. Everyone is a media company. Everyone is a publisher.
  
  Almost all marketing tactics are optional today. The one strategy that is not optional is developing ongoing content for your customers to help them make better buying decisions. Organizations and individuals around the world are trying to figure out how to create valuable and relevant content. While there is plenty of bad content out there, great content is in high demand.
• Two Types of Media Companies. To BoSacks point, there is always someone making money off the content, but look at it this way: Money doesn't have to be made DIRECTLY from the content in the form of sponsorships and paid subscribers. Don't get me wrong, I still believe in paid content. I pay for content I really value, and have no problem with doing so (read this article on the suggestion that an online micro-payment content model could work similar to the way people buy songs on iTunes). Smart companies have been using content for centuries to develop relationships with consumers that ultimately (in the long run) sell products and services. MasterCard Small Business uses a content marketing strategy to sell more credit cards (over 50% of new signups come directly from informational articles). LEGO is one of the most prolific publishers on the planet. P&G uses content to sell more feminine products. Like these three examples, companies must produce content to survive as a business, and there are literally no technological barriers.
  
  So, while media companies produce content to profit directly (like Time, Inc., NY Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.), other media companies profit indirectly from the content (MasterCard, LEGO, P&G, etc.). Professionals in both media and marketing need to understand this - we all compete for the attention of the consumer, hoping to build lasting relationships. If you produce software for design engineers, then a magazine brand like Machine Design is not only your partner, but a competitor as well.

While I was writing this post, I was also watching a BtoB webcast we sponsored on Marketing Outlook 2009. Mark Wilson, CMO from Sybase, talked about how Sybase employs "frugal and authentic marketing" as part of their current marketing program. That means that they are producing a ton of targeted, multi-platform content to their customers and prospects.  This includes self-published books, video newsletters, YouTube videos, segmented enewsletters, white papers and other vehicles where they can efficiently and honestly tell their story and get involved in important conversations. Sybase is a media company.

Overall, I strongly disagree with Douglas McIntyre (the author) about the waining importance of content.  It's needed and accessed by consumers now more than ever. Pure media content is still wanted and needed, but there is more competition today, and since the traditional media business model is threatened, quality corporate content is becoming more important than ever (corporations have the money to invest in content).

I'll end with this. I was talking to a media consultant last week who asked me my advice for struggling media companies. I told her that most media companies have great brands, and great relationships with readers. Readership/engagement isn't necessarily their problem. The issue is that their advertisers aren't advertising as much anymore, and their business models are based on advertising/sponsorship revenue. Since that's the case, a media brand can do one of two things:

1. Start charging for content or premium content (much like what MarketingProfs does so well, or a product such as Copyblogger's Teaching Sells).
2. Develop products or services that make sense in their industry. A lot of media companies are starting to do this, such as GIE Media, who has an incredibly strong data/research business.

It's funny. Marketers are trying to become publishers and publishers are trying to become marketers. I wonder when the day will come where we won't be able to distinguish one from the other.

It's closer than you think.

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Is the Media Iceberg Melting?

Media companies are going through a major transformation, with the majority looking at the viability of their core business models. I touched on this in the most recent issue of Folio: magazine (check out the entire article here).

This excerpt puts the situation in perspective:

Corporations need content in order to survive, and all the trends show that this direction is only going to accelerate. If the iceberg hasn’t melted, it’s on the verge of cracking.

Media companies that can make the transition to offering their services up to corporations are the ones that will lead the new media business model. A few are dealing with these changes and are making major adjustments. Many are not. Which one will you be?

Corporations need content, but most either don't want to produce it themselves or don't have the expertise to produce content effectively as part of their total marketing strategies.  This opens a great opportunity for media companies to, effectively, teach businesses how to do what they do - which is create consistent compelling content initiatives.

Most media companies do not want to move in this direction.  Who can blame them?  It's much easier to sell advertising display programs.  It's too bad those days are over...

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New Rules of Custom Publishing - New Complimentary White Paper: Nine Strategies to Create a World-Class Content Marketing Company

Find Expert Custom Publishers at Junta42 Match

The web and a continuing modification of buyer behavior (among other things) have changed the rules of what most people call the "custom publishing" industry. Traditional custom publishers, who profit from the creation and execution of customized content solutions for clients, must understand the new rules of custom publishing in order to survive. To help, I put together this complimentary white paper titled: The New Rules of Custom Publishing: Nine Key Strategies for Creating a World-Class Content Marketing Company.

Although this white paper is clearly targeted for publishers, or the providers of content services for marketing professionals, there is tremendous value for both marketers and publishers. This is especially true, since it doesn't matter if you make your money off of publishing or not. We are all publishers...so we all need to understand what is going on in the marketing/publishing world in order to compete in it (with content).

Unfortunately, most custom publishers are still hanging on to older business models  and, as such, are getting plowed down by those abiding by the new rules of custom publishing. That said, there is a huge opportunity for those organizations that do choose to adopt the new rules as part of their overall business strategy.

The nine strategies highlighted in "The New Rules of Custom Publishing" are:                   

1. Understand the Changes That Are Leading the Content Marketing Future - A comprehensive overview of the changes in technology, publishing and marketing that are driving the custom content revolution.
2. Be Active in Social Media:  It's Mandatory for the Future of Custom Publishing - From blogs to LinkedIn to Facebook, the new landscape of social media is an essential part of any strategy.
3. Acquire Expertise in All Forms of Content - Forget about focusing on one custom product; these days publishers need to be masters (or access to expertise) of everything from print magazines to Webcasts.
4. Walk the Talk - Don't expect a client to have confidence in your expertise if your company is not its own best content marketer.
5. Position Yourself as Both a Marketing and a Publishing Expert - Only companies that understand - and work with - both sides of the business are going to thrive.
6. Have a Clear Value Proposition - At some point the custom publishing field will become glutted.  What's going to differentiate your company from the masses?
7. Price Your Services According to What the Customer Values - From industry standards to client specifics, everything a company could need to know about pricing.
8. Value the Role of the Project Manager - No project is going to manage itself.  Don't underestimate the importance of good oversight.
9. Use Questions, Not Answers:  Five Steps to Closing the Deal - How to make the client knock on your door...

Download this complimentary white paper The New Rules of Custom Publishing: Nine Key Strategies for Creating a World-Class Content Marketing Company and take your content company into the new world of publishing.  I hope you enjoy it!

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To Publishers: Your Customers Don't Need You Any Longer

I had the pleasure of speaking to about 40 magazine and book publishers in New York last week for the Publishing Business conference. The presentation was called "Businesses Are Becoming Publishers: What Your Customers Are Doing with Content and How to Handle it."

I've given this type of presentation to publishers before. I especially like the slide that I put up, in all black, that states "Your customers don't need you any longer..." I was happy to see that only a few people left the room after this slide.

The point I was trying to make is a simple one: in any market today, no matter how niche, sellers can reach buyers without going through distributors like magazine and book publishers.

This is not a new concept to many who read this blog, but it was definitely a wake up call to many in the audience who haven't thought about their business models in that way before.

The choice I gave them was not an easy one, but one that I truly believe has much opportunity for publishers. It is the choice between trying to grow top line revenue within a business model that used to work well, but will be challenging to grow in the future - or - giving in to the new buyer behavior and help teach traditional businesses how to become their own publishers.

Both directions have risk, but by publishers morphing into marketing services companies, they can begin to take advantage of the large shift of dollars from traditional advertising to customized content production and execution. According to Publications Management, 27% of marketing budgets now go toward the creation and execution of content.  I would anticipate this number getting to 50% within the next decade.

The big reason I see this as an opportunity?: Marketers don't want to be publishers. Frankly, in my discussions with marketing professionals, the last thing they want to do is be responsible for the creation of relevant content. Almost all of them now know they have to create valuable and compelling content to stay competitive, but they really don't want to do it themselves.

This premise is one of the major reasons we launched Junta42 Match. Businesses must start creating their own media, but they lack the will and the expertise to do it right. Publishers can help them get there.

Here is the link to the entire presentation from Publishing Business.  We also took video, which will be up as soon as I get around to it.

Exciting times for sure...lots of opportunity, as well as lots of business models that either don't or won't work in the very near future.

Related Articles:

• Media Companies Are Waiting to Make You Publishers
• Corporate Content Will Take Over Media as We Know It

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4 Steps to Evolve from Marketer to Publisher

The definition of "marketer" from dictionary.com is as follows:

"someone who promotes or exchanges goods or services for money"

This definition is simple and straightforward. The role of the marketer has always to communicate a sales-oriented message in order to sell a product or service. Today, this couldn't be further from the truth.

The evolution of the marketer has sped faster than Moore's Law over the last decade. Most of this is a direct result of the change in buyer behavior and the role that technology has played into that. Buyers, inundated with thousands of marketing messages per day and equipped with TiVo, are generally unaffected by the vasts amounts of messages sent from marketers. Technology (like TiVo and pop-up blockers, for example) has enabled consumers to block out a marketer's message that surrounds the content that is really wanted by the buyer. Those messages that cannot be blocked by technology are served up to the conscious mind as irrelevant and are ignored.

So, what is a marketer to do?

A marketer's responsibility is no longer to communicate sales features and benefits about the products and services they offer. They must now do the following:

1. Define the critical group of buyers.
2. With a clear understanding of the buyer, find out what that buyer's informational NEEDS are.
3. Create the information that is NEEDED by the buyer, and do so on a consistent basis.
4. Track success through conversion measures and adjust as you go.

Only then can a relationship between a buyer and a seller take place. The buyer must allow us into their personal space first before any secondary product and service messages can get through. Since the content generated by the marketer is NEEDED (not just wanted), the buyer won't mind an occasional sales message. Even more, they will probably welcome one since the marketer's product or service will speak directly to the communication and workplace challenges of the buyer (since the marketer knows the buyer so well).

In order for a marketer to succeed, particularly in the business-to-business marketplace, the marketer must evolve into the publisher. A traditional publisher might be defined as "one that connects buyers and sellers together through a content exchange." The definition of a marketer-publisher is very similar. The difference is that a traditional publisher has a goal of making money on the content itself (through the sale of advertising, sponsorships, or paid content), while a marketer/publisher's goal is to attract and retain customers and make money from their own products and services.

The marketer's role as evolved into the teacher/the thought leader. The marketer's job is to make the buyer more intelligent, and by doing so, will reap the rewards of more goods and services sold. It is now, in the marketing department, that an organization can truly differentiate themselves from the competition and become a valuable customer asset. Now this is something the marketing department can be excited about!

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Related Articles:

• 42 Content-Building Ways to Attract and Retain Buyers
• 16 Questions to Ask Before Launching a Content Marketing Project
• Content is King, But What Is It Really?
• Stop Shouting Features: 5 Tips To Create a Knowledge Marketing Program
• 4 Content Marketing Essentials for Every Business

>>If you liked this article, try Junta42 for more.

Building a "Good" Brand - bnet Interview with Ben Goldhirsh

This is an 8 minute interview with Good magazine founder Ben Goldhirsh on bnet's Dog & Pony. Some interesting thoughts on the son of Inc. magazine founder, including print vs. online challenges with the brand, working with advertisers on selling more than product, and the challenge of doing good while making money at the same time.

Will it Be a Cold Day in Hell when Ads become Relevant?

I was reading Dave Morgan's Online Spin article and I couldn't help but shake my head. Dave brings up some great points, and asks the question, why are there so many online ads that are completely irrelevant to the Internet user? From a technical standpoint, I think Dave hits the mark.  Here is my take:

• Online advertisers are still more concerned with getting "their" message out and not as concerned, or simply unaware, of the informational wants and needs of the target buyer.
• Online technology has opened up so much opportunity to create great branded content, yet most media companies and marketers use the exact same format for advertising that we see in traditional, non-technological, print magazines. The days of tile ads and banner ads are going the way of the Dodo.
• Dave mentions the lack of creative as a key issue to today's online ads. I would say that creative is an issue, but a minor one compared to the real issues...lack of understanding of the buyer and lack of execution once the buyer's needs are uncovered. Good creative, though hard to find, is much easier to get a hold of than good execution.

A Useful Marketing Scorecard - How's Your Customer Communications?

I just posted to the Custom Publishing Council blog on a marketing scorecard specific to custom publishers. Whether you are a marketer or a publisher, the questions can be applied in either case.  Take a read and let me know how you scored, and what questions you would add or subtract. Take it now!

Side note: It's always intrigued me (including my own companies) how marketing services companies are so good at doing great marketing work for their clients, but forget the basics when it comes to their own communications efforts. More than not, whether it's a custom publishing company, large marketing services company, or a small business, most of the marketing is hanging on by a thread.

I wonder what would happen if these companies focused more on their marketing communications. Would their business get better or worse?

FPO Magazine Launches for Magazine Creatives

At the Folio show in New York yesterday I came upon a new magazine called FPO. FPO magazine positions that they are a magazine about creating magazines.

According to Robert Sugar, FPO Publisher, the mission of FPO is to "bring magazine creatives ideas that will make their product better - more fun to read, less costly to produce - and enhance the impact of editorial, design and layout." (I spoke with Robert at MagsUniversity in June.) Robert is also owner and creative director of Auras Design.  Auras Custom Publishing produced the premier issue.

The premier issue (Fall 2007) is a beautifully designed 68 pages with just 1 ad.  Word on the street is that the revenue model will be paid subscription. For creative designers in custom publishing and magazine custom publishers, there are some nuggets of good information in FPO.

Click here for a table of contents.

Best of luck to them!

B2B Media Companies Need to Step Up Marketing Expertise

Here is a link to an interview with BtoB Media Business Magazine's Marie Griffin and myself discussing the need for business-to-business media companies to enhance their marketing expertise. This is very specific to traditional magazine publishers offering custom publishing and custom media solutions.

Here is a quote from the piece:

"MB: What options do b-to-b media companies have if they want to keep and improve their custom content businesses?        

Pulizzi: They have to make a commitment to provide turnkey marketing services. They have to commit the resources to research and content development. They have to develop true marketing expertise. They have to train salespeople to sell differently. In custom, you go into a meeting to listen, not to make a sale. Then you come back to clients with a custom solution to their marketing communication issues. Media companies need to develop proficiency in marketing, not delivery, because technology has enabled anyone to distribute content."