I was driving yesterday when my 13 year old said, "Mom, what's black and white and red throughout? A newspaper!" My initial thought was ...well not anymore...
It is refreshing to read an uproar on blogs, and healthy as well.
So, journalists, you got the couch whooped by innovative marketing that disrupted your industry status quo; stuff happens, and now it's time and energy to do something about it.
Professionally managed strategic planning sessions channel brainstorming and drive topics to defined action items, within a well-paced, productive environment.
Journalists, consider that you build widgets. In your case it is actually news, and like many engineers and other developers, you're enamored along with your widget. However, like every widget, your widget needs to be marketed, sold, and supported etc, to generate cash flow and a long-term healthy balance sheet to help you build more widgets https://takerootandwrite.com/.
Google, Yahoo and others are available of generating web traffic for profit; they distribute your widgets to generate more traffic for their sites. They distribute your widgets totally free without payment for you setting a defacto standard; they're not in operation to generate income on news.
After you commit to developing business models you'll progress forward. After you step from your homogenous rut, you'll never consider your widgets the same way again. As an example, consider the intelligent, motivated blog readers as a resource. Consider the next rules of engagement for strategic planning sessions:
1. Building business models is all about working ON your company, not IN your business. Be objective, and open-minded; study on history without dwelling on the past http://trendynews4u.com/.
2. The team will evaluate markets and customer segments, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis, value propositions, price elasticity, competition and a great many other components. Strategic planning sessions conducted by an experienced professional won't solve all issues tomorrow, but will concentrate on the achievable and deliver action items, set goals for the next session, establish feedback mechanisms, etc.
3. Harvard's session last week, "How to Make Money in News: New Business Models for the 21st Century" had 48 attendees, 3.5 dozen too many. A productive team is comprised of 6 people, no more than 7, plus a program leader providing agenda, content and infrastructure, as well as setting the pace and keeping the session on track https://afic.co/.
Perhaps blog readers should weigh in on who ought to be on the initial strategic planning team. Have two lists (one example raised on a weblog comment was a member from the Huffington Post) 1> who ought to be on the team and 2> who ought to be guest speakers willing to possess candid discussions.Not everybody will be able or ready to participate; have alternates.
4. Team meets one 8-hour day every 3 weeks, finish session 1 in 12 weeks, final report in 15 weeks.
5. Team suggests reports to be evaluated e.g., consumer research. Blog readers submit 'The Best Of" reports as well.
Perhaps blog readers can volunteer to do research. This may keep journalists involved in the sessions, be part of the solution and keep carefully the pace moving. As an example, if 1 out of 4 people who read journalism blogs commit to greatly help 2 hours every three weeks, we can evaluate some interesting results. This is not time intensive, but incredibly beneficial. Some research, like the next example, would concentrate on a specific market, specific customer segments; other requests will soon be different.
Example research request: Call 5 companies in the to-be-defined industry in your home town and ask them the same 5 questions to provide an, albeit loosely coupled but a sampling of data. Interview the business owner. Listen. Understand this world from the owners' shoes. Example questions are:
What results maybe you have seen from newspaper advertising?
How long did you run ads, what were your original expectations, and were your expectations met?
Were you able to differentiate your company with newspaper advertising, why or why don't you?
What's the absolute most successful way you gain new business?
Have you been advertising in other venues and how successful is that for you?
Ask people that do not advertise today and who do advertise today. Engage them in conversation. Probe. Feedback will soon be consolidated and results posted.
Journalists, innovative leaders of strategic planning sessions assist intelligent professionals immersed in the present model to consider out of the box. When companies want to re-brand and open new lines of business or when innovative marketing disrupts the status quo establishing new competition, many choose strategic planning professionals. Consider dealing with a program leader that has never worked in your industry, a professional strategist may question perceptions and find marketable assets where none were visible before.
No comments:
Post a Comment