I was driving the other day when my 13 year old said, "Mom, what is black and white and red all over? A newspaper!" My initial thought was ...well not anymore...
It's refreshing to see 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 is time and energy to do something positive about it.
Professionally managed strategic planning sessions channel brainstorming and drive topics to defined action items, in just a well-paced, productive environment.
Journalists, consider that you build widgets. In your case it is news, and like many engineers and other developers, you're enamored together 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 in order to 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 to their sites. They distribute your widgets totally free without payment for you setting a defacto standard; they're not in business to make money on news.
After you commit to developing business models you will progress forward. After you step from your homogenous safe place, you will never consider your widgets exactly the same way again. For instance, consider the intelligent, motivated blog readers as a resource. Consider the following rules of engagement for strategic planning sessions:
1. Building business models is about working ON your company, not IN your business. Be objective, and open-minded; study from 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 number of other components. Strategic planning sessions conducted by a skilled professional will not solve all issues tomorrow, but will give attention to the achievable and deliver action items, set goals for the next session, establish feedback mechanisms, etc.
3. Harvard's session the other day, "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 made up 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 should really 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 should really be on the team and 2> who should really be guest speakers willing to own candid discussions.Not everybody will have the ability 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 send in 'The Best Of" reports as well.
Perhaps blog readers can volunteer to do research. This can keep journalists involved in the sessions, be the main solution and keep carefully the pace moving. For instance, if 1 out of 4 individuals who read journalism blogs commit to help 2 hours every three weeks, we could evaluate some interesting results. This is not time intensive, but incredibly beneficial. Some research, like the following example, would give attention to a specific market, specific customer segments; other requests is likely to be different.
Example research request: Call 5 companies in the to-be-defined industry at home town and inquire further exactly the same 5 questions to offer an, albeit loosely coupled but a sampling of data. Interview the business enterprise owner. Listen. Understand this world from the owners' shoes. Example questions are:
What results maybe you have seen from newspaper advertising?
The length of time did you run ads, what were your original expectations, and were your expectations met?
Were you in a position to differentiate your company with newspaper advertising, why or why not?
What's probably the most successful way you gain new business?
Are you currently advertising in other venues and how successful is that for you?
Ask folks who don't advertise today and who do advertise today. Engage them in conversation. Probe. Feedback is likely to be consolidated and results posted.
Journalists, innovative leaders of strategic planning sessions assist intelligent professionals immersed in the current model to consider out of the box. When companies desire to re-brand and open new lines of business or when innovative marketing disrupts the industry status quo establishing new competition, many choose strategic planning professionals. Consider working 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.
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