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Look, its pretty bloody obvious what to do. Stop thinking about newsPAPERS and start thinking about news STORIES. You are all so hung up with the paper part, get over it!

Yes your content needs to be high quality. But people have until recently, largely assumed that the accuracy  and integrity of major news media already exists. So there is no additional quality benefits to readers.

So here is he deal. (Can’t believe I am giving this away for free!)

Its the long tail model Apple have brought to itunes. I mean seriously. Lets say the newspaper has 100 stories. Today I pay $2 for that. But I only read 10 stories and glance over the rest of it. (I just paid 20cents a story distributed buy a Newspaper) But the cost of creating the stories is variable based on the complexity, the size of the market. But, in the internet world the costs of distribution scale diminish rapidly.

The answer, let people buy news stories and investigated stories. The journalists have a career path  and the users can buy what they want. There is a funding model that says $0.15c per story (cheaper than a newspaper, but with greater margins and distribution scale) and $0.47cents for investigations and $1 for black Saturday – ongoing story rights etc.

The advertisers get highly targeted audiences as well as run of network.
Then the News media set up micropayments services and start taking a small percentage there too.

Step 1  – Stop thinking about mass newspaper distribution strategies and start thinking about mass story distribution strategies.

Step 2 – Deliver on the above model and enjoy your financial success.

Step 3 – Start to drive additional revenue models. Pay for back stories, pay for printed editions, create a news story for your 60th birthday blah blah.

All the best
Nick

Actually let me add. Of course, “if the content is good enough people will pay”. But what price! Sell stories at $0.01 cent if you have to and then stop generating the crap that doesn’t sell. Get focussed and efficient goodness sake.

Every journalist will have a brand power, every story a value and the two will come together in a variable price model.
But for now make it easy to buy (micropayments) and make it easy to store and access.

Actually, imagine the potential impact on the quality of search results for Google. Now theres something to think about. !

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Now I will add, that Newspaper companies  have to change their attitude from being the worlds Luddites to being the worlds innovators. You see its all digital now!  They need to move ahead of the video and audio curve faster than TV and Radio. Journalists will need to shave and dress appropriately, so they can present themselves to the audience and not hide behind the pen. To be honest, I can’t see it happening!

TWITTER RANT BEGINS
Can someone explain to me how Twitter or Facebook is different from a desk phone and or mobile phone or dare i say it e-mail? Are  they not just tools for communicating with friends, colleagues, professional networks and families. The stuff I used to be able to do before I had to work back to 7pm in a corner of the office not talking to anyone, like solitary confinement?

In fact, aren’t these tools profoundly more efficient at delivering a single message to multiple people at more convenient times? Seriously if I dialled up 10 people to organise something, to share my opinion, or to advise of my location and time of arrival, I would spend at least 5 minutes with each. Now that would be a waste of time! I mean, does my boss want me to sit at my desk and instead use e-mail to draft laborious and delicately crafted notes target at individuals, with appropriate CC: and BCC: on them?

Surely my boss wants me to use tools that create efficient and effective methods of communication. Hell I am typing 140 charecters, getting news headlines in hyper speed and he/she wants me to what….stop wasting my time? (idiot)

So far the only time saving I can see coming, is the time I save by not training him/her on what twitter is and how it works. And or time on educating him/her on what open comuncation networks, not driven by closed power networks, can achieve by sharing. But then he/she wouldn’t appreciate that. And I know why…

Because he was too busy organising this mornings coffee run and a chat around the newspaper, or water cooler? Now he/she was too busy smoking 6 cigarettes x 10 minutes = 1hour per day. Which is near 30 days a year wasted smoking…oh sorry they were meetings, because someone went with you! Yeah right.

RANT RELIEF KICKS IN
Ok, I’ll calm down. I’ll be more constructive. The madness of all of this, is that its not about employees, productivity and effectiveness. Its about how you as the manager have engaged your staff, so that they wouldn’t seek out methods for filling time with….well stuff?  You see the world is changing. Really it is. And organisations, like governements, need to realise that people are more powerful in their unity than ever before – because their voice is no longer aggreagted and filtered by media, it’s actually a voice as powerful as the media.

They need to realise that these tools are great development and networking tools. They allow people to pack more into their personal and work lives. Sourcing and satisfying answers to work and pesonal questions. Like search does. It’s information seeking.

So, this is not about twitter, myspace or facebook or any of the 16bn wesbites in the world. This is about poor management and poor staff engagement. Its about a lack of company vision, mission and goals, that the staff actually buy into. And the fact that you are blocking websites, or calling a ‘stop to this’ says as much about the relationship and care you have of your staff as it does for the Iranian Government and the Chinese government.  There is no need to be afraid unless your trying to abuse and take advantage? If your intentions are true, then you have nothing to be concerned with. And if your power is under threat, how you respond now, will determine the length of time you manage to outperform, grow and develop. Or just stay in power, or dare i say it, survive.

This is a time for leadership, not a time to defend and stick your head in the sand. We are moving from the industrial age to the information age, and the opportunities are boundless. If you envied the great oil barrons (Rockefeller) , the great manufacturers (Ford) then its time to seize your own day! We are merely at the dawn of the bio tech and information age, and if you want to have an impact on the world you have as much chance as anyone! But true leaders will achieve it better than anyone else. Just get on board and hold on!

I have been somewhat astounded at the hype from social media advocates. Its been more evangelical than the early dot com days. In some respects I am glad we are in a GFC as this little ‘boom’ in social communications networks takes place. Because if there was too much investment capital floating around, we would no doubt be in another investment bubble. (Although Zappo’s just may be the beginning).

 TWO FORMS OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS – MARKETING STRATEGY
Anyway, back to social networks. I have crafted this very simple approach for marketers and corporate affairs departments, in order to make simple the strategic approach and communications style available using the mix of new media platforms. I hereby dub these two types of marketing strategy;

Particpation Marketing, and Facilitation Marketing

 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
The difference is simple. You are a ‘participant’ in all forms of Social Communications Networks, unless you ‘own the platform’. That is, if you developed a destination website capability for creating and developing commuinties (ie. users can communicate freely within your open network and will not be censored) then you are the facilitator of the community as well as a participant. Your roles is more critical, because you determine the policies that govern the commuinty, as well as manage the technical platform and its servicing and development.

THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT:
But as a participant in other peoples platforms you need to learn the rule s of engagement.  Thats right, you are no-one but a guest in the conversation at the dinner party, the conference, or on the train. So your Twitter account, your Youtube Channel, your wordpress blog, or your FaceBook fanclub (hateclub) are all just tools to get you into a conversation. And your job, as marketer, customer service agent, product manager, CEO, sales director etc… is to work out the dynamics of the group, that you are abou to engage with.  Its that simple….not.

NOT SO SIMPLE TO EXECUTE !
You see. Most of us are really good at engaging within the social networks we operate in. The pony club, the gym, the family, the book club, the cricket club, the poker crew, the school community.  But successfully influencing these people in these groups, and then doing the same in groups you have no expertise (interest) in, is almost impossible. It’s why, for so long now, corporates have had a Marketing/PR function: to control the message to the target audiences, in a consistent on brand way.

And whilst there are many tactics and social media advisers at the moment, the most critical skills of the Social Marketer, other than corporate knowledge, are self awareness and a love for people (customers or otherwise).  But more than that, its about being genuinely liked, respected, and trusted. And one day being loved! In other words, true leadership.

So, what ever you do, don’t hire a junior and tell them to do digital. Don’t leave it in your ad agencies, or PR agencies hands. You need to hire someone and they need to have credibility right from the start!

And after that start to work on your plan….

SIMPLE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES TO START WITH:
1. Find and create the ‘advocates’ and ‘influencers’ using customer servicing skills and PR skills. eg. People who speak out negatively are worth a turnaround effort.
2. Create opportunities to do behavioural research on product features and benefits – using marketing research skills
3. Create a marketable database through clear and expected promotional activity.

THE PAYOFF
There is no doubt in my mind that building great platform experiences, like those of ebay, facebook, myspace, twitter, gmail, flickr, etc is high return, but the are also high risk. Even on a lessor scale, I was reponsible for some great Soccer and Commonwealth Games sponsorship platofrms that NAB.com.au executed that were very successful. But if your core business isn’t technological innovation in multiple markets, then you best start with particpation marketing strategies.

Note: I most recently developed and launched twitter.com/colescard for Coles Australia. Outside of the newsmedia, its has the highest number of followers for an Australian Corporate. And you can follow me on  twitter.com/nickdallariva

Has anyone else noticed the growing number of corporate websites in Australia that look the same? I have.

Now, I have to declare up front, that I was the Head of Online at NAB when we did the redesign back in 2004, which is why I have noticed this strange phenomenon. But I don’t feel you need to have been me, to have noticed. Take a look at the following websites. I just took a screen capture of them all at the same time 5.35pm, 28th July 2009, AEST.

The trigger for this post, was the recent refresh done at QANTAS, which until the most recent change I was a big fan. But the new colour palette,  and the portal technology are not working, in favour of the user. I tweeted as much and found I had some support. Now I am aware, by and large, that QANTAS has been an absolute leader in corporate Australia for web development and online services and they are to be commended for this, certainly I used them as evidence for the 3 years I led nab.com.au. But the most recent release, hasn’t shown, or worse, communicated, anything about the enhancements for users. Did I miss something? 

 Anyway, I don’t have a gripe with QANTAS, I don’t fly enough to care, but I am still very curious about the colour amendments, sorry enhancements? You see it presents for an interesting debate about visual brand and usability. One which continues to be won, for some strange reason, by brand managers. Even thought they tend to know nothing about interface design, human factors design,  WC3 standards etc.  And as a staunch advocate of using common web/software interaction standards to drive user simplicity (usability) I never expected the web to migrate towards a common set of colors. And admittedly four websites does not make a flock, but I find this fascinating in a market where differentiation should be easier. There just isn’t that many major corporates in Australia.

Now, a recent blog post http://physicalinterface.com/view/that-design-is-moneyoutlines about the design process that WellsFargo, (another of my reference organisations) took towards redoing the ATM interface design. You should be aware, that whilst ATM interfaces arent quite as sophisticated as web (yet), the premise is the same – human user interaction. And strangely, the blog post commented, that for some reason the client (WellsFargo) changed the decision to run with the design users liked, to run with one thats supported the the corporate colour palette. Which again makes no sense to me. I know which of these will last longer, and its not the colour palette. (Which will inevitably be changed when the new marketing director appears – every 2yrs 3months, on average!)

And I know there would be plenty of people out there saying, why does it matter? Or what is the commercial imperative? But if they stopped for a minute and considered how it is that  Apple is a company many time larger than their, or why Google won the search race off a marker of about 4 years, then I guess they’d start to ask me what they should do, rather than argue that it doesn’t matter. And the answer is – put the brand user experience (usability) ahead of the colour palette. It may look nice, but if I can’t read it as a color blind person then it doesn’t matter how pretty it is.

And as for evidence, I am yet to hear how taking campaign colours and applying them to the website delivers a better experience. Imagine if microsoft did that to their software like, word or powerpoint, users would smash the computers / devices. Its the consistencey of the user experience in standards that makes it easy. So easy that users, can adopt, learn, routinise, forget,  and still be happy to use it!

You see its like doin your Saurday morning shopping with the brand you trust and love. Its like going to get pampered at the health Spa you know will take the strees out of everything. It really is like a shopping centre. The cusotmer knows the location, the car park entrance, the order of shops, the aisles. They never change. And if they do, its a bloody stressful nightmare for many customers.

So I guess my point is this. Visual brand managers, back off! Let the user interface designers do what best for the customer. You can get away with cluttering up the physical store with posters, brochures and walls with branded imagery, but online we know the impact. We can see the ‘store’ traffic get frustrated and turn away.

Anyway,I am getting off track and I have written far more than I planned. I am still in search for the top 20 read, black and white Australian websites.
Be sure to let me know if you find any other look alikes.

If the presumptions that all things digital only have an audience of ‘young people’, is the same true for magazines, newspapers and old people?

Now, I have noticed almost in a manner of that proposed by Malcolm Gladwell in BLINK, that the only people I see in a physical travel agency any more are retirees. Which may not be a bad strategy for the physically bound or digitally challenged travel agency. But is this also true of media channels?

Now I don’t have the answer, but it would be great if a media planner could share some trend data of media channel consumption trends for each media against the whole of population age trends. I know the answer requires a few hours work, but a well informed media director would have a gut feel for it?

The opportunity here, for the magazine business, lies somewhere in shifting our context from thinking about mass magazine markets, or even becoming more like Newspapers. A strategy that is befuddling when you consider the direction they are heading. So fo magazine publishers, how can they, integrate digital channels and print to create and online and physical experience that delivers something different. Somehting that keeps them alive.

Anyway, if you  are a media director or you have some information of use please share.