Newsify?

I en kronikk i dagens Aftenposten tar Henriette Hedløv og Jorunn Flydal opp ideen om en Spotify kloning som løsning på mediehusenes utfordring. Les kronikken her

Ettersom kronikken er ført i pennen av to meget dyktige damer med kompetanse på sosiale medier har de klart å lage en aldri så liten twitterstorm. De har høstet litt motstand fra enkelte i mediehusene, men primært har de blitt hyllet av diverse twittrere og alle har stort sett vært enige i at norske medier henger etter og ikke er innovative nok. 

Jeg vil påstå at norske mediehus er verdensledende hva gjelder forretningsutvikling i digitale kanaler (Det betyr ikke at de ikke kunne vært forbanna mye bedre). Torry Pedersen og VG som har fått litt tyn i debatten i dag hadde i 2011 en omsetning på 365mill og leverte et overskudd på 81mill. Selskapet har 1,8mill daglige lesere på nett og 600.000 på mobil. I tillegg er de ansvarlig for en av landets største tv kanaler og en forferdelig slanketjeneste som går som ei kule, økonomisk. Det skal godt gjøres å finne et mediehus som har klart overgangen til nye plattformer bedre enn VG og da mener jeg i et globalt perspektiv. Men VG er ikke alene. Dagbladet, TV2, + +, driver god butikk digitalt. Selv om man ikke nødvendigvis liker alt innholdet er det vanskelig å ikke la seg imponere av live dekningen av viktige nyhetshendelser og de siste årene har kommentatorer og redaktører blitt et daglig fenomen i nettavisenes nyhetsstrøm som stadig øker i hastighet. At flere vil se på rompa til Tone Damli isteden for å lese den siste kommentaren til Anne Marte Blindheim, Astrid Meland eller Frithjof Jacobsen får nesten stå for forbrukerens regning og ikke redaktørens.

I debatten på Twitter i dag var det en som foreslo at DN burde ta en Newsweek. Hvorfor i alle dager skulle de gjøre det? DN er en av ytterst få papiraviser som kan vise til opplagsvekst de siste årene og omsetningen i selskapet har økt fra 581 mill i 2007 til 623 mill i 2011 (Hadde en dipp i 2009 post finanskrise) En tvungen overgang til digitale plattformer hadde ført til et økonomisk ragnarokk, men slike trivialiteter trenger man heldigvis ikke å ta hensyn til som ekspert på sosiale medier på twitter. Personlig synes jeg DN er svake hva gjelder innovasjon på nye plattformer og jeg tror de vil få det veldig tøft når papir ryker også hos de, men det betyr ikke at det er smart å legge ned papiravisen nå.

Men tilbake til start. La meg prøve å sage Newsify sønder og sammen!

Meta tjenester for nyheter i digitale medier er ikke noe nytt. Google news har vi hatt i en årrekke og det finnes en rekke andre, mer eller mindre vellykede hacks der ute. Dette er selvsagt Flydal og Hedløv klar over og jeg antar at det de ønsker er en tjeneste som samler alt innhold som ikke er tilgjengelig på nettavisene. De vil ikke betale for VG+, men hvis de fikk et Media+ produkt med innhold fra alle konkurrenter ville det vært en god investering.  Sammenligningen med Spotify er lett å ty til, men den er desverre villedende. Ser vi bort i fra det faktum at tjenesten taper flere hundre millioner kroner i året og heller konsentrerer oss om det positive med modellen ser vi fort at den har lite til felles med Newsify. Musikk er globalt og lokalt. Spotify funker fordi de tilbyr global, nasjonal, regional og lokal musikk. De aller fleste hører de samme globale og nasjonale sangene og noen få hører på mer obskure lokal musikk. De som misliker Spotify gjør det fordi noe musikk mangler, det er umulig å gjøre alle til lags...

Nyheter er også globale, nasjonale, regionale og lokale, men i motsetning til musikkbransjen pre Spotify er “alt” tilgjengelig gratis. Et Newsify vil vel da "kun" bestå av all den kvalitetsjournalistikken som ikke ligger på nettet? Hvor stort er det markedet egentlig? Og hvor mye av den journalistikken blir ikke publisert på nettet i dag? Newsify vil bli som et Spotify for kun en musikknisje og tjenesten vil være lokal og således ha et meget begrenset potensiale.

Så til pengene. La oss anta at alle mediehusene fortsetter med sine gratis nettaviser og det er inntektene fra papir og digitale + utgaver som skal hentes inn via Newsify. Hvis vi legger oss på samme prisnivå som Spotify (99,- per mnd) og sier at tjenesten har en million norske brukere ender vi på en omsetning på ca 1,2 milliarder. La oss glemme det faktum at det er umulig å få 1 mill nordmenn til å betale 1188,- i året for dybdeintervjuer med Thomas Hylland Eriksen og felt reportasjer fra tørkerammede områder i sub Sahara og heller sammenligne med de pengene som norske mediehus tjener i dag på sin tradisjonelle virksomhet. Schibsted, Amedia, Polaris, Berner Gruppen og NHST har samlet inntekter på  over 10 milliarder fra sine papirprodukter i dag. Ja, kostnadene er langt høyere for papirproduksjon, men de er ikke så høye at et scenario hvor de samme aktørene skal sloss om en total omsetning på en drøy milliard er veldig attraktiv for eierne. 

En "Premium" løsning vil også være vrient i forhold til deling i sosiale medier og da står vi igjen med den annonsefinansierte gratis strømmen. Skal man tjene penger på annonser på nett kreves et enormt volum. VG med 1,8mill lesere tjener kanskje 250mill på ulike former for annonser og norges største aktør Google ligger rundt en milliard. Hvis et annonsedrevet Newsify er løsningen for norske aviser betyr det bare en eneste ting, det vil være veldig få igjen av de.

Når dette er sagt så mener jeg at et Newsify ville være en hyggelig tjeneste for forbrukeren og jeg er helt sikker på at den vil komme i en eller annen form. Schibsted kunne jo laget noe fornuftig på tvers av sine publikasjoner, men i min verden heter det produktet “bundling”, “cross sale” eller på godt norsk mersalg. Om alle medier skulle gått sammen om en løsning og sett på felles redaksjoner og produkter ville det vært en falliterklæring for norsk journalistikk og jeg håper det aldri skjer.

Newsify er like lite løsningen på avisenes utfordringer som Ipaden var det og gode forretningsideer kommer sjelden i form av en kronikk i Aftenposten. (sorry Jorunn) 

Etter å ha lest igjennom min post her nå, registrerer jeg at jeg har blitt en grinete, gammel og traust gubbe, som opererer på lag med storkapitalen og de etablerte. Ikke gærnt for en 33 åring det…

Distribution revolution? By Even Aas-Eng

Since the arrival of the world wide web we have had three different phases of how we filter information (web sites).

First we had the web portals that gathered useful sites so it would be easy for people to navigate to the information they were looking for. The number of sites where off course very limited and if you tried a search engine to find something else you usually ended up on a porn site! As an advertiser the only real way of reaching a lot of people where through display ads or text links on the portals.

Then search engines (with less spam) changed the game completely. All websites became accessible through a search and a click. Great news for mankind and great news for advertisers that could add paid keywords and search engine optimization to their marketing mix.

Today we are well into phase three, social media. Filtering has again been taken over by humans (facilitated by technology) and social networks and user generated media are increasingly controlling our click streams and influencing our online decisions.

I am not writing this because we need yet another rant on how important social media is and how we can utilize it. What I would like to do is to emphasize one particular innovation, Facebook Connect.

Facebook Connect is a single sign on-service that enables user to logon to web sites outside Facebook with their Facebook login. Facebook Connect was launched in December 2008 and competes with openID and similar services. The difference being that Facebook is the Google of social media and a lot more powerful. For users Facebook Connect means that the actions they do on affiliated sites can be shared with their friends on Facebook. So again, great news for surfers of the web and a massive opportunity for advertisers.

Facebook Connect gives advertisers access to the most powerful distribution platform we have seen since Google took off early in this millennium. Here is why:

1) Facebook Connect lowers the threshold for participation. Who wants to create a new username and password? No one, we have way to many as it is. Using the connect service in advertising campaigns, on smaller niche communities or corporate sites you increase your signup rate massively because most people already have a Facebook account. (The Fluent 09/Razorfish report states that there is a 35% increase in the will for signing up via Facebook Connect)

2) Viral. Everything that you do on a Facebook Connect affiliated site can potentially be shared on Facebooks newsfeed or you can send a Facebook message. So if just ten people make an action and share it thousands may potentially see it. Someone will probably “Like” it and someone will probably comment on it.

It’s that simple and that important.
Try thinking about how you would attract new members to a niche community or how you would recruit users for an online competition with and without Facebook Connect and you will understand the importance of this feature.

I think Facebook Connect represents a distribution revolution, its one of the most important innovations we have seen in years and It will be a game changer.

Who thought that a DVD rental would be the coolest place to work? By Even Aas-Eng

Today I picked up an article in a TechCrunch newsletter about Netflix. The American online DVD rental service apparently has a very interesting corporate culture that everyone now can read about after the management added their “Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture” To slideshare.

Some Highlights from the guide are:
- Netflix Vacation Policy and Tracking: "there is no policy or tracking."
- "There is also no clothing policy at Netflix, but no one has come to work naked lately."
- Netflix's policies for Expensing, Gifts and Travel: "Act in Netflix's Best Interests."
- Netflix on compensation: “When top of market comp done right... Nearly all ex-employees will take a step down in comp for their next job.”

So if you work at Netflix you can go on vacation whenever you like, show up naked in the office, receive a 50 inch LED TV as a gift from a Netflix partner (if it’s in Netflix best interest that you accept it) and while you are doing all this you will get the best compensation in the market!
I guess by now you really want to work with online DVD rentals!

Jokes aside, I think the presentation was very interesting. Its miles away from our Nordic “social welfare state” corporate culture, but it’s also miles away from most big American corporations excruciatingly boring “code of conduct”. What surprises me the most is that Netflix is not a small company. They are around 2000 people and their listed on NASDAQ. Alternative corporate cultures aren’t exactly uncommon in cool, tech start ups but they have a tendency to disintegrate as the companies go public.

Most companies like Netflix uses stock options as a way to keep the best talent. Google is a prime example, they gave all employees various number of options. Their strategy was never to be leading in compensation. When they went public in 2004 the initial offering was 85$, in 2007 Google hit 700$. Between 2004 and 2007 Google hired about 10 000 people, all got options. Because of the continuously rise in the Google stock its most have been a very effective way of keeping the best talent. There are two problems with this model though, its volatile and short term. Today Google shares are hovering around 450$.

Netflix offers stock options to those who want them but their strategy to keep the best talent is to offer them the best compensation in the market and let the employees decide what to do with it. The get rich quick opportunity disappears but you get long term stability and safety. I think most people would prefer the Netflix way.

Personally I have worked in India where I couldn’t wear jeans at the office except on Fridays and I have worked for Google where you got an incentive to buy a bike to save the environment… I prefer McCann here in Oslo where we have a mix of Nordic welfare stat socialism and IPGs code of conduct!

You can find the preso here: http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664

Innovating pitch process

McCann in Turkey are currently in a pitch process with Turkish Airlines (TA) and the process has been very different and innovative. TA has placed clues online on different social media sites that the agencies involved has to find. You can read more about it here on McCann Turkeys blog: http://www.digithell.net/post/Now-We-re-Taking-Off!.aspx

The Bing project completed… By Even Aas-Eng

The last two weeks I have used Bing as my default search engine. The mission here was not to look at new features or functionality that only are available in the US version but to see if Bing could handle the day by day stuff.

So here is a little recap of my two weeks with Bing. I started off uninstalling my Google toolbar and got ready to install the Bing. Easier said than done… A search for Bing toolbar in Bing gave no results but I did manage to find a Live toolbar. It didn’t look good, no search history and no search suggestion. Two days after I installed the toolbar it mysteriously vanished…

Ok, let’s move on to the actual search results. I was astonished after searching for Facebook and not finding it on the first page. How is that possible? A search for “Aunan” (A salmon fishing camp at the Orkla river) gave no results at all, a search in Google and their homepage was at position number one.

When you search for a site using the complete domain ( for example VG.no) Google sends you directly to the site. Bing doesn’t and it’s annoying.

Today I was looking for a hotel in Oslo for a business contact who is visiting on Wednesday. I searched for the hotel name (Gabels hus) in Bing and got no relevant result on the first page. The same search in Google and the hotel web site hade the top rank.

The last two weeks every newsletter from TechCrunch has had at least one article praising Bing and talking about how great it is that someone tries to give Google a run for its money. There seems to be a lot of people wanting change in the search game. I am definitely one of them, but I can’t change my default search engine to something that is untrustworthy for the easiest requests. So for now its bye, bye Bing and welcome back Google.

Going completely Bing! By Even Aas-Eng

After seven years of Googling I will from now Bing things instead. If it’s not good enough I will change back in two weeks.

I will let you know.

www.bing.com

The link between display and SEM. By Even Aas-Eng

Online marketers can be divided into three categories:

1) Those who believe the display ad is dead and think SEM will solve all your problems
2) Those who believe the display ad is everything
3) Those who believe that the world is not black or white and that it might be interesting to look at marketing across media channels and platforms and that different companies might need different strategies.

Of these three categories it’s my feeling that unfortunately nr 1 is growing, luckily nr 2 is declining and nr 3 is growing but not fast enough.

Aegis owned SEM agency Iprospect recently released a survey that concluded that display advertising has a positive effect on your SEA campaigns and that display advertising could work even though people don’t click on your ad. Revolutionary stuff…
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that Iprospect did the survey, I hope many people read it and I hope we will see more surveys like this in the near future, but it scares me that we are not more advanced in how we utilize new media.

I think it’s funny how SEM fanatic’s have trashed the display ad for years while their favorite company Google in the same period have invested BILLIONS to build the largest display ad network in the world. As mentioned before on this blog, the display ad isn’t dead it has just been revitalized.

I have been a SEM evangelist in the Norwegian market since 2003 but I never meant that display advertising don’t work. If you compare display and SEA by looking at CTR, CPC and conversion rates you are looking at two different planets, that doesn’t mean that one of the planets are about the be blasted out of the solar system. The role of advertising is to create demand and that is possible to achieve trough a social media concept, a display ad, a SEA campaign, a newsletter, a viral movie, a TV commercial, a social media ad, a web site, a DM, or a combination of all or some of the above.

Why box yourself in by just having faith in one type of advertising?

Iprospect survey: http://www.iprospect.com/about/researchstudy_2009_searchanddisplay.htm