By Tara McMeekin
Editor
DENVER — MediaNews Group is basing its next generation of targeted publications on the concept of “individuated” newspapers, fueled by the evolution of high-speed digital presses.
“I’ve followed digital presses long enough,” said Peter Vandevanter, MNG’s vice president of targeted products. “I knew it was going to happen. It’s just a matter of when.”
Drupa in June provided the backdrop for a number of digital press providers to show that their machines may finally be equipped to deliver results to an industry that’s been ready for them for some time now (see Newspapers & Technology, July 2008).
“We know these presses drive down the cost of printing,” Vandevanter said.
MNG is no stranger to niche publishing. In addition to its stable of daily newspapers, it currently offers 239 separate publications that include free magazines, newspaper weeklies and TMCs, from which the publisher posts annual revenues in excess of $90 million.
Now, Vandevanter said MNG is ready to draw on its expertise to become the “iPod of newspapers,” offering targeted daily products to readers with all of the content they want and nothing they don’t.
New concept of targeting readers
MNG is so keen on the idea of targeted newspapers that the publisher coined the term “individuated newspapers” to describe the concept and distinguish it as going beyond targeted products currently available.
The individuated newspaper was the topic of a meeting MNG sponsored at its Denver headquarters in June.
“If we print what our readers, not we, want, if we disregard our arrogance and old ideas, if we let our readers participate, we will succeed,” MNG Chairman William Dean Singleton told attendees. “Imagine the value of the targeted newspaper if the newspaper we published knew what a particular reader wanted and could combine relevant stories and relevant advertising in each individuated newspaper.”
Attendees to the event, the second of its kind hosted by MNG, came from a variety of areas within the newspaper industry, from software and community publishing suppliers to digital press vendors.
MNG has two more events planned dedicated to the topic, one Jan. 15-16, 2009, in Boca Raton, Fla., and one June 24-26, 2009, in Washington, D.C.
Finding the right fit
MNG is keeping a close eye on the new generation of digital presses, searching the market to find the right fit for its own products even as it attempts to create the right blend of products to make the individuated newspaper a reality.
“Workflow software is a big part of this — the whole prepress aspect is big,” Vandevanter said. “How are you collecting your data, is it RSS feeds or what? There are still so many pieces that have to come together that it’s a mammoth.”
Regardless of the technological foundation involved, the end product must mirror the publisher’s key focus, Vandevanter said, citing DailyMe as a good interface for gauging reader interests.
The trail MNG is blazing is one other newspaper publishers will likely closely evaluate. During his 15 years producing niche pubs, Vandevanter has developed a good sense of the value of targeted advertising.
“That whole dynamic of ‘print less, charge more’ is what niche publications are all about,” he said. “If you get down to a one-page product, what’s the value of an ad on that page?”
Considering CPM
In terms of cost per thousand, he said the target for profitability lies somewhere between $100 and $400 CPM for products with circulations under 20,000.
“At $400 CPM you can get $4 for an ad on a page that cost you 5 cents to print,” he said. “If you could get to a 1-to-1 newspaper, that’s a very nice business model — we wouldn’t even have to get there in the next two years to show value in these presses.”
Vandevanter said he heard a lot of comments at the June conference that individuated magazines would likely become a reality before individuated newspapers.
“It doesn’t matter what comes first,” he said. “The key is that it’s individualized.”
There are two things that will derail the success of the individuated newspaper, according to Vandevanter. The first is failing to adequately test how these products will interface with the public. They have to be properly developed and tested, he said, in order to ensure their success.
“The public has to be as addicted to individualization of news as they are to individualization music,” he said. “We want to be the iPod of newspapers.”
The second threat is not placing enough value on advertising.
“If we don’t establish the value of this advertising from the beginning, we run the risk of devaluing it.”
Better than shoes?
Publishers must also recognize the value of the sociological aspect of an individuated newspaper, he said.
“Once this becomes personalized, you can sell it — this will be better than shoes.”
Vandevanter said MNG has no imminent plans to buy a digital press, but that the publisher wants to offer some type of individuated product in 2009, whether or not it’s initially produced on an MNG-owned press.
Monday, September 1, 2008
User-generated publications on horizon with Printcasting
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
A project now under way at The Bakersfield Californian could give newspapers nationwide the ability to let readers easily create their own niche publications.
The Californian earlier this year won an $837,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to develop an interface, dubbed Printcasting, that allows readers to customize publications containing content from participating blogs and newspaper Web sites.
The upshot: user-generated publications that can be e-mailed as a PDF or printed at home or in the office, said Dan Pacheco, senior manager of digital products at The Californian.
“Maybe it’s about music and you can get a bunch of content from (The Californian’s Web site) Bakotopia, or maybe it’s about a certain craft or neighborhood news,” he said, explaining that Printcasting dovetails nicely with the paper’s strategy to identify important audiences that could be served through niche products.
“What we know is that there are so many audiences that may not be as big as that for a newspaper, but there still will be a certain community that’s interested in that topic or organization,” he said.
Printcasting will also help newspapers capitalize on the continued appeal of print and allow them to reach local retailers wary of current print advertising models, Pacheco said.
“If you look at a small niche interests that may have 5,000 people dedicated to that community, there could be a half dozen or more businesses that would love to reach them,” said Pacheco. “Those types of businesses are not advertising in our larger print products and certainly not in our main newspaper because it’s too expensive and it would use their entire marketing budget in the span of a week.”
Making it happen
Printcasting sprang from what The Californian learned by creating its own network of social networking sites (see related story on page 37.)
“Initially, what we talked about was how we can have people create their own social networks about very specific interests,” said Pacheco. “And the term used for that was instabrand, but we haven’t quite gotten there yet. I think that Printcasting is going to make that happen.”
The newspaper is three months into its first leg of a two-year project that will make Printcasting available to anyone who wants to use it. It will be offered as an open source product, thus allowing newspapers to download the software and integrate it into their existing systems, Pacheco said.
The first phase of the project includes design and beta testing the Printcasting interface. The second phase, slated to start next March, includes testing the system at The Californian and the third phase encompasses testing Printcasting with five volunteer publications.
Printcasting also includes a self-service ad interface to enable advertisers to place ads on their own, Pacheco said.
“Printcasting is also a bridge strategy for serving local advertisers that may not be advertising anywhere right now, let alone in print,” he said.
Once The Californian begins testing Printcasting next spring, Pacheco said he hopes to create an “American Idol” effect around the subsequent user-generated niche publications.
“We figure if we get enough people to create these things and we track which ones are the most popular, certain stars are going to emerge,” he said. “We hope we’ll see 100 come out over a three-month period where 10 of them are consistently good.”
If that part of the plan pans out, The Californian will evaluate printing and distributing those magazines that spark the most popularity or best meet a specific demographic, Pacheco said.
Hyper customization
Pacheco said Printcasting meshes with the current demand among consumers for products and services that meet their specific interests.
“The print world hasn’t been forgotten and when you see circulations go down it’s not that people don’t want to consume print,” he said. “It’s more of a statement about the one-size-fits-all audience strategy that newspapers have pursued for so many years.”
The development of Printcasting comes as newspapers begin to explore more deeply ways to serve niche audiences.
“I’ve learned that there is this whole movement that I didn’t know existed, but we are starting to learn about each other,” said Pacheco. “Printcasting is part of that movement. Fortunately we’re not the only innovators in that area, which makes it exciting.”
Associate Editor
A project now under way at The Bakersfield Californian could give newspapers nationwide the ability to let readers easily create their own niche publications.
The Californian earlier this year won an $837,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to develop an interface, dubbed Printcasting, that allows readers to customize publications containing content from participating blogs and newspaper Web sites.
The upshot: user-generated publications that can be e-mailed as a PDF or printed at home or in the office, said Dan Pacheco, senior manager of digital products at The Californian.
“Maybe it’s about music and you can get a bunch of content from (The Californian’s Web site) Bakotopia, or maybe it’s about a certain craft or neighborhood news,” he said, explaining that Printcasting dovetails nicely with the paper’s strategy to identify important audiences that could be served through niche products.
“What we know is that there are so many audiences that may not be as big as that for a newspaper, but there still will be a certain community that’s interested in that topic or organization,” he said.
Printcasting will also help newspapers capitalize on the continued appeal of print and allow them to reach local retailers wary of current print advertising models, Pacheco said.
“If you look at a small niche interests that may have 5,000 people dedicated to that community, there could be a half dozen or more businesses that would love to reach them,” said Pacheco. “Those types of businesses are not advertising in our larger print products and certainly not in our main newspaper because it’s too expensive and it would use their entire marketing budget in the span of a week.”
Making it happen
Printcasting sprang from what The Californian learned by creating its own network of social networking sites (see related story on page 37.)
“Initially, what we talked about was how we can have people create their own social networks about very specific interests,” said Pacheco. “And the term used for that was instabrand, but we haven’t quite gotten there yet. I think that Printcasting is going to make that happen.”
The newspaper is three months into its first leg of a two-year project that will make Printcasting available to anyone who wants to use it. It will be offered as an open source product, thus allowing newspapers to download the software and integrate it into their existing systems, Pacheco said.
The first phase of the project includes design and beta testing the Printcasting interface. The second phase, slated to start next March, includes testing the system at The Californian and the third phase encompasses testing Printcasting with five volunteer publications.
Printcasting also includes a self-service ad interface to enable advertisers to place ads on their own, Pacheco said.
“Printcasting is also a bridge strategy for serving local advertisers that may not be advertising anywhere right now, let alone in print,” he said.
Once The Californian begins testing Printcasting next spring, Pacheco said he hopes to create an “American Idol” effect around the subsequent user-generated niche publications.
“We figure if we get enough people to create these things and we track which ones are the most popular, certain stars are going to emerge,” he said. “We hope we’ll see 100 come out over a three-month period where 10 of them are consistently good.”
If that part of the plan pans out, The Californian will evaluate printing and distributing those magazines that spark the most popularity or best meet a specific demographic, Pacheco said.
Hyper customization
Pacheco said Printcasting meshes with the current demand among consumers for products and services that meet their specific interests.
“The print world hasn’t been forgotten and when you see circulations go down it’s not that people don’t want to consume print,” he said. “It’s more of a statement about the one-size-fits-all audience strategy that newspapers have pursued for so many years.”
The development of Printcasting comes as newspapers begin to explore more deeply ways to serve niche audiences.
“I’ve learned that there is this whole movement that I didn’t know existed, but we are starting to learn about each other,” said Pacheco. “Printcasting is part of that movement. Fortunately we’re not the only innovators in that area, which makes it exciting.”
Newsworld to produce British dailies in N.Y. with digital press
By Tara McMeekin
Editor
British newspapers the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday will be digitally printed in New York starting this month through a four-year contract between Newsworld Corp. Ltd. and Associated Newspapers Ltd.
The papers will be produced seven days a week using a Screen Truepress Jet520 line (two engines) and an inline Hunkeler finishing system through Newsworld’s “distribute then print” service, which it launched last year.
“In the last two years we’ve pulled together a series of interconnected things — software, a printing machine from Screen and the Hunkeler machine is the finishing arm of what we do,” said David Renouf, chief executive at Newsworld. “When we pull that all together it becomes a compelling package for publishers around the world.”
The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday will initially launch with UK versions, but the publisher said plans are to eventually tailor editions to New Yorkers, complete with local content and advertising. Fifty percent of the 96-page editions will be in full color.
Local copy, local ads on tap
“They want to turn it into a specific New York edition,” Renouf said. “The software that we have at the front end of this allows us to drop in local ads and local copy very easily.”
That software, he said, also allows for normal imposition and provides reporting numbers publishers can use for their audit circulation.
“Previous attempts to establish the principle of printing newspapers locally have been compromised by speed, color or quality,” said Newsworld Chairman John Ashfield. “We can provide the quality, look and feel of the original brand product, coupled with significant time savings, which allow the papers to be on sale on the same day.”
Editor
British newspapers the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday will be digitally printed in New York starting this month through a four-year contract between Newsworld Corp. Ltd. and Associated Newspapers Ltd.
The papers will be produced seven days a week using a Screen Truepress Jet520 line (two engines) and an inline Hunkeler finishing system through Newsworld’s “distribute then print” service, which it launched last year.
“In the last two years we’ve pulled together a series of interconnected things — software, a printing machine from Screen and the Hunkeler machine is the finishing arm of what we do,” said David Renouf, chief executive at Newsworld. “When we pull that all together it becomes a compelling package for publishers around the world.”
The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday will initially launch with UK versions, but the publisher said plans are to eventually tailor editions to New Yorkers, complete with local content and advertising. Fifty percent of the 96-page editions will be in full color.
Local copy, local ads on tap
“They want to turn it into a specific New York edition,” Renouf said. “The software that we have at the front end of this allows us to drop in local ads and local copy very easily.”
That software, he said, also allows for normal imposition and provides reporting numbers publishers can use for their audit circulation.
“Previous attempts to establish the principle of printing newspapers locally have been compromised by speed, color or quality,” said Newsworld Chairman John Ashfield. “We can provide the quality, look and feel of the original brand product, coupled with significant time savings, which allow the papers to be on sale on the same day.”
Bakersfield Californian leading social networking
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
For newspapers, social networking is slowly becoming the little user-generated content feature that could.
This was evident in the Newspaper Association of America’s June report, “Engaging Users: User-Generated Content and Tools for Newspapers,” which found that interest in newspaper-based social networking features was high among respondents who have used social networking in the past. About 45 percent of those respondents indicated interest in reading or posting reviews on local businesses and services.
Yet while many newspapers are still trying to determine how to package social networking, one paper, The Bakersfield Californian, earlier this year marked its third anniversary as a social networking pioneer.
The newspaper’s Bakotopia, introduced in early 2005, came about as a preemptive strike against sites like Craigslist before they hit the Bakersfield area, said Dan Pacheco, The Californian’s senior manager of digital products.
Outside of newspaper
“At the time, the company identified several different audiences and I think we were one of the first newspapers in the U.S. to come out and say we need to grow audience one way or another and it doesn’t have to be through the core newspaper,” he said. “The idea was that Bakotopia would be a center for anything about the alternative Bakersfield.”
Six months after Bakotopia’s launch, the paper began adding more features to the site, including the ability for users to create profiles, upload photos and list events, all of which struck a chord with the local music scene.
“We had lots of bands show up to post their events and once we started having bands in our community we started thinking the bands should have profiles and add their music,” Pacheco said.
Bands post songs on the site through a feature dubbed Bakotunes and content is made available under a creative commons license. Users can listen, download and use the music in any way as long as it’s not for commercial purposes.
Pacheco said Bakotopia’s impact in the local music community was further cemented after a radio station provided The Californian with 46 radio spots as part of a co-promotion between the station and the paper.
The Californian invited bands to fill the spots. It received a lot of response and Pacheco said that a number of groups even created original songs about the Web site. The songs produced for the radio spots can be found at www.bakotopia.com/home/user/bakotopianews.
“What that experience showed us is that we were getting something from the musicians being on our site and the bands were getting exposure from us by getting on local radio,” he said.
Thousands of users
Californian Vice President of Audience Development Mary Lou Fulton said that Bakotopia now has more than 500 band profiles and 5,000 registered users on the site.
“You can tell from these numbers that we have become the local place for bands to connect with their fans and post their music. That has helped with our marketing because bands are out there in the community performing all the time and letting people know that they are on Bakotopia and that (fans) should check it out,” she said.
Fulton said newspapers should capitalize on aiming their social networking sites at already established special interest groups rather than attempt to create communities from scratch.
Over the past three years, The Californian added social networking features to all 11 of its Web sites and has seen how users are exploiting the tools on each of the sites, Fulton said.
Case in point: The paper’s Bakersfield.com flagship site, which attracts more than 2,000 bloggers. “What’s fascinating is that we put the exact tools on a Web site focused on a particular community with a different product manager and get completely different results,” she said.
Bakoproducts
Most important, The Californian found ways to leverage the popularity generated by its myriad sites and experiment with ways to earn some money.
To that end, the paper released a CD compilation of the best of Bakotunes, showcasing local bands.
“They sold it for $5. It didn’t make a lot of money but paid for the CD,” Pacheco said. “Even though (readers) listen to Bakotunes on the Web site, they loved to get the CD when it was offered at events.”
The publisher rolled out a bi-weekly magazine as well, which is also called Bakotopia, and contains user-generated stories, photos and other content generated on the site.
The popularity of the ink-and-paper publication indicates to Pacheco that younger people remain interested in print.
“They use the Web site and magazine together, a hybrid experience, because they know the magazine includes posted content and know that if they are involved in the community online it increases the chances their content will show up in the magazine,” he said. “They love that idea because their content, pictures or profiles are out there at all the local clubs and they become a celebrity.”
Associate Editor
For newspapers, social networking is slowly becoming the little user-generated content feature that could.
This was evident in the Newspaper Association of America’s June report, “Engaging Users: User-Generated Content and Tools for Newspapers,” which found that interest in newspaper-based social networking features was high among respondents who have used social networking in the past. About 45 percent of those respondents indicated interest in reading or posting reviews on local businesses and services.
Yet while many newspapers are still trying to determine how to package social networking, one paper, The Bakersfield Californian, earlier this year marked its third anniversary as a social networking pioneer.
The newspaper’s Bakotopia, introduced in early 2005, came about as a preemptive strike against sites like Craigslist before they hit the Bakersfield area, said Dan Pacheco, The Californian’s senior manager of digital products.
Outside of newspaper
“At the time, the company identified several different audiences and I think we were one of the first newspapers in the U.S. to come out and say we need to grow audience one way or another and it doesn’t have to be through the core newspaper,” he said. “The idea was that Bakotopia would be a center for anything about the alternative Bakersfield.”
Six months after Bakotopia’s launch, the paper began adding more features to the site, including the ability for users to create profiles, upload photos and list events, all of which struck a chord with the local music scene.
“We had lots of bands show up to post their events and once we started having bands in our community we started thinking the bands should have profiles and add their music,” Pacheco said.
Bands post songs on the site through a feature dubbed Bakotunes and content is made available under a creative commons license. Users can listen, download and use the music in any way as long as it’s not for commercial purposes.
Pacheco said Bakotopia’s impact in the local music community was further cemented after a radio station provided The Californian with 46 radio spots as part of a co-promotion between the station and the paper.
The Californian invited bands to fill the spots. It received a lot of response and Pacheco said that a number of groups even created original songs about the Web site. The songs produced for the radio spots can be found at www.bakotopia.com/home/user/bakotopianews.
“What that experience showed us is that we were getting something from the musicians being on our site and the bands were getting exposure from us by getting on local radio,” he said.
Thousands of users
Californian Vice President of Audience Development Mary Lou Fulton said that Bakotopia now has more than 500 band profiles and 5,000 registered users on the site.
“You can tell from these numbers that we have become the local place for bands to connect with their fans and post their music. That has helped with our marketing because bands are out there in the community performing all the time and letting people know that they are on Bakotopia and that (fans) should check it out,” she said.
Fulton said newspapers should capitalize on aiming their social networking sites at already established special interest groups rather than attempt to create communities from scratch.
Over the past three years, The Californian added social networking features to all 11 of its Web sites and has seen how users are exploiting the tools on each of the sites, Fulton said.
Case in point: The paper’s Bakersfield.com flagship site, which attracts more than 2,000 bloggers. “What’s fascinating is that we put the exact tools on a Web site focused on a particular community with a different product manager and get completely different results,” she said.
Bakoproducts
Most important, The Californian found ways to leverage the popularity generated by its myriad sites and experiment with ways to earn some money.
To that end, the paper released a CD compilation of the best of Bakotunes, showcasing local bands.
“They sold it for $5. It didn’t make a lot of money but paid for the CD,” Pacheco said. “Even though (readers) listen to Bakotunes on the Web site, they loved to get the CD when it was offered at events.”
The publisher rolled out a bi-weekly magazine as well, which is also called Bakotopia, and contains user-generated stories, photos and other content generated on the site.
The popularity of the ink-and-paper publication indicates to Pacheco that younger people remain interested in print.
“They use the Web site and magazine together, a hybrid experience, because they know the magazine includes posted content and know that if they are involved in the community online it increases the chances their content will show up in the magazine,” he said. “They love that idea because their content, pictures or profiles are out there at all the local clubs and they become a celebrity.”
4 questions with Aurelio Maruggi
Aurelio Maruggi, vice president and general manager of inkjet high-speed production solutions for Hewlett-Packard, spoke to Newspapers & Technology about HP’s digital print offerings for the newspaper industry and whether the technology is really ready to deliver.
How is HP approaching newspapers and how do you see HP fitting into this industry?
It is a key focus for HP to engage with the industry to understand pain points and trends. The conversations we have participated in with newspaper experts to date have helped us shape the product strategy in a way that can effectively address what the industry requires.
The newspaper industry is seeing some trends and pressure in common with other graphic arts industries, such as rising input costs, demand for more personalized and targeted information and growing digital sophistication. The newspaper industry is in a unique position by virtue of the fact that it embraced the Web at an early stage, but there has been to date very limited connectivity between traditional print and the digital world. We believe our solutions reflect a significant step forward to enable a connection for the newspaper industry.
According to HP, what are the benefits of drop-on-demand vs. continuous inkjet technology for newspapers?
The approach that we have taken to address the analog-to-digital transformation for the newspaper industry has been to a certain extent technology-agnostic. We have focused on meeting the newspaper publisher’s specific requirements, and have learned that there is a need for a digital printing platform that provides the best combination of format size, productivity, print quality and economics. We have identified the HP Scalable Printing Technology (SPT) as a great fit for these needs. This inkjet technology has been specifically developed to remove the limitations in width and speed of other technologies, and it is used on a broad portfolio of HP products spanning from high-end office products to photo kiosks. It delivers high quality at a level of economics that benefit of the large scale of HP manufacturing.
In addition to these benefits, HP SPT offers a unique “bonding agent” technology that allows newspaper publishers to continue to use their own paper, removing one the major limiting factors of other digital printing technologies.
What trends do you see in digital printing for newspapers as far as news products, niche products, etc? What new technologies and features do you see emerging in digital presses that could potentially benefit newspapers?
The newspaper industry has — at the same time — an opportunity and a threat coming from the Web. Readers’ demand for more up-to-date and relevant content is growing at a fast pace and it is causing a shift in behaviors, making online more relevant. Advertisers are seeing this trend and adjusting their spending shares accordingly. For example, we’ve seen research noting that, for the 2005-2009 time period, online advertising is growing at a rate close to 30 percent, while newspapers’ advertising growth is in the low single digits.
The availability of a production infrastructure based on a distributed network of digital presses will allow the newspaper industry to shorten the time to deliver news and even customize the kind of news delivered to each individual reader. This may eventually result in an inversion of the readership trends and make newspapers a preferred advertising medium.
The newspaper industry has been talking for many years about the potential benefits of digital printing. Is the technology really ready to deliver these benefits?
Digital printing technology has been used so far by the newspaper industry in very niche applications because of the limitations in format size, productivity, print quality and economics. The HP Inkjet Web Press represents a breakthrough that we believe has the potential to start a “virtuous cycle” in this industry. Assuming that the price and performance benefits of digital continue on their current trajectory, digital holds the potential to transform the newspaper industry much as digital cameras did for photography.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
