17. 17
Making the Transformation
Short Term Actions to Take
1. Decide on what is an acceptable and lower margin.
Manage to it.
2. Get rid of unprofitable circulation. We can’t afford it.
3. Monetize surplus capacity, especially in printing and
distribution. We don’t have the luxury of idle assets.
4. Model price elasticity for home delivery. Raise prices
where there is opportunity.
5. Lower advertising rates if it will proportionally raise volume.
You’ll improve customers’ ROI.
6. Outsource where you can improve profitability and/or
productivity, while maintaining acceptable service levels.
18. 18
Core Newspaper: What the Future Holds
De-emphasize one-size-fits-all characteristics;
find ways to position its ability to target.
Think Mass Targeting
More context, perspective, analysis, subject matter
experts. Less who, what, when, where, more why.
Think The Economist or The Week
Originate local and aggregate/edit everything else.
Think “back to the future” when local was all
newspapers did
20. 20
Making the Transformation
Long Term Essential Actions
1. Build a culture that embraces change.
2. Build a strategy based on super-serving local
niche audiences.
3. Reorganize the company to execute #2.
21. 21
Making the Transformation
Long Term Essential Actions
1. Build a culture that embraces change.
2. Build a strategy based on super-serving local
niche audiences.
3. Reorganize the company to execute #2.
23. 23
Strategy: The Three Basic Questions
1. What are our core competencies?
2. How do we create value for consumers using
our core competencies?
3. How can we have a sustainable competitive
advantage using our core competencies to
create value for consumers?
25. 25
Core Competencies
Originating and editing news and information
that attracts audiences
Monetizing the value of audiences for
companies who want to sell goods and
services to those audiences
36. 36
Focus on Local
The Dallas Morning News
What we stopped doing:
Closed foreign bureaus except Mexico City
Reduced size of Washington D.C. Bureau
Eliminated Technology section
Eliminated three general-interest Lifestyle sections
Reduced size of Religion section
Reduced Sports travel to games without
local/regional teams
Eliminated circulation outside 100 mile radius,
except for Austin
50. 50
“The liberties of a
people never were
and ever will be
secured when the
transactions of their
rulers may be
concealed from them.
That’s why they
guaranteed in the Bill
of Rights that the
government could
not abridge the free
press.”
-- Patrick Henry
51. 51
“Our liberty as
a free press is
meant to insure
the protection of
all the liberties
constitutionally
guaranteed.”
-- John Adams
55. 55
Focus on Local
The Dallas Morning News
What we started doing:
Launched five live zoned editions of our Metro section
Launched zoned opinion pages corresponding to Metro zones
Launched 16 consumer generated media weekly tabs focused on
local neighborhoods
Launched over 50 micro-sites under same brand
Launched a live daily arts and entertainment section
Launched a weekly high school sports tab
Launched a high school sports website under same brand
Added to our investigative/enterprise team and focused on
local/regional stories
Added to our education team and focused on local/regional stories
57. 57
Newspapers / Websites
Less like a newspaper online, more like a website
in the post search, web 2.0 era.
Much, much, much easier to find what you want.
Much faster.
Video supports every significant story where it
makes a difference. Do it or risk becoming
irrelevant to the online news consumer.
59. 59
Newspapers / Websites
Less like a newspaper online, more like a website
in the post search, web 2.0 era.
Much, much, much easier to find what you want.
Much faster.
Video supports every significant story where it
makes a difference. Do it or risk becoming
irrelevant to the online news consumer.
Open source where appropriate. Let 10,000
maniacs do the work.
60. 60
Our Business Transformation
Complete the cultural and strategic
transformation from a newspaper company to a
news and information company.
Create a single database of our news, sports,
entertainment and information that can be
delivered to any device anytime and anywhere the
customer wants it.
Think publish once, distribute many times
Niche, niche and niche some more.
Notas del editor
Comparative Other datapoints – khou.com (Oct nov dec)wfaa.com,
KHOU - 172 in oct under, nov = 270, dec = 148
Wfaa - oct 167, nov 223, dec 149
