When Thor titled the first cVillain post “Welcome to the Future of Charlottesville Gossip,” he wasn’t spreading rumors. cVillain somehow morphed into a unique model for local entertainment/news which, as far as I’m concerned, demonstrates one face of what local media needs to look like. I’m not talking about major metropolitan “local.” I’m talking about 100,000 to 500,000 people local. I wanted to write a business-ish summary of my current understanding of local media, its trends and how I think the future will pan out. I think this analysis can be extended to similar markets and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Having spent most of my career working with small and medium sized media companies, I’d say I have a pretty good grasp on what’s working and what’s not working for local media. The future is social and driven by the internet. The internet has majorly disrupted traditional media business models. More interesting is that traditional media has made major failures by failing to adapt to the following major trends: (1) fragmentation of consumption (2) formation of strong, local communities and (3) the shift in advertising dollars.
Trends
Fragmentation of Consumption: Without a doubt, the local audience consumes content from a television, from Google News, from a local media website, from an aggregator (e.g. cvillenews.com), twitter or their cellphones. Audiences demand instant access to news no matter where they are.
Formation of Strong, Vocal Communities: The internet has empowered audiences to interact, critique and control content. We like to use the analogy of a party host. As the host of the party, you may provide the beer, the food and the board games, but it’s up to your guests to determine how they have fun and who they talk to. Local media is witnessing a shift in media/news as a production to a conversation, a process of interaction between their people and the community.
Shift in Advertising Dollars from Print to Online: Most local media companies generate approximately 90% of their advertising revenue from traditional (i.e. print ads, radio & TV segments) and 10% from interactive channels. The reality for the last few years is that traditional channels have been declining dramatically and local media has a huge problem growing online revenue. If local media doesn’t play smart, those ad dollars will continue to shift away from local media, into smarter and better advertising buys.
Failures
Fragmentation of Content Failures:
- Horrible Website Design. With the multitude of award winning media websites out there, it’s really surprising how bad websites look for pretty much every local media. A lot of local media use half-baked website suppliers, 3rd party add-ins and bad design firms to manage this process for them and it shows. DailyProgress.com is full of spammy looking advertising and lacks cohesiveness, C-VILLE.com and readthehook.com are really hard to navigate and have way too much going on, NBC29 and WCAV don’t do too much better. A failed website design will make users leave. There are many good examples out there, but it always amazes me how bad things look with local websites.
- Not Syndicating Full Content. While local media eagerly jump on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon, they are still incredible protective about content. RSS feeds are typically truncated, videos aren’t uploaded to YouTube, editors are protective about their content. This is a dangerous situation because information wants to be free and accessible to anyone.
- Failure to Creative Commons License Content. Today a $300 digital camera can do the job of any photographer for news and local event reporting. It may be sad, but the truth is content is extremely cheap to produce. You can even outsource reporting to India. Search engine rankings and popularity are driven by people linking back to your site. The more you give them, the more free pictures, re-publishable content, etc, the more they will give back to you. Controlling everything sends the message you don’t care about the community and don’t care to facilitate and participate in a process.
Formation of Strong, Vocal Communities Failures:
- Not being part of the community. If the internet does one thing well, it gives a democratic voice to the audience. Traditional media doesn’t understand that their writers and editors no longer sit in a fortified castle controlling conversations and the things that get published. We’re living in a revolutionized media world, one where a community member has every bit of power as an editor or producer. That’s shocking and threatens a lot of people’s careers. When the people who still think they are gatekeepers fail to act with humility and be fair to their audience, the community will bite back. They may be able to control that negativity on their their turf, but guess what, that word is easy to get out.
- Being fake. You know how Charlottesville loves to bash big corporations all the time for faking local benefits, healthcare, etc? The same is true with local media. When your brand and people try to be something they are not, you will fail. Charlottesville isn’t full of idiots, so don’t treat your audience like babies.
- Not empowering and engaging the audience. I keep hammering this point, but the audience is in control. People want to say things. Make that easy for them. Requiring people to use their real names is completely foolish. I find it even funnier that some media has outsourced website commentary to third party sites (why are you giving away your core competency?) You need to think about yourself as a platform and a facilitator, instead of another place for people to consume that dry, uni-directional content of the past.
Shift in Advertising Dollars Failures:
- Not being honest with advertisers. Small businesses and local-only advertisers aren’t very savvy when it comes to print advertising, so local media have been lucky to hang on to local advertising dollars. Part of that sales process is misleading. Local advertisers don’t know the smart questions to ask about internet traffic. Marketing a gym, CrossFit Charlottesville, made me realize a few hours on twitter and facebook goes a LOT FURTHER than any advertising I could buy. Local media doesn’t want to tell you this and they won’t even admit it to themselves. It’s dangerous to trust the sales advice of a traditional media salesperson who has no intent to drive customers towards smarter uses of advertising dollars and time.
- Not innovating revenue products. Again, most local media serve as quasi-agencies for local businesses. They design creatives and suggest campaigns. They’ve failed miserably at offering innovative and effective digital products. For instance, if anyone offers to sell you a directory listing service, that’s the worst thing you can buy. There is a HUGE opportunity out there for innovating with new advertising products, mainly with the assistance with social media marketing channels, but I have yet to see a strong local player in any market bring this to advertisers.
- Not being accountable. Online advertising offers a vast amount of transparency and ability to calculate ROI for advertisers, but no one wants to do it. Why? Mainly because no one is being honest, but secondly because if they did, advertisers would realize their advertising dollars would be much better spent with Google or posting on Craigslist a few times per day.
- Failure to target demographics. Local media have no idea how to target their audience and this is a huge opportunity for advertisers.
Predictions
While local media fails from internal culture, an inability to understand and interact with their audience and painfully bad online monetization strategies, change is inevitable. My predictions for the Future of Charlottesville Media, as follows:
1. The media landscape will be survived by fewer competitors. Pretty much everyone else is struggling because advertising dollars are way down. While the recession and the big problems in the banking and auto industry have accelerated the decline in advertising revenues, these numbers aren’t coming back. Many media companies, especially the fringe things, won’t be able to make it. Those advertising dollars won’t return and bloated media companies will shut down and suffer. I’m not sure which big player will fold, but you can bet one of them will.
2. Online audiences will flock to open and democratic websites. The more restrictive and anti-community your website, the less interaction you will have. Those who don’t support their community and fail at hosts will see their websites continue to be whisper-quiet (this means death for a media company).
3. There will be a lot more tool and aggregation sites. Think about wikipedia, cvillenews, cvilleblogs, facebook and digg. Mix them all together, add some local flavor and you’ve got a perfect tool and source for local information. Directory listing businesses are worthless from an advertising perspective, but better things will be created that actually serve the needs of the audience.
4. Successful media will be truly social. cVillain didn’t throw parties for a business purpose. It threw parties because that’s what people wanted. Listening to your audience is very important. A strong community makes your brand stand out above the rest. If I were an advertiser, I would be asking how many people visit the site more than once, how long they stay on a website and how often they attend events. Reach is meaningless unless the audience actually uses your website and somehow interacts with advertising.
5. Targeted communities will be required by advertisers. Blasting a message about lingerie to a male audience doesn’t really provide a lot of benefits for advertisers. Instead, advertisers should be able to pick and choose who they reach.
6. Sponsored content will be prevalent. Sponsored posts and articles will become much more common.
7. Local media that become community information hubs will succeed, while those that solely “report news” will fail. The news business model is dead. It’s time to innovate.
Related posts:
- Advertising Online: Why Advertising Dollars Will Move Away from Traditional Mediums and Onto the Internet
- Internet Media Advertising Salesperson
- Spicy Bear Media LLC is Hiring
My quick initital thoughts jotting down notes as I read (n.b., they may contradict themselves):
I’d say I have a pretty good grasp on what’s working and what’s not working for local media.
Well, what doesn’t work, for sure
Horrible Website Design
Indeed. Local media site (with a few exceptions) are pretty ugly and cumbersome.
This is a dangerous situation because information wants to be free and accessible to anyone.
No, /people/ want information to be free. Information is just information.
writers and editors no longer sit in a fortified castle controlling conversations and the things that get published.
But good writers are still hard to come by. A thousand commenters is just a chat room, it takes people willing (or paid to, in the case of some reporters) to write the stories, editorials, commentary, analysis, etc. that makes for good fodder for thousands of commenters.
Charlottesville isn’t full of idiots
Wellllll…
Marketing a gym, CrossFit Charlottesville, made me realize a few hours on twitter and facebook goes a LOT FURTHER than any advertising I could buy.
Or owning a local blog and endlessly linking/mentioning it…
But it depends on your target audience. If you’re trying to reach web savvy people, perhaps… but if I’m selling local crochet needles, I might want to get some push into the old-folks homes where the internet just doesn’t have the same pull (through circulars, radio, local TV, etc.).
Might have some more thoughts later, but these should do for now.
Good writers don’t make a community; good hosts make a community. The role of the editor is shifting.
cVillain CrossFit leads = 1. Twitter, Facebook, Emails, Word of Mouth = the rest.
Email lists, direct mail, event marketing, viral marketing all work a whole lot better. At the end of the day word of mouth is your strongest marketing tool and those channels get the closest to that. Radio/TV offer more because they aren’t crowded by other brands (at the same time) and have visual and audible benefits, but really when you think about the cost associated with these campaigns, they are prohibitive for small local businesses.
Kyle – Thanks for keeping the conversation about changing media – and especially the local Charlottesville media scene – going. This is a good conversation to be having.
I don’t think anyone, including the powers-that-be at the local media companies would disagree with your points. They might not be as update to date on the latest Twitter or social media trends (location aware social mobile blogging apps!) but I doubt Frank at C-Ville or Hawes at the Hook would take issue with anything you said. They aren’t the clueless dinosaurs the young technorati like to imagine as the enemy.
In my opinion, the key point in your post was “most local media serve as quasi-agencies for local businesses”. This is crucial – local media agencies are essentially advertising agencies with a publishing wing thrown in. Very true. Media companies get their revenue from advertisers and they don’t have any misconceptions about who their true customers are. They need to make money. And those local businesses need someone to help them with their advertising. And the public get’s interesting news and content for free. It’s a great relationship.
And there-in lies the problem. The money simply isn’t there. Yes, the younger generations are all about the Internet, but the decision makers at local businesses – the ones that write the checks for the advertising spends are still years behind. The internet has just come up too quickly. No amount of salesmanship is going to convince the owner of the Cat House on the Mall to spend money on an “interactive social media marketing campaign with a viral message factor” but they can easily be sold a $700 weekly half-page ad in the local newspaper. Why? Because they read that paper, they see other businesses advertising, they know their customers read it and so it makes sense.
So you can create a smart online property that caters to the 20-something bar crowd, and you can sell ads to local restaurants and businesses that are run by similarly tech-savvy managers but that is a drop in the bucket to the car companies, plumbers, carpet cleaners, insurance companies and other local businesses that pump hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of advertising in to local “traditional media” and who have no idea what a “facebook fan page” means.
The C-Ville (and the rest) could take your advice and build the best damn website anyone has even seen – with total content freedom via RSS, Facebook Connect, Twitter feeds, mobile access, location aware plugins, blogging iphone apps, community managers and weekly parties with tagged online pictures but it still won’t make as much money as their traditional paper. Simply because their best customers are too old.
The solution isn’t convincing “old media” that things have changed. They are well aware of that. The problem is convincing old media’s customers that things have changed. If you can figure out how to sell an online marketing campaign to the accountants, plumbers and antique stores in town you will have solved the media problem.
Any ideas?
I do a lot of reading: online news, magazines, dailies, weeklies…the whole nine yards.
I rarely/never click on advertising links, disable all pop-ups, and completely ignore print and magazine ads. I turn to content. I have even paid for satellite radio to avoid on-air advertising. I always wondered how/why ads are still around. Word-of-mouth is really the only kind of “advertising” I listen to, or if I need a contractor or whatever, I turn to Craigslist.
I wonder how many other people are like me. Is this any kind of user trend that is followed? I guess I would respond more to Kyle’s facebook-style advertising (e.g. CrossFit example above), however, I have no interest in a vomit-inducing workout.
4: I completely agree. I feel like with DVR-ing of TV shows, NetFlix online, and simply not looking at ads on the web, I’m nearly immune to most advertising. Now, when y’all say something is cool in the actual content part, I tend to not only read it, but listen to your opinion and frequently respect it as the truth until proven otherwise. Case in point, y’all are the reason that I went to Blue Ridge Brewery, and I LOVED that place.
I couldn’t tell you WHAT ads are on this website and without the mentions of Crossfit, wouldn’t know that it’s advertised here.
Ditto. I don’t watch tv commercials anymore since getting DVR. I don’t go to YouTube either to watch them either.
I have been to many, many local restaurants thanks to this website. With this website going down, my word-of-mouth recommendations drop significantly.
Shannon, where are you moving?
guess the whole code thing is out the window-
mwahaha
Oops, actually meant to write your moniker. Sorry!
i thought his name was actually thurston. he looks like a thurston.
he also looks like man’s best friend
Isn’t it awfully early to start outing people?
I ignore advertising on websites and magazines but I do look at ads in “The Daily Progress”. Not the classifieds but the ones spread throughout the rest of the paper.
I still enjoy looking at the local, daily newspaper while I eat my breakfast. I use the web and “Newsweek” magazine for national and world news but the newspaper is still my favorite for local news and sports.
I think advertising does work. It’s the only explanation for the popularity of a lot of shoddy products and services which have a national brand. You know, one of the the main messages of advertising is intimidation. Sure, McD and Starbx and Pepsi/Coke have shiny signs or cool logos, sweet products, etc. But a lot of the appeal is just that they’re the boss. IMHO.
I dunno. I drink Diet Pepsi for the taste. I’ve tried other major diet colas and generics, but the taste wins me.
8. In the future, web-centric entrepreneurs will be more brief.
A post about EPICFAILS without failing itself. Bravo!
…anyhoo…
I cannot stand most types of webvertising. Sites like c-ville.com are brimming with flashy ads that make me wish I could have a grand mal seizure just so I don’t have to be assailed by their incessant, obstreperous visual siege. Even the adblockers I use don’t slow the wave, so I stay away from it (and sites like it) altogether. I haven’t read The Rant in months, in fact, I don’t read any local paper anymore. (Save the trees!) As for getting my news, if I wanted local, I’d come here, but that’s coming to an end, sooo…I’ll have a think and drink about it.
As for global news, I want it instantly. One great thing about the net is that you can read so many varying viewpoints about anything. No longer do I have to read just one biased opinion….now I can read many! woohoo! The e-masses FTW! If it’s not social, I want no part of it.
I think that online local new has the problem of a revenue stream. This site for all it’s fun and design is about to be a business failure. If it was a money maker someone would have bought it. New media is quick to wag it’s finger at old media but when your heading out the door and shutting out the lights your words may seem hollow to some. I disagree about the hook website because people use it and comment there plenty. I also think cvillenews has done as much or more for the local community then this site. I learned more about news and issues there than here by a wide margin. I love this site but it’s always been more silly than serious. This is why local ad revenue never got on board. People with ad dollars thought this place was a gossip site and not worth beIng associated with cvillain.
I wish the site had just been closed instead of this slow, lingering death. There is little joy and fun as this deathwatch marches on. No more serious post- what this place needs is a good old school Irish wake.
First round is on me.
It’s too bad this site had to be a business model in the first place. It interefered with what it set out to accomplish.
I agree the death march sucks.
You forgot the part about how 2008 was the year that journalism and any pretense of journalistic ethics died. Postmodernist foucaultalization of academia indoctrinated a nation with the insidious notion that the mere attempt to be unbiased is so pedestrian one needn’t bother. So, news has become one side or the others propaganda, and this nation has become so polarized its hard to imagine how Walter Cronkite did it, and if they’ll ever be another newsman as universally authoritative, trusted, and respected. It’s a downward spiral and right now, the only thing keeping the local weeklies going is their brilliant business model – “oh, I might as well take one, it’s free.” But it won’t last forever.
Good luck with Crossfit.
If we learned anything from the recent passing of Walter Cronkite – integrity and professionalism are the paramount ingredients for all media’s success… then and now.
Word. Lessons for media . . . and life.
i’ll miss you simona—keep in touch if this thing goes belly-up, would you?
and best wishes to 26world—i keep hoping he’ll pop-in to say goodbye to everyone.
Aw, thanks! Has anyone tried begging someone over at the Gawker empire to take us on? We could be an test run for local blogs, and they wouldn’t have to pay, just get our back for frivolous litigation/put up the $800 when someone makes a boo-boo.
“they are still incredible [sic] protective about content. RSS feeds are typically truncated…” Until 3 months ago, didn’t this site truncate the RSS feed?
Also, there’s a new gym in town called CrossFit.
I think cvillain ultimately failed because a wide variety of people saw the site as something it wasn’t. It wasn’t an avenue to make tons of cash in the trendy web 2.0 world. It wasn’t a replacement for local media. People just got their panties in a bunch. It’s a blog. Jesus fuck. Someone will make a new one.
Yeah, it didn’t really fail. Just the moderators don’t want to volunteer any more time on it. The hosting charges I assume were at least covered by the ads. Wonder if Google ads would have made more money.
“6. Sponsored content will be prevalent. Sponsored posts and articles will become much more common.”
Just because they become more common doesn’t mean they should. Sponsor-based advertising ultimately failed in the television industry, although it has made a comeback in online viewing. That doesn’t mean news articles and blog posts should be sponsored. As a matter of fact, blogs and news media need to shun sponsorship entirely. The message becomes corrupt when the message is tailored not to disagree with the position of the sponsor.
Copy article…………paste article.
Kyle, thank you for posting this. As an amateur who’s still trying to figure out goals and navigating social media waters I find the information invaluable….thankyouthankyouthankyou
Ditto….tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…