The Atex Blog

As tablet ownership doubles, where does this leave print?

The shift from print to mobile reading went into overdrive over Christmas, with ownership of e-readers and tablets doubling in a single month. One might even argue that they are being adopted faster than any other consumer electronics or communications products of all time.

A study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that the percentage of adults owning tablets increased from 10% to 19% between December and January, with the same growth rate seen among e-readers like the Kindle. Both were reported as the most wished-for gifts at Christmas, and take-up was accelerated by the arrival of value-priced products like Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet – both of which are far below the iPad’s price point.

With the doubling of mass market adoption in just 30 days from a significant base, should alarm bells be ringing for traditional publishers that still manage their business around print audiences? After all, when was the last time we saw figures like these for mass-market newspapers or magazines?

The popularity of tablets and e-readers as a means of accessing the web is booming, so it’s already pretty clear that they are changing the function of ‘reading.’ Nearly three-quarters of iPad owners say that owning a tablet has reduced the frequency with which they purchase newspapers, magazines and books. This says more about peoples' desire for convenience and choice than it does about gadget lust.

Whether it helps or harms print content providers remains to be seen, but the answer for longevity in the media market is repurposing content for publication across a range of platforms. Consumers now expect to get whatever they want, whenever they want, in whatever form they choose, and for the publisher, this represents a new means of monetising content. The need for on-demand, multi-platform publishing, has never been more important.
 

Media companies now need to make every piece of content, on every platform, work harder than ever before. Print, online and mobile audiences have different demands for the content they consume, and none of this is possible without the enabling technology that supports multimedia content, together with multichannel delivery.

In the UK, Johnston Press is live on a multichannel Atex publishing system for nearly 1000 print products and 261 websites. Its editors work in a single CMS environment to produce and deliver content for both print and online channels. The company now produces an incredible 17,000 printed pages each week and its websites generate more than 40 million page views every week.

In 2010, Johnston Press reported an increase in operating profits for the first time since 2006, with digital revenues growing by 10.9 percent and costs lowered by £13.6m. Prior to Atex, the company had to duplicate and reformat content for print, web and mobile channels. Today, the template-driven user interface means that editors can publish a single piece of content to multiple channels without creating copies of the content.

So against the backdrop of the dramatic changes in the media landscape, the secret to longevity and increased revenues really is simple – any content, delivered anywhere, anytime and in whatever format your readers require.

Atex announces TalkingPoint 2012

As 2012 begins, we are excited to bring you our first announcement of the year! Yes, following the huge success of our first TalkingPoint Symposium in September, we are pleased to bring the industry a second action-packed event, aimed at helping media companies design successful digital strategies.

TalkingPoint will this year be held 25-27 June at a fantastic venue in Windsor – a location which should particularly delight overseas delegates since 2012 marks the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It is also easily accessible from Heathrow and Central London.

TalkingPoint will offer insights into the Atex product roadmaps, give you an opportunity to meet with digital minds, consult with experts and uncover new business opportunities, and have fun and network with your peers!

TalkingPoint is already being described by many as 'a must-attend industry event', so don't miss out on this annual Atex flagship symposium. Save the date now!

Are paywalls the way forward for online publishers?

It's been a year and a half since News Corp adopted paywalls for The Times and The Sunday Times. So how has this changed the industry, and is the paywall model the future for online publishing?

Speaking to Brand Republic, Abba Newbery, News International's director of advertising strategy, said: "We're on a journey and it's more complex than simply labeling our approach as a paywall. We’re moving beyond the simple paywall model. Somebody had to be first to market with an approach to counter declining print circulations. Looking around, we see that every newspaper with an iPad app is now charging for the content. Would you say they've all gone with a paywall strategy? It's great that we're all now involved in a like-minded journey and, as the forerunner, it's no surprise that the technology development division of News International is the fastest-growing area of our business."

The Financial Times was the very first paywall pioneer, erecting a metered model in 2007, which allows readers to sample its specialist content for free before a charge is imposed. Its success is well documented, with an online base of 3.7 million registered users and upwards of 230,000 paid subscribers. The New York Times has adopted a similar model, allowing viewers to read 25 free articles each month, before being locked out by the paywall. However, this makes it easy to circumvent – keen readers can just read the newspaper on their phone or tablet when they’ve met their limit on their laptop, so there’s less incentive for anyone to sign up.

The Times and The Sunday Times took this a step further by adopting the paywall for all site content – no free article previews are available and therefore, none of the content is indexed on search engines. This was a brave move and one that made most other publishers sit up and take notice. Understandably, with the newspaper industry as it is, publications are being driven to try out new means of generating revenue, and who better than to experiment with the paywall, than The Times, who certainly has the reputation and following to make this a success. Indeed, the company believes it has selected this model to its advantage. By being able to prove that readers are fully engaged and responsive, its loyal advertiser base can employ targeted advertising to an equally loyal reader market.

The latest figures show that The Times now has an impressive 112,000 subscribers, compared with 79,000 in February. The Sunday Times boasts a similar number, peaking at 105,594 in September. And this is expected to steadily increase.

Although the sites have experienced the inevitable drop in traffic since the paywall was implemented, (20 million digital readership prior to its launch), the figures are encouraging and in contrast to the industry trend of declining circulation.

It does seems that many loyal readers will pay for their digital journalism, but naturally others will jump ship. The Mail Online, the UK’s most popular newspaper website, now claims around 79 million monthly users, a figure which sky rockets whenever major stories are broken. It would be surprising therefore, if the paper started charging for online content, at the detriment of millions of readers.

The problem is of course, that there will always be free alternatives to sites hidden behind paywalls. There will always be opportunities for publishers to charge for specific content, but implementing a paywall for all content might only serve to solve revenue headaches rather than act as a successful growth strategy. The Sun talked about implementing a paywall a number of times this year, but this has been delayed, and actually might not happen at all. Instead, the paper has looked at other ways of monetising content. This currently involves its gaming portfolio, including Sun Dream Team and Sun Bingo. Other means have involved branching into social networking, like the Sun’s Football Legends game, where players can make payments with PayPal to send virtual gifts to their friends.

Other possibilities for achieving online revenue growth include licensing the platform to developers via an open application programming interface, and offering non-news products, such as e-books and running events that draw readers to real-world get-togethers.

So is the paywall sustainable? Well for a start, journalists working under this strategy have changed the way they produce content. They no longer have to worry about using keywords for SEO, something that’s usually important when it comes to linking ads with articles. This also makes the model more difficult to reverse. With other online newspapers boasting larger circulations of a similar demographic, there is also a risk that advertisers will start to look elsewhere. However, Eve Samuel-Camps, UM London head of press, is optimistic. She told Brand Republic: "The luxury clients really like The Times and Sunday Times online environment because they're not having to chase numbers. They're getting quality data in a controlled space, so no doubt they're willing to pay a premium in order to better target a specific demographic.

"Consumers are growing more comfortable with paying for quality content and there has never been an issue with paying for apps on tablets. But News International needs a greater number of assets to make it work financially. Then they can create bundles, which will better serve a wider advertiser base. Personally, I hope they find a way to make it work as this is a real opportunity to move digital newspapers and online content into the 21st century."

So, charging for online content seems to be working so far for The Times, Wall Street Journal and The Economist, but it’s not a strategy that every newspaper is going to be able to duplicate, since these outlets have a very targeted readership. If this is to be rolled out further afield, we need to continue to shift the mindset of consumers, who expect to pay for digital content through apps, but still aren’t used to paying for news.

Content, credibility and cash

The digital universe is a crowded place for news, information and advertising. People want a filter. We crave trusted sources for the content we consume. Credibility matters. And, credible content is key to monetizing web, tablet and mobile online channels.

Credibility helps to establish brand loyalty.  At the same time, certain brand channels are viewed as more credible than others. In a recent survey of 3,000 consumers in North America, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and Hearst Interactive found that 72% trust content on branded media sites, compared to only 23% that trust content on social media sites. The study found that consumers who visit branded media sites are three times more likely to regard the site’s advertisers as credible in comparison to portals and social media sites.

Credibility matters because trusted content leads to audience loyalty. Websites with content that’s deemed trustworthy correlate strongly with audiences being loyal to these sites. In short, people will come to your brand – and keep returning – if they find your content to be credible.

At the same time, credibility has a brand halo effect that extends to your advertisers. Ads appearing on a trustworthy website are perceived as credible and reputable. The OPA study clearly found that the credibility of your content carries over to the credibility of the advertising on your site. Consumers who are loyal to branded media sites are more than twice as likely to purchase from advertisers on these sites as consumers who are loyal to portals or social media sites.

Contextual advertising also has an impact on credibility. Late last year, an Online Journalism Credibility study was conducted with 1,239 respondents to a seattletimes.com survey. There were five important findings that emerged from this study.

First, twice as many people found online advertising to be valuable when the ads were relevant to the content of the page. Advertisers will pay more for contextual ads because readers find them more valuable.

Second, contextual advertising on “soft news’’ pages (e.g. sports, entertainment, travel and living) was viewed as more credible than contextual advertising on hard news pages. Twenty percent of respondents reported a decrease in credibility when a contextual ad appears on a page containing hard-news stories about politics or health. Conversely, 15 percent of the respondents reported increase in page credibility when the contextual ad appears on softer news pages.

Third, labeling an ad as an “advertisement” has a positive effect on the credibility of the entire page. Design elements like color, graphics or page positioning can make it difficult to easily distinguish an ad from news. Respondents react unfavorably when this distinction is not clear, and tend to rate both the ad and adjacent news content as less credible.

Fourth, the study found that too many contextual ads will negatively impact credibility. Also, if the tie-in between advertising and editorial content is too direct, respondents often feel that the article itself is sponsored, which decreases the credibility of the entire page.

Finally, the study tested a variety of contextual ad formats, including display ads, banners, text links, graphic ads, and navigational link ads. Display ads were the most likely to be noticed and also received top ratings for increased ad credibility compared to other ad formats. In addition, page position impacts the credibility of contextual advertising. Ads appearing in the right-column of the page received significantly higher ratings than ads in the main content area.

This is good news for online news publishers and advertisers alike. Branded news sites are clearly more credible than portals or social media sites. People also gravitate to online news site to validate the credibility of information they find from search engines. Ads appearing on these sites are viewed as more trustworthy because the credibility of the site extends to the credibility of the advertisers. Contextual advertising, if used properly, helps to further boost the credibility of the site. And, contextual ads have double the conversion rate of run-of-site ads. Consumers who click on ads targeted specifically to them are more than twice as likely to buy the advertised product or service.

Credibility matters… and it pays. If you would like to learn more about what you can do to help improve the credibility of your content, including a couple of the latest search ranking tricks involving Google Profiles, please request the latest Atex whitepaper “Why Credible Content is Key to Monetization.”

Google+ and why businesses should be getting on board

For years, working with Google has been seen as one of the best ways that businesses can increase public awareness of their products and services, and Google+ is its latest creation. Launched in late June, there still seems to be a lot of confusion around what this actually is; but in essence, it’s a social network which makes it easy for content to be shared between Google users.

Already boasting around 60 million users, it is shaping up to be the fastest growing and most advanced social network, and one of the best ways for businesses to reach their demographic and target customers.

One of the qualities that makes Google+ such a valuable tool is the +1 feature, which helps to enhance SEO. Businesses often rely on internet marketing via their website, and nothing is as effective as SEO for driving traffic to the site. Google+ allows users to +1 a post or website, which is similar to the "Like" feature of Facebook. The more +1s a website or blog post gets, the higher it will be ranked on Google.

Another benefit is that users can easily reach their target markets. You are able to distribute interesting content to a wide audience, and likewise you'll be able to find a wealth of original information that's of interest to you.

As with Facebook, Google+ has communities known as ‘Circles’. These act just like the Facebook communities where people can share content and information. Marketers are able to target their customers much more easily thanks to these circles, and can direct the marketing at only the people who will be interested in what they have to offer. This means that few people will ‘un-follow’ or dislike a certain form of marketing, which usually contributes to lower SEO rankings. To be given the tools to customise a marketing campaign or promotion to reach specific circles is a very attractive proposition.

Another advantage is that Google is much more likely to keep a tighter rein on spam content than Facebook or Twitter have been able to. An overload of spam causes people to become jaded to the advertisements and marketing campaigns they see - reducing spam will help Google+ to be a more conducive environment for those who are looking to conduct their internet marketing through the network.

Arguably, one of the downsides of Twitter is that information can be auto posted – meaning that content can be considered less trustworthy than on other sites. Google+ doesn’t offer this as an option, although this has been greeted with mixed reactions. In a way this makes it more difficult for frequent posters, as they are being forced to post manually. However, it ensures that the quality of posts is higher, as only content that is actually valuable will be worth taking the time to post manually.

The contextual relevance of the circles on Google+ makes it much easier for people to obtain useful links, thus making link building on Google+ more effective than on Facebook. The feature enables users to establish communities and find topical authorities on subjects of interest, so any links posted are treated with more attention, which in turn leads to more effective link building for those who can be considered authorities on a particular topic. This helps to indicate how large a person's sphere of influence is.

The world of social networking is essential for marketers and in time, I’m sure that many will find that Google+ is one of the most valuable online tools they have at their disposal.

Atex proudly supports the Rory Peck Trust

For 38 years, Atex has provided the technologies that enable and empower a free press. We are therefore honoured to be part of the Rory Peck Trust, which is dedicated to supporting freelance news gatherers and their families around the world.

For the fourth year in a row, Atex has sponsored the Martin Adler Prize, which recognises the dedication and bravery of local freelancers who have played a significant role in the reporting of a major news story. The prize is named in honour of Martin Adler, the late award-winning freelance journalist, photographer and filmmaker. 

Last week, Jim Rose, Group Chief Executive Officer, Atex, attended the ceremony at London’s Southbank, where Libyan fixers Suliman Ali Zway and Osama Alfitory were the recipients of this year's prize.

Known by international journalists as the "A Team", Suliman Ali Zway and Osama Alfitory, found themselves in every corner of the country during Libya's revolution, helping journalists deliver accurate and ground breaking news. Both had made comfortable livings working in the construction business but in early February, when many young people in eastern Libya were volunteering to help visiting journalists, the two men joined the wave. Suliman worked briefly with an Italian television crew, and for reporters working for the Washington Post. Osama first worked with a New York Times Magazine reporter. 

Weeks later, after many of the young Libyan volunteers had gone back to their lives, Osama and Suliman continued to assist international journalists, travelling to the front lines with Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker and Leila Fadel of the Washington Post, helping them uncover stories.

Separately, they worked – often voluntarily – for many of the world's biggest international news organisations, including the BBC, the New York Times, PBS and CBS.  Working together they helped to probe allegations of a death squad in Benghazi and reveal the psychological toll of the war, among other stories.

Osama and Suliman's dedication and insight about Libya were so coveted by international journalists that they earned the nickname the "A-Team". Both are now journalists in their own right and have penned articles on difficult subjects for a new Libyan magazine, 'The Libyan'.

From the early Atex days of newspaper production systems to the recent development of the industry’s first end-to-end editorial, advertising and web content management solution, Atex has always believed its role is to help publishers efficiently provide news and information to consumers when they want it, where they want it, on any print or digital media channel.

We are delighted to be supporting the work of courageous journalists like Suliman and Osama, who have both played an extraordinarily significant role helping journalists from all over the world get the story out of Libya. Sponsoring the Martin Adler Prize is an honour and we hope to continue offering our support for years to come.

New research shows preference for print

Interesting new research I came across this week from Two Sides, a company promoting sustainability of the print & paper industry, shows that when it comes to reading, all generations prefer traditional print to digital media.

Its survey has shown that even a new generation of digital natives still favour paper for reading and the safe keeping of documents. Living in the exciting multimedia world that we do, with mobile devices setting the communication agenda, this might be surprising.

Around 80% of 18-24 year-olds believe that reading from paper is a nicer experience than reading from a screen, and consider it more pleasant to handle than other types of media.

Interestingly, these findings almost match that of another survey which was carried out by Harris Interactive a couple of years ago. It showed that even workers in technology and telecommunications companies agreed that reading in print was easier than reading online, with 70 percent preferring paper, compared to 57 percent of people employed in the banking, finance and insurance industries.

At the same time, it’s well known that most of us appreciate the immediacy that digital media offers. We value the real-time information from around the world, the ability to read the news as it breaks and the low cost of web-based communications.

So, it would seem that the death of paper (which has actually been foretold by futurists since the mid-twentieth century when the computer was born) has been exaggerated.

Based on the general decline in newspaper sales and take-up of online news services in many parts of the world, there have long been concerns that digital media will cannibalise print media. However, it is not necessarily that consumers regard online as a direct substitute to print.

Simply put, now that we can choose to read from a number of different platforms, we opt for traditional media when that’s what’s best for us, and consume digital media where it adds value.

Gartner analyst Nick Ingelbrecht summarised this perfectly when he stated in a recent report, “Trying to sell the same basic content to the same consumer in different formats risks alienating the consumer, who will balk at paying twice for the same thing.”

“Research confirms that multichannel content distribution is essential for reaching consumers who are consuming near equal amounts of print and digital text. Content, publishing, and media organisations should market the synergies of multichannel products to consumers, stressing the benefits of having both print and online access, rather than selling competing stand-alone products.”

Is the future in HTML5 mobile apps?

An interesting nugget of news this week came in the success of the Financial Times’ newly adopted digital strategy. It made a gamble in June by ditching the App Store and launching an HTML5 App which can be downloaded from the paper’s own website.

The FT was the first major news publisher to launch an app of this type and it seemed like a risky move at the time, but one that seems to be paying off. Apparently more than 700,000 people now use the browser-based app, which is compatible with smartphones and tablet platforms, to access news and other content, making it far more popular that the version sold in the App Store.

Interestingly, the FT announced this week that over a fifth of its online traffic now comes from mobile devices. On top of that, the Group has recorded overall revenue growth of 6%.

So, this concept got me thinking... now that the FT has demonstrated that media companies can leave Apple behind and still see digital growth, does this indicate the start of a future trend? Maybe, but probably not for some time.

This solution might work for some other publishers, but HTML5 apps are unlikely to completely take over from native apps.

HTML5 is great and makes sense in a lot of scenarios, such as mobilising a website, but native will probably continue to have the advantage because it is optimised for the device and wins in terms of speed and features (at the moment). There are also marketing benefits to the app store – especially for smaller businesses which rely on potential customers finding their app there. Ultimately though, it’s all down to the user and both are viable solutions that customers will be asking for.

Has all the excitement of HTML5 made you reconsider native app development for your business? We hope you’ll jump in with your thoughts!

Advertising - present and future!

One of the most interesting parts of my job is the chance to meet and talk to customers. Atex serves all types of media outlets, and at first glance they look very different - radio stations, magazines, newspapers and pure digital players. But across the board I am hearing similar questions when they ask me where our advertising products are moving.

All sectors are expanding their product portfolios and providing more cross channel offerings. In years past, a media company might have offered five or 10 products or stations. But now that number has swelled to hundreds of offers. The market demands that the companies expand to stay competitive. But that puts a huge burden on the staff that has to feel comfortable selling these new advertising opportunities.

The questions I receive usually come from three different camps inside these organisations - upper management who want to preserve their place in the marketplace, sales professionals who have to understand the myriad of new options and IT staff that have to figure out how to wire these new options into their systems. All three have very different angles. But at the end of the day they are asking for the same thing – a business partner that can allow them to move where they need to move in a competitive landscape and do it quickly and effectively.

These questions have been the focal point at Atex as we looked at releasing our first update to OneView Advertising and our Tablet Ad Management app. Version 1.0 of each application was released at the end of the first quarter in 2011. Now we are on the verge of releasing version 1.1 at the end of October.

Since OneView was designed from the ground up to the next generation framework that covered all the Atex product lines, it was ‘born’ with the logic of cross-channel advertising and publishing in its genes. A few examples of this are a single browser-based console for booking print, digital or preprint orders; scheduling these combinations with a single keystroke via Package functionality; and an integration hub that allows Atex Advertising to talk directly to third party ad serving systems.

The integration hub translates to salespeople being able to book complex banner or mobile ad campaigns inside our system without having to re-key data into the likes of Double Click for Publishers, Yahoo APT, AdGear or OAS. These digital campaigns can contain all the targeting data available from the ad serving system, which means a better match between the audience and the advertiser; higher engagement rates on the ads; and potentially higher revenue for the media company.

This can be quantified and analysed because we are capturing fulfillment information from the ad serving system and keeping it in our system. This gives advertising departments the ability to analyse the results and spot trends that have been very hard to identify until now. We are just scratching the surface on this area of digital fulfillment. Stay tuned for more exciting updates in the coming months.

Another major pain point we have responded to is the need for more interaction with CRM systems. I hear this request on an almost daily basis, and it makes sense - if a site has already entered a long term agreement with Microsoft Dynamics, salesforce.com, etc., why can't they use that for all the customer management needs, including pipeline management and order conversion? Why should certain information be kept in 'advertising' systems and other data kept in a 'customer management' system? At the end of the day shouldn't they be working together to achieve the same goal - foster a better relationship with the customer and understand their advertising needs.

To that end, we have created our first CRM mashup. It allows the salesperson to enter pipeline or opportunity information in the CRM system and when that opportunity has been won, the CRM system prompts for the conversion of it to an actual order. All of this happens in the CRM system, so the salesperson doesn't have to be trained on two systems, re-key any customer or order data or wait for the order to be entered in Atex Advertising. We are very excited about seeing how the market reacts to this one. I think a lot of companies will see immediate efficiencies with this approach.

And since all these options are available in the Atex Cloud, a media company can mix and match solutions easily by subscribing to different options as their needs change.

Keep checking www.atex.com for more updates and podcasts, or contact us to schedule a demo.

Atex presents awards at PANPA Future Forum

Atex’s Group CEO Jim Rose joined leading newspaper execs from around the world last month, at the PANPA Future Forum 2011 event in Sydney.
 

Over two days, speakers from Europe, the United States and Asia joined senior publishing executives to provide insight and inspiration for the newspaper industry as it moves through its transformation to digital publishing.

Key topics focused on how a mix of consumer-targeted mobile devices, increasing bandwidth and resulting changes in how society handles information are changing our business.

At the Newspaper of the Year Gala Dinner, Jim presented the Awards for News Destination of the Year and Innovation in Pre-Production Process or Technology. Awards were designed to recognise outstanding achievements in every part of the industry, from outstanding journalism and editorial leadership, to world-class marketing of news and new brands, to the technical aspects of print and production and excellence in advertising and newspaper sales.
 

Presentations from the plenary sessions and professional development master-classes are available here.