Defining Moments
There are moments in a person’s career that mark a new direction. BringANewPerspective.blogspot.com– represents one of those moments for me. Having spent 20 years as both a practitioner and academician in the sports and entertainment industry – in various leadership and follower roles and in various sport and entertainment contexts – I consider myself as somewhat of a hybrid. A jack of trades of sorts, as I’ve encountered diverse experiences, ideas and issues along the pathway of my professional career. Curiosity and inquiry are a strength of mine, and I’ve recently had fun utilizing these competencies as I pursue a Ph.D. in Sport Management under the expert faculty at Troy University. Now, through this blog, I am interested in engaging in a dialogue with the world regarding what I’m learning, and to bring together those with diverse perspectives on key ideas which impact us today.
I have enjoyed writing throughout my entire life and am now stepping into the realm of sharing thoughts and ideas in a global platform, which is an exciting milestone for me. This weekly blog will begin by discussing issues that many industries are facing as a result of technological advances. Innovation and technology are causing an enormous disruption in the way people communicate and conduct business, forcing change and redefining financial models and the ways and means by which companies and consumers interact. As a result, competence in strategic communication and emerging media are critical skills for entrepreneurs, leaders and managers to possess, and over the next few weeks, we will discuss ideas at the forefront of this conversation.
Failure or Phoenix? – Are Traditional Media Dying or Re-emerging from the Ash?
This question comes to mind frequently, as the answer to this question significantly impacts the very survival of many industries…advertising, sports and entertainment, and certainly the traditional media industry itself. As new generations of consumers grow up with access to the internet, their familiarity with and usage of technology is evolving and maturing…moving from native to innate fluency with technology. This innate familiarity and marketing savvy changes how, when and why people interact with the world online. It has resulted in transformational change in most all industries, and traditional media is not exempt from this change.
Early Research– Early research on teen use of traditional media and the internet uncovered that teens made choices on media use according to their personalities, socialization needs, and personal identification needs. In addition, their choices reflected their worldview. Researchers identified that media choice varied based upon the need being fulfilled – be it entertainment, research, shopping, or news. This is good news for traditional media companies, as it means that these individuals (who are now approaching their peak earning years) can be engaged by meeting specific needs and preferences that they have.
That being said, traditional media companies have struggled to adapt to the quickly changing ecosystem, for many reasons. Some experts such as Steve Brill attribute the toil to rich media heirs with local monopolies who in his opinion, up until transformational change began to impact their industry, never needed to compete or think beyond their locale. Others attribute the struggle to the inability of traditional media to successfully monetize digital content. Still, other critics blame traditional media leaders for not having a long-term strategy for success or for stability.
Changes in Traditional Media Felt in Other Industries - We see related transformational change occurring in the sport industry. As technology offers fans additional means to access information and fans have a greater variety of entertainment options, teams must diversify the ways in which their product is consumed. In addition, since much of the sport financial model rests on an influx of revenue from traditional media, sport properties across the globe are looking to see how well traditional media companies adjust to a digital world.
Media rights holders are working to adapt to the growing trend of cable cutting as viewers continue to consume sports and entertainment content via a broader variety of digital sources. In addition to presenting events on television, media rights holders are creating alternative methods by which they can retain viewer consumption and monetize the very expensive content that they’ve purchased. Rights holders are also offering other ancillary online functions and additional content related to the event broadcasts. These functions and new products take the form of forums, apps, social media, and other means to engage consumers and develop communities of loyal consumers.
Teams and events are beginning to more fully utilize big data, investing in analytics to acquire detailed information about their fans. They are reorganizing their business structure to accommodate building relationships with customers and they are reformulating product offerings to create more tailored experiences. Traditional media would do well to follow suit and examine their organizational structure, product offerings, communication channels and utilize big data and analytics to more effectively identify and engage potential readers.
Changing Organizational Structures and Financial Models
Changes in media consumption are also influencing change in organizational structure and in financial models of traditional media. Organizations which are flattening out their hierarchical structure by eliminating editorial positions and experimenting with paywalls as a means to garner online subscriptions are finding growth and success in a digital environ.
The New York Times (NYT) is utilizing these strategies and others as they reinvent themselves and reformulate a business model to add additional revenue streams to their digital pipeline. In their 2020 report, the NYT attributes their progress to an increased use of data and analytics, a flatter organization involving teams of reporters and a business model which is no longer print-centric. With a heavier investment in journalism, it seems as though the NYT is seeking to mimic strategies of sport teams and is heeding the recommendation of journalist and advocate Lara Setrakian, who urges the media to invest in quality journalists who tell an authentic story.
Impact of Tablets
Tablets have had an enormous influence on how people access the internet and engage in daily life. Experts such as Dr. Jeff Cole, Director of ASC’s Center for the Digital Future, anticipate that the tablet will replace desktop and laptop computing and will eventually supplant the use of laptops. Cole also believes that accompanying this transition are changes to how, when and why individuals access the internet, and he predicts that this shift in motives will have an even more significant change than the arrival of the laptop. When business owners and industries in general understand and correctly interpret their customers' motivation and means to engage, they can begin to create meaningful products and content with which people will regularly consume their products, and pay money to do so.
Importance of Brand and Community
Trust is vital to a brand’s sustained existence. It lies at the crosshairs of establishing a positive reputation and as such, trust is a prerequisite to building a community of consumers who believe in the brand and who are loyal. In the case of traditional media, this means trust in the quality and accuracy of a story, demonstrated by the repeated return to the source for news and information, and a willingness to pay for the ability to do so. In various studies over the past decade, researchers have found that people prefer to get their news from news organizations, a strong advantage of news media over other digital sources. For example, in one study, researchers found that more than half of the respondents believe that social media content is unreliable or only a small part is reliable. When traditional news media can capitalize on this preference by retaining quality journalists to build a credible, trustworthy brand, they will find repeat customers willing to pay for reliable content.
Nowadays, as consumers have infinite sources to fulfill needs, they are seeking connection and community with brands that they know and trust. Consumers support brands who project shared values. Effective branding involves building strong relationships and establishing credibility and trust with and among loyal customers. According to Mayer (1995), trustworthiness is comprised of three parts – competence, integrity and benevolence. This definition can be utilized by traditional media companies, as they must be viewed by their audience as competent in their craft, possess integrity in their search for the story, and when viewed as benevolent, companies are viewed as a company that cares about its mission and for its consumers.
As consumers gain fluency with the internet, they also gain information literacy skills…that is, the ability to understand when and what information is needed, they become better able to identify and filter credible sources, and finally, extract meaningful information to solve problems and answer questions. When consumers view traditional media companies with trust, they will be caught in the filter and regularly accessed by online users.
Concluding Perspective
Such struggles as mentioned above demonstrate that to survive this change, traditional media must broaden their perspective to adopt a global view of their business, develop new financial models, modes of distribution and organizational structures which enable it to sustain operation, and its leaders must use a laser focus strategic approach as they develop trustworthy, relevant relationships with consumers.
When traditional media companies adopt a global perspective, they see a broader perspective of the various influences on their business, thus improving their ability to formulate a strategy. By developing new business models, they become savvy to new ways of effectively meeting a customer’s need. By developing new modes of distribution, again leaders in traditional media are taking advantage of technology to make consumption of their product convenient. With a laser focus on a core product, traditional media leaders will invest in and develop employees who can deliver the essence of what their consumers are seeking – trustworthy information.
# # #
About the Author: Mary Beth is graduating this spring with a Ph.D. at Troy University in Sport Management, where her research interests involve organizational capacity in sport. She is the Sport Management Department Chair at Pfeiffer University, a liberal arts institution near Charlotte, NC. She has 15 years experience as a Marketing Director for an LPGA tourney, Marketing Director for a US Olympic National Governing Body, sponsorship sales executive for an NBA sports and entertainment property, VP of Marketing and Ticket Sales for a hockey team, and she aided press operations during the 1996 Olympic Games as an Interview Room Manager. Mary Beth enjoys thinking about new ideas and solving business problems.
Follow her on Twitter @mb_chambers or LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/marybethchambersphd
References:
Boudway, I. & Chafkin, M. (March 30, 2017). ESPN has seen the future of tv and they’re not really into it. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-30/espn-has-seen-the-future-of-tv-and-they-re-not-really-into-it
Cole, J. (June 9, 2015). Is America at a turning point? Retrieved from: https://annenberg.usc.edu/news/faculty-research/america-digital-turning-point
Doctor, K. (July 9, 2015). Newsonomics: Do newspaper companies have a strategy beyond milking papers for profit? Niemenlab.org. Retrieved from: http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/07/newsonomics-do-newspaper-companies-have-a-strategy-beyond-milking-papers-for-profit/
LaFerle, C., Edwards, S.M. & Lee, W.N. (2000). Teens’ use of traditional media and the internet. Journal of Advertising Research. Retrieved from: https://www.warc.com/fulltext/JAR/49270.htm
Mayer, R.C., Davis, J.H., & Schoorman, F.D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709–734.
Mullin, B. (January 17, 2017). With the 2020 report, the New York Times charts a course for the future. Poynter.org.Retrieved from: https://www.poynter.org/news/2020-report-new-york-times-charts-course-its-future
Warren, J. (2016). Newspaper bosses ‘paralyzed’ by change, clueless about paid content, says Steve Brill. Poynter.org. Retrieved from:https://www.poynter.org/news/newspaper-bosses-paralyzed-change-clueless-about-paid-content-says-steve-brill
Comments