Contributed by Susan Becker, Consultant
On the first day of the SIIA Information Industry Summit, attendees listened to a lively discussion of what it takes to be a successful publisher in the global world. Michelle Manafy, Director of Content, Free, Pint Limited moderated a panel of senior executives from four remarkable UK-based brands that are consistently cited for outstanding performance: Eric Maumes, CTO of the The Economist Online; John Leitch, Executive Director of Metro UK, Ann Sarnoff, COO of BBC Worldwide America and Elissa Tomasetti, VP Marketing & Global Audience Development of the Financial Times.
In each case, the organizations took their vision global after a successful run in their home market. Each talked about the need to combine strategy with data driven experimentation. Social media has been at the heart of their growth. The Economist went global via a two-prong approach, looking abroad for both content and subscribers. The Metro UK was started as a free newspaper that capitalized on London commuters and they eventually replicated the model to 50 other cities across the world. Only now as they form a relationship with Amazon, are they looking to introduce a pay model. The BBC Worldwide has grown commercial licensing and audience in order to reduce their reliance on fees paid by UK citizens. The Financial Times, internationally recognized for the global business community was the pioneer of the metered pay model.
The first question posed by Manafy was, “Should all media companies consider going global?” From Metro’s point of view, the answer is no because the content has to be relevant to the readers which makes sense based on their city-centric focus. Tomasetti says that the FT learned to combine local content and global content. As the BBC sees it, “It’s all about offering a hybrid content offering” in order to satify subscribers and advertisers. The Economist Online provides a view of the world and then customizes through regional publications.
Social media has been central to growth. While organizations like the Financial Times, are employing community managers (and making them accountable for the community relationship), The Economist was able to take it one step further by leveraging a self-organized community of 40,000 – 50,000 members to innovate new widgets.
Lastly, the panel debated the growing significance of mobile in their growth strategies. For the Financial Times, mobile has become the largest source of subscriptions because users are more engaged. For the Economist, 10%-20% of the audience comes from mobile devices. Metro UK is moving its print audience online and figuring out how to monetize through strategic partnerships with eCommerce partners. Clearly the combination of mobile plus social is clearly an area to watch in 2012.
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