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VIA Recap

May 18, 2012 By

Angus Robertson

On May 9 & 10, the SIIA Content Division hosted Content VIA Platforms – a conference dedicated to educating media, publishing and information professionals about the technology and business issues related to distributing content via mobile, social and other platforms. Guest blogger, Angus Robertson, Principal Robertson Advisors LLC, gives his write up on the Conference and the content covered. 

About Robertson Advisors:  For 10 years Robertson Advisors has been providing content creators and distributors with strategic and tactical consulting services. Angus can be reached at angusrob@mac.com.

A major theme emerging from SIIA’s Content VIA Platforms conference in San Francisco last week was the impact that mobile is having on the distribution of content.

One lesson from the success of iPad apps is that the simplicity dictated by the format can be a benefit that has relevance to other offerings as well.  The limitations of apps forces greater focus on what is truly important, a lesson that is increasingly being incorporated into web products.

Newstex President Larry Schwartz offered a useful walk through of the process and timeline of developing mobile apps. He stressed the importance of following the Lean Startup model of “Nail it and scale it.”

Dan Bennett, VP of Technology for Thomson Reuters, provided a handy comparison of the pros and cons of native apps versus HTML5 and sounded a note of caution about jumping on the app bandwagon.  Developing and supporting apps for Apple devices always adds to costs but not always to revenue, so it is important to understand what you are trying to do with apps, he said.  He likens apps to puppies: everyone loves them until they get big and tear apart the house.

Barry Graubart, VP Marketing, ReisReports, led an informative Executive Bootcamp on Platforms that included Teri Mendelsohn of Mendelsohn Consulting, Ann Michael of Delta Think, Robin Neidorf of Free Pint and Mark Strohlein of Agile Business Logic.

Some of the key pointers from this session were:

Mobile strategy needs to:

  • embrace the constraints; focus and simplify; and leverage mobile features such as geolocation, but only where they add value.
  • iPads are now outselling PCS, which represent less than 50% of the market.
  • About one in ten new products will be successful.

Security and authentication remains a significant hindrance to going fully mobile in the enterprise market, especially for businesses such as financial institutions. Still,  Free Pint surveys of enterprise users show that mobile is growing strongly in the corporate world. Two years ago Junior Analysts were asking “Why can’t I get this on my iPhone?” Now, senior executives are saying “Get this on my iPad, I don’t care how.”

Peter Marney, VP Content Group, Thomson Financial Research, gave an overview of how Thomson Reuters is handling the issue of fully leveraging the vast amounts of data across the company to support multiple platforms and markets.  His goal is to make news dynamic and interactive across the merged enterprise. “Knowing the value of the connections (between content) is more important than the content itself,” he said, citing the links between companies, people, patents and legal issues.

 

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VIA Recap: Syndicating Your Content and Working with B2B Aggregation Platforms

May 17, 2012 By

Angus Robertson

On May 9 & 10, the SIIA Content Division hosted Content VIA Platforms – a conference dedicated to educating media, publishing and information professionals about the technology and business issues related to distributing content via mobile, social and other platforms. Guest blogger, Angus Robertson, gives his write up on the session Syndicating Your Content and Working with B2B Aggregation Platforms.

 This panel at the SIIA Content VIA Platforms, moderated by NewsLook CEO Fred Silverman, provided a good representation of the spectrum of attitudes towards syndicating content. In the traditionalist’s corner was Eric Johnston, Publisher and President of the Modesto Bee and the Merced Sun-Star, owned by McClatchy Newspapers. Johnston was quick to draw the distinction that “We are journalists, not content creators or providers. We do our best to protect our copyright.” Johnston also took comfort in the advent of the iPad, which he said allows a return to the “serendipity” of newspapers. This led to a discussion among the panelists of the “lean back” movement that, for example, has people spending 2 continuous hours with the iPad version of The Economist in a quasi-print format.

Johnston says his papers syndicate broad interest stories, but keep hyperlocal news within their own system, believing that local news is not of much interest outside the community. (But what about those who have left the community who may still be interested in home town news?) Despite the challenges facing the industry, Johnston thinks it is an exciting time to be in the newspaper business: “We have strong digital assets and we’ll be prepared for future delivery.”

Anthony Capon, Vice President for Content at Dow Jones oversees Factiva, which has  more than 36,000 content providers. Capon noted that anyone can aggregate and webcrawl: “We make it legal and present people with something they haven’t seen before.” Curation becomes more important as the playing field levels, with data mining and visualization emerging as key differentiators: “People want to discover things they don’t know, rather than just searching,” he said. While it is more complicated and expensive to syndicate through multiple platforms, “We have to be on all platforms our users use or we don’t get paid.”

Jeffrey Massa, President and CEO of syndicator YellowBrix, wants to make sure the content gets to the customer and that each of the 3,000 publishers gets credit. Massa noted a trend recently for publishers, especially newspapers, to try to pull back content that they previously syndicated through aggregators.  Agreeing with Capon, Massa noted that syndicators have to add more value: “deduping content is not enough.’  Over time he expects to be syndicating less licensed content and more unlicensed content.  YellowBrix is putting its money where its mouth is through its new iSyndicate product. Rather than the traditional usage-based model, iSyndicate buys in bulk: for example, 10 million page views for a set fee. Clients are charged a flat monthly fee regardless of the amount of usage.

NewsCred CEO Shafqat Islam, emphasized the importance of paying attention to packaging and making sure the display of content is optimized for different platforms, including billboards.  He said NewsCred aims for an “immersive content experiences” using a combination of algorithms and an editorial team. NewsCred was able to sign up the Financial Times, which is known for keeping fairly tight control of its content, by “showing how we can take them beyond where they are. It has to be more than just revenue in some cases.”  As an example of how curation of syndicated content can serve niche markets, NewsCred also has worked with the Daily News to create an online section aimed at the South Asian community in New York.

Many publishers still expect higher fees for content appearing on display screens, such as Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters terminals, but NewsCred charges clients the same amount, regardless of the platform they receive it on. Noting that “Advertisers want to control the relationship with the customer,” Islam said brands such as Pepsi are the fastest growing customer segment of NewsCred’s business.

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Post written by Angus Robertson, Principal Robertson Advisors llc.

For 10 years Robertson Advisors has been providing content creators and distributors with strategic and tactical consulting services. Angus can be reached at angusrob@mac.com.

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SIIA Survey: Publishers Prioritizing Multiple Platforms as they Develop Content Distribution Strategies

March 20, 2012 By

SIIA’s Content Division today announced results from a survey that shows the challenges and opportunities content creators have in aligning their organizations to keep up with fast-evolving platforms.

Most of the 85 publishing executives surveyed said their companies are thinking about how to publish their content across multiple platforms.When respondents were asked to name the “high priority” platforms they plan to focus on during 2012, the answers were extremely varied.

According to the results of the SIIA Content Platforms survey:

• About 60 percent of respondents classify tablet publishing, mobile publishing and/or launching new web-based products as a high priority;
• Forty-two percent prioritize licensing and syndication; • Nineteen percent prioritize video;
• Business-to-business (B2B) companies tend to prioritize new web-based products slightly above mobile and tablet publishing, whereas business-to-consumer (B2C) companies prioritize tablet publishing above all else;
• B2B companies are twice as likely to prioritize licensing and syndication versus their B2C counterparts;
• 50 percent of director-level individuals prioritize tablet publishing, versus 69 percent of C- and VP-level managers and their manager-level counterparts;
• Only 25 percent of individuals in sales roles prioritize tablet publishing, versus 70 percent of their marketing counterparts;
• 75 percent of individuals in sales roles prioritize web-based publishing—the highest of any group—versus 50 percent of their marketing counterparts.

The content platforms on which companies are currently publishing also vary. Overall, and by a fairly wide margin, companies are leveraging Apple platforms – the iPad and the iPhone. The survey found that 68 percent are currently publishing on the iPad and 58 percent on the iPhone. Meanwhile, 38 percent are publishing on Android-based phones, and 35 percent are publishing on Android-based tablets. Just 17 percent are leveraging Facebook (Open Graph), and 16 percent are publishing on the Kindle.

Large enterprise information and digital content companies are deploying more products and services on Apple, Android, Kindle and even Facebook than their SMB counterparts. And when it comes to developing apps for mobile and other platforms, B2C companies and large enterprise content companies are more likely to outsource than their B2B and SMB counterparts.

We conducted the survey to gain a greater understanding of publishers’ needs in advance of Content VIA Platforms, an all-new conference to help publishing, media and information companies design effective distribution strategies for mobile, social and other content distribution platforms. Full results of the survey will be released at Content Via Platforms, held May 9-10 in San Francisco.

Kathy Greenler Sexton is Vice President and General Manager for the SIIA Content Division.

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New Content VIA Platforms Conference will Address the Demands of Publishing in a Multiplatform World

February 23, 2012 By

SIIA’s Content Division announced today an all-new conference for content creators who publish across multiple platforms. Called Content VIA Platforms, this new event will help publishing, media, and information companies get content effectively published and distributed across multiple  platforms such as mobile, social and even aggregation platforms.

Content VIA Platforms will be held May 9-10 in San Francisco. SIIA will preview the event during a free, one-hour webinar next week, on March 1 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern/10:30 a.m. Pacific. Members of the media are invited to attend the conference and participate in the webinar.

One of the key challenges many publishers, new and information providers face today is publishing and distributing content in real-time across multiple content platforms. These content distribution platforms include everything from mobile, tablets, aggregation to even scholarly platforms. We launched Content VIA Platforms to help publishers to make smart product and strategy platform decisions in order to help them maximize their audiences, customer base and revenue-without breaking the budget.

The Content VIA Platforms conference will feature a number of mobile, publishing and technology thought leaders and key executives from the information industry. Panels and presentations will focus on equipping participants with tools and strategies to successfully utilize a variety of different platforms, monetization strategies, devices and app distribution models, and more.

The Content VIA Platforms webinar, which will be held next week on March 1, will provide an introductory overview of key content platforms and discuss strategies for harnessing these platforms to drive visibility. The basic tools introduced during the webinar will be covered in more depth at the Content VIA Platforms conference in May. Next week’s preview will be led by two top digital content strategists-Ann Michael, President of Delta Think, and Barry Graubart, Vice President for Customer Development at Crowd Fusion and SIIA Member Chair of Content VIA Platforms.

Kathy Greenler Sexton is Vice President and General Manager for the SIIA Content Division.

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SIIA Announces CODiE Award Winners for Digital Content Industry

January 25, 2012 By

SIIA announced the winners of the 2012 CODiE Awards in the digital content industry during a special awards reception and dinner yesterday. Fourteen winners were recognized for products and services deployed specifically for the digital content market, in conjunction with SIIA’s 11th annual Information Industry Summit, held Jan 24-25 in New York City.

IIS Jan 2012 NYC-218

View SIIA and John Blossom‘s pictures from the awards reception.

The 89 nominated products and services were first reviewed by third-party judges, whose evaluations determined the 52 finalists. SIIA members then reviewed these finalists and voted to select the winners.

The CODiE Awards, originally called the Excellence in Software Awards, were established in 1986 by the Software Publishers Association (SPA), now SIIA, so pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other’s work. Since being established in 1986, the CODiE Awards program has recognized more than 1,000 companies for achieving greatness in the software and information industries.

Check out tweets, photos and more from the awards reception on the CODiE Awards Storify.

The 2012 CODiE Award Winners, listed by category, product/service and company, include:

Best Consumer Information Resource
Safari Books Online – Safari Books Online

Best Content Aggregation Service
ProQuest – The Vogue Archive

Best Digital Rights Management Solution
SafeNet, Inc. – SRM Group – Sentinel Cloud

Best Financial/Market Data Information Service
PitchBook Data, Inc. – PitchBook

Best Governance, Risk & Compliance Information Solution
Bloomberg Government – Bloomberg Government (BGOV)

Best Lead Generation Service
NetProspex – NetProspex B2B Contact Solutions

Best Legal Solution
LexisNexis Group – LexisNexis Client Center

Best Medical and Health Information Product
Leadership Directories, Inc. – Leadership Health Focus

Best Online Business Information Service
Cision – Cision

Best Online News Service
Thomson Reuters – Thomson Reuters Multimedia Center

Best Online Science or Technology Service
Reprints Desk, Inc. – Bibliogo

Best Political Information Resource
LexisNexis Group – Nexis

Best Sales & Marketing Intelligence
Eloqua Corporation – Eloqua Revenue Suite

Best Solution Integrating Content Into Workflow
NetProspex – NetProspex B2B Contact Solutions

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Executives from News Organizations to Address Economics of Digital Content at Information Industry Summit

January 17, 2012 By

At SIIA’s eleventh annual Information Industry Summit, keynotes from NBC, BNA and Strategic News Service will address top tech predictions for 2012, investment strategies, and BNA’s acquisition by Bloomberg.

The two-day event, which kicks off January 24 in New York City, is one of the most important gatherings for executives involved in the creation and distribution of digital content.

Heated competition and market consolidation are two big realities facing the digital content industry in 2012. These two issues will be in focus at this year’s Information Industry Summit.

The following keynote presenters will help senior B2B information executives navigate these and other emerging market trends:

Mark Anderson, CEO, Strategic News Service
“Top Tech Predictions for 2012”
Mark Anderson

Anderson is known for accurately forecasting important shifts in the economic landscape and technology markets. With the theme “Integrate Everything,” he will be making his top technology calls for 2012. Is your company ready?


Michael Chen, Fmr President, NBC News’ Strategic Initiatives Group, & Founder, Peacock Equity Fund
“Inside Secrets of a Media Investor”
Michael Chen

Want to understand how to position your company based on what the market is looking for, and how to talk to VCs, bankers or even strategic investors? Michael Chen will offer his unique perspective based on 20 years of providing financing to companies in need of growth capital.


Paul Wojcik, Chairman, BNA
“Transformation Amidst Market Consolidation”
Peter Wojcik

BNA, which was just acquired by Bloomberg in September 2011, was one of the oldest and largest independent professional information companies in the legal, tax, and regulatory space. Wojcik will discuss how BNA navigated change and transformation, made the hard strategic decisions they needed to, and ultimately decided to join forces with Bloomberg in a move he says “makes perfect strategic sense to change the industry’s competitive landscape.”


Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Online Turf Wars and Paid News Content will Highlight the 2012 SIIA Information Industry Summit

January 5, 2012 By

Are online news sites having success transitioning to paid models? What’s next in the battle between the digital industry’s titans? This year’s Information Industry Summit–slated for Jan 24-25 in New York City–will address these compelling questions in digital content.

Key presentations include:

“News on the Edge: Dispatches from the Frontlines”
Representatives from the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe will outline the challenges—and advantages—of the paid subscription “All Access” model, as well as the importance of leveraging new technologies and emerging business models to retain existing customers and grow new audiences.
* Panelists include Alisa Bowen, general manager of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, and Christopher Mayer, publisher of the Boston Globe.

“Clash of the Titans: The Collision between Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google and its Impact on the Information Industry”
This panel presentation will explore the accelerating turf wars among Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook— and what they mean for the content marketplace.
* Panelists include Ken Auletta, columnist for The New Yorker and author of “Googled: The End of The World as We Know It,” Scott Kurnit, founder, chairman and CEO of AdKeeper, and Adam Lashinsky, senior editor at large for Fortune.

The Information Industry Summit will gather leading industry thinkers and B2B digital information executives for a fresh look at the continuing evolution of digital content. For the complete Summit schedule, visit www.siia.net/iis.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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