Justin Smith, the new CEO of Bloomberg Media Group, has become a bit of a celebrity in media circles. He has leadership experience at a number of media companies, but his leadership at Atlantic Media really set a tone. In the recent past he converted that organization into a “digital first” modern media company.
Smith sent out an introductory email to Bloomberg staff last week describing his observations about the media space. Digiday carried some excerpts of that email, and some of the observations for big media like Bloomberg have some interesting applications for specialized publishers.
Embrace change–Smith characterizes the media world as split between those who long for a simpler profitable past that will never return and the entrepreneurial segment that is reinventing media. Many SIPA members have embraced change, but not all niche markets act like large consumer publishing. SIPA members stay focused on where their money is.
Still, how people consume media overall affects how they interact with specialized content as well. Maybe your business isn’t optimized for mobile yet, but you need to evaluate your analytics regularly to know how your audience is consuming content and be ready to act when the time is right.
Smith makes the related point of accepting uncertainty. “Anyone who tells you they can predict the future of media and its consumption or business models isn’t being honest. To succeed we must accept this state of confusion and embrace the chaos. When there’s no obvious right answer, we’re forced to experiment, and examine new, sometimes uncomfortable, ideas.”
This leads into his next point–act like entrepreneurs. “One definition of entrepreneurship is the ability to evolve your product, business model, technology, or talent base to capture a changing market opportunity,” Smith wrote. This is a key point for new business models in specialty markets.
One of the good rules for niche publishers in the digital age is to think more like developers. Not every product you bring to market is going to succeed, but the ability to adapt, or to change the product to better fit the market, is key to success. My colleague Ronn Levine wrote more about that in this SIPAlert Daily.
Fight complacency–Smith writes that media businesses need a mental early warning system to signal the need to for an immediate business intervention and evolution. This could be described as doing good business for any company, but media companies really need to be agile and responsive to maintain subscribers.
Here are a few things I would add for specialty publishers:
Engage your audience. Niche publishers can build loyalty by reaching out to their audience every way they can and keeping customers engaged with their content, and their brand. Whether it is a podcast, video, webinar, blog posts, white paper, or through social media, the more you keep people thinking of you as a trusted source, the better.
Don’t forget to evolve your marketing. Although a lot of marketing can become rote, it’s important to keep up with new and better ways to market your products. You should always be testing even routine things like email subject lines and landing pages. It may take some extra time and you may not always get great results, but the work and diligence you put in will keep that part of your business sharp.
Engage with colleagues. SIPA was founded by diverse publishers sharing ideas to make their businesses better. Swapping ideas with your SIPA colleagues about what they are doing and taking those lessons home can be a powerful advantage.
What would be on your list?
Luis Hernandez is Vice President of SIPA. Follow him on Twitter at @LuisinDC18.
Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at 
Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.
