NewsBeat

October 2018 NewsBeat 3 own go-to-market strategy when another group should be perfectly happy to white label a product for them? A local digital marketing agency with its own brand identity should be as ubiquitous for newspapers as classified advertising was in its zenith, or having a website is now. The industry's CEOs ought to take an even stronger collaborative position to help offset the competitive threat coming from all sides. Here are some ideas: Take every advantage of existing collaboration networks. Use the organizations that work and try to get more out of them. News Media Alliance. Inland/SNPA. Local Media Association. Local Media Consortium. The Mather media accelerator. Nucleus. AP. ONA. There are lots of points of intersection, but instead of joining forces, operators often copy what they hear from speakers at conferences and put their own twist on it. Does the industry have time for that? If you don't like some aspect of what those organizations are doing, it's your obligation to work with them to see if they can fix it, or else to convince you theirs is the better way. And stop doing those initiatives that aren't working. Be open to new models for high quality newsgathering.Others have come into the industry with fresh and patient capital, ready to take on your politics bureau, your sports coverage or your features section. More are coming every month. If you partner with your peers, you may find you can afford better coverage, albeit with less control, while concentrating efforts in areas where your publication really must excel. Focus on what makes your publication unique, and partner everywhere else. It is by that creativity that the industry can say it has truly tried everything to focus its journalistic resources on the areas of greatest community impact. Adopt best-in-class solutions, even if they were developed by someone else. Nearly all newspaper ownership groups, whether having one or dozens of markets, have developed business strategies that can be considered best in class or nearly so. When another operator has a best-in- class solution, use it. Take that development time and put it toward areas more important to your other solutions. There will surely be screw-ups, but they can be fixed and don't justify the lost opportunity from failure to innovate together. And if groups are truly collaborating back and forth, there is additional incentive for all to perform their assigned tasks as well as possible for all. Innovate.A note about innovation. I applaud all efforts to come up with new business models for engaging with our readers and advertisers. Our people should be supported and encouraged to try new approaches. A culture of experimentation, rapid iteration and permission to fail — but fail fast before losses become too great — should be fostered throughout our industry. For some of our industry's larger challenges, experimentation should be taken on more broadly. We've seen some examples of great success through coordination that resulted in massive payoffs: Careerbuilder.com; Cars.com; Apartments.com. In earlier times, I would argue The Associated Press has had an enormous pay-off for publications that needed an economical way to cover the globe with high quality, in-depth reporting. External entrepreneurship through Mather, internal product development and joint ventures all need to be prioritized and funded. Owner Strategies.Owners, you don't get to escape these collaboration imperatives either. Think about what you want out of your businesses. Capital is scarce, so the industry will be helped by making better use of it. Have you considered whether there is a better owner for your print and digital properties? Does it make more sense for you to sell or swap your market for someone else's? Might you be better off jointly owning some of your publications with another owner to benefit from regional synergies? Are you managing your publication for cash rather than focusing on the long-term digital opportunity? Good journalism in the long-term will keep your organization trusted and relevant. Focusing on immediate profit rather than on the long-term will invite new entrants into your market and damage your market position. Be intentional about where you are focusing your investment. That may force some difficult conversations, but in the end your organization will be more sustainable, more digitally oriented and better positioned for the long road ahead. Recognize and accept that every year there will be some new wave to deal with.Some of us wanted the internet to go away. It didn't, and mobile devices and social networks were launched on top of it. Then the Great Recession reared its ugly head. And who would have forecast a president whose mission, it seems, in part, is to damage our collective brand equity? The new normal is accelerating, rather than lessening change. Are you positioned for it? Has the industry even come together to debate what success in this digital world even looks like? I'm sure that is subject to dozens of opinions as well. Industry leaders are only stewards of these publications. Those in a position to do so owe it to posterity to see them through this difficult transition to digital so their impact on the American experiment can continue to be strong. Our nation's founders believed enough in the impact of journalism to codify it into the Constitution. Let us be worthy of that trust.

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