The Complete Community Connection

Steve Buttry, Gazette CommunicationsFebruary 12, 2010

stephenbuttry@gmail.com@stevebuttry on Twitter

Slideshare.net/stevebuttry

U.S. newspapers• Most revenue from advertising• Home delivery & street sales• Consolidation to one daily in most metro

area• National papers: NY Times, USA Today,

Wall Street Journal• Consolidation of ownership

Graphic from The Digital Journalist, “Circling the Drain,” by Mark Loundy

2009: 12.9% of population buys newspaper

Graphic from Reflections of a Newsosaur, Alan Mutter

“We intend to charge for our news web sites. … to increase our revenues from all our content.”

Newspaper Next

Disruption in telecommunications

Create Once Publish Everywhere• NPR.org• NPR.org Player• NPR News iPhone app• Mobile web site• NPR Addict iPhone app• Public Radio Player• WBUR.org• Minnesota Public Radio• iTunes• NPR on iGoogle

C3’s new relationshipsFor the public: We will be their essential connection to community life — news, information, commerce, social life. Like many Internet users turn first to Google, your community should turn first to C3, whatever the need.

C3’s new relationshipsFor businesses: We will be their essential connection to customers, often making the sale and collecting the money.

Our current relationshipwith business customers

• Huge expense line in budget• Lots of inefficiency• Ad rates dropping• Ad revenues dropping• Lots of digital competition

C3’s digital marketplace• Move beyond advertising• Direct sales (tickets, reservations, gift

registries, sports paraphernalia)• Lead generation & targeted ads• Sponsorships, memberships & events• Mobile ads & applications• Handle multiple needs (yes, competing ads)

The new relationshipwith business partners

• Revenue line in budget (maybe still expense line, too)

• Delivering high value, tailored to needs• One-stop shop for connecting with

customers

Community Content• Driving• Home• Conversation• Calendar• Local knowledge

Driving• How often do you buy a car?• How often do you drive, gas up, service

car?• Databases, conversations, services

focused on drivers’ everyday needs

Driving• How often do you buy a car?• How often do you drive, gas up, service

car?• Databases, conversations, services

focused on drivers’ everyday needs• Connect auto services with drivers

(emergency repair services)

Personal content• Births• Youth milestones• School• Graduation• College life• Military service• Weddings• Parenthood

• Divorce• Jobs, pets, holidays,

food, interests, health• Illness• Empty nesters• Retirement• Reunions• Obituaries

Personal news• Big news in small circles• Some we do as formula, some we ignore• Great opportunities

Entertainment• Traditional entertainment in digital form• Entertainment news• User-generated entertainment, events• Games

Business services• Direct sales• Local search• Mobile applications• Communication & marketing services

Enriched news content• What’s happening now (Twitter,

liveblogging, real-time video, traffic, scanners, live-streaming)

• Community engagement in news, enterprise, sports coverage

• Storytelling (narrative, multimedia)• Aggregation, curation

C3 at Gazette Communications• Reorganized to separate content, product• Developing new processes, tools to

develop content independently from products

• Content repository under development• Long way to go• Hoping to learn from your efforts

Our mobile future – and present 2009 worldwide cell-phone sales: 1 billion More than 140,000 iPhone apps available 2 billion iPhone apps downloaded Droid, Nexus One, BlackBerry, Pre, iPadSources: GB Guide blog, Apple

Mobile-first strategy• Executives must emphasize mobile

priority• Journalists focus on mobile news & info

delivery & presentation• Tech staff focuses on mobile apps• Sales staff meets business customers’

mobile needs

Mobile-first strategy• Text messages• Email• Applications• Tweets• Easy-to-use mobile web sites• Podcasts• Location-based news & commercial info

Do we want to be the monks or Gutenberg?