I was driving the other day when my 13 year old said, "Mom, what is black and white red and throughout? A newspaper!" My initial thought was ...well not anymore...
It is refreshing to read an uproar on blogs, and healthy as well.
So, journalists, you got the couch whooped by innovative marketing that disrupted your industry status quo; stuff happens, and now it's time and energy to do something positive about it.
Professionally managed strategic planning sessions channel brainstorming and drive topics to defined action items, in just a well-paced, productive environment.
Journalists, consider that you build widgets. In your case it is news, and like many engineers and other developers, you're enamored with your widget. However, like every widget, your widget must be marketed, sold, and supported etc, to generate cash flow and a long-term healthy balance sheet to help you build more widgets https://takerootandwrite.com/.
Google, Yahoo and others are available of generating web traffic for profit; they distribute your widgets to generate more traffic for their sites. They distribute your widgets cost-free without payment for you setting a defacto standard; they are not running a business to earn money on news.
When you commit to developing business models you will progress forward. When you step out of your homogenous comfort zone, you will never consider your widgets exactly the same way again. As an example, think of the intelligent, motivated blog readers as a resource. Consider the following rules of engagement for strategic planning sessions:
1. Building business models is approximately working ON your organization, not IN your business. Be objective, and open-minded; learn from history without dwelling on the past http://trendynews4u.com/.
2. The team will evaluate markets and customer segments, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis, value propositions, price elasticity, competition and a great many other components. Strategic planning sessions conducted by an experienced professional won't solve all issues tomorrow, but will concentrate on the achievable and deliver action items, set goals for the following session, establish feedback mechanisms, etc.
3. Harvard's session a week ago, "How exactly to Make Money in News: New Business Models for the 21st Century" had 48 attendees, 3.5 dozen too many. A productive team is composed of 6 people, a maximum of 7, plus a program leader providing agenda, content and infrastructure, in addition to setting the pace and keeping the session on track https://afic.co/.
Perhaps blog readers should weigh in on who ought to be on the initial strategic planning team. Have two lists (one example raised on a website comment was a part from the Huffington Post) 1> who ought to be on the team and 2> who ought to be guest speakers willing to own candid discussions.Not everyone will have the ability or ready to participate; have alternates.
4. Team meets one 8-hour day every 3 weeks, finish session 1 in 12 weeks, final report in 15 weeks.
5. Team suggests reports to be evaluated e.g., consumer research. Blog readers send in 'The Best Of" reports as well.
Perhaps blog readers can volunteer to do research. This can keep journalists mixed up in sessions, be the main solution and keep carefully the pace moving. As an example, if 1 out of 4 people who read journalism blogs commit to help 2 hours every three weeks, we are able to evaluate some interesting results. This isn't time intensive, but incredibly beneficial. Some research, like the following example, would concentrate on a specific market, specific customer segments; other requests is going to be different.
Example research request: Call 5 companies in the to-be-defined industry in your house town and question them exactly the same 5 questions to offer an, albeit loosely coupled but a sampling of data. Interview the business owner. Listen. Appreciate this world from the owners' shoes. Example questions are:
What results perhaps you have seen from newspaper advertising?
The length of time did you run ads, what were your original expectations, and were your expectations met?
Were you able to differentiate your organization with newspaper advertising, why or why don't you?
What's the most successful way you gain new business?
Are you currently advertising in other venues and how successful is that for you personally?
Ask people that do not advertise today and who do advertise today. Engage them in conversation. Probe. Feedback is going to be consolidated and results posted.
Journalists, innovative leaders of strategic planning sessions assist intelligent professionals immersed in the current model to think out of the box. When companies desire to re-brand and open new lines of business or when innovative marketing disrupts the industry status quo establishing new competition, many choose strategic planning professionals. Consider dealing with a program leader that's never worked in your industry, a specialist strategist may question perceptions and find marketable assets where none were visible before.
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