07 January 2008
Dis-aggregating? Or leveraging?
At the risk of blogging about a blog about a blog (and so on...), there's a very interesting discussion on Online Spin that I came across over the Christmas break which started with "why newspapers had got themselves in such a mess" and has now moved on to "what newspapers need to do to re-invent themselves". (And for "newspapers", feel free to substitute "print classified products").
In short, Dave Morgan, EVP for AOL, argues that newspapers should focus on their several areas of core competence and "break themselves up" into business units which could continue to provide services to their "client", the newspaper, but would also be free to tout for business elsewhere from competing, related or even brand-new sectors to earn money to pay the bills. Morgan's examples are persuasive but the real value can be found in the comments that his blog post attracted. Several contributors were sceptical of the expertise that traditional newspaper companies had in several areas, especially ad sales, news-gathering and distribution, whilst others felt that there wasn't the potential commercial printing to generate sufficient revenue, and many argued that most newspaper companies simply didn't possess the management vision or skills to execute on the plan.
As we develop the programme for the Brussels General Meeting this May, we'll be looking at many of these areas (news-gathering aside), and asking how classified media companies can leverage their assets, develop new and profitable revenue streams, and understand how the myriad aspects of their business (both print and online) can work together to support the strategic objectives.
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