Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

In the coming years The New York Times needs to accelerate this transition from a newspaper that also produces a rich and impressive digital report to a digital publication that also produces a rich and impressive newspaper. This is not a matter of semantics. It is a critical difficult and at times painful transformation that will require us to rethink much what we do every day.

Our leaders know this and we have taken steps in these directions. But it has become increasingly clear that we are not moving with enough urgency. This may be the single most important long-term challenge facing the newsroom and its leaders.

There are factors that, understandably, slow this tricky transition. More than three quarters of our advertising and subscription revenue still comes from the newspaper, and most of our employees have spent their careers building skills to succeed in print. But the huge majority of our readers are digital, and this represents our single biggest opportunity for growth.

As a business, this is an extremely difficult balancing act. It is just as tricky for the newsroom. The experience of putting out the newspaper informs almost every element of how we do our jobs, from the people we hire to how they work to what they produce. These assumptions — based on the newspaper’s fixed dimensions and hard deadlines — are so baked into our days that it is easy to overlook their artificial limitations or the new possibilities we could embrace.

De aici

Martin Sorrell la congresul IAA, din China:

1. Shift to East, South and South East – meaning a potential shift in power in the world. The USA is still the center, but undeniably power is beginning to move. With a focus still on „BRICS and the next eleven”. WPP sees a G2 world in the future.

2. Overcapacity and shortage of human capital – in key industries such as automotive there is massive capacity, but changing life styles, and aging populations.

3. Rise and rise of the web – 12 years ago WPP’s web business was close to zero and now it is 30%.

4. Growth of retail power – and the changing relationship now between retailers and consumers as populations move to urban areas, with busy two earning families using the e-commerce more and more.

5. Importance of internal communications – data – people talk about „data” and we are now applying more technology to data and its role in our organization’s communications.

6. Global and local structures – WPP sees the rise of Africa – which represents significant opportunities with a dramatic shift in power taking place.

7. Relative power of finance and procurement – the balance of marketing functions and finance is now very much out of balance, and this needs to be addressed – in all parts of the world. Not just the western economies.

8. Growth of government – WPP has government clients in almost every country. They are more significant players than ever. In some parts of the world, such as China, there is also an element of „Government run capitalism”.

9. The acceptance of social responsibility – the issue and attention towards sustainability is considerable now. And for companies to „do good” is still „good” for business.

10. Industry consolidation – this was a big news day with the announcement that the Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group merger is not proceeding.