Pinpointing the trajectory of news media companies moving faster in the digital ecosystem is the focus of the News Media Outlook report released today by the International News Media Association (INMA).
Key themes in “News Media Outlook 2015: Re-Imagining the Transformation” include:
Legacy vs. new digital media companies: Legacy media companies and new digital media companies are growing closer together in how they approach audiences and advertisers. Yet there remain key differences, hinging on definitions of quality.
Value pillars: For news publishers to succeed in an exponentially changing technology environment that disrupts consumption, new value pillars are emerging such as innovation, a metrics culture, attracting Digital Natives as employees, and adopting storylines of transformation.
Excellence of execution: Most media companies have a clear road map for where they want to be by 2020, but not every company is clearly implementing the foundations necessary to succeed in the new digital ecosystem.
Foundations for future growth: Among the crucial foundations for future growth are adopting innovation cultures, being clear about change management, and creating a workplace that is attractive to a new genre of employee that has new expectations from employers in the media space.
Technology and mobility: As technology continues to unhinge people from routines and make mobility a rising theme, publishers are embracing Big Data and programmatic buying to better understand and monetise audiences.
The 14th annual INMA Outlook report is a snapshot of what news media companies are doing in 2015 to transform themselves from print-based to multi-media organisations.
“Nearly a decade into the accelerated reinvention of legacy newspapers and magazines, new digital media companies have become the new benchmarks for audience engagement and monetisation,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA and the report’s author. “At the same time, those digital media companies are beginning to re-think their value propositions more in line with legacy publishers. In a way, it’s like two flames at two ends of a rope burning toward each other.”
The 2015 Outlook report is based on Wilkinson’s personal visits, interviews, and interactions with hundreds of media executives worldwide from the past year.