Right on TREND

TREND is an online magazine which will generate income through subscriptions. The content of the magazine is specifically based in the north-west region of the UK and will feature local issues that affect 18 – 30 year olds living and working in this area. The magazine will be focused on social and cultural events, activities and places to visit with an easy to use listing system that will make planning a day or night out in the north-west easy and accessible.

TREND will look for independent businesses in these locations that provide quality services but are often overlooked due to mainstream businesses taking their customers. TREND will review these businesses to allow customers a real insight into what each provides.

TREND will also offer local offers and deals, as an incentive to subscribe to the magazine and also to generate interest in the local areas that it covers. It will be a magazine that caters for more than one age range so that students will find it as useful and functional as young professionals. This will be a big focus for TREND, as the economic position of 18 – 30 year olds can differ greatly due to varied careers and education choices.

Social media will be a massive part of the brand, Twitter and Instagram will offer immediacy and allow customers to be involved with TREND and its content 'as it happens' whilst Facebook and Pinterest will promote material after it has been published. TREND will put emphasis on building that relationship with its customer so the brand is formed by their input and really concentrate on what they want to see in the magazine.

The magazine will focus on Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool, Lancashire and Cheshire and so will cover a wide range of up and coming locations throughout the north-west, particularly because BBC have now relocated to Media City in Salford and job opportunities are much more varied and prosperous.

 Looking forward, TREND will aim to be a real part of the north-west community, hosting events around the region encouraging customers to get involved and build an online magazine that they know they love.

For Better Or Worse: An Analysis Of Digital Publishing

It’s been 550 years since Johannes Gutenberg pioneered a new printing technique and began to publish on a mass scale for the first time. With the dawn of digital publishing a new frontier revealing itself to us. Digital is being promoted as the future of the publishing industry and as tablet computers and e-books become increasingly widespread the ways in which we devour our media is changing faster than ever before.

While this is only a brief analysis of the arena of digital publishing and it wouldn't surprise anyone if this information is rendered irrelevant in 6 months, looking at the industry as it stands provides an interesting view.

Political

As digital generated content and Internet access is becoming increasingly widespread there is a new generation of writers from all backgrounds on an international scale. These new writers can create followings and generate interest in their pursuits, whether they are political or creative. With a wider field of reporting and the repercussions of coverage can be felt in political institutions across the world. The recent Arab Spring was accelerating by the use of digital communications and localized revolutionary reporting. The flip side of this is that those with an extreme agenda have the same soapbox from which to speak.

Economic

There are a series of new revenue streams that digital publishing presents for the industry in general, which goes some way to explaining why the leaders of publishing companies are fiercely pursuing it. While 40% of tablet owners have purchased a magazine app and 25% regularly read magazines on their device, there are still considerable gains to be made in that market. Advertising has been deemed more effective if it is seen to be interactive. With companies such as Facebook have been quick to adopt purchasing software such as Synapse and Alvenda buying direct from a digital magazine can hardly be light-years away.

Social

There is an increasingly social side to the way digital content is created and eventually published. Publishing efforts from 37 Signals have pioneered the use of blogs to release parts of their book over time and in order to engage with their readers to see how they were being received.  Wayne Gladstone’s book Notes From The Internet Apocalypse was originally a serialized novella published on Cracked.com but will soon be published by Thomas Dunne books.

Technological

The reading experience has been enhanced by the dawn of this new technology. The time spent reading magazines rises with digital publications, the average number of minutes spent on Vanity Fair rose from 65 minutes to 200 when the audience used a digital copy. Since their release in 2010 over 100 million iPads have been sold worldwide and this is a considerable audience for any publisher.

Legal

With digital content being so easily exploited, copied and reproduced there are a number of legal issues revolving around the rights of digital content. Acknowledging the right of workers and professionals is one key aspect of this but also the rights of the purchaser. Looking at the widely reported story that Bruce Willis was to sue Apple in order to leave his considerable digital music collection to his daughters raises an interesting question, who actually owns downloaded content? In reality customers never actually buy a lot of digital content, rather they purchase the license to use it. The same is as true for ebooks and magazines as it is for music. There may be a digital artifact on your kindle but we cannot say that you “own” it in the traditional sense of the word. As such that feeling of “buying” something may be misplaced.

Environmental

A great deal has been made about the benefits of digital readers to the environment. If there are less trees being felled for magazine paper then there will be a positive impact. However, the natural resources that have to be harvested and mined for the creation of tablets and various e-readers could have a negative impact on the environment. Books and magazines are easily recyclable whereas technology is particularly hard to dispose of and can lead to terrible amounts of waste and landfill.

Even this blog (which was meant to come in at a tidy 300 words) cannot fully incorporate every aspect of the burgeoning digital publishing industry, but hopefully it has demonstrated that in this relatively infant medium there is plenty of potential for great success.

Looking At The Bigger Picture - A PEST Analysis on the Media Industry

Businesses in the media industry have straight forward value chains.  However, the digital revolution is allowing them to reconstruct.  This process is allowing businesses to become more innovative.  But how do they do this? 

Publishing digitally is growing.  Different platforms and devices are being introduced constantly, providing consumers with a new way of reading.  Communities are being created online, allowing people to engage through books, magazines, blogs and long-form journalism. 

The digital distribution of books creates engagement with readers.  Books can reach a much larger audience, which brings in more revenue. 

Inevitably, the continuing growth of the e-book (for example, Amazon's kindle) in this industry will mean the death of the printed book.  The threat lies in innovation – how do publishers think of new ways to attract readers?  Publishing houses are consolidating to reduce operation costs, but if the money still isn’t growing, more rationalising has to take place.

In the music industry, CD sales are decreasing.  People are looking for ways to share music, which allows businesses to be innovative and create new ways for this to happen.  However, they also need to find a way to attract people and make money.  If there is no new talent, there is no money.

Newspapers have also realised how beneficial an online presence is.  This provides them with an opportunity to carry a range of content to appeal to a range of readers.  The key, again, is innovation.  Simply, if there are fewer advertisements, there are fewer pages in the newspaper; therefore making it less value for money and less attractive to readers. 

Then we have magazines.  People spend an equal amount of time reading print as they do online.  They have endless opportunities to expand.  However, there is still one major downfall.  If the internet is ever growing, what does this mean for magazine sales? 

For international businesses, their problem is the decline in print advertisement revenue.  In order to compete, they would need to build on their online advertisement revenue and their content revenue. 

Digital is taking over.  There’s no stopping it.  Businesses need to be innovative and aware in order to build, grow and succeed.

Holly Sutton 

PEST Analysis for Media Journalism

By carrying out a PEST Analysis into the current Media Journalism sector, we are able to gain an in-depth understanding of the current industry, highlight new opportunities and also threats or problems and how these can be over come.

The Internet and advances in digital technology has changed the model of mass communication and has had a major impact on the external environment of the newspaper and magazine industries, gradually substituting traditional print media. Digital media has also increased competitiveness within the market and with low capital cost and global accessibility of resources, this has been a threat for many established prints publications. Many existing newspapers have therefore had to compliment their daily prints with online version and further updates throughout the day, instead of waiting for updates till their next publication to be released.

The current economical climate also means that people may be less likely to buy a newspaper or magazine when they could access this information free online - either via newspaper websites, independent websites, blogs or forums. This has had a knock on effect for companies who may have previously used print promotion to reach consumers, as their target consumers might be struggling to buy products, they may have smaller marketing budget or may be choosing to spend their budget on other promotional platforms.

The current economical climate has also led to the public becoming less trusting of the government and therefore, it is easy for consumers to avoid certain publications depending on their political standpoint. With developments in technology and an increased access to resources and information it also means that the public are more likely to investigate news stories themselves - allowing more transparency and angles to a story.

Socially peoples needs are also changing in the way readers access information. More people are accessing digital and social media and by going online, newspaper and magazines can offer their readers multimedia and interaction - something which was not possible only a few years ago.

Media Industry - PEST Analysis

Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, Technological Factors – These will help make sense of the bigger picture.

Political – The Digital revolution is expanding yet has many issues to combat. One of which is the number of lawsuits it has faced due to copyrighted content. This has led publishers to take an extra precaution as they need to avoid future lawsuits. They demand that freelancers sign away electronic rights or risk not being published electronically. (Cunningham B. Who owns that story now? Columbia J Rev. 2000; 38(5):11). The threat here is piracy, where people will copy content free of charge.

Economic – The pressure is rising to sell more books. Profits on e-books are not as high and this means that authors are not able to make enough revenue. Technology has undermined the economics of book publishers and authors. On a positive note, e-readers help the economy because e-books as a supply inventory chain control saves trees in the long run. Digital editions of magazines are also creating an attractive environment for advertisers.

Socio-Cultural – New publishing strategies create engaged community forums, for example Goodreads.com is a digital and social networking library which allows people to chat about books and creates awareness about niche books. This builds an opportunity for promotion of products which would not only help authors but also help publishers. A threat that social networking may impose is bad reviews and therefore have the opposite effect. The audience now have just as much access to media distribution as publishers do. E-marketer has reported that CEO's within the media and entertainment industry are leaning on social media to encourage growth and build future customer connections. (www.Fipp.com)

Technological – The media market place is not simply about technology. But technology does in fact play a huge role. Convergence of media is making boundaries harder to decipher. Where do books end is one main question and another medium begin.  The rise of e-books meant numerous platforms were created as a marketplace for books. One example is when Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPad iBooks, which created a huge opportunity for publishers. A problem with technology is that it is forever changing and media companies must always look at innovative ways to lure back those lapsed readers, with the added pressure of other competing technologies. The good thing about the discovery of new media devices is that it is transforming magazine media audiences, whilst print remains just as important.

 Fipp has researched into how

 “The remarkable strengths of tablets, websites, smartphones and social media in presenting magazine content, and consumers enthusiastic acceptance of these new means of 

delivery, means that for publishers there is a dramatic and continuing shift in profile towards digital audiences without necessarily reducing print audiences. All in all, this indicates a very healthy future for magazine media is one of the conclusions drawn in the book.”

By Saima Omar

Pottermore: Innovative Distribution Process

'Pottermore' is the unique collaboration between the Harry Potter creator and Sony to develop an innovative website that aims to enhance and expand the readers’ experience, and, more importantly for the publishing sphere, act as a distribution forum for the eBook versions. This new website aims to complement the novels and provide backgrounds to minor characters, act as a community for fans to discuss and explore the literary phenomenon, including the opportunity to 'role play' as a 'Hogwarts' student, and exclusively purchase the sought after eBook versions of the seven stories. The opportunity to purchase the eBooks exclusively from the site has caused uproar in the publishing sphere, with bookstores being removed from the equation and resenting the missed opportunity to profit from a series of books they worked hard to promote.  In addition to this, the eBooks, although supported by e-readers, cannot be bought on websites that support the hardware (eg. Kindle users cannot purchase the eBooks from Amazon, which is a first for eBook purchasing!) ‘Pottermore’ acts as an example of a business model that may find itself being increasingly implemented by publishers globally as a way of removing the costly distribution process from the equation. 

Task 4: Response to the seminar

I agree with Maya in the blog post below that we are providing a fresh, academically informed perspective on innovation and entrepreneurship in the media industry. I also agree that professionals outside of our group would provide an invaluable insight into the fundamentals of media business, and their experience would possibly offer more focused ideas that we, as a group, can expand on. In addition, I think that enthusiasts, although not academically informed, would offer a more analytical approach of knowledge that is already available, and because of their passion might bring to the table ideas we have not considered. Allowing outsiders contribute would also build the awareness of the course, and, in turn, possibly the reputation. To maximise awareness of our bogs, I definitely think we should make use of 'labels' when blogging so that others interested can find our posts easily.

The class yesterday helped me identify the difference between ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘innovation’, and the different implications they have in the old and new media industry business models. Entrepreneurship is a process or attitude, whereas innovation is the tangible activity of making something new. Understanding the difference allows me to analyse the attitudes of, and the motions being put in place by, innovative media companies to stay ahead of their competition whilst continuing to deliver content but, more importantly in the present digital age, new platforms to display, connect and use this content. 

Innovation

Innovation is becoming the fundamental requirement for businesses, including the media, to stay in the game and expand nationally and globally, especially in an ever-changing digital revolution. Its importance is recognised by the Media Innovation Awards (http://www.mediainnovationawards.com/home.aspx). Innovation can be in the forms of the product, the process new products are delivered, the context of the product, and the company’s paradigm.

If a company fails to be innovative, it dies. A most recent example would be the fall of Kodak; a company that, in it’s heyday, was hugely successful and profitable. However, as the focus becomes innovative hardware and a digital focus, the company simply did not keep up in terms of innovation of product or their business model.

Product innovation is the most essential of the four Ps, mostly because it is the change that is focused completely at the customer. Product innovation in the media industry can be either hardware innovation, or content innovation, as highlighted in the Jeff Bezos Podcast (Podcast). Bezos claims the iPad is an example of innovative hardware, and this is the focus of Apple. Whereas Amazon focus on being innovative content providers, and their hardware (including the innovative touchscreen device, the Kindle Fire) is simply a ‘passport’ to the vast Amazon media library. The only innovative feature on the Kindle, in comparison to the iPad, is faster streaming to allow for easier access to the content they provide.

1.     Raghavan, B. “Lessons for companies from Kodak’s demise.” Business Line. 29 Jan 2012. Web. Accessed: 29 Jan 2012.

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