Folks,
Without proactive change there is no future for newspaper companies in a Digital age.
At MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company we understand that and are shifting our rate of change into high gear. About a month ago we announced the leadership of the newly formed Digital First Media to run both companies.
Since then, company President Jeff Bairstow and I have been working with key management and today we are announcing a number of operational changes, initiatives and management appointments that will put the right leaders in the right structure to effectively implement our Digital First strategy.
Our strategy is simple – allocate the right resources to drive Digital audiences and monetization while effectively reducing our old legacy infrastructure costs. In other words, grow Digital products, platforms, content offerings and revenue – and grow them fast. And, at the same time, protect our print business.
In the newspaper industry Digital transformation is a bit like the weather – everybody’s talking about it but few are doing much about it at all. That won’t be the case at MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company.
We are putting into place a new structure that centralizes non-local content production, digital product and sales development, sales support and IT to provide solutions back to the Company’s local markets.
The new structure will allow local markets to focus on what they do best – the creation of local content, the growth of local audience and engagement and the monetization of that growth. It will speed up our time in launching new and needed digital products, reduce costs and let us maximize the scale of Digital First Media’s resources and market footprint.
Moving forward, under Digital First Media, the new operational structure for Media News Group and Journal Register Company includes:
All editors on ALL platforms reporting to Jim Brady, Editor-in-Chief of Digital First Media. Dave Butler, as previously announced, will be Executive Editor and will also continue to oversee all California newsgathering operations as our West Editor. Greg Moore of The Denver Post will also serve as our Central Editor and oversee Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota. The East Editor, who will oversee Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and New England newsrooms, will be named at a future date. As before, editors will maintain their reporting relationship to their respective publishers.
All sales leaders on ALL platforms will report to Kirk MacDonald, Executive Vice President of Sales for Digital First Media. Adam Burnham, as Senior Vice President for Local Digital Sales, will be responsible for all local digital revenue in all markets. Chris Coda is named Senior Director of National Digital Sales and will be responsible for leading all digital national advertising sales across Digital First Media. Mike Petrak is named Vice President of National Print Sales and will lead all national print advertising.
As well, a number of Regional Vice Presidents for sales have been named, each with a solid track record in driving digital revenue. Pete Casillas will be responsible for California while Erik Smelser is responsible for the Northeast including New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. Kevin Haezebroeck and Ed Condra, who, respectively, already have responsibility for our properties in Michigan and Ohio plus Pennsylvania will take on sales responsibilities as well in this structure. Kirk will also do double duty and directly watch over sales in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota.
As before, sales leaders will maintain their reporting relationship to their respective publishers.
The Company’s Digital strategy, including ALL product deployment, will be led by Arturo Duran, Chief Digital Officer of Digital First Media. Alison Kane is the new Senior Vice President of Digital Products and Business Development and will be responsible for bringing all new Digital products to market and implementing Digital First Media’s business development strategy. Scott Cunningham is appointed Vice President for Digital Technology and Platforms and will be responsible for all Digital publishing platforms. Patricia Rodeawald is the new Vice President of Digital Product Development responsible for coordinating all centralized Digital product launches.
As previously announced, Chief Technology Officer Bob Mason is responsible for all of the Company’s system selections, deployments and I.T. infrastructure. Steve Rossi, Executive Vice President of Digital First Media, will oversee all California operations including Bay Area Newspaper Group and Los Angeles Area Newspaper Group. Jerry Grilly, Executive Vice President of Digital First Media, will oversee all Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota operations. Tom Wiley, Executive Vice President of Digital First Media, is in charge of MediaNews Group’s New England properties including Media One and NENI. And all Human Resources functions will be centrally led by Robert Monteleone, Chief Human Resources Officer for Digital First Media.
If you are unclear about how any of these changes affect you just ask your supervisor.
What Can You Do?
Ok, so those are the new bosses but this Company isn’t going to change without you. We need everyone’s help in accelerating our Company from its print past to its multiplatform future.
To that end, Digital First Media is extending Journal Register Company’s ideaLab to include MediaNews Group employees.
To start, we are going to equip 25 MediaNews Group employees with the latest tools and give them the time and money to experiment with them. Each member of the ideaLab will be equipped, initially, with a Smartphone, tablet and laptop.
The Company will carve out 10 hours a week from their regular jobs to allow them time to experiment with these tools and report back on how we can change our business for the better. And we will add an extra $500 per month to their pay. Other than that – there are no rules.
How do you become a member of the ideaLab?
In about 200 words or less, what would you do with the tools and time to improve our business? Email me at jpaton@digitalfirstmedia.com or post here on my blog. Any MediaNews Group employee in any division or any department – part-time or full-time – is eligible. I will involve Digital First Media’s Advisory Board in the selection of the 25 staffers and make sure we let you know the names of the winners.
Okay, now it’s over to you.
Until next time,
John.
Go, John. Sooo happy to see an expansion of the ideaLab – Arriba!
One word: Google+ Hangouts. Wait, that’s 2 words.
“All editors on ALL platforms reporting to Jim Brady, Editor-in-Chief of Digital First Media.”
You could have used a copy editor, John.
Too bad I am not eligible.
But those who are might find our Znak it! platform inspirational. Or simply use it to publish and sell your own content http://www.znakit.com
Dear John Paton,
I work in New Business Development for the Recruitment Advertising Department. I am mobile and communicate with my team and customers via my smartphone using voice, text, email, and supplement with my laptop as needed.
My customer is a local regional Human Resources Director who is both looking for solutions to their recruiting needs and improve their ROI in hiring additional staff. New digital solutions are primarily what set me apart from my competitors and providing effective packages with Monster’s comprehensive platform is effective for many, local and regional print are additional benefits my competitors cannot provide. The competitive splintering of recruitment marketing provides me with numerous platforms to search for additional prospects. I communicate with customers and prospects via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and use Constant Contact and Hootsuite to promote and time my messages. I also use video to record and present customer testimonials from my phone.
I would use the new tools to present to customers the additional solutions we offer by using the same tools their prospective employees use and simultaneously be afforded the additional time to explore additional ways to digitally communicate with new prospects, being proactive not reactive.
I look forward to begin the process.
Let’s partner to see how to effectively use Online, Traditional & Emerging Media for your organization!
Gerhard Krämer
Recruitment & Marketing Account Executive
Interesting move. I believe you can only “speed up the time of innovation” by enhancing autonomy in local markets.
About the media lab strategy: approx 25% of their time seems significant. only question is:? will it be a true learning experience or are the efforts there to meet synergy expectations between old en new media?
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Quite surprised to see that you have 200+ applications already, but almost none through this post. Quite different than first test with JRC….
Curious to see what comes next, too.
Anyway, will be a great ride for those involded.
Although I might not be one of the most technologically-savvy applicants for ideaLab, I intend to be one of the most willing to learn and explore. I take great pride in developing intuitive solutions that empower our advertising sales reps and clients to take advantage of the growing applications of social media.
Thousands of innovative digital opportunities are out there; most are FREE or relatively low cost. That’s where I come in. I’d welcome the opportunity to focus on finding new ways to present to our clients in the digital world.
This year I led the following:
iPad Presentations
• Importing PowerPoint into Keynote for presentations on iPad – using iPhone as a Bluetooth remote
iPad Kiosks
• Created a kiosk to highlight NIE iPad sign-up app at Minnesota Education Association and iPad app at two Wisconsin Tourism conferences
QR Codes/Advertisers
• Creating/tracking customer QR Codes for use in advertising
QR Codes/Editorial
• Contributed to a published story on QR Codes from our Tech Writer
QR Codes/Advertorial
• Created QR Codes on weekly auto feature to drive readers to related inventory on EveryCarListed.com
For our clients, these projects demonstrated first-hand how they could benefit from digital connections to their audience.
KIRK GOETZ Marketing Creative Manager
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
talk or text 612.309.5387
345 Cedar Street • St. Paul, MN 55101
Dear @Jxpaton
I’m sure there’ll be many more creative responses then what I have produced; however, no one will deliver the passion and commitment to the actual work in the field. Consuming technology and social was a hobby until I saw success in action. It started by connecting with clients through social sites and then sales presentations via YouTube. Most recently selling Direct to Consumer products digitally. I’d begin my ideaLab journey by taking each morsel of technology available to our consumers, customers and clients to ask, “What would you create to best access our content, advertising and digital tools?” “What are you doing to access the news nationally, locally today?” “What have we failed to do or overlooked?” “Where do you want to see your advertisement?” Questions like these would be echoed from heads of marketing departments to the person sitting next to me on the airplane watching Netflix. No one would be overlooked. Next, I’d work directly with subscribers and national retailers to help engineer, build, implement and test new ideas in order to make Digital First Media number one. Not just in digital consumption but revenue as well. I would be honored to be chosen for ideaLab.
Thank you for your consideration,
@curling5oh – Major Accounts Manager
dmetcalf@pioneerpress.com
Technolog has taken over our world today. House phones have been replaced by cell phones making it possible for you to be reached whenever no matter where you are at. Books have been replaced by tablets or kindles allowing you to carry your own personal library with you. Most importantly laptops are replacing newspapers and instead of waiting for the 6 or 9 o’clock news you can be up on the most current topics and events happening areound the world, not just in your city. A newspaper will report yesterdays news but with the flip of a button you can access your laptop, cell phone or tablet and know whats happening every hour, minute even second of the day in any part of the world. I am able to show businesses the benefits of having their ad, specials, coupons or company news published in the El Paso times mobile application, facebook, twitter or our website. These devices have made it possible to reach people all around the world making you time as efficient as possible. Social media has taken over our society and is used by all ages ranging from as early as you can read and write to senior citizens and older. Having these different tools and available will help me have the knowledge of how the world is evolving to the lastest scientific breakthroughs, to the lastest gossip. I will be able to show our clients the benefits of advertising through our media news group and how we can reach the world with social media.
Leonard Owens
Digital Advertising Specialist
(915)546-6211
Hi John,
First I would like to say its fantastic to be a fresh new member of TNMNP. I now work for Alamogordo Daily News, and I have never had a more challenging yet thoroughly enjoyable position.
Every day I am presented with something new, and it is all technological. In Alamogordo, I am learning, the idea of online is a scary transition for about 50% of our business owners.
What I know……
From taking business management I learned that 90% of all small businesses fail due to lack of advertising within the first 3 years, preventing most from becoming what they thought they could be in those first few months of starting out. Myself included. I wish I could have walked into my business 2 years ago and shown me how advertising online, no matter the cost, could have boosted my revenue. Little did I, and and most of my clients today, understand what online can do and how far it can take my/their business….No matter how big or small.
What would “I” do with the right tools and time given?……I need that extra time to give each of my clients the one on one they deserve in order to educate them of the benefits to online advertising, curb their fears in the risk of spending on such a venture and finding out what their needs are when it comes to selling them into digital media. I am learning alongside the client and this helps me develop a real and trusting relationship with my customer. These are the first steps in giving them what they want and helping them on their road to success. After all, “Their success is our success”.
Dear Mr. Paton,
Thank you for the opportunity to apply for such a unique way to utilize employee’s knowledge to accelerate our digital landscape and uncover untapped solutions.
I would relish at the chance to be at the front-line discovering how these every day tools can be used to help increase employee productivity, relating to advertising partners and our readers.
As a consumer, mother and younger generation news reader; these platforms have transformed my consumption and my habits. Technology has changed my life, and as a media sales coordinator I see the potential these have for our clients in driving revenue and ROI.
We are currently missing out on how to target young mothers who use these tools to find information. Our site, Mile High Mamas, could be better used to aggregate information on what moms are searching for and be made into an iPhone app. I work directly with a major hospital organization, one of our largest digital advertisers, we could leverage this partnership to tap into their experience and expertise.
This idea could be used on a larger scale across the country in all markets tapping into their local resources and partnerships.
Thank you for your consideration.
Aarin Morrow
Denver Post
Digital Media Coordinator – Major/National Accounts
P 303.954.1069
C 617.272.5201
amorrow@denverpost.com
Mr. Paton,
My role with the Denver Post has involved establishing ad order entry and processing protocol on the print side. I have recently expanded that role to the digital billing/processing side of our business. I’d like to be part of a team that develops a real time inventory app. In my mind, a rep can present open inventory to an advertiser from one of these devices (tablet, smart phone, laptop), fill out a short form, collect a credit card and submit the order back to a support person that fulfills the buy. The app, or a separate application altogether, needs to offer the ability to submit creative requests at the same time of the buy. The app also needs to provide real time, available inventory pricing.
Thank you for your consideration.
Jen Bryan
Sales Support and Insert Operations Mgr
Denver Post
bryanj@denverpost.com / 303.954.3408
John Paton,
My name is Lark Trowell and I work for The Denver Post in the Transportation Department.
I am very happy that your are allowing your employees on a national scale to give input in the companies’ direction and I would like to take part in the IdeaLab as we move forward.
With the tools that you are offering, I would use the tools and my time to Communicate, Share, Collaborate, Design and Search for ways to help improve this companies visibility in the digital world. Each of the tools you are giving will be the very tools that a person would use to access any digital media. I would also search for ways to help solve and improve on issues that are found in my immediate area of work.
One idea is that, nationally, there is a large audience for international media in each races language and geographical area of there home country. I believe that there is a market for this type of digital media news from a company located in the United States.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve,
Lark Trowell II
larktrowell@msn.com
Cell # 303-246-2330
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Mr. Paton,
I would like to throw my name in the ring for the ideaLab. Currently, I work as a Research Manager for the Pennsylvania region of MediaNews Group. I am also a blogger for SmartMagPA.com, one of our products targeted toward women, on my personal time. Check me out at http://www.yorkblog.com/smart/author/ccashour
Honestly, I don’t need a computer, a laptop, a mobile phone or an iPad; I have all of those. At my fingertips, I have the world in software that can target customer development and acquisition across digital and analog mediums, yet I do not have the time to dedicate to “new” projects.
Here are the questions that I would like to answer if given the opportunity:
Who are my audiences?
What do they need/want?
Do we have a product that fits that need?
If yes, is it being marketed properly or at all? How do I get to my audience? How does my marketing department “market” the message effectively to non-traditional audience?
If no, how can I serve a new audience?
We must find our audiences and harness it to our best abilities for the future of our business. The breadth and scope of our audience drives our revenue.
What I bring to the table is creativity, ingenuity, integrity, humor and determination. I have the resources. I have the ability. Now give me the time and the leadership to make it happen.
Sincerely,
Courtney
Courtney Cashour
Research Manager – MediaOnePA
717.767.3583
ccashour@mediaonepa.com
courtneycashour@twitter
Hello Mr. John Patton,
If I was a member of the ideaLab, I would utilize the time and tools to incorporate a comprehensive presentation using each digital device. I would set up the Smart phone, Tablet and Laptop to showcase our complete capability and to emphasize how each device can be customized to the needs of any customers marketing goals. I would not only include the capabilities and reach but would show how we can utilize analytics to modify the marketing plan in order to optimize effectiveness. I would focus on making the presentation easy to present without omitting the full range of benefits. I would then design a template in order to customize each presentation for our customers. Prior to actual customer presentations, I would make sales presentations to colleagues to fine tune and perfect the presentation process. I want to make sales calls to our new digital customers and existing print customers a fun learning process. I would enjoy an opportunity to manipulate each digital devise in order to help customers see, touch and better understanding how digital marketing can benefit their business.
Thank you,
Anthony Donnelly
Marin Independent Journal
415-717-1037
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WANTED: A SPOT ON THE IDEALAB TEAM
What would I do with the time and resources?
http://adinterax.com/members-3.8/liveview.phtml?ldemo=Tupk4mKLkTYAACddPvs
Alissa Sanford
Senior Interactive Designer :: TwinCities.com / St. Paul Pioneer Press
asanford@twincities.com
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I’m an on the spot reporter, a daily news provider and, occasionally, a rouge photographer. I’m also @cbowen4.
But in order to successfully and competitively be all four, it’s necessary to be fully engaged in today’s emerging technology.
My job requires me to constantly be on the go.
Covering the police and fire beat, I never know what the day may bring and fire, flood or shooting spree, you have to be ready to drop everything and run — which is easier said than done when you’re juggling a camera, notepad, pens and a voice recorder.
Technology is freedom — the freedom not only to record an interview at the scene of a double homicide with crime tape fluttering in the background, but simultaneously tweeting about. It’s the freedom to multi-task, to be a better, more productive reporter and embrace the new world of journalism. Whether it’s getting that shot of the firefighter running into the burning building or trying to catch a high-speed chase on the freeway, precision and relaying the information to the public as quickly as possible matters.
Exploring new methods and ways to use technology will help us better establish the newspaper’s role in the changing environment. In order to keep your audience engaged, you need to be more than just words on a page. You need to be a presence.
Everybody wants to be in the know and, with new technology, I can provide my readers and twitter followers with fast, efficient breaking news reports.
And theoretically speaking, Peter Parker would have had much more time to be Spider-Man if he had an iPad to tweet his freelance photos from …
Dear John,
My name is Marcie Molina and I work at the Daily Breeze Newspaper as a New Home Multimedia Account Executive.
I am eager to be a part of the ideaLab and excited to learn more about today’s technology and how it will benefit both the paper and my clients. I believe the ideaLab will be productive and informative and will provide a learning opportunity for me so that I can be a well-versed media provider for our print and digital products.
I deal with many creative advertising agencies and I have found them all to be very technology savvy. The invaluable information and tools from the ideaLab will help me present our products and educate my clients in a way that makes me come across as knowledgeable, professional and trustworthy. Being able to show clients first-hand how things work is key. Social media is a huge part of our technology world today. Having these tools and knowledge will set us apart from our competitors.
It would be a journey I would be elated to be a part of.