Perspective

Best Practices Continuum Map for Newspaper Publishers

Balaji Sankaran

Abstract Multiple news distribution channels and interactive advertising are challenging the newspaper business. Legacy systems and disparate technologies prevent newspapers from being agile and to compete with the new content providers. Newspaper publishers are being forced to reshape their business by improving operational efficiency and content management processes. This paper presents the Infosys technology transition roadmap, which facilitates newspaper businesses to transform their IT systems to meet the challenges of the new market realities.

Sep 2006

Introduction
The advent of content-rich, multi-dimensional media has disrupted the newspaper business. News websites bombard consumers with free information, and young readers who define the future of the industry are migrating away from newspapers. The newspaper publishing business is now faced with two harsh realties: Slow growth in advertising revenues Declining circulation and readership

Typically, advertising contributes to 75% of newspaper business revenue*. Lack of advertising revenue growth impacts the ability to make capital investment and increase shareholder wealth. Advertisers who were earlier satisfied with the ROI on the dissemination of their advertising messages, are now demanding measurable growth in business as an outcome of these ad spends. Keyword-driven search engine advertising is the trigger driving this shift

Newspaper Advertising Revenues 49

Value in Billion $ 46
43

40 2000 Source: NAA 2001

Year

2002

2003

Further, circulation is another critical dimension that is showing signs of slowing down, especially in the American market.

Newspaper Circulation - Weekdays 56 Million copies 55 54 53 2000 Source: NAA 2001

Year

2002

2003

Newspapers are at an inflection point. The only way forward in this scenario is to identify, embrace and reengineer the enterprise around best practices. The best practices detailed in this perspective are: 1. Editorial Workflow 2. Advertising Management 3. Circulation Management 4. Production Process Optimization Newspaper publishers should identify business processes that need to move up on the best practices map, measure the present state and then map the transition path.

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Editorial Process
Newspapers need to change their view of the editorial process and utilize news to create content for multiple delivery channels. Publishers should try and leverage news content beyond its traditional life span of a single day. Level 1 Level 2 Level 3Level 4 Dashboard Digital Asset view of storyManagement for schedulingmanaging stories/ images through Database for the workflow published content Remote access Rights managed to missing partly access to workflow workflow Centralized Re-purposing management of content for content creation multiple channels Access to content Transform for re-use content in to digital assets

Competencies

File Hierarchy Sequential Workflow Copy-fitting after story writing, using pagemakeup software

Collaborative Workflow Consistent editorial software usage across geography Image replacement to facilitate more efficient page layout

Benefits

pages

Creating the days Workflow not optimized for delivery time

Streamlined product usage Lower maintenance & support costs

Adopting best practices will help newspaper publishers to make their content creation process faster, more efficient and less error prone. Collaboration, scheduling and monitoring the content creation process ensures predictable newspaper production. Further, usage of DAM repositories facilitates content reuse in multiple delivery formats.

Advertising Management
Advertisers are being drawn towards multiple media and ROI-measurable advertising opportunities. Newspapers should provide focused advertising solutions tailor-made to their needs. To compete more effectively, newspapers need to consider offering: Multiple space buying options Flexible material deadlines Customized advertising solutions Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Competencies

Advertising material handled as films

Centralized customer data

Cross-media selling and bundled pricing

Customer Information stored in multiple locations Space availability and reservation through coordination

All advertising material handled digitally Booking information centralized and updated to reflect current state

Advertisers integrated in publishers workflow

Customer interaction history record and tracking Credit maturity and receivables management

Usage of B2B information exchange standards AdsML Sales analytics Audience demographic targeting

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Benefits

Level 1

Designed for simple & small scale of operations

Level 2

Structured space selling

Level 3

Multi-product / multi-media advertising

Level 4

Focused advertising solutions Customer self-

Sales force enabled with updated space information

Simplified customer interaction

service

By optimizing the applications employed in managing the advertising process, newspaper publishers can: Establish transparent and efficient processes for advertising Equip their sales-force with updated advertiser and booking information Monitor business by category, geography and sales groups

Circulation Management
Dwindling subscriptions is forcing publishers to offer value-added services to retain customer loyalty. Superior service and improved logistics management are a high-priority for circulation managers. Publishers can achieve greater efficiencies in circulation management by adopting best practices in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), logistics and distribution. Through this, publishers can lower their delivery costs and improve customer service. Level 1 Competencies Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Stand-alone applications manage circulation, subscription and distribution Lack of centralized customer data

Distributor & retailer information centralized

Online bundle labeling

Demand forecasting

Customer selfservice for subscription related requests

Bundle label printing offline Distribution planning and tracking manual Systematized demand capture and distribution, route planning systematized

GIS used Carrier planning, for planning monitoring distribution & payment logistics processing centralized Sales analytics Cost-efficient planning of distribution operations Tracking & control of Carrier costs High customer service interactivity Optimized distribution

Benefits

Cost-reduction focused distribution management

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Print Production Process

Print production costs significantly impact bottom line. Therefore, publishers should have systems that provide budgetary and efficiency metrics-based control mechanisms. Improved efficiencies in the production process can result in better quality and greater customer satisfaction. Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4 Product planning Job scheduling Detailed JDF based job Competencies by telephonic co-through capacityscheduling of thetracking ordinationmanagementindividual pages/ De-centralizedapplicationsitems of the print spreadsheetsproduct for recording

Reel-to-reel newsprint

Materialaccounting indenting, Automated Machine

machine purchasingmaterial inventory performance performance data approvals trackedmonitoring analytics Manual spare part by accounting Benefits In-efficient and unstructured production performance management Structured & audit and not Systematic production scheduling system enforced Machine Tracking & control of pageperformance level schedules. Optimized inventory metrics planning monitored Product wiseindenting and Automated production tracking, unit-costingmonitoring Systematic cost measurement & control. Maintenance

scheduling and through data Based on analytics, publishers can take corrective actions. Further, tight monitoring of high value cost components, accounting like newsprint, will facilitate significant cost reduction. capture and applications analysis

Infosys Roadmap for Transition to Best Practices

Publishing enterprises should adopt best practices to improve competitiveness and growth. Infosys recommends that technology migration should be: accompanied by appropriate human resource interventions like training, change management, etc. in line with the business strategy of the newspaper done incrementally to avoid the high risks associated with larger scale transformations

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The migration to the unified end state must be a phased, sequential and calibrated process.

Continuum Maturity

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Data Exchange

Stand alone Applications

Applications sharing data selectively

Function-wide data flow

End to End Deploym ent

Transition Roadm ap

Measure

Plan

Im prove

Deploy

Application Portfolio Optim ization

Interface

Integrate

Unify

Infosys Transformation Process for Newspaper Publishers

Measure
The first step is the measurement of actual state ascertaining maturity level of existing processes and systems. This is done by mapping the processes against the best practices continuum.

Plan
The desired state must be established after evaluating the systems servicing the key process and mapping them on the continuum map. The publisher needs to identify the: processes to be transitioned level to which the process should migrate and timelines for the migration functional/technical characteristics high-level IT architecture of the desired end-state feature/functionality release plan implementation road map

This must have a time bound action plan aligned with the organizations strategic and tactical goals.

Improve
A key factor for the success of the transition map is the demonstration of quick wins. They play a key role in materializing the benefits of transition and removing barriers to change. This phase involves: assessing whether transition must involve a custom-built application, enhancement to existing applications or installation of a new packaged application pilot rollout at select locations with less complexities creating a test strategy to mitigate rollout issues requesting and acting on internal and external customer feedback releasing scheduled and iterative improvements to achieve the planned steady state

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Deploy
Deployment after pilot rollouts facilitates quicker transition. However, it should always be accompanied by: robust documentation of the system at the higher levels of process maturity training for all users who directly interface with the system change management sessions - highlighting the positive improvements of the new system, for all those who are likely to be impacted

The typical time frame for transition is three to six months, depending on the organizations geographical spread, size of operations and employee morale

Conclusion
Publishers should constantly reengineer their processes to serve the ever-changing needs of the market. Migrating to higher levels of the best practices continuum provide self-sustaining returns on account of: lower cost through improved efficiencies higher revenues through increased customer focus

Migration to higher levels of maturity will enable newspaper publishers to be better equipped to meet the challenges of the emerging New Age Publishing Paradigm.

About the Author

Balaji Sankaran (balaji_sankaran@infosys.com) is Senior Associate, Business Solutions Consulting Group, Transportation & Services.