Content Is Still King at the Executive Summit on Digital Media

On Monday Publishing Executive hosted it's second annual Executive Summit on Digital Media, which gathered over 60 publishers to discuss strategies around digital revenue, mobile monetization, and data analytics. The day was a resounding success thanks to the amazing speakers we had in attendance, from Mitch Rouda, president of eMedia at Farm Journal to Brian Madden, VP of audience at Hearst Digital Media, and John Lerner, CEO of Breaking Media -- to name a few. The big theme that hit home for me at Monday's event is the importance of content. Without great content, said Lerner in our first panel "Deep Dive on Digital Revenue Strategies," all of the technology and tools at publishers' disposal are useless. Luckily for publishers, this is not a new concept but more of an affirmation. The greater challenge, it seems, is figuring out how today's technology -- mobile devices, analytics dashboards, apps -- can best deliver high-quality content to the desired audience. The day's first panel touched on this dichotomy during a discussion of native advertising. The most important aspect of native ads, said Steven Suthiana, global head of digital media and operations at Fast Company & Inc. Media, is the editorial. "What we know best is writing content. We're the experts on creating high-quality content that speaks to our audience. It's up to us to drive the conversation with the advertisers and see where their brand fits." At the same time, Suthiana recognized that measuring the results of native ads can be challenging. "There is no specific measurement for native just yet," said Suthiana. While publishers can provide metrics on engagement and time spent on an article, they need to engage advertisers in an ongoing conversation to define what metrics matter most. Defining metrics, and in particular KPIs, was a key topic of the summit's second panel, "Publishing's Future: Digital AND Data-Driven." While page views have often been cited as the foremost indicator of reader interest, said ALM's chief digital officer Jeffrey S. Litvack, there are better KPIs for reader loyalty and engagement. ALM Media is putting particular emphasis on page scrolling because the amount of an article or page a reader views is a much better indication of engagement than the traditional time spent measurement. Condé Nast executive director of digital intelligence Daniel Stubbs stressed that determining the right KPIs has to be the first step of a successful data analytics initiative. "It's very easy to induce bad behavior and even worse content if you use the wrong KPIs." Brian Madden, Hearst Digital Media's VP of audience, shared a apt example. In order to prompt the more valuable behavior -- article sharing -- Hearst removed the Facebook "Like" buttons from all of its articles, leaving only the "Share" option. As a result, sharing and article reach grew exponentially. Fittingly, the final panel of the day encapsulated to the content value theme. The panel, "Mastering the Small Screen: How Publishers are Making Mobile Work," did not delve too deep into the technical aspects of creating a mobile app or site but instead emphasized that any mobile initiative needs to provide value to the reader. "We don't want to get distracted by the shiny new toy," said Gretchen Tibbits, former COO/CMO of Maxim and StyleCaster, "and we do that with mobile. When you consider using mobile, you need to ask, 'What does our audience want, and how do we deliver with today's technology, and what will they want in the future?'"

General

Content Is Still King at the Executive Summit on Digital Media

Ellen Harvey

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Ellen Harvey