 "The digital imperative")
How does a media brand that guides everyone on how to run their businesses cope with the biggest disruption that the media industry has seen? How does another brand that leads the global market for news redefine itself in a world where news could be consumed anywhere and everywhere? Ninety-one year old Harvard Business Review (HBR) is the first one - a magazine from the eponymous business school with 10 editions a year and a contributors list reads like the who's who of corporate America. These include Jeff Immelt (chairman & CEO, General Electric), Walter Isaacson (CEO, Aspen Institute), Michael Porter (management guru), Eric Schmidt (ex Google CEO). The second brand is BBC World News. BBC World News and bbc.com/news are BBC's commercially funded international news platforms. BBC World News is available in more than 200 countries and reaches over 350 million households. Launched in 2007, bbc.com attracts 58 million unique visitors each month across PCs, tablets and mobile devices. It is along with The Guardian and The Economist a case study of sorts on how media brands could handle digital. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to the business heads of both recently and came back with some interesting insights. Edited excerpts
India is the second largest source of digital traffic for us after the US: Eric Hellweg
Where is digital in the overall HBR picture, globally and in India?
When I came on board in 2006 (as editor of HBR.org) all we had was a website that got 150,000 visitors a month. In six years this has gone to 4 million a month across devices – mobile, tables, laptops etc." What we did is to recognise that the type of content we create is perfect for sitting back. For example, we never did blogs casually. Our blogs are from well-known authors, researchers and editors. You can't just bung stuff onto an HBR blog. We do weekly podcasts. The thinking is, what is the best way to get this 'idea' to people. We get 25 per cent of our total revenues from advertising and the rest from pay. Within advertising revenues, we have seen a decline in print but now more than half comes from digital. On the pay side too the website has become the second biggest source of revenues. India is the second largest source of digital traffic for us, outside of the US.
How has your outlook on what digital can do changed over the years?
Four years ago we reorganised the three major divisions of the company - print, digital and book publishing. Instead of one editor, we now have 22 editors and every one of them has to work across platforms. For a niche brand, we have an outsized presence on social and mobile media. For instance, we have about 795,000 fans on Facebook, 25 per cent of our traffic comes from Twitter (the brand has over 1.2 million followers). Half of our total digital traffic comes from outside the US. And the mobile is a dominant consumption device.
Currently we are in the process of re-examining our digital presence. People on the mobile, blogs, Twitter et al have shorter, more frequent engagement with the brand than the ones who read it offline. Also people have a different relationship with HBR compared to other business media. So the next level will be about making that learning more relevant to you, to make it more practical. How do we take an idea in a 5,000 word piece and break it down into a 150 word management tip of the day. We are trying to figure out what will make people pay more for the content - learning tools, exclusive webinars.
Do you see any patterns in the way content is being consumed on digital across devices or countries?
Well video is a big one. About 15-20 per cent of the digital traffic is video. People are looking for shorter but more frequent engagement. So the assessment tools that we offer form half the traffic that the mobile brings in. Within countries, we don't see a lot of variation. In India, for instance, we do find a lot of interest around family run businesses and practical help on 'how do I do this.'
Where is digital in the overall BBC picture, globally and in India?
Digital is a term that I am increasingly finding to be both over-used and misunderstood. I believe, we are already in an all-digital age in terms of production, distribution and devices. It doesn't make sense to talk about digital as if it's something either new or separate to the mainstream. Digital is not just central to the BBC picture, it is the picture. This is the philosophy we have introduced at our new headquarters at New Broadcasting House in London. We produce video, audio, pictures and text-based news in 28 languages and it is all digital in one way or another. Our journalists, whether based in London or in nearly 100 countries across the world, are as comfortable filing for Twitter, Facebook and bbc.com as for or radio or television.
What is changing rapidly is the way that the audience wants to get their news and that's why I prefer to focus on the devices each audience member uses to keep up with the news, what works best on each screen, and whether the BBC news experience is consistent across those screens. In India at least as much as anywhere else in the world we are seeing the consumption of news, and expectations of news, change dramatically each year.
How has your outlook on what digital can do changed over the years?
Despite the fact that the era of digital media is nearly two decades old, it is surprising how much nostalgia remains for the journalism of the 20th century in which competition rarely stretched beyond national borders, print and broadcast news enjoyed a peaceful co-existence and the disruptive effects of the internet were not really on anyone's mind. However, this overlooks the opportunities opened up by the internet - much lower barriers to entry; opportunities to enter new geographies and audience segments at low marginal cost, new distribution avenues, and, from a commercial point of view, more specific data on audience behaviour and commercial effectiveness.
The most rapid change is in consumption of news on the move. Eighteen months ago people were pessimistic about the commercial models for mobile news. The discussion at BBC was whether we should encourage audiences to consume on mobile, whether it will eat into our display advertising revenues. Like many big media owners though we have seen mobile revenues take off this year, admittedly from a low base. Increasingly, advertisers are thinking about the audience they want to reach in a joined-up way rather than a fragmented and separated approach to TV, desktop and mobile audiences.
Do you see any patterns in the way content is being consumed on digital across devices or countries?
In March this year we released the results of our News Consumption study, the largest global study to date on the consumption of news in the digital age. We surveyed more than 3,600 owners of digital devices across nine countries including India. There's been speculation for years that mainstream uptake of smartphones, laptops and tablets will have a negative impact on television viewing, but this study has found that the four devices actually work well together, resulting in greater overall consumption rather than having a cannibalising effect. For example 43 per cent tablet owners say they consume more TV than they did five years ago, and most saying they use tablets alongside TV. Rather than competing, different platforms complement one another allow people to layer their device usage throughout the day. Smartphones and laptops are most popular during the working day, peaking at around 1.00 pm. TV usage spikes dramatically 5.00 pm onwards, and at its peak time of 7.00 pm
TV use is 50 per cent higher than for any other device. We also found second screening for news is becoming commonplace, with users often using devices in tandem. Eighty three per cent respondents say they have used their tablets while watching TV.
India is the second largest source of digital traffic for us after the US: Eric Hellweg
Where is digital in the overall HBR picture, globally and in India?
When I came on board in 2006 (as editor of HBR.org) all we had was a website that got 150,000 visitors a month. In six years this has gone to 4 million a month across devices – mobile, tables, laptops etc." What we did is to recognise that the type of content we create is perfect for sitting back. For example, we never did blogs casually. Our blogs are from well-known authors, researchers and editors. You can't just bung stuff onto an HBR blog. We do weekly podcasts. The thinking is, what is the best way to get this 'idea' to people. We get 25 per cent of our total revenues from advertising and the rest from pay. Within advertising revenues, we have seen a decline in print but now more than half comes from digital. On the pay side too the website has become the second biggest source of revenues. India is the second largest source of digital traffic for us, outside of the US.
How has your outlook on what digital can do changed over the years?
Four years ago we reorganised the three major divisions of the company - print, digital and book publishing. Instead of one editor, we now have 22 editors and every one of them has to work across platforms. For a niche brand, we have an outsized presence on social and mobile media. For instance, we have about 795,000 fans on Facebook, 25 per cent of our traffic comes from Twitter (the brand has over 1.2 million followers). Half of our total digital traffic comes from outside the US. And the mobile is a dominant consumption device.
Currently we are in the process of re-examining our digital presence. People on the mobile, blogs, Twitter et al have shorter, more frequent engagement with the brand than the ones who read it offline. Also people have a different relationship with HBR compared to other business media. So the next level will be about making that learning more relevant to you, to make it more practical. How do we take an idea in a 5,000 word piece and break it down into a 150 word management tip of the day. We are trying to figure out what will make people pay more for the content - learning tools, exclusive webinars.
Do you see any patterns in the way content is being consumed on digital across devices or countries?
Well video is a big one. About 15-20 per cent of the digital traffic is video. People are looking for shorter but more frequent engagement. So the assessment tools that we offer form half the traffic that the mobile brings in. Within countries, we don't see a lot of variation. In India, for instance, we do find a lot of interest around family run businesses and practical help on 'how do I do this.'
Eric Hellweg
Managing director, digital strategy & Editorial director, Harvard business Group
Managing director, digital strategy & Editorial director, Harvard business Group
Where is digital in the overall BBC picture, globally and in India?
Digital is a term that I am increasingly finding to be both over-used and misunderstood. I believe, we are already in an all-digital age in terms of production, distribution and devices. It doesn't make sense to talk about digital as if it's something either new or separate to the mainstream. Digital is not just central to the BBC picture, it is the picture. This is the philosophy we have introduced at our new headquarters at New Broadcasting House in London. We produce video, audio, pictures and text-based news in 28 languages and it is all digital in one way or another. Our journalists, whether based in London or in nearly 100 countries across the world, are as comfortable filing for Twitter, Facebook and bbc.com as for or radio or television.
What is changing rapidly is the way that the audience wants to get their news and that's why I prefer to focus on the devices each audience member uses to keep up with the news, what works best on each screen, and whether the BBC news experience is consistent across those screens. In India at least as much as anywhere else in the world we are seeing the consumption of news, and expectations of news, change dramatically each year.
How has your outlook on what digital can do changed over the years?
Despite the fact that the era of digital media is nearly two decades old, it is surprising how much nostalgia remains for the journalism of the 20th century in which competition rarely stretched beyond national borders, print and broadcast news enjoyed a peaceful co-existence and the disruptive effects of the internet were not really on anyone's mind. However, this overlooks the opportunities opened up by the internet - much lower barriers to entry; opportunities to enter new geographies and audience segments at low marginal cost, new distribution avenues, and, from a commercial point of view, more specific data on audience behaviour and commercial effectiveness.
The most rapid change is in consumption of news on the move. Eighteen months ago people were pessimistic about the commercial models for mobile news. The discussion at BBC was whether we should encourage audiences to consume on mobile, whether it will eat into our display advertising revenues. Like many big media owners though we have seen mobile revenues take off this year, admittedly from a low base. Increasingly, advertisers are thinking about the audience they want to reach in a joined-up way rather than a fragmented and separated approach to TV, desktop and mobile audiences.
Do you see any patterns in the way content is being consumed on digital across devices or countries?
In March this year we released the results of our News Consumption study, the largest global study to date on the consumption of news in the digital age. We surveyed more than 3,600 owners of digital devices across nine countries including India. There's been speculation for years that mainstream uptake of smartphones, laptops and tablets will have a negative impact on television viewing, but this study has found that the four devices actually work well together, resulting in greater overall consumption rather than having a cannibalising effect. For example 43 per cent tablet owners say they consume more TV than they did five years ago, and most saying they use tablets alongside TV. Rather than competing, different platforms complement one another allow people to layer their device usage throughout the day. Smartphones and laptops are most popular during the working day, peaking at around 1.00 pm. TV usage spikes dramatically 5.00 pm onwards, and at its peak time of 7.00 pm
TV use is 50 per cent higher than for any other device. We also found second screening for news is becoming commonplace, with users often using devices in tandem. Eighty three per cent respondents say they have used their tablets while watching TV.
Jim Egan
CEO, BBC Global News Limited
CEO, BBC Global News Limited