Comments on: Online Experience for Publishers: Innovate or Die

By: Ben Elowitz

Ben Elowitz — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:15:13 +0000

Thanks for pointing out those sites. As you suggest, we're at a critical point in the history of publishing: the opportunities are there for those who can embrace change.

By: Ben Elowitz

Ben Elowitz — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:52:15 +0000

I absolutely agree that personalization and social connectivity are missed opportunities right now for media companies. The world is moving too quickly to be 3 years behind the times.

By: joeldowns

joeldowns — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:20:30 +0000

It is great to see some of these examples of visual and UI innovation, but I'd also like to see more innovation in the space of personalization, community, and providing of applications. With the technologies we have today, it's easier than ever to provide experiences that are customizable and personalized, and publishers who adopt this mindset — even if their content presentation alone doesn't change — can win very loyal users, perhaps more loyal than sites that invest heavily in eye-candy.

By: mariogarciajr

mariogarciajr — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:13:52 +0000

Ben, couldn't agree more with the spirit of this article. Unfortunately, management at most newspapers is too locked into saving their newspaper instead of saving their brands. I like a lot of what John Paton is doing with his BenFranklin project at Journal Register (http://jxpaton.wordpress.com/). Islands magazine from the Bonnier Group is thinking beyond the print magazine and leveraging their brand digitally in cool ways - wallpapers, island finders etc. Both those brands are definitely thinking about their audience and starting from there. Some of these organizations with 100+ year histories have a harder time moving away from what they've been doing for so long and how they've been doing it. They talk about innovation, but never pull the trigger. I find myself often referencing Theodore Levitt's "Marketing Myopia," published in the Harvard Business Review in 1960. In this paper he chronicles the demise of the once mighty railroad companies who dominated the early part of the last century, but were insignificant by the 1950s because they didn't evolve with the times. They sold themselves as a railroad company and not a transportation company. In contrast, the oil companies started selling themselves as energy companies instead of just petroleum and flourished. Newspapers find themselves in the same position now. Like you said, innovate or die.