Weekly notes 08/21-08/28

CNN.com realizes the value of citizen journalism
Although dot-com has been making some attempts in the area of collecting user-generated content earlier, CNN.com wasn't the first among news organizations to introduce citizen journalism as a substantial part of their product and business activities. Look at MyMissourian, for example :) But, as far as major news organizations, plunging into the the world of user-submitted content, CNN.com yet again is a pioneer in the industry.

CNN Exchange http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ launched in August 2006, and is now positioned equally to other sections, such as Politics, Health, and Entertainment.
CNN Exchange organizes user-submitted content on a page in a catalogized fashion. The page includes a spotlight section
http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ireports/spotlight.html
Blogs and commentaries from TV personalities also found their home on Exchange: Anderson Cooper’s 360° Blog, analytical commentaries from people outside the news organization write their thoughts under the “Special for CNN” initiative.

There are also polls (Quick Vote), links to other "citizen journalism" sites, user commentaries, on daily news reports, CNN.com Top Picks section and Cartoon Clicks.

Exchange also serves as a placeholder for the legal disclaimer, which, again, is designed to conserve resources and employee resources that would normally be spent on signing releases, fact checking (which is still done), contacting users for verification purposes, etc.
This is the first time dot-com gave so much space and importance to the wonder of the online world, that has been a popular topic in the online world for both professionals and professors. With the culture of innovation being so ingrained in this company, it is strange that citizen journalism hasn't received its portion of attention earlier. However, the company presents it in a different light: “In another indication of CNN Worldwide's leadership in journalistic innovation, CNN.com today announced the launch of "CNN Exchange," a comprehensive user-generated content destination that features user-submitted video, audio, articles and graphics and also allows users to interact directly with the site's news reports, commentaries and polls.”
From the official press release http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,1221643,00.html

I would think that business objectives stood in the way of devoting resources and time to a project like this: while it’s hot and talked about, the business owners are not quite convinced it’s worth the effort and the financial investment. However, as soon as the value of this product was realized (after it was proven in other media outlets), CNN.com went forward with developing its own citizen journalism application in order to remain competitive and add value to the overall product.

On the other hand, Web 2.o ventures, like MySpace.com are only slightly profitable, as advertisers are wary of having their names displayed next to examples of “unprofessionalism.” And for dot-com being fully supported by ad revenue, it is understandable to be cautious with the launch of this new product. Right now, Dell is one of the sponsors of CNN Exchange. How CNN managed to do that? By imposing the same quality standards on user-submitted content, as they do on their own journalists’ work. See more on that below.

Several mini-attempts have been made during major breaking news events like bombings in London, Hurricane Katrina, earthquake in South Asia, and others. Here are some examples of user-generated content from the era before the Exchange:
Gallery: Katrina aftermath http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/0508/gallery.katrina.citizens/frameset.exclude.html
Gallery: People pitch in http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/0509/gallery.citj.relef/frameset.exclude.html
Gallery: Asia quake
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/world/0510/gallery.quake.viewer.photos/frameset.exclude.html
Gallery: Online evolution
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/online.evolution/interactive/gallery.email/frameset.exclude.html

Most frequently, citizen journalism existed in the form of soliciting feedback about certain events. This is an example from the times of Hurricane Katrina coverage:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/07/feedback.rebuild/index.html
Simple, yet effective way, of getting user-supplied content was done through user submission pages and forms on the Web site, which then go to a designated e-mail box and are manually sorted through and moderated by the editorial department.

With the launch of CNN Exchange, a more sophisticated way of collaborating with viewers/readers took place. The branding of this portion of the site is concluded in I-reports that allow you to “Send your story. Share your thoughts. Make your mark.”

To start off, CNN gives you a do-it-yourself guide to being a journalist. This “Toolkit” was created by interviewing real CNN journalists, camera men, photographers, audio editors to gather tips for best practices of online journalism and to establish a standard that CNN’s business model is built on.

The page http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ireports/toolkit/index.html gives tips on taking good photos, audio and video and uncovers “trade secrets” to educate users about online journalism, so the “I-Reporters” can provide quality content for use on the Web site. This is sort of “It’s better to train, that re-train” idea employed here in order to save time and money and scarce resources.

In the PR campaign devoted to the launch of CNN Exchange, the product was presented as demanding the same quality as of CNN’s own reporters. All submissions go through the same vetting and approval process as CNN’s own original reporting.
CNN’s spokesperson Jen Martin said "All of our reporting, even from our own internal correspondents, goes through some very strict vetting. We're going to hold this user-generated content to those same standards." In other words, it is the same editorial control as inside the network, which is healthy for both high-quality journalism standards and for attracting advertisers like Dell. But, then again, journalists as gatekeepers is not a new idea at all.
Quote from http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3623906:

I especially like this feedback on Exchange from mashable.com, where the author refers to the service as CNN’s answer to YouTube, as well as notes how late in the game CNN was with this product offering: http://mashable.com/2006/07/31/cnn-exchange-cnns-answer-to-youtube/

From MediaWeek:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002915775
While CNN has been collecting user-generated fare for some time, as more Web users become active participants when consuming news, professional organizations must further embrace this trend, say officials. “User-generated content has the potential to play a pivotal role in journalism whether it’s online or offline,” said Mitch Gelman, senior vp and executive producer for CNN.com. “With CNN Exchange, we’ve essentially created a one-stop shop for CNN.com users to share their contributions with other Internet users, as well as to weigh in on the day’s most pressing news.”

Other opinions on CNN’s new venture include this one from Gawker.com (Warning: Gawker’s language may be offensive) http://www.gawker.com/news/cnn/cnn-exchange-enters-messy-clusterfuck-of-citizen-journalism-191238.php

The major difference between CNN’s citizen journalism product and other media outlets that embrace readers’ contribution is that CNN imposes the same standards of quality, as to its own, in-house created product. All of that is done in order to protect “the most trusted name in the news” brand, and still keep the value of the product up a notch.
Other citizen journalism pros talk about the value of objectivity, but in a different sense: The OhMyNews.com founder Oh Yeon Ho has a different view of objectivity. He says “We put everything out there and the people judge for themselves… We do not regard objective reporting as a source of pride. OhmyNews does not regard straight news articles as the standard. Articles including both facts and opinions are acceptable when they are good. Thus, we not only break the concept of "who reporters are," but also break the formula of "reporters are supposed to be like blah, blah, blah." From http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/updates/mainstory.asp

Weekly notes 08/14-08/21

Creating values online

All business models for online media are created with one thought in mind: to generate revenue. Doing quality journalism at the same time is an extra bonus.
While adopting business models from offline businesses, online media tweak their own business models for several different purposes that are dependant on the business environment and objectives. With CNN.com, the online business model (BM) was based on the cable network BM, since cable was the originating business.

However, it was changed substantially to reflect a different environment and peculiarities of the medium – the Internet. In the cable network BM, there are B2B streams of revenue: from distribution and from advertisers. In the online BM, in addition to B2B streams there’s a C2B revenue stream, which is represented by subscription-based premium products like Pipeline, where users can pay additional money to be able to get access to the premium tier of the product.

But one of the common elements in the bricks-and-mortar model as compared to its online counterpart is value and processes of value creation. To be successful and profitable, the company must offer to customers a product that is not available somewhere else and that is of value to customers. (Porter, M. E. "Towards a Dynamic Theory of Strategy." Strategic Management Journal (winter 1991).

Affuah and Tucci note that customer value can take two forms: differentiation or lower cost. Since the second value is attributed mostly to distribution-based formulas for business models; the value of differentiated product is more appropriate to the discussion in terms of the business of online media.

To elaborate on this observation, I would also add such variables as timeliness, established brand name, customer loyalty, content, novelty (or innovation) and efficiency (i.e. usability) to the list of values important to customers of an online news organization like CNN.com. Lock-in and, the so-called, complimentaries also play an important role in the processes of value creation and maintenance. The latter two terms come from Amit and Zott and translate well into dot-com’s business model as stickiness and loyalty for the first one and partner-supplied content and other add-ons, or a good product mix, for the second term.

Porter, among other researchers, say that the differentiation component of customer value can be accomplished in 8 ways: product features, timing, location, service, product mix, linkage between functions, linkage with other firms and reputation. (Porter, M. E. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. New York: Free Press, 1980. (Republished with a new introduction, 1998.) Although, this is a general concept that’s not necessarily applicable to all business models and all business environments, there are some common traits that are universal to all BMs, including those employed by online media companies.

Targeting the right audience and appropriate market segmentation is also important for the viability of a BM. In case with CNN.com, the quality of their audience is an important indicator in the revenue-generating capability of the company, as demographics and other online metrics play a crucial role in the process of pricing ad placements for advertisers. On another hand, what’s of value to some people may not be of value to others. And dot-com does a great job of targeting its product to mature, adult, educated, sophisticated, employed demographics that is so desirable for the advertisers.

Another part of the value equation is the value creation activities that are performed by employees. According to Porter (Porter, M. E. The Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. N.Y.: Free Press, 1998.), firms must perform the activities that underpin the value. CNN.com’s main line of activities to underpin the value is content creation. More on that -- in the earlier notes from August.

Human resources are crucial in the processes of value creation for online media business models. Dependant on the capabilities and versatility of talents, the product quality, and therefore its value, may differ substantially. Distinctive product is produced by distinctive workers – this is a universal principle that applies to many industries outside online media.

Sustainability of product value and profits is yet another challenge faced by online media companies that are trying to develop or maintain a well-sustained BM on the competitive arena. The more innovative are the ways to retain a competitive advantage, the better it is for the overall success of an enterprise. I would categorize CNN.com’s launch of CNN Exchange as one of those events, when to sustain its superiority on the market the company goes an extra mile to put yet another innovative product on the market in hopes to add to the existing value component of its BM.

Weekly notes 08/07-08/14

Interview with Laura Fortner
Time Warner
VP, Business Development & Planning
Dept: Business Development

Highlights:

Uniqueness of dot-com business model:
- The product wasn't dependent on TV
- Separate editorial team
- Early emergence in the online journalism arena
- Video offering (Didn't work that well during the era of dial-up)
- With time, more convergence between TV and online to benefit both

Revenue:
Mostly, ad-based revenue generation streams.

Advertisers appreciate and seek out for online metrics like CNN.com's, i.e. 23 million uniques/month. Advertisers are reached with brand, credibility, which allows CNN Sales to extend premium pricing options and make more money. Diversification also plays a great role in creating more revenue: as compared to cable business model (BM), there are more partner relations with more partner content, as well as unique video products not available in the cable environment (e.g. Pipeline).

Pipeline launched in December 2005, ad-supported and free, subscription-based model was dropped (with Real Networks) as prices for distribution grew, Pipeline- is CNN.com standalone product, allows to collect proper user information. Pipeline's model is compliant with modern ad market: more broadband accessibility at home and at work, unique product proposition, all depts in the company worked hand-in-hand on the product (convergence).

Talking about innovation and unique value propositions: the competitive edge of Pipeline is the ability for users to watch several live video streams at the same time. On the other side, there's constant effort to maintain stickiness, which in this case is reflected in resources and expense spent on developing a unique to the product and user-friendly video player.

The continuous challenge is to sustain the trademark and the breadth of content, by being the first source for consumers not only in breaking news situations, but on a daily basis. The goal is to develop more stickiness, where users spend more time on the site and generate more page views. The ideal situation is when they land on the home page and browse further: to the Health section, for example, and further to other sections from there. In the effort to make content more robust, dot-com is developing several partner relations with other news organizations, such as Time, Christian Science Monitor, and others. More on partner-supplied content and relations is coming up later.

The breadth of content and good numbers in online metrics reflects on the business side of the company: more content, more page views, more advertising inventory, more revenue.

Unique value proposition

Starting from the network's early history, revolutionary innovation has always been the key. Being a TV network that operates 24/7 around the world was revolutionary and translated well into the online environment. From original and brand new textual content to video and audio podcasts, dot-com strives to be ahead in the game. As part of the uniqueness, constant updates of the site (which are indicated on the main page as in Updated 10:36 p.m.) were also mentioned, although, this is not a distinctive feature in the online media market. NY Times, as well as others, have the same feature in place.

Weekly notes 08/01-08/07

Organizational structure and content creation

First, I think I'll talk about the organizational structure and processes of content creation at CNN.com. Why content, you ask? My theory is that content is the main component of an online medium success and the main ingredient in the value proposition extended by a company as part of its business model. Not to mention that Bill Gates uttered "Content is king," and I find it hard not to agree with him after so much time working as a print/broadcast journalist, and, most recently, -- as an online journalist.

There are several types of content offered at dot-com: textual articles, videos, multimedia, graphics. I was primarily involved in producing multimedia content. This is a content stream that differentiates cnn.com from competitors very well. Apart from the NYtimes.com, where multimedia content is created by, surprisingly, graphic designers, CNN.com is at the top of the game offering Internet-specific type of content: interactive and multimedial. This type of content is primarily represented by audio slide shows, interactive maps, interactive explainers, photo galleries, etc.

I'll show an example of such content, which I worked on. This is an example of, what I think, is a true piece of multimedia content (i.e. integration of several types of content, which, from a technical perspective, is unique to the Internet and is hardly achieved in any other media): Tour the aquarium http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/0511/ga.aquarium.tour/frameset.exclude.html

The project was intended to give an online tour of the soon-to-be-open Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. From the organizational perspective, it involved several different departments within Cnn.com and beyond: editorial, design, Pipeline, CNN radio, CNN TV. Designers, working with their editorial counterparts (usually, an associate producer (AP) or a producer for interactivity), create the look and feel of an interactive, while accommodating all the editorial objectives. A photographer, who is also an AP, goes out to the location to shoot the material, which is later produced into a set of photo galleries. The content for photo galleries is written by an AP and edited by a copy editor. AP also does the research to be able to write content. As you see, there's very minimal use of human resources, which allows the company to have a tightly structured, yet successful team of editorial professionals, who are very versatile in their talents and can do many jobs at once.

While a designer creates the visuals and the mapped layout, the AP writes all copy for the whole interactive as well. Granted this project took more than one AP to research and write the copy due to its extensiveness, but usually the resources are more limited than this.

Not only it's a great example of multimedia content, but also it is very representative of TV-Internet convergence efforts taken at dot-com. CNN Radio was involved in producing audio pieces of the project (which is normally done at dot-com by APs, talking about versatility again). Pipeline’s anchor was involved as a narrator talent for this piece. TV’s crew went to the location to shoot a package and did some work for dot-com as well. It is quite rare that a non-breaking news event gets so much attention, but the fact of the location proximity (Atlanta, GA) and the extent of the event (the biggest aquarium in the world) allowed this project to get more resources.

Another example I wanted to share is this audio slideshow I produced for the Coming Home special project (for the Memorial Day). CNN goes to great strides to be innovative and to create unique content that would differentiate the company from the competition. Recently, more and more “real” online journalism has been surfacing in the Web site, where the staff actually travels to locations and does its own; separate from the network, newsgathering specifically to produce online content.

This is the special report http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/coming.home/ and one of the audio slide shows I worked on is about the widow of the war -- Ms. Fuller.

For breaking news situations, there’s an Enhanced Coverage Producer, whose role is to map out the newsroom’s involvement and create plans of attack as to how stories and interactivity gets accomplished. I will attach a sample plan later.

The whole idea of content creation is that the department puts every effort and being the first, but being accurate. It is this idea of supporting the brand name that takes dot-com further every time the news breaks. As well as a team of excellent journalists and supervisors, who were carefully selected and function well as a team. The team’s efficiency is the company’s efficiency in reaching its objectives on both the editorial and business sides.