交互应用与电子出版转载【FT：“人们按照可以预测的方式阅读”】
【文章名称】The'Financial Times' Has a Secret Weapon :data
【文章作者】Lauren Indvik
【文章来源】mashable
【文章链接】http://mashable.com/2013/04/02/financial-times-john-ridding-strategy/
【文章导读】【FT：“人们按照可以预测的方式阅读”】2007年，《金融时报》实行“计量访问模式”，在过去五年间，其订户数已增长了四分之一。其CEO表示，当时主要考虑的是构建网上的收益流，但更重要的是借此收获了大量订户数据（邮箱、邮政编码、行业、岗位以及职务等）以及来自用户的真知灼见，由此知晓了订户阅读文章的类型以及频率，“人们按照可以预测的方式阅读”。这种数据驱动模式可以实时有效地证明广告的效果，并为广告主提供相关数据，由此也正在改变其市场营销和广告模式。同时，数据也在改变其编辑模式，其主编宣称对FT而言，数字平台第一，纸质媒介第二。
【文章说明】这是一篇介绍数据给FT带来的变化的文章，“导读”摘译自文中标黑部分。
【文章全文】
Formore than a century, publishers knew very little about their audiences: whothey were, their interests and professions, or what other materials they werereading. Since newspapers went online two decades ago — The New York Times, TheWall Street Journal and the Financial Times all launched websites between 1995 and1996 — publishers have been amassing a great deal of data about them, data the 125-year-old FT is using to hitrecord subscription levels and make its advertising products more competitive,its CEO says.
TheFT enjoys a distinguished role in the sphere of financial news publications,namely for its commentary on UK and European markets and businesses, as well,of course, for the salmon pink tint of its print newspaper. Headquartered inLondon and edited by Lionel Barber, it employs more than 600 journalistsworldwide and has an average daily readership of 2.1 million, a little lessthan the Wall Street Journal (though a subscription is about a quarter moreexpensive).
Thepaper finished 2012 with a record paid circulation of 602,000, up 28% from fiveyears ago. For the first time, the number of digital subscriptions surpassedprint at 316,000 versus 286,000.
Despitethe increase in FT subscriptions — which start at $352 per year fordigital-only access — the FT Group is only thinly profitable: Last year, theGroup (a division that includes the FT as well as intelligence serviceMergermarket and a 50% stake in The Economist Group, among other holdings)reported 11% operating profit on revenues of $568 million. In November,Bloomberg reported the division was up sale, but parent company Pearson quicklyand repeatedly denied the report.
Using a Paywall to Gather Data
Likeother print publications, those that make up the FT Group have suffered fromthe general decline in print advertising revenue for the past decade and ahalf. Digital and mobile advertising have stemmed only some of the bleed, butin the last few years growth has come to a near standstill: In 2012, U.S.newspapers' digital ad revenue only grew by about 3%, according to theNewspaper Association of America.
Sinceadvertisers can no longer support them, publishers have looked to readers forrevenue growth and profit, sparking the rapid adoption of online paywallsbeginning with the New York Times in 2011. The Alliance for Audited Mediaestimates that nearly half of U.S. newspapers now have some sort of paywall ormetered access model.
The FT was well ahead of thistrend, introducing a metered access model in 2007. Today, subscriptions make up morethan half of the FT Group's revenue, while advertising only accounts for 39%,down from 52% in 2008. At the FT specifically, advertising once made up as muchas 70% of yearly revenue. This year, the paper expects to generate more moneyfrom subscriptions than from advertising.
"That's a big deal in thetransformation of our business model," John Ridding, CEO of the FT, said in a sit-down interviewat Pearson's U.S. headquarters last month. Ridding (pictured top) joined the FTfrom the editorial side, reporting abroad from Paris and Korea before taking ona series of executive positions, including editor and publisher of FT Asia. Hewas named chief executive of the paper in 2006, assuming the CEO role of theentire FT Group for the first time this month.
Iasked Ridding how the FT was able toincrease its subscriber levels by more than a quarter in the last five years."It's sort of a combination of art and science," he says. "Fiveor six years ago we started a new media model, charging for access through ametered system. When we started doingthat, it was primarily to build a revenue stream online, but probably what wasmore important over time was the data and customer insight that that gave us.That's what transformed the business," he says.
Lookingthrough some of the reader data — the FT's data team now numbers more than 30across three groups — the FT was able to recognize the kinds of patternsreaders display before purchasing subscriptions. "We would see the sort of articles they were reading and thefrequency they were reading those articles, for instance, and we began to mapthose," Ridding explains. "People do behave in predictableways."
While online paywalls are oftenperceived as a way to keep non-paying readers out, the FT has viewed them as away to bring new readers in. The FT.com asks users to register to read up toeight articles per month for free. It's here that the FT collects much of itsinformation. Registrants — there are more than 5 million of them — are required to declare their e-mail, zipcode, industry, job responsibility and position level. Those who registerare, of course, more likely to become full subscribers in the future.
Ridding says the data-drivenapproach is transforming its marketing and advertising, too. The data collectedfrom registrants allows advertisers to target campaigns to, say, executives inthe U.S. aerospace industry, or HR department heads in India. Added to this isa proprietary reporting tool called Deep View, which offers "themost" insight into advertising campaigns and how they perform compared toits competitors', the FT says. (One media buying manager we spoke to confirmedthis assessment, noting it is only available for direct, and not programmatic,ad buys.) During and after campaigns, advertisers can see who has seen orclicked on a campaign, and the optional placement and time of days to run theads, "giving them the option to reassess mid-campaign, switch creative andretarget," a spokesperson explains.
"We can prove in real-timequite effectively what advertising is working and put that data in front ofadvertisers," says Ridding. "Marketers have to justify every cent of what[they're] spending. Our job is to provide the tools and information to justifythat decision for running a campaign with the FT rather than anyone else."Technology companies like Google and Twitter, as well as publications like TheNew York Times, already offer live reporting capabilities, but the demographicdata (industry, job title, etc.) is particularly unique, the buyer observed.
Data's Role in Editorial
Since enforcing on-siteregistration, the FT has gathered not only a vast amount of data about who itsreaders are and how to sell subscriptions and ads to them — the paper alsoknows a good deal about what they read and when, as well as the kinds ofeditorial products that appeal to them.
TheFT's newsroom is still tethered to the rhythms of the daily print cycle,working evening shifts and publishing the vast majority of its stories earlymorning UK time. But traffic levels, which are highest during the day, suggestreaders are looking for fresh information beyond the early morning hours.
"TheFT has been around 125 years, and a lot of the process and structure that hasbuilt up over that time no longer reflects the needs of our readers,"Ridding observes. "The core of our 'digital first' initiative is reallymoving resources to front-end digital editing and publishing. We're moving morestaff from nighttime to daytime, deploying our energy and resources and at thetimes our readers want it."
As part of a move away from thiscycle, Lionel Barber, editor of the FT, announced in January that 25 staffpositions would be eliminated, and 10 more people would be hired to filldigital roles.In a memo e-mailed to staff, Barber saidthe FT needs to serve a digital platform first, and a newspaper second.
Thatdoesn't mean the FT is moving towards becoming a 24/7 wire service. "We'renever going to be a wire service, that's not our job, not what makes usdifferent and special," says Ridding. "Nevertheless, I think whatpeople want is to go to any of our channels at any time, and find what theeditorial brain thinks is the most significant story at that time." Headds, "Things evolve and change and happen during the business day. Wehave to be reflecting those changes."
Tohelp deliver on that mission, the FT is planning to release a new onlinesection called "Fast FT," which will provide real-time marketcommentary around the clock. Ridding emphasizes (again) that it's not a wireservice, seeking instead to deliver analysis and context to the news, not justthe news itself.
Riddingsays the FT is also focused on connecting with readers, building and deepeningthe communities that form around its content. "A lot of our readers areserious experts in their fields. We want to create really high-level, informedconversations with them and us."
Todo that, Ridding and his team are developing a series of tools to share anddiscuss content. One, called FT Newslines, is a premium service that allowsbusiness school professors and students to create and share annotations in themargins of articles, bringing together insight from a single professor orclass, or across a range of experts from different schools, depending on users'individual settings.
Onedata area the FT is cautious in monitoring is pageviews. Ridding says theorganization is "aware" of traffic numbers, but believes theirimportance is sometimes overweighted. "Our industry got itself into allsorts of problems focusing on reach alone,"he says. "Broad measuresof traffic don't cut it in our world. Depth of our relationship, frequency ofvisits, readership, return on those readers... [That's] what advertisers andmore sophisticated players are increasingly [focused on]."
"Thatbeing said, when we see a particular resource getting a lot of attention, likecommodities over the past few years, it helps us make decisions about[coverage] in different sectors," he adds. "But we have to be verycareful. People subscribe and read because they want trusted judgment ofexperienced editors. For us that's what the FT stands for, that will never change."
Thedata the FT has collected and analyzed through its metered access paywall hasaffected its business in myriad ways, helping the organization find sources ofnew revenue (subscriptions) in a weak and volatile ad market, improved thetargeting and reporting of its ad products, and informed the development of neweditorial offerings. But in some areas — like traffic — data can only inform sofar; for the rest, the FT must rely on the news judgment that made it prominentin the first place.
Topphoto via Rahul Irani/India Today Group/Getty Images
【文章作者】Lauren Indvik
【文章来源】mashable
【文章链接】http://mashable.com/2013/04/02/financial-times-john-ridding-strategy/
【文章导读】【FT：“人们按照可以预测的方式阅读”】2007年，《金融时报》实行“计量访问模式”，在过去五年间，其订户数已增长了四分之一。其CEO表示，当时主要考虑的是构建网上的收益流，但更重要的是借此收获了大量订户数据（邮箱、邮政编码、行业、岗位以及职务等）以及来自用户的真知灼见，由此知晓了订户阅读文章的类型以及频率，“人们按照可以预测的方式阅读”。这种数据驱动模式可以实时有效地证明广告的效果，并为广告主提供相关数据，由此也正在改变其市场营销和广告模式。同时，数据也在改变其编辑模式，其主编宣称对FT而言，数字平台第一，纸质媒介第二。
【文章说明】这是一篇介绍数据给FT带来的变化的文章，“导读”摘译自文中标黑部分。
【文章全文】
Formore than a century, publishers knew very little about their audiences: whothey were, their interests and professions, or what other materials they werereading. Since newspapers went online two decades ago — The New York Times, TheWall Street Journal and the Financial Times all launched websites between 1995 and1996 — publishers have been amassing a great deal of data about them, data the 125-year-old FT is using to hitrecord subscription levels and make its advertising products more competitive,its CEO says.
TheFT enjoys a distinguished role in the sphere of financial news publications,namely for its commentary on UK and European markets and businesses, as well,of course, for the salmon pink tint of its print newspaper. Headquartered inLondon and edited by Lionel Barber, it employs more than 600 journalistsworldwide and has an average daily readership of 2.1 million, a little lessthan the Wall Street Journal (though a subscription is about a quarter moreexpensive).
Thepaper finished 2012 with a record paid circulation of 602,000, up 28% from fiveyears ago. For the first time, the number of digital subscriptions surpassedprint at 316,000 versus 286,000.
Despitethe increase in FT subscriptions — which start at $352 per year fordigital-only access — the FT Group is only thinly profitable: Last year, theGroup (a division that includes the FT as well as intelligence serviceMergermarket and a 50% stake in The Economist Group, among other holdings)reported 11% operating profit on revenues of $568 million. In November,Bloomberg reported the division was up sale, but parent company Pearson quicklyand repeatedly denied the report.
Using a Paywall to Gather Data
Likeother print publications, those that make up the FT Group have suffered fromthe general decline in print advertising revenue for the past decade and ahalf. Digital and mobile advertising have stemmed only some of the bleed, butin the last few years growth has come to a near standstill: In 2012, U.S.newspapers' digital ad revenue only grew by about 3%, according to theNewspaper Association of America.
Sinceadvertisers can no longer support them, publishers have looked to readers forrevenue growth and profit, sparking the rapid adoption of online paywallsbeginning with the New York Times in 2011. The Alliance for Audited Mediaestimates that nearly half of U.S. newspapers now have some sort of paywall ormetered access model.
The FT was well ahead of thistrend, introducing a metered access model in 2007. Today, subscriptions make up morethan half of the FT Group's revenue, while advertising only accounts for 39%,down from 52% in 2008. At the FT specifically, advertising once made up as muchas 70% of yearly revenue. This year, the paper expects to generate more moneyfrom subscriptions than from advertising.
"That's a big deal in thetransformation of our business model," John Ridding, CEO of the FT, said in a sit-down interviewat Pearson's U.S. headquarters last month. Ridding (pictured top) joined the FTfrom the editorial side, reporting abroad from Paris and Korea before taking ona series of executive positions, including editor and publisher of FT Asia. Hewas named chief executive of the paper in 2006, assuming the CEO role of theentire FT Group for the first time this month.
Iasked Ridding how the FT was able toincrease its subscriber levels by more than a quarter in the last five years."It's sort of a combination of art and science," he says. "Fiveor six years ago we started a new media model, charging for access through ametered system. When we started doingthat, it was primarily to build a revenue stream online, but probably what wasmore important over time was the data and customer insight that that gave us.That's what transformed the business," he says.
Lookingthrough some of the reader data — the FT's data team now numbers more than 30across three groups — the FT was able to recognize the kinds of patternsreaders display before purchasing subscriptions. "We would see the sort of articles they were reading and thefrequency they were reading those articles, for instance, and we began to mapthose," Ridding explains. "People do behave in predictableways."
While online paywalls are oftenperceived as a way to keep non-paying readers out, the FT has viewed them as away to bring new readers in. The FT.com asks users to register to read up toeight articles per month for free. It's here that the FT collects much of itsinformation. Registrants — there are more than 5 million of them — are required to declare their e-mail, zipcode, industry, job responsibility and position level. Those who registerare, of course, more likely to become full subscribers in the future.
Ridding says the data-drivenapproach is transforming its marketing and advertising, too. The data collectedfrom registrants allows advertisers to target campaigns to, say, executives inthe U.S. aerospace industry, or HR department heads in India. Added to this isa proprietary reporting tool called Deep View, which offers "themost" insight into advertising campaigns and how they perform compared toits competitors', the FT says. (One media buying manager we spoke to confirmedthis assessment, noting it is only available for direct, and not programmatic,ad buys.) During and after campaigns, advertisers can see who has seen orclicked on a campaign, and the optional placement and time of days to run theads, "giving them the option to reassess mid-campaign, switch creative andretarget," a spokesperson explains.
"We can prove in real-timequite effectively what advertising is working and put that data in front ofadvertisers," says Ridding. "Marketers have to justify every cent of what[they're] spending. Our job is to provide the tools and information to justifythat decision for running a campaign with the FT rather than anyone else."Technology companies like Google and Twitter, as well as publications like TheNew York Times, already offer live reporting capabilities, but the demographicdata (industry, job title, etc.) is particularly unique, the buyer observed.
Data's Role in Editorial
Since enforcing on-siteregistration, the FT has gathered not only a vast amount of data about who itsreaders are and how to sell subscriptions and ads to them — the paper alsoknows a good deal about what they read and when, as well as the kinds ofeditorial products that appeal to them.
TheFT's newsroom is still tethered to the rhythms of the daily print cycle,working evening shifts and publishing the vast majority of its stories earlymorning UK time. But traffic levels, which are highest during the day, suggestreaders are looking for fresh information beyond the early morning hours.
"TheFT has been around 125 years, and a lot of the process and structure that hasbuilt up over that time no longer reflects the needs of our readers,"Ridding observes. "The core of our 'digital first' initiative is reallymoving resources to front-end digital editing and publishing. We're moving morestaff from nighttime to daytime, deploying our energy and resources and at thetimes our readers want it."
As part of a move away from thiscycle, Lionel Barber, editor of the FT, announced in January that 25 staffpositions would be eliminated, and 10 more people would be hired to filldigital roles.In a memo e-mailed to staff, Barber saidthe FT needs to serve a digital platform first, and a newspaper second.
Thatdoesn't mean the FT is moving towards becoming a 24/7 wire service. "We'renever going to be a wire service, that's not our job, not what makes usdifferent and special," says Ridding. "Nevertheless, I think whatpeople want is to go to any of our channels at any time, and find what theeditorial brain thinks is the most significant story at that time." Headds, "Things evolve and change and happen during the business day. Wehave to be reflecting those changes."
Tohelp deliver on that mission, the FT is planning to release a new onlinesection called "Fast FT," which will provide real-time marketcommentary around the clock. Ridding emphasizes (again) that it's not a wireservice, seeking instead to deliver analysis and context to the news, not justthe news itself.
Riddingsays the FT is also focused on connecting with readers, building and deepeningthe communities that form around its content. "A lot of our readers areserious experts in their fields. We want to create really high-level, informedconversations with them and us."
Todo that, Ridding and his team are developing a series of tools to share anddiscuss content. One, called FT Newslines, is a premium service that allowsbusiness school professors and students to create and share annotations in themargins of articles, bringing together insight from a single professor orclass, or across a range of experts from different schools, depending on users'individual settings.
Onedata area the FT is cautious in monitoring is pageviews. Ridding says theorganization is "aware" of traffic numbers, but believes theirimportance is sometimes overweighted. "Our industry got itself into allsorts of problems focusing on reach alone,"he says. "Broad measuresof traffic don't cut it in our world. Depth of our relationship, frequency ofvisits, readership, return on those readers... [That's] what advertisers andmore sophisticated players are increasingly [focused on]."
"Thatbeing said, when we see a particular resource getting a lot of attention, likecommodities over the past few years, it helps us make decisions about[coverage] in different sectors," he adds. "But we have to be verycareful. People subscribe and read because they want trusted judgment ofexperienced editors. For us that's what the FT stands for, that will never change."
Thedata the FT has collected and analyzed through its metered access paywall hasaffected its business in myriad ways, helping the organization find sources ofnew revenue (subscriptions) in a weak and volatile ad market, improved thetargeting and reporting of its ad products, and informed the development of neweditorial offerings. But in some areas — like traffic — data can only inform sofar; for the rest, the FT must rely on the news judgment that made it prominentin the first place.
Topphoto via Rahul Irani/India Today Group/Getty Images
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