Newspaper Next, API's groundbreaking research initiative, provides the industry with new business models, non-traditional ways to see opportunities that produce sustainable growth, and ways to reshape organizations for consistent innovation.
Since its launch in September 2006, N² projects have explored and discovered strategic and practical guidance for an industry that's struggling to create a brighter future. Because of Newspaper Next, API has become a leading catalyst for industry-wide change by investing in new research, special conferences, seminars, white papers and regional workshops that address the most critical issues facing the industry.
In 2009, API executive staff researched and wrote white papers on two of the biggest debates within the newspaper industry: generating revenue from online content and creating national classified solutions. Titled Creating an Industry-Wide Classified Platform and Brand and Newsmedia Economic Action Plan , the white papers followed the disruptive innovation tenets of N²'s Blueprint for Transformation and Making the Leap Beyond 'Newspaper Companies.
The Newsmedia Economic Action Plan was the genesis for a national study on paid content, Online Revenue Initiatives 2009, which was designed in partnership with Belden Interactive and ITZ Publishing to understand online revenue benchmarks and opportunities. The white paper and research provided the inspiration for a two-day conference for key executives as well as a new API Now blog. Findings from the ongoing research will provide new case studies and intelligence for special reports, conferences, seminars and regional workshops.
As the newspaper industry continues its search for solutions to seismic challenges, Newspaper Next will continue to offer the dynamic principles, strategies and tools for transformation.
Learn how and why the Newspaper Next project was developed, and why it's so important to the future of the newspaper industry.
Why is API undertaking this project?
Why are we excited about the project?
What did Innosight do in this project?
Newspaper Next is an ambitious, ongoing initiative undertaken by the American Press Institute to research and test viable new business models and growth opportunities for the newspaper industry. Understanding that the best answers will come from a broad spectrum of thinking, API initially retained innovation consulting firm Innosight LLC and impaneled a task force of visionaries and thought leaders to collaborate on this important work.
Innosight and the task force presented an interim report on their findings at the Newspaper Next Transformation Symposium on February 8 and 9, 2006, in Washington, D.C. Final recommendations were presented in September 2006. Back to top
The newspaper industry is at a strategic inflection point - a period of disruptive changes that threaten its current way of doing business with no clear future path. The threats come from many directions but are manifesting themselves in the form of declining circulation, rising costs and downward revenue pressure. These trends show no sign of reversing themselves. The industry's very survival is dependent on its ability to reframe completely the way it does business, and find new ways to attract and keep customers. Many industries throughout history have reached strategic inflection points; not every industry has weathered them successfully. This project's goal is to ensure that newspapers survive these disruptive times. Back to top
Why has API undertaken this project?
API was founded and is supported by the industry it serves, and for more than 60 years it has been the sole source for industry-specific executive education. Its core strength is equipping executives with the leadership knowledge and industry best practices they need to sustain the success of their organizations. Newspaper Next is a continuation of that role.
API always has been proud to serve the newspaper industry. Through this project it will continue to be the catalyst for and the source of new research and learning about innovative business models and opportunities for growth to sustain the industry going forward. Back to top
Why is API committed to Newspaper Next?
The newspaper industry has a chance to do what has seemed so challenging to many other industries. Most newspaper companies have good brand reputations, growing audiences and a deep well of content. If companies couple those assets with a re-framing of their market and appropriate organizational designs, they can seize the opportunity lurking in the current threat and drive the transformation themselves. Back to top
Innosight is a consulting and training firm that helps companies create growth through innovation. Its services facilitate the discovery of new high-growth markets and the rapid creation of breakthrough products and services. Fueling Innosight are the ideas of its co-founder, Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, whose path-breaking books on innovation have sold more than 1 million copies. More information is available here. Back to top
What did Innosight do in this project?
Innosight analyzed the disruptive trends reshaping the newspaper industry and provided a common way to frame some of the challenges the industry is facing. It analyzed "jobs to be done" of readers and advertisers to point to pressing threats and potential opportunities. It worked with API to develop case studies of innovative approaches followed by existing newspaper companies in the United States. It synthesized the work to suggest specific strategies newspaper companies looking to master innovation ought to consider. Finally, it will provide implementation advice to help companies improve their ability to navigate through increasingly turbulent times. Back to top
Many companies unintentionally limit themselves by focusing on improving the attributes of their products, or seeking to understand different demographic segments of their customer base. Innosight's view is that customers don't buy products, they hire them to get important jobs done. Understanding the jobs that customers care about but can't adequately get done with existing products can point to new paths for growth. For example, people "hire" Research in Motion's popular BlackBerry devices to kill small snippets of time productively. One challenge for the newspaper industry is that many of the information-related jobs that people used to hire newspapers to get done are now done better by emerging competitors. Back to top
What is a disruptive innovation?
Disruptive innovations typically offer lower performance along dimensions that firms consider critical. In exchange, these innovations introduce new benefits along dimensions such as simplicity, convenience, ease of use or low price. Classic examples of disruptive innovation include the personal computer, discount airlines, steel minimills, Intuit's TurboTax product and Procter & Gamble's Swiffer line of products. In the media industry, blogs, Google, eBay, Monster.com and freely distributed commuter papers all fit the pattern of disruptive innovation. Each emerging competitor lacks something that is core to most newspaper companies' value proposition. Some can't match a newspaper's broad distribution network. Others can't compete with the newspaper's detailed reporting capability or local reach. All, however, compete in different ways than newspapers are used to competing.
Even well-run market-leading organizations tend to struggle with disruptive change because the assets that serve them so well in extending their core business stand in the way of success when the industry changes. Newspaper companies are in the midst of just such disruptive innovation right now, which is why Newspaper Next is so critical. Back to top
The 2005-2006 task force for the Newspaper Next research project included:
- Stephen T. Gray, managing director, Newspaper Next
- Decker Anstrom, president and chief operating officer, Landmark Communications
- Reid Ashe, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Media General Inc.
- Donna Barrett, president and chief executive officer, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.
- Peter Bhatia, executive editor, The Oregonian, Portland
- Jennifer Carroll, director of news development, Gannett Co. Inc.
- Rob Curley, new media director, Naples (Fla.) Daily News
- Luis Alberto Ferré, editor, El Nuevo Día, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Laura Gordon, senior vice president of marketing, Dallas Morning News
- Christian Hendricks, vice president of interactive media, The McClatchy Co.
- Jennie Lambert, publisher, The Shelby (N.C.) Star
- Jonathan Landman, deputy managing editor, The New York Times
- Caroline Little, chief executive officer and publisher, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
- Stacy Lynch, director of innovation, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Joycelyn Marek, vice president of marketing and public affairs, Houston Chronicle
- Lincoln Millstein, senior vice president and director of digital media, Hearst Newspapers
- Andrew Nachison, director, The Media Center
- Hilary Schneider, senior vice president, Knight Ridder
- Dean Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive officer, MediaNews Group
- Rich Skrenta, chief executive officer, Topix.net
- Sreenath Sreenivasan, dean of students, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
- Gary Watson, retired, former president of Gannett Newspaper Division, Gannett Co. Inc.
- John Wilcox, president and chief operating officer, Ottaway Newspapers Inc.
- Bob Wyman, co-founder and chief technology officer, PubSub.com
- Steve Yelvington, digital strategist, Morris DigitalWorks
- Owen Youngman, vice president of development, Chicago Tribune Co.
