Mario Garcia: Predictions for 2015

Jan 05, 2015 at 09:16 am by Staff


Following a year of challenges and opportunities, 2015 amplifies on some of the advances of its predecessor, writes Mario Garcia.

The year that was. I have revisited the archives of TheMarioBlog to take a look at what I forecast as major centerpieces for our industry in 2014.

The headline on my last blog post of 2013 said it best:

In 2014: time to start thinking mobile first strategy

Specifically, I wrote that:

I urge publishers to think in terms of mobile first strategies. I remind clients at every workshop that they need to think beyond desktop computers and their own websites, and to think of mobile platform offerings that enhance and facilitate news consumption for their audiences, but that also bring about new forms of storytelling (especially for the tablet).
This, in my view, will be the challenge and the opportunity for the new year. Regardless of the size of your newspaper or magazine, you must be thinking mobile first.

Today, that still remains a powerful message that should resonate with publishers everywhere. On the positive side, the last 12 months have witnessed much progress in the ability of editors and publishers to embrace digital first strategies and to engage in digital product development.

Much remains to be done. Now, as we look at 2015, what are some of the areas that I think will take center stage for us in the media.

If I have to think of an omniscient narrator standing on the side of the stage, it would be Mr. Disruption. We will continue to see the impact (good in most cases) that disruption can bring.

Key for 2015 in the media

1. Monetising efforts will dominate as publishers and editors gather around their conference rooms to map out their new year strategies.

2. This will include giving greater importance to native/integrated advertising (not just for major metropolitan dailies owned by mega media groups, but for regional newspapers as well). In addition, pay for content strategies will become more prevalent, with publishers creating different ways to monetize via subscriptions and pay options. The search for new sources of revenue will accelerate.

I can also imagine that the pay as you go, piecemeal a la iTunes model will get greater consideration from publishers.

3. As mobile devices become more vital, so will video, which I think will be a protagonist as part of storytelling processes in 2015, the search for new sources of revenue accelerates.

Then there is the push towards an iTunes model. As with music and video on demand, I believe that news content successfully will be sold on a piecemeal basis. Two of the world's most noted newspaper companies - The New York Times and Axel Springer (of Germany) - are hoping that this will become a reality.

4. Data visualisation will become more mainstream for publishers.

Publishers, and other media companies and advertisers, will become more intelligent in their use of data. Designers, too, will embrace it for all they do. Readers will become more savvy in their consumption of data.

5. Media companies will realise that they need to take initiatives in the creation of effective and engaging native advertising. Some will follow the lead of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to assemble in house teams of creatives to provide services to advertising clients.

6. Newsrooms will form teams that include the storytellers (journalists), technical types, advertising/marketing folks as the winning trio of expertise that should guide every step of a modern media organisation.

• Reproduced from the Mario Blog with permission

Sections: Columns & opinion

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