ED19 Presentation: Karsten Ellehauge-Haag - Loyalty requires a cultural focus
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Building digital loyalty at Berlingske Media required a cultural shift in the newsroom to prioritize digital. Outsourcing print layout allowed the newsroom to shift 70% of resources to digital while maintaining print quality. Shared planning tools consolidated efforts on digital-first content. As a result, Berlingske saw 60% growth in monthly page views, 25% growth in daily mobile visitors, and passed competitors in digital metrics and subscribers, validating the cultural and strategic changes.
ED19 Presentation: Karsten Ellehauge-Haag - Loyalty requires a cultural focus
- 1. Building digital loyalty requires digital focus Customer loyalty is sparked by persistent editorial focus on digital and the digital focus in the newsroom requires cultural changes that stick. A number of initiatives founded in a new corporate strategy have boosted the digital business in Berlingske Media and taken the digital culture in the Newsrooms to the next level
- 2. Who am I - Karsten Ellehauge Haag IT developer and IT architect Journalist Editorial Manager and Newseditor - projects Contractor in the media business Project Director in Digital Services at Berlingske Media and De Persgroep Contractor and consultant focusing on IT, media content and subscription economy
- 4. Founded 1749 in Copenhagen One of the largest media companies in Denmark Owned by De Persgroep Belgium since the summer of 2014 Turbulent history of owners and strategic focus
- 5. The superbrands today National title - 365/24/7 Up-market News and opinion Subscription based Mobile, digital and print National title - 365/24/7 Tabloid content News, sports and entertainment Free - advertising Mobile, digital and print National title - weekly edition Intellectual, up-market Politics, background, culture Subscription based Print - evolving digital presence
- 8. The situation at the beginning of 2018
- 9. This was a new sort of company A large number of titles were sold of during 2016 and 2017 (50% of the revenue) MX - a free sheet for commuters - was acquired in 2017 and merged with B.T. The products lagged performance on growth and market shares bt.dk - a major news website in DK, but needed more traffic and digital revenue MX - the most read printed paper in Denmark, but it did not make any money Berlingske - well esteemed, but customers paying for content was in decline Weekendavisen - pretty stable business, but entirely focused on print
- 10. The baseline - digital and print Monthly page views (June 2018) Subscribers and readers (End of 2018) 15.144.141 (#12 - and lagging behind the competitors) 72.500 19.500 as digital only 187.100.463 (#1 or 2) 344.000 Daily readers of B.T. metro 416.069 44.800 Less than 300 as digital only
- 11. Announcing a new strategy
- 12. The new strategy towards 2020 New CEO - Anders Krab-Johansen - December 1st 2017 A switch in C-level management (New CMO, CFO, CIO, CHRO) 2018 would focus on how the brands meet the customers 2019 would focus on implementing new back office systems On February 28th 2018 a town hall meeting was held announcing the initiatives of the strategy towards 2020
- 13. February 2018 announcement A new strategy for each superbrand Berlingske and B.T. would take Mobile First even further Redesigned websites and apps to match the ambitions B.T. and B.T. metro would provide free content both mobile and print Berlingske would provide paid for content both mobile and print Weekendavisen should continue the journey adding a digital presence And last but not least The final cultural shift in the newsroom should been done Outsourcing of the production of the printed pages
- 14. The strategy implementation 2018 2019 Strategy announcement Website launch Mobile redesign B.T. metro print Print outsourcing launch Mobile redesign Mobile app launch 2019 focus: Back Office systems Subscription CMS, video, podcasts
- 15. The final Cultural Shift Outsourcing of print production Case story Berlingske
- 16. This was for sure not the first attempt Several projects aiming to boost the digital mindset in the newsroom - organisational and introducing new processes and software Small results from rather expensive steps (software development and projects) Eventually over time the newsroom drifted back towards the print focus The newsroom started out the day focusing on digital content. But at noon when the team managing the printed paper came to work the focus went back to be primarily on the print product
- 17. It was like the legacy way of working came sneaking back into the newsroom at noon from every corner and along every wall and along all ceilings and floors. Jakob Weiss, Product Manager at Berlingske former Head of digital at Berlingske
- 18. Just because you as a manager declares that we will all have digital focus - and even implements it - doesn't mean that the staff will follow suit! Artifacts Symbols Organisational structures Processes Espoused Values Business Strategy Objectives Governing principles Underlying Assumptions Perceptions Beliefs Feelings Edgar H. Schein: Cultural Drift E. H. Schein: Organizational Culture and Leadership. Jossey-Bass, 1985
- 19. We will get good quality combined with high flexibility by outsourcing print layout, and we would like the newsroom to focus on the content and the digital distribution Anders Krab-Johansen, CEO Berlingske Media
- 20. We are not against change. But this is not okay. They grab the beating heart of the company and throw it into the street. We are having a hard time accepting it. It's indecent. Marianne Fajstrup , chairwoman of the Union of Journalists at Berlingske
- 21. What happened after the announcement A strike - two days at B.T. - one day at Berlingske Negotiations started regarding the transfer of the 32 employees. All had been offered new jobs with the outsourcing partner In the end none of the 32 employees joined the outsourcing company. Knowhow was lost - the understanding of the Berlingske DNA of design
- 22. So - what does outsourcing mean? Previous initiatives - free weeklies - ad production and pages - some of it was with external partners (Riga) and some in an internal centralized unit Never the major paid for titles - print layout was kept in the newsroom Now all print layout at Berlingske and B.T. would be done by an external partner The partner had produced a number of weekly supplements for Berlingske and B.T. (travel, homes and real estate, cars) - both content and layout
- 23. How should it work in daily operations Prioritization of the publication is done by staff in the newsroom The external partner works with the layout in the Berlingske Print CMS Additional and necessary text editing is done in the newsroom Final approval of layout is done by staff in the newsroom
- 24. 70 30 Resource allocation (estimated %) dedicated in the newsroom performing editing tasks on print versus digital Before DigitalPrint What happened in the newsroom
- 25. Resource allocation (estimated %) dedicated in the newsroom performing editing tasks on print versus digital After 30 70DigitalPrint What happened in the newsroom
- 26. The journey towards the launch Workshops and pilots was done with the staff at the outsourcing partner Quality was tracked and evaluated - the Berlingske head of design spend a lot of time reviewing the pages and doing consulting on design principles Principles was adapted both in communication and design June 1st 2018 the new way of working went live
- 27. What was the learnings during the process Initially print layout performance went down both in speed and quality. But today it is back to normal due to the persistent focus from the head of design at Berlingske on assisting the external partner Outsourcing requires internal resources as well - this is a fact in both IT outsourcing and outsourcing of layout Communication is crucial to performance Cost savings - although it was not the main focus
- 28. What more than outsourcing was initiated All content should created in the digital CMS Access to the print CMS was revoked for users unless they really needed to work in the system The two way integration between the print and the digital CMS was change to one way only - digital > print A new tool for WYSIWYG editing of the websites was introduced The way of working with editorial planning was changed The prime-time concept for digital was revitalized (four time slots each day with different priorities in content)
- 29. Focus on shared planning
- 30. Legacy landscape of content and planning Saxo Bond Content Planning Print layout Content Digital publishing BonSai Everyone had access Everyone had access
- 31. The options Do nothing Extend the use of Trello Extend the tools of BCM (already in some way prepared to act as a planning tool) Start from scratch with a new home-grown solution Implement a fit-for-purpose platform - e.g. Desk-Net The situation Trello Google docs and sheets NewsCycle (Saxo) BCM - (only Berlingske) - a CaaS platform serving external recipients of content and planning Other stuff What to do with planning
- 32. New landscape of content and planning Saxo Bond Print Content Print layout All content Digital publishing BonSai Access on a need to have basis Everyone have access Desk-Net Shared planning of all content
- 33. The benefits of a shared planning tool Planning and overview of the prime time flow is significantly improved - including the flow of pitches on SoMe The entire editorial staff has become disciplined in planning and more importantly in the sharing of individual plans A lot more information is at hand at all times when knowledge on planning is consolidated, easily accessible and shared A better environment for innovation of digital content and the subsequent production and publication
- 34. We could have pursued the final cultural change in the newsroom without Desk-Net, but with a unified and fit-for-purpose planning tool we have boosted the fact that we plan for our digital presence, and that we are a Mobile First news media. Jakob Weiss, Product Manager at Berlingske former Head of digital at Berlingske
- 36. 60 %Growth in monthly page views from June 2018 to April 2019 Out of the 299 mio. page views, 187 mio. page views came from mobile devices. This is around three times more than the closest competitor in the index For the first time more revenue was created from digital than from print
- 37. 25 %Growth in average number of daily visitors from mobile devices from June 2018 to April 2019 For all devices the growth is 16% 55% of the visitors came from mobile devices in June 2018 Today 60% of the visitors comes from mobile devices
- 38. 87 %Growth in monthly page views from June 2018 to April 2019 Berlingske is now ahead of - or really close to - the main competitors The number of customers paying for content (print and digital) started to increase after a long period of stagnation and decrease
- 39. 80 %Growth in average number of daily visitors from mobile devices from June 2018 to April 2019 In June 2018 Berlingske was down 16% compared to the previous month In April 2019 Berlingske was up 13% compared to the previous month
- 40. Challenges is still there More barriers to overcome - habits are hard to change The print product must be outstanding - continuous focus on quality How to overcome the challenges of curating content from digital to print How to ensure more resources focussed on creating unique brand content But the outsourcing has proven itself - and there is no thoughts on reverting the way of working when the contract ends in 2020
- 41. The End