In the news: What should your analytics strategy look like as you plan for next year?

Data analytics are a tricky proposition for publishers. Recent changes to Google, including the phasing out of third-party cookies, have only added to the myriad challenges. What's New in Publishing writes on its website: "The issue has been that publishers and brands have historically managed audience data in siloed systems. Therefore, critical information surrounding ad revenue, subscriptions, content engagement, and customer profiles is all stored separately."

So what should publishers be doing as they look ahead to 2022? The new analytics landscape is raising a lot of questions -- and creating a lot of new opportunities, says WNIP: "The IT department no longer governs data and analytics to the degree that it once did. So, commercial teams like marketing, sales and finance now have the opportunity to more heavily influence these areas than ever before." WNIP emphasizes, among other things, the importance of customizing data models, privacy compliance, and enriched data. Read more here.

Also Notable

Shareholders Profit off Failing Magazines

An eye-catching Forbes.com headline this week: "How Failing Magazines Fueled a 3,800 percent Return for Shareholders in This British Publisher." The article, by Iain Martin, examines how London company Future Plc has scooped up failing magazine brands and turning huge profits. CEO Zillah Byng-Thorne took over in 2014 and started making major changes. "Byng-Thorne has transformed Future into a digital-content powerhouse generating a $95.7 million profit last year from sales of $451 million. The share price is up 3,821 percent in just over six years, translating into a market cap of $6.3 billion," Martin reports. What's more, he says, "Byng-Thorne broke Future's reliance on newsstand and advertising and refocused the entire venture on events, data and, most critically, e-commerce.... As one of the few buyers of unloved print assets, Byng-Thorne can drive a hard bargain and her expertise in stripping out costs makes each deal even sweeter." Read more here about how Future Plc's modus operandi may become a template for publishers the industry over.

Publishers Tackle Climate Change

Some publishers, possibly seeing writing on the wall, are recalibrating to address the climate crisis. But are they acting swiftly enough? Sara Guaglione of Digiday.com reports: "The Media and Climate Change Observatory ... found that coverage of [climate] issues in August 2021 was the highest in more than a decade. However, climate change coverage is lagging in the U.S. U.S. print coverage of the issue was down 0.2 percent and TV coverage decreased 10 percent in August 2021 compared to the previous month." That said, some publishers are creating new climate-oriented verticals to divert resources to this crucial subject. Among them, Guaglione says, are Condé Nast (who aims to be carbon neutral by 2030, says Guaglione) and the New York Times, which will hold a nine-day event in Glasgow during the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Read more here.

Crowdfunding as Business Model?

Increasingly, news publishers are turning to philanthropy and crowdfunding to stay afloat as the pandemic continues to present revenue challenges. But, as Kristen Hare notes in a recent Poynter.org piece, the issue becomes more complex when larger donors come into play: "For-profits need a nonprofit partner, Lenfest's Forman said, to offer tax deductions for people who give money. Some newsrooms are building out partnerships to make that work," she writes. What's more, "for-profit newsrooms need to publish clear policies on how they handle gifts, what work is donor supported and what that means for the journalism." Read more here.

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A reader's question: Is relationship selling really a good approach for my publication? I don't see it.

By William Dunkerley

Q. I've followed with interest your articles about advertising sales. That's something really important to us now. The pandemic really threw us a curveball. We were doing okay before it hit. Not great, but okay. In the last issue you started pushing relationship selling. I don't see how we could possibly put that to work here. We're a moderately sized B2B magazine. The good thing about our advertising is that there are lots of companies that want to sell products to our readers. A few are big companies. But we have a ton of little guys that place small ads. Our sales guys couldn't possibly spend time building close relationships with all of them. One of our competitors has a couple of smooth operators selling its ads. It's like they charm their way into a sale. My sales team doesn't have the same kind of personalities. Should I try to get them trained? Should I try getting some new blood for selling our ads? What do you advise?

A. Don't fire your ad staff yet! Extensive relationship selling is not always the best fit for a particular publication. In fact, it has some real drawbacks in some cases.

Close relationships built over time can be an important asset to advertisers if they consider spending for an ad or a contract with you to be a big buy, or if it represents a large chunk of their ad budget. The picture you paint sounds different from that.

You said you have a few big advertisers. It certainly might pay off for your salespeople on those accounts to spend extra time with them. As you suspect, though, it will be impossible to do that with a large number of small advertisers. Feature-benefit selling is probably the best approach for them. We'll deal with techniques your staff can use in a later issue.

Several possible problems can arise from relying upon the relationship between that sales rep and the advertiser. It's important to consider those potential issues, as they apply especially to the kind of sales techniques you say your competitor is using.

Once I worked with a small B2B publisher that had just one salesperson. Her name was Francine. She had a very warm and engaging personality. She had advertisers thinking that they were best friends after just a few telephone conversations. They didn't just talk about advertising; she had them talking about their personal lives and interests. She shared hers with them too. I think the advertisers looked forward to a sales call from her as if they were hearing from a good buddy. It was impressive. It was effective.

The problem came when Francine left for a job in the hospitality industry. What was the problem? When she left, so did many of the ad sales she had generated. Apparently those advertisers were buying specifically because of Francine.

That magazine had a few close competitors. Francine had provided this magazine with an edge over them, and now the magazine had lost that edge. Advertisers reevaluated where they were spending their money. Many of them went to competitors with much of their spending.

There's another problem with the Francine-type salesperson: That person might eventually come to recognize her or his unique value to the magazine. This could result in demands for a larger percentage of the revenues as compensation.

I've seen magazines that ended up paying inordinate sales salaries or commissions in situations like that. In some cases these salespeople use their perceived essential status to demand editorial changes that might further boost their sales. Capitulating to such demands can be very shortsighted for the magazine, though. That's because the changes may not be in the interests of the readers -- and that could wreak havoc on reader satisfaction and renewal rates.

So, in short, I agree that extensive relationship selling may not be right for your publication. Stay tuned for a discussion of feature-benefit selling in a future issue.

William Dunkerley is principal of William Dunkerley Publishing Consultants, www.publishinghelp.com.

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During this time of crisis, we stand ready to answer privately any specific questions our readers may have, time permitting. You can contact us at:

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When the national health crisis subsides, publishers unfortunately should not expect to easily resume business as usual. Economists are predicting tough times ahead. In addition, the impact of the crisis may well result in different expectations of us on the part of our audiences. STRAT is providing a series of articles to help you all through the period of recovery and readjustment.