Canada Wide Digital - for CAA/Westword - May 22, 2009

Going Digital:Extending print-based brands onlineShannon Emmerson

Director of Digital Media, Canada Wide Media Limited

May 22, 2009

A little about me

About the digital division

Our work

Lessons learned

Questions and discussion

Outline

About me

Joined Canada Wide in Jan ‘07

Capricorn, fond of travel, wine, words, music

Background in journalism, writing & editing, knowledge management, interactive entertainment (games) web development, technical writing, yacht stewardessing

Mild Twitterholic (@semmerson)

About me

About the digital

media division

In-house editorial, design, development, sales and digital marketing team

Manage and maintain seven sites, nine enewsletters

First design award!

About the DMD

Why digital media?

Significant advertiser demand

Dot-com bubble burst; open source offered economy

Good digital models

Recognition and opportunity

Publishing industry showing signs of change

About the DMD

Overall Strategy

Extend brands into digital environment

Hire smart consultants

Contract developers

Build initial sites externally

Grow an in-house team to take over

About the DMD

Site Strategy

Give advertisers an online platform

Make the most of our content & make it findable online

Create sites that honour their respective brands

Grow communities

Our Work

Year one: Build it and they will come …

Our Work

Our Work

Year two: Refine and grow

Our Work

Our Work

Year three: Get creative

Our Work

Lessons Learned

Search, design and copyright

Focus on great web content

Cultivate digital skill

Think multi-platform

Consider new models

Community matters

Observe, analyze, adjust

Start small

Experiment

Lessons Learned

Search: make yourself findableYou’re competing with everyone else in the world on Google.

The rules (& players) seem to change every day.

Know who you want to find your content, and know your business goals.

Optimize for search--from code to design to editorial.

Lessons Learned

Design to keep readers.Consider user context.

Know the competition-- and steal shamelessly.

Test design: youthink.ca.

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Get copyright.

Secure clear copyright permissions on anything & everything you post online.

Do it now.

Get agreements in writing.

Lessons Learned

Focus on great web content.

Digital content requires work to ensure that it’s working for you.

Very specific, always evolving knowledge is required.

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Imagine (or remember) the conversation about what it takes to manage a website.

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Cultivate digital skill. Hire rock stars.

You need people who are very comfortable with chaos.

Organizers. Good time managers. Bright personalities.

Anthropologists. Storytellers. Experimenters. Hurdlers.

Lessons Learned

“Digital Editors” are now producers, multimedia artists, developers, designers, marketers, sales reps, analytics evaluators and SEO specialists.

Start training your staff now to understand the digital universe.

Lessons Learned

Think multiplatform.From the start.

Offline

• Magazines, Books, Print Newsletters, Calendars, Guides

Online

• Web, eNewsletter, Audio, Video, Social Media

In Person

• Events, Workshops, Conferences

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Example: Backyard chickens - Granville

An idea about covering the backyard chicken debate in Vancouver became:

• a mag article• a web article (repurposed)• 3 blog posts• a resource page including a

podcast & 4 repurposed articles• A Twitter stream pushing users

to latest articles and comments

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Example: GardenWise Ask the Pros

Born of a nurtured community of gardening pros and Master Gardeners

Questions and answers are printed in the magazine

Users invited to submit online

All Q&As are searchable in online resource

Lessons Learned

Consider new models

Provide value that suits your medium.

Consider ways to monetize it.

Meet the needs of your advertisers -- and your readers.

Lessons Learned

Example: BCBusiness Top 100

In Person: Luncheon, speech, networking

Offline: Special mag issue with listings

Online: Sponsored landing page, searchable listings, video of event, winner interviews, eNewsletter

Lessons Learned

Example: Innovation Package

Lessons Learned

Community matters.

Give your readers a

voice.

Engage.

Use a variety of tools.

“Flip the funnel.”

Lessons Learned

Flipping the funnel:Marketing guru Seth Godin uses this term to describe the phenomenon of individuals using social media tools to broadcast their messages. They’ve got the megaphone now.

Listen. They’re the people you’re trying to reach.

Lessons Learned

Guest blog

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Observe, analyze, adjust

Hire/develop smart people who understand metrics.

Use the results.

Metrics tell you about:– hot and not content– audience– peak times– related sites– reader habits– reader location – …

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Start small. Test your ideas in low-cost

ways: eNewsletters work well.

Pay attention to how people respond – audiences and advertisers.

Try to sell before building.

Lessons Learned

Experiment.

Technology changes every day.Nobody has all the answers yet.Have some fun!

Lessons Learned

Areas we’re working on: • Mobile/WAP sites

• Text campaigns

• Widgets

• Social media

• Alternative revenue models

• Brand-based partnerships

Lessons Learned

In many ways, it’s still like the wild west out there.

Winding Up

But guess who knows the west?

Winding Up

Questions & comments are most welcome.

Shannon Emmersonsemmerson@canadawide.comhttp://www.canadawide.com

Questions?