Digital Media: Building a Multi-media Platform

The print newspaper is now only one of the media platforms to deliver content to consumers. Today, information is disseminated through print, Internet, RSS feeds, hand-held devices and a variety of other wireless devices.

NAA is working on a project to quickly build the digital media platform to deliver multi-media content to consumers - but significant changes are needed to make this integration a reality. For years, newspapers have operated on a single-product workflow. In the changing multi-media environment, there are several workflows and products to disseminate information - so the future media delivery platform will rely on a content database, with articles, photos and ads (all content) dynamically coded to be delivered through all delivery methods. Several suppliers and universities have created content based content management products and dissemination models that will deliver content from a centralized database.

Today, targeting the customer is based widely on demographics and social statistics for specific areas or age groups. But customer specific media content delivery, which is based on a specific consumer's interests and demographics, does not exist. The piece of the media delivery model that needs to built is the Customer Profile Database; where customers are invited to create interest profiles and register online for topic specific delivery of content. For example, if you are a SF Giants fan and want in-depth stories and analysis throughout the season; then that's the content that is sent to you. The customer chooses the topics, content sources and information delivery method.

The advantage to the newspaper/media company is the ability to deliver targeted ad content precisely to consumers based on their customer profile of interests. The customer profile will contain broad interests and activities; ie. do you own a dog or cat. If the consumer owns a dog, than specific ads for dog food or dog products will be sent to the consumer, not cat products. The accuracy and depth of the Customer Profile Database is endless - do they own a European or American car, the age of their kids, business interests and investments, outdoor activities, etc. Consumers can also specify the type or source for content - choosing only national news or only sports, or only specific news sources. The creation of multi-branded newspaper or digital media is coming. A customer might want their local home town news, USA Today sports and Wall Street Journal business news. The technology is evolving to deliver specific content - so newspaper/media companies will need to think about how to offer story or section specific content bundled with content from other sources.

So look at this as the first step to individualized content delivery, where you can tailor ads and interest specific content from multiple sources into a single individualized newspaper, web-page, or RSS feed.