The 10 hallmarks of a product mindset

Do you have a ‘product’ mindset or a ‘content’ mindset?

Do you know the difference? My own understanding has improved considerably having last week interviewed Julie Harris, CEO of IWSR, a global provider of data, analytics and insights for the drinks industry and David Leeming, CTO of 67 Bricks, a technology and product development consultancy for the specialist information publishing sector, who project managed the creation and launch of IWSR’s new Global Database offering.

The interview was for a (sponsored) article running in the upcoming July / August issue of InPublishing magazine (not on our mailing list? Register here), entitled ‘Adopting a product mindset – the key to unlocking growth’.

A content mindset focuses on the creation of content. One set of content – an issue, edition, dataset, call it what you will – is produced, and the organisation moves seamlessly onto the next scheduled release. It’s a heads down, production line mentality. Everything is underpinned by a set of broadly understood assumptions about the target audience. Lots of extremely good content is produced this way, but, and it’s a big but, the question is seldom asked, is this what the customer actually wants?

With a product mindset, content is still produced, obviously, but it’s not based on assumptions. It’s based on a deeply understood knowledge of who the customer is, what they want, how they want it and why they want it. That knowledge drives all content creation.

Publishers that have gone down this path appear to be doing very well, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Everything they produce meets a clearly defined customer need and, unsurprisingly, those customers are prepared to pay for it.

Talking with Julie and David, it seems that publishers with a product mindset exhibit the following characteristics – they:

Are customer focused
Have a clearly articulated mission and vision
Believe in strong internal communications to establish internal buy-in
Foster collaboration between teams and the breaking down of silos
Have unified their data assets into a single platform, that is scalable, future proof and flexible
Have a test & learn culture
Have adopted a culture of continuous learning
Measure the right things – engagement not pageviews
Base their decisions on data and knowledge, not assumptions
Are focused on growth

If that’s you, congratulations.

If it’s not you but you would like it to be you, then remember, it all starts with the customer. A word of warning though. Customer knowledge does not come easily – it takes time to acquire.

Julie advises publishers not to “underestimate how much time and discovery work you need to put in,” but, she adds, it’s worth it, “because the answers are all there”.

James Evelegh

Editor

Using AI for new product development

“The sweet spot right now is to use AI to leverage the existing media archives, and to add value to new content and experiences as they are being created,” writes Markus Karlsson, CEO of Affino.

In InPublishing’s just published AI Special, Markus looked at how AI can enable the development and launch of completely new product offerings.

In his article, he answers the questions, ‘How can AI assist in new product development?’ and ‘What will be possible in the future?’ and gives us his three top tips.

Read the full article

In this week's newsletter ...

Print in Belgium? Why not? Roularta Printing's Steven Renders and Bart Declercq explain why (sponsored content)
In the news this week
The Post Office Scandal – 10 takeaways for B2B journalists by Dickon Ross
AI: 5 minutes with… Rishabh Lohia by Bridged Media's co-founder and chief commercial officer (advertorial)
Publishing Services Directory This week: Software - Content Management / Publishing
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Rapidly prototype AI solutions for increased productivity and enhanced CEX

Based on 500+ experiments with 40 publishers, here's how Bridged helps your newsroom start its AI journey in a 3-month programme:

Weeks 1-2: Identify key challenges and map out customisations, aligning the launch plan with your teams.
Weeks 3-7: Iterate with staging infrastructure, collect feedback to refine AI models.
Final weeks: Run goal-based experiments to optimise KPIs, gather weekly feedback, and report final results.

Learn how publishers have saved over 100 hours per month and increased conversions by 40% with Bridged Agents.

Get in touch to discover the different agents used for optimised user engagement.

Print in Belgium? Why not?

It might seem counterintuitive to print your magazines and newspaper supplements overseas, but Roeselare, home of Roularta Printing, is closer to London than Plymouth or Manchester. When considering print options, Steven Renders and Bart Declercq tell James Evelegh, there are lots of good reasons why UK publishers should talk to Roularta.

Roularta Printing, part of Roularta Media Group, Belgium’s largest publishing company, already prints magazines and supplements for UK publishers like The Economist and Financial Times.

Up until now, copies printed have tended to be for the international circulation of those titles, but Steven Renders, general manager, is looking to print copies for UK distribution too.

“We’re very close!”, he says; “your copies can be despatched overnight from Zeebrugge, arriving in Tilbury early the next day.”

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AI – hear what the experts have to say…

Last month, InPublishing hosted an ‘AI Special - Q&A’ webinar. 13 experts, drawn from leading suppliers and publishers, answered questions about the substantial opportunities the technology presents to publishers to improve and streamline their processes and to enhance and extend their content offering into previously unimagined areas.

If you would like to watch the recording, if you register here, you will be taken straight to it.

In the news this week ...

Kennedy Publishing to launch magazine

Kennedy Publishing has announced the launch date of Hot Wheels magazine.

The Journalists’ Charity announces campaign

The Journalists’ Charity has announced its latest campaign which highlights the vital role being played by journalists during these most uncertain times.

Haymarket Media Group partners with Hey Girls

Haymarket Media Group has announced a partnership with social enterprise Hey Girls.

OUP releases its 2023/24 Annual Report

Oxford University Press reports growth with a continued focus on digital transformation.

VeraViews partners with AIREV

VeraViews has announced it has partnered with AIREV to tackle ad fraud.

Ink launches new easyJet Traveller magazine

Ink has announced the launch of a new and improved easyJet Traveller magazine.

Newsagents express disappointment

Newsagents have expressed disappointment at latest Smiths News carriage charge increase.

Scroll down for more news…

6 Essential Steps for Seamless AI Adoption in Newsrooms

Based on our 10+ years of experience, here’s how Atex's AI team has identified several steps that can be replicated in every newsroom when adopting a new AI solution.

We begin by identifying problems to develop solutions that fit your newsroom.
We engage in co-design (while handling the technical aspects).
The choice of AI technology in your project is flexible.
We implement your AI solution across various products.
Each outcome is monitored to manage costs and consumption easily.
We will continuously fine-tune based on the feedback we receive to optimize results.

Get in touch with us to find out more about the Atex AI platform and how it can help you run your newsroom efficiently.

The Guardian announces new Olympics columnist

Dame Laura Kenny has been revealed as a new columnist for the Guardian for the 2024 Olympic Games, writing regular columns from Paris.

Ink acquires global Business Traveller brands

Travel media company Ink acquires the Business Traveller brand worldwide.

GumGum appoints Kerel Cooper

GumGum has announced that digital media executive, Kerel Cooper, has joined the company as chief marketing officer.

Manchester World relaunches

Manchester World is relaunching and rebranding with a new purpose and ethos centred on the people of the city.

The Independent launches Climate 100 List

The Independent’s inaugural Climate 100 List will identify those striving to make an impact on the climate and the environment.

IOP Publishing extends remit of Progress in Energy

IOP Publishing has announced it is extending the scope of Progress in Energy as part of a new journal series.

NMA responds to Ofcom's local media review

The News Media Association has responded to Ofcom’s review of local media in the UK.

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The Post Office Scandal – 10 takeaways for B2B journalists

Computer Weekly deserves much credit for its role in investigating the Horizon IT scandal. Dickon Ross looks at what lessons other B2B journalists can take from their work.

“Have you seen the stories Computer Weekly have been doing about the IT system going wrong at the Post Office?” That question from a fellow technology journalist was when I first became aware of the investigation that all these years later has blown up into a major scandal. I can’t remember exactly when but it must have been more than fifteen years ago. And when I first heard about it, I have to admit that I too thought: “the Post Office? Really? Are you sure?”. But I also knew some of the team at Computer Weekly well enough to know that they certainly knew what they were doing. And yet, it was largely ignored, for years.

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ADVERTORIAL

AI: 5 minutes with… Rishabh Lohia

Publishers are experimenting with AI to see how it can best help their businesses. Bridged Media’s Rishabh Lohia tells us about some of the initiatives that have produced the best results so far…

Q: How can AI be used to serve up dynamic registration journeys?

A: Over the 500 AI experiments we’ve done so far, over 40% were related to building registration and collecting data. There are three areas that we saw the maximum value for dynamic registration:

Analytics and prediction: AI can help process millions of data points across the different channels, CRMs to give a holistic picture of the reader’s media consumption habits. Depending on the recency, frequency and volume of media consumed, AI helps publishers understand the propensity scores and differentiate between casual readers and loyal consumers. AI helps generate insights across content and conversions to help publishers refine both their content strategy and engagement metrics.
New user experiences: One can use AI and NLP technology to help provide engaging interfaces at optimal times to readers to increase the likelihood of registrations and upsells. Think about providing member-only experiences such as article summaries, ChatGPT like Q&A interfaces.
Dynamic content locking: Understanding what content is valuable to readers is another area we have seen AI being used. Being able to measure the uniqueness of a content piece can be crucial in taking a decision on whether to put it behind a paywall and AI can enable that.

Q: How can AI be used to increase user engagement?

Read more →

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This week: Software - Content Management / Publishing

Publishing’s getting increasingly complex. Twenty five years ago, we just published to print; now it’s print, web, newsletters, apps, TV, radio and social media and content is sliced and diced every which way.

Channel-proliferation brings with it, content-proliferation: text, pictures, infographics, audio, video.

It all needs to be easily retrievable for repeat usage, and authorship, publishing history, rights-ownership all need to be tracked and accounted for.

We are drowning in content and managing it efficiently is getting harder and harder. With cost pressures in the industry growing, simply throwing more people at it is not an option.

Systems are needed to improve productivity through reducing workflow bottlenecks and duplication of effort. Increased automation, clearer and more consistent taxonomy and fit-for-purpose file structures are the way forward.

If that all sounds like rather hard work, then the good news is that there are systems out there ready to take the strain. Some of the leading ones serving the publishing sector are listed below…

67 Bricks

We are a technology consultancy and full-service product development team. We are an agile company, meaning we ensure fast but high-quality product development.

The 10 hallmarks of a product mindset

Using AI for new product development

In this week's newsletter ...

Rapidly prototype AI solutions for increased productivity and enhanced CEX

Print in Belgium? Why not?

AI – hear what the experts have to say…

In the news this week ...

6 Essential Steps for Seamless AI Adoption in Newsrooms

The Post Office Scandal – 10 takeaways for B2B journalists

AI: 5 minutes with… Rishabh Lohia

This week: Software - Content Management / Publishing

WEBINAR: 7 top tips to increase your reach on TikTok

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