FT.com chief: Publishers should look to tech companies
By Leah McBride Mensching, Thursday 24 April 2008 at 22:53 :: World Digital Media Trends :: #1578 :: rss
Publishers should look to technology companies if they want to stay on top, keeping up with the online world and digital innovations, which means working more responsively and quickly, Ien Cheng, publisher and managing editor of FT.com, told the Guardian's Jemima Kiss.
Cheng's strategy appears to be working, as FT.com had 7.1 million unique users in March, a 33 percent increase from the same time last year. Additionally, page views were up 72 percent over the same period last year, to 72 million.
Cheng's three-part strategy includes:
1. Improve new editorial product development
2. Refine the subscription model
3. Change the way business works internally
While some changes are technical, such as building a faster, better site, editorial changes mean that more must be done online, such as pushing for increased video coverage, Cheng told Kiss for her Guardian blog Tuesday.
“We need to learn from the web start-up and pure play web company approach that has technology much closer with the business. Publishers can't just think it's the IT department over the wall that they throw stuff to. You've got to have the right platform, approach, mindset and processes to keep up,” Cheng told Kiss. “The fact is we are all exposed to a much higher degree of competition in the past, so we are all exposed to the scrutiny and the discipline of a much more open marketplace. So are you good enough to compete? You can't go blaming Google or anyone else for that.”
For more on this topic, visit our partner site, Editorsweblog.org.
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