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Print itIn the Know: Q&A with Andrew Davis
December 2003
By Garbo Cheung-Jasik
Drew Davis is currently the president and executive director of the American Press Institute. At the time of this Q&A, he was the director of seminars and development of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University. He headed the center’s industry-specific seminars for magazine, broadcast television, and cable executives. With appointment as adjunct professor at the Medill School of Journalism, his academic field of concentration is innovation and new product management in media companies. He is author of Rx for New Product Success; A Guide to Successful Innovation for Media Executives.
Davis has worked with numerous media companies on their executive education programs, new product development, and strategic planning. Prior to joining the center in 1996, he was president of Chicago Sun-Times Features, Inc., a division of The Sun-Times Company, which included the Sun-Times Features Syndicate, a national news service, and Performance Media, a custom publishing division which he conceived and developed into a multi-million dollar venture. Davis began his newspaper career after active duty as an infantry officer in the U.S. Marines. He was managing editor of eight suburban Chicago newspapers, winning state and national awards for editorial excellence. For 10 years, he was group publisher and newspaper operations vice president of Pioneer Newspapers, based in suburban Chicago, with 41 newspapers, one of the nation’s largest suburban groups.
Q: America's population is rapidly aging as we start the 21st century. What challenges does the "graying of the nation" pose for journalists in the news they report and how they present it? And how do media managers respond in attracting and building an audience among this growing, older demographic group?
A: Gray is good. The demographic segment of persons over 40 is actually a fertile field for media. They comprise the best readers of newspapers and the median age segment for television networks. In fact, the median age of viewers of CBS is 52.5. NBC is “youngest” at a median age of 45. CNN’s audience median is a venerable 57. With the Baby Boom generation entering its 50s, the raw numbers of audience in this demo will swell. Boomers make up more than 30 per cent of the US population. And AARP estimates they will age in ways no other generation has aged. They will be extraordinarily active and geographically mobile, which will challenge “place-based” media that rely on fixed location subscriptions. Moreover, the mature generation of persons over 55 is a wealthy generation that holds more than 70 per cent of the equity in this country. They principally buy experiences, but also things, which makes them attractive targets for the right kind of marketing.
At the opposite end of the generational spectrum we have Generation Y, the lead age of which is entering their 20s. They will be larger even than the Baby Boom, and the most diverse generation in US history. They are media consumers, frequently simultaneously going on line and watching TV, or reading magazines and watching TV. They are brand
Q: America is also more than ever becoming a multicultural, multiethnic diverse nation. Will the media have to respond by more targeted and fragmented news products for these growing ethnic cultures, or will it still be possible to address and reach the "broader" nation?
A: The answer is yes…yes that media will need to target diverse audiences with specific new offerings. And yes that traditional news media will need to broaden their scope of coverage. Newspapers are essentially delivery vehicles for sections and features that appeal to targeted audiences. They already segment in their offerings by sectionalizing into sports, lifestyle, business, and other specifically targeted news groupings. To that traditional mix in some markets, they could profit in the future by adding ethnically-targeted or age-specific sections. That strategy is not inconsistent with the way papers have been sectionalized since they were first conceived. A second compatible strategy of creating new newspaper products aimed at specific ethnic audiences is gaining ground. The Miami Herald’s Nuevo Hearld has done so for years, and now Tribune’s Hoy, and the San Jose Mercury News’ Viet Mercury and Nuevo Mundo, and others compete against the mother ships for new audiences not attracted to the general circulation paper.
Q: In the last few years, the growth of the ethnic press has been quite impressive, filling a void that mainstream media oftentimes can not fill. Look at the impact and growth of the Spanish-language television and radio. How will this affect mainstream media, in terms of attracting and building audiences and advertising among these groups?
A: Media are mirrors for their audiences. Readers, users and viewers are drawn to the mirrors that most clearly reflect themselves. As I stated above, it is not an inconsistent strategy for mainstream media to both broaden the scope of their traditional coverage to be more reflective of the full fabric of the whole community and to, in essence, compete against themselves by creating targeted products that appeal to narrow segments of that community. By doing so, although they may be further fragmenting the pie, the pie is definitely larger.
Q: As the demographic gap in this country continue to widen and shift in the next decade, will the media still be able to maintain the ability to respond to the ever changing needs of its communities or will audience fragmentation continue to rise?
A: I believe media will create new and ever-shifting communities. Fragmentation is a reality that will continue. Broadcast TV stations will quintuple in number as they gain the digital capacity to multiplex their signals; digital cable and satellite TV over four times the number of channel choices as their analog predecessors. The number of channels on the Internet is infinite. What will happen is that smart media companies will become aggregators of fragmented audiences. These aggregations may be based on communities of interest, ethnicity or just fleeting interests of the moment. By bundling choices into packages, they can assist audiences in making their choices from this exploding universe of information and entertainment offerings.
Q: At the turn of the 20th century, we were still significantly a rural society in many parts of this country. Now, at the start of this century, America is predominantly urban and metropolitan. How are journalists and media managers responding to the rural-to-urban trends? What should they be doing?
A: The rural to urban shift happened decades ago. What is happening today is a shift pf population centers from the north and east to the south and west. Moreover, metropolitan areas are expanding, converting cornfields to condos and office parks. Media follow money, and population generates money. I think we’ll see a strengthening of media companies in the emerging regional centers, more media job opportunities and a demand for journalists who mirror and understand the ethnicity of those regions.
Q: Many people are wary of the shift from traditional "hard news" to the "info-tainment" trends in many of our media. Are media managers who are promoting this trend abandoning the longtime mission of providing the public with solid information about the world for the sake of bottom lines and profit margins?
A: I don’t think the essential tension between news and entertainment ought to be an either/or matter. If newspapers and magazines are to attract readers and TV networks and stations are to attract viewers, the experience of consuming news ought to be both enlightening and entertaining. They are not mutually exclusive qualities. It’s only when the lines blur between fact and fiction, or when the goal of engaging the reader or audience is achieved through hype unsubstantiated by content, that we hit the danger zone. Journalists and managers have the capability to reconcile that tension and craft products that attract, engage, enlighten and delight audiences.
Q: The Internet is here to stay and most of the media have embraced it in a variety of ways. How do you see media companies using and exploiting the worldwide web over the next few decades? What are the risks of the media leaving behind those who still live unconnected on the "other side" of the digital divide?
A: If I had the for-sure answer to this question I would have unlocked the secret of the future. My cloudy crystal ball sees a future in which through strength of their brand, solid media companies will become the trusted agents of their customers (subscribers) to enable five basic transactions: 1) to help them know things; 2) to help them be entertained; 3) to assist them in buying things; 4) to help them sell things and 5) to work. All of these transactions would be fee-based and all done through the web. The apparent risk is that we will fast become a world economy in which those who are connected will have the capacity to be producers and consumers, and those who are not connected will be nonproductive outcasts whose very sustenance will be the responsibility of the producers…a grim prospect that the world can ill afford.
Q: Newspaper readership and circulation continue to stagnate, with a younger generation that often seems unconnected to the print media. Are there any magical solutions for reversing the trend, especially among the young, and bride this gap?
A: There are no magic wands, but it is encouraging to see many newspaper companies launching such youth-targeted products as Tribune’s Red Eye, State College, PA’s Blue, and Pittsburgh Trib PM. I was just in Europe and saw the efforts of a newspaper in Belgium that has just cut a deal with Disney to produce a weekly section of the paper for young children, supported heavily by Disney promotion. The paper plans to roll out additional sections aimed at progressively older young readers to build a consistent future readership. All the research shows that the newspaper reading habit needs to be cultivated at a young age and that the experience needs to be a positive one.
Q: Television was once dominated by three major networks that drew national and large audiences. Today, the broadcast industry is increasingly fragmented by hundred of cable channels and satellite TV. Have we now lost forever the unifying capacity of TV to bring the nation together for significant events and shape our popular culture?
A: With the fragmentation of networks and programming spawned by cable and digital TV, few, if any programs will be true destination appointments for huge mass audiences. Events may galvanize global interest, but audience share will certainly be split among networks and even media. Television will continue to shape popular culture but the days of a show like “I Love Lucy” attracting 2/3 of the total viewership are long gone. Instead, events, entertainment and even entertainers will play across media platforms and across networks. The winner is the viewer who now can watch what he/she wants to watch, and, soon, truly WHEN she/he wants.
Q: You have a distinguished background in the military. How has your experience in the armed forces benefited you or shaped your attitudes and approaches in your present career in academia and the media?
A: I was first a Marine, then a journalist, then a journalist and Marine. The major transferable lesson I learned in the Marine Corps that applies to media is that the very best and most effective organizations, military or media, are rooted in a clear sense of mission, a strong value system that is embraced across the culture, and a legacy of achievement that instilled shared pride.
Q: For the most part, the print media, especially newspapers, still receive the majority of advertising dollars. With the Internet and other communications technology (such as electronic and digital) so prevalent and with the media landscape changing so rapidly, will newspapers continue to attract and generate greater advertising revenues than other forms of media?
A: The big three of advertising, each with about a 20 per cent share of the ad market are newspapers, broadcast TV and direct mail. Magazines and radio trail. Coming on strong are the Internet and cable TV. What is not on most media marketing executives’ radar scope is the category, “Other,” which, if measured, commands an equal share with the big three. “Other” comprises such marketing tools as sponsorships, events and point-of-purchase promotion. There is no rule that says the traditional media can’t get involved in “other.” In fact, it’s a big opportunity for strongly-branded media.
Q: Are the journalism schools keeping pace with the myriad changes in the media environment and in turn ensuring that today's generation of journalists and media professionals graduating from the J-schools are prepared for the real world?
A: From my perspective at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern, J schools are very aware of the new requirements of a career in modern journalism. New media design, journalism and functionality are increasingly becoming a part of the curriculum of J schools. Also of increasing importance is the opportunity for applying the lessons of the classroom to the world of the newsroom. Those opportunities likewise seem to be expanding. I still am a firm believer, though, that the best journalists come from a broader liberal arts background with knowledge of language, the arts, politics, economics, science, sociology, history, etc. When they learn the toolbox skills of journalism and are instilled with the values of the profession, that academic foundation will enable them not only to craft a solid story but to actually understand the subject they are covering, to connect the dots and provide context.
Garbo Cheung-Jasik is the program director for the NAMME Foundation.