“Use your readers’ collective intelligence”

Newspapers, radio, magazines, and many more traditional media could all learn from Skyrock’s successful transition from being a radio broadcaster to generating more than 50% of its revenues through digital – thanks to one of the world’s most popular blog platforms. In the following, founder and CEO Pierre Bellanger advises the press to use its readers’ collective intelligence – even to unite in order to do so.



From traditional media to social network

Undoubtedly, traditional media insiders have jealously eyed Skyrock’s journey, at a time when many of the most digitally-innovative papers still garner less than 10% of overall revenues through digital operations.

A few mouth-watering figures for Skyrock Blogs (henceforth referred to as ‘Skyblogs’), which targets the younger teen population, unlike Facebook: to this day, Skyblogs counts more than 22 million subscribed users, 14 million active blogs and 5.3 million profiles. The site is the world’s 17th site globally in page views, has more than 20.2 million monthly unique visitors, and counts a whopping 1.8 billion comments, 22.5 million videos and 400 million pictures. The platform was launched in 2002.

The main difficulty when trying to create a social network is reaching the critical mass of users that will lead to a snowball effect. Skyrock is currently the most-listened-to radio station among its target audience, 13-24 year-olds. So cross-promotion with the radio station helped Skyblogs’ original expansion initially. “The dynamic and the existence of the radio helped” to grow the social network.

So much so that in 2006, for the first time, Skyrock generated more than half (51%) of its revenue digitally and less than half through its traditional channel, the radio station. However, Skyblogs and Skyrock radio are considered as two distinct subsidiaries within the same parent company: one is an entertainment media channel, the other is an independent social network. Unlike many social networking experiments by newspapers, Skyblogs was considered and managed as an independent Web 2.0 venture, rather than as a new tool to complement the traditional media.

The digital world: newspapers must use the collective intelligence of readers

Is it too late for newspapers to harness the power of the Web and social networks?

Said Bellanger: “As did all traditional industries, the press perceived the Internet as a new way to do the same thing,” as a new distribution platform to publish the same product – instead of conceiving how deeply the Web could change the actual work of journalists and newspapers. “This turned out to be an extremely modest usage of the possibilities enabled by the Internet,” he said, acknowledging that “it’s easier to create a company than to change a company.” When the printed press was first invented in the 1500s, people initially simply thought of it as a new tool to produce copies of the Bible.

Newspapers mustn’t necessarily try to create Skyblogs-like social networks, and previous attempts at creating their own have had mitigated results (see USA Today). However, they must use the power of networks and users if they want to be successful online.

“Newspapers stayed for a long time in this logic of distribution, depriving themselves of one of their essential assets, which they had never previously used: the collective intelligence of their readers,” said Bellanger. In the digital age, this becomes as important as the brand name and editorial service they provide.

Use the collective intelligence of your readers. If the Financial Times were able to channel the input of its millions of business-minded readers, it would win. “To put to contribution the intelligence of readers is a real solution for the press,” said Bellanger.
Newspapers must rebuild themselves around the public debate, said Bellanger, and force themselves out of the temptation to produce ambient news.

Newspapers have begun this transition, by opening comments and platforms for user blogs, but remain timid when doing so.

For example, most user comments – when these are enabled – are simply listed below the actual article, in no particular order or hierarchy. And comments seldom have permalinks (a Web-specific address), which could enable users to share or refer to specific comments: in other words they are still considered as mere add-ons to the journalist-led story.

Bellanger’s argument may be demoralizing for many journalists and editors: to an extent, his vision of the Web puts users’ collective input on the same level, if not higher, as content produced by journalists. However, this content still requires journalistic expertise to be organized and transformed into an add-value resource.



The online business model: traffic compensates for lower CPM

All newspapers are still struggling to find a viable and profitable business model online. The average online user still typically brings in 10 times less ad-revenue compared to the print reader. But according to Bellanger, if newspapers can build up adequate social networks that bring in twenty times more traffic, then they hold the solution to their online business model.

But don’t newspapers run the risk of saturating the market if they all attempt to launch their own social networks?

Not at all, said Bellanger, because the Web is full of nano-networks, which can be built around the sharing of experiences and common interests, however small a community. This in turn can lead to targeted-advertising and higher CPMs. The ‘secret recipe’ for the press is thus to offer an online platform that can group their readers in nano-networks, whether around car-tuning, Japanese cooking or better, major public debates.

About Pierre Bellanger and Skyrock

Skyrock Radio was founded in 1985 by Pierre Bellanger, son of a French newspaper editor who was also co-founder of the World Association of Newspapers’ parent. Bellanger thus grew up amidst stenographers and the smell of print presses: he has also participated in studies about newspapers’ future commissioned by the French government.

Source: Pierre Bellanger, CEO Skyrock