agenda

Tuesday, October 10

1:00 PM - 1:30 PM

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Ritz Ballroom

Matt Lindsay
President
Mather Economics

1:30PM - 2:30PM

Keynote Session-The Data Paradigm Shift

Ritz Ballroom

Andrea Rothchild, Senior Vice President Advertising Sales
Patrick Tornabene, Vice President, Audience Development & Analytics
Newsday Media Group

Newsday Media Group heads of Audience and Advertising will speak to the cultural and analytical evolution of data fueled decision making and monetization as media’s new business model

2:30PM - 3:15PM

Joint Session-Inside CMG's Approach to Audience Monetization

Ritz Ballroom

Mark Medici
Multi-Market Vice President of Audience
Cox Media Group

Long gone are the days of siloed decision making when it comes to consumer pricing.  This session will outline CMG newspapers audience strategy and critical outcomes.

3:15PM - 3:45PM

Networking Break

3:45PM - 4:30PM

Breakout Session-Why Benchmarking Will Help You Grow Your Business Faster

Ritz Ballroom

Tom Slaughter – Inland – Presentation
Executive Director
Inland Press Association

Companies that benchmark achieve 69% faster growth and greater productivity. Learn how Inland’s Benchmarks can help you grow your business.

 

3:45PM - 4:30PM

Breakout Session-Paid Content in the Age of Platforms

Plaza Ballroom

Grzegorz Piechota – Univ. of Oxford/Harvard Business School – Presentation
Researcher
University of Oxford and Harvard Business School

Digital platforms such as Google and Facebook have enabled users to change the way they access content, engage with brands, and disrupt the advertising-driven business model of online news media. As publishers shift to new revenue models such as paid content, preferences and behaviours of users still are greatly influenced by the platforms. How do news consumers nowadays engage with content? How do their customer journeys evolve? What strategy towards the platforms should publishers choose?

4:30PM - 5:15PM

Joint Session-Data, Analytics, Technology and Strategy Drive philly.com’s Paid Content Plans

Ritz Ballroom

Patrick Glennon – MG2/Philadelphia Media Network – Presentation
President and Founder
Marketing G2

Tian Chen
Chief Product Officer
Philadelphia Media Network

Tian Chen and Patrick Glennon report on Philly.com’s paid content strategy and launch. The two will discuss how success is dependent on a combination of Data, Analytics, Technology and Strategy. Early results will be shared along with deeper discussion on how data and real-time execution based on data will drive their strategy.

5:15PM - 5:30PM

Day 1-Closing Remarks

Ritz Ballroom

Matt Lindsay
President
Mather Economics

5:30PM - 6:00PM

Free Time

6:00PM - 7:00PM

Networking Cocktail Reception

The Gallery

7:00PM - until

Dinner on Your Own

Wednesday, October 11

8:00 AM - 8:45AM

Continental Breakfast

The Gallery

9:00AM - 9:15AM

Opening Remarks

Ritz Ballroom

Matt Lindsay
President
Mather Economics

9:15AM - 10:00AM

Joint Session-Advance Update-Six Years Later

Ritz Ballroom

Pam Siddall, President of Advance Central Services
Randy Siegel, President of Advance Local

In 2009, Advance Publications shocked the newspaper industry by stopping daily publication of the Ann Arbor News-and serving notice that it was going to be a digital-first enterprise. In short order, Advance reduced the print frequency or home delivery at some of its other dailies, and transitioned all its titles to a digital-first approach.
Advance Central Services President Pam Siddall and Advance Local President Randy Siegel–will report on what the media company has achieved, and learned, from their bold digital initiative.

10:00AM - 10:15PM

Morning Break

10:15AM - 11:00AM

Breakout Session-Churn Modeling – Overview, Learnings, and Best Practices

Ritz Ballroom

Matthew Lulay, Director Consulting Services – Mather-Churn Modeling – Presentation
Mather Economics

Retention strategies have historically been applied to subscribers universally, with different types of subscribers receiving similar efforts to improve retention.  Advancements in data analysis have allowed us to become more targeted in those retention efforts.  At Mather, churn analysis is a data-driven methodology for identifying at-risk accounts within a subscriber base.  By leveraging several data sources, Mather can apply churn-risk scores to the entire market on a weekly basis, giving markets the information needed to design more effective and efficient retention campaigns.

10:15AM - 11:00AM

Breakout Session-Aligning Digital Audience and Content Strategy

Plaza Ballroom

Arvid Tchivzhel, Director Product Development and Data Science Services – Mather-Digital Audience & Content – Presentation
Mather Economics

Patrick Smith, Manager Data Science Services
Mather Economics

As publishers move from “defense” to “offense” in the way they approach digital publishing, the right mix of data, analytics, insights, and visualization can transform how an organization works together.

Identifying specific audience groups based on behaviors they exhibit online and their associated demographic and purchasing data, called “clustering”,  helps decision-makers set clear strategy and objectives for their staff, allows marketers to target each audience segment with the right message and helps newsroom editors allocate resources to publish content that resonates with target audiences.

Mather will dive deep into how advanced clustering techniques can be applied to Listener data to identify distinct patterns of user engagement and behavior. In this interactive session, attendees will participate in a working session that will generate new ideas and a mock-strategy plan they can take home to their organizations.

11:00AM - 11:45AM

Joint Session-Digital Advertising Revenue Audit Services

Ritz Ballroom

Maggie Louie – DevCon – Presentation
Founder & CEO
Dev/Con Detect

Premium and programmatic advertising from trading desks and exchanges are the life blood of digital media and agencies. But what happens when reporting doesn’t reconcile with revenue? What are business leaders supposed do when their Adsense income isn’t matching up with impressions? Or when their reporting questions are left unanswered? That’s where Dev/Con comes in. Dev/Con’s comprehensive audit services and SaaS identify the source of revenue declines and leakage, saving its customers millions of dollars each year.

 

11:45AM - 1:00PM

Networking Lunch

1:00PM - 1:45PM

Joint Session-Maximizing Consumer Revenue on the Digital Journey from Visitor to Subscriber

Ritz Ballroom

Pete Doucette – Boston Globe Media – Presentation
Chief Consumer Revenue Officer
Boston Globe Media

The Boston Globe – A case study on transformation and the potential path to a sustainable business model through digital subscriptions.

In this session, the Globe’s Chief Customer Officer, Peter Doucette, will give an in-depth look into their digital subscription business growth and long-term trajectory.  Doucette will explore the inner workings of their business model, share best practices, discuss how they’ve leveraged technology to grow subscribers and describe how the Globe is getting consumers to pay $0.99 a day for digital news.

1:45PM - 2:30PM

Breakout Session-Fairfax Media NZ: Paving The Road for a Digital Future

Ritz Ballroom

Jessica Lane – Fairfax Media NZ – Presentation
Retention Marketing Manager
Fairfax Media-New Zealand

Fairfax Media NZ reaches over 80% of New Zealand with their print and digital products. The jewel in our crown is stuff.co.nz – New Zealand’s #1 local website, sitting at #4 overall just behind Google, Facebook and YouTube.

As print revenues decline and digital audiences grow, Fairfax has adopted a digital strategy based on its ARPU pyramid. We believe we have a model that will help us fund journalism into the future. The focus is on transforming into a digital-first business, while also managing the decline of print revenue.

It’s early days but our strategy of diversification is starting to produce some green shoots and significant successes. To date these include:
● a premium programmatic marketplace
● a hyper-local private social network
● a new ISP product
● Mather-based pricing.

Fairfax’s challenges reflect a global crisis facing media, and we believe this strategy has put us in a strong position for the future.

1:45PM - 2:30PM

Breakout Session-Customer Service Audit – Leveraging Data Analysis to Improve Call Center Effectiveness

Plaza Ballroom

Brendan Meany, Manager – Mather-CSR – Presentation
Mather Economics

The performance of customer service representatives can vary widely depending on training, skillset, and personality.  The difference in outcomes as a result of these attributes can significantly impact the bottle line of markets.  At Mather, we leverage customer service data to identify the drivers of successful customer service interactions, allowing markets to better train CSRs for future communications.

2:30PM - 3:00PM

Networking Break

3:00PM - 3:45PM

Joint Session-Digital Revenue Optimization using Listener™

Ritz Ballroom

Matt Lindsay, President – Mather-Digital Revenue Optimization – Presentation
Arvid Tchivzhel, Director Product Development and Data Science Services
Mather Economics

Mather Economics is engaged with several media companies to create “make money buttons” for digital audience acquisition, digital content economics, and digital advertising functions.  We will share the latest insights and results from these initiatives and describe where we expect the industry to go next.  Our talk will use ongoing case studies to illustrate what is working and what strategies and tactics are planned.  This session will describe the latest developments in the digital transformation of the industry.

3:45PM - 4:30PM

Joint Session-Local Market Subscription Model for Events/Entertainment

Ritz Ballroom

Chris LeCraw – INWEGO – Presentation
General Manager
INWEGO

INWEGO General Manager, Chris LeCraw will discuss the revolutionary concept of subscription ticketing for events.

INWEGO, launched last fall in Atlanta and just last month in the Phoenix market, is the subscription service that provides tickets to unlimited sports and live events for one monthly price with no additional ticket costs or service fees.

INWEGO members can get tickets to pro sports, concerts, college sports, festivals, comedy shows and more.

The “all you can eat” model for events is new and provides teams, venues, events and fans with benefits never before realized. Listen as Chris outlines the history behind INWEGO, how subscription ticketing works, ways in which the model has evolved over the last year, and what the future holds for this new way to consume sports and entertainment.

4:30PM - 4:45PM

Day 2-Closing Remarks

Ritz Ballroom

Matt Lindsay
President
Mather Economics

4:45PM - 6:00PM

Free Time

6:00PM - 7:00PM

Networking Cocktail Reception

The Gallery

7:00PM - until

Dinner on Your Own

Thursday, October 12

8:00 AM - 8:45AM

Continental Breakfast

The Gallery

9:00AM - 9:15AM

Opening Remarks

Ritz Ballroom

Matt Lindsay
President
Mather Economics

9:15AM - 10:00AM

Joint Session-Honolulu’s Out-of-Home “Digital Billboard Network”

Ritz Ballroom

J. David Kennedy – Oahu Publications – Presentation
Chief Revenue Officer, Oahu Publications, Inc.
President, Digital Billboard Network

James Avis
Managing Director, Oahu Publications, Inc.
Vice President, Digital Billboard Network

For those who want to learn about out-of-home digital marketing strategies that are producing alternative revenue streams this is a can’t miss session!

With over 100 digital screens residing in various retail outlets in the Honolulu marketplace, 15-30 second videos are shared between the publisher, retailers and advertisers. This initiative has a revenue projection of approximately $1.3MM in our first year and will continue to increase as more screens are added statewide. Our new in-store digital billboard business is 100% incremental revenue and is taking money away from TV, Radio, Agencies and other Digital platforms in the market!

10:00AM - 10:15AM

Morning Break

10:15AM - 11:00AM

Breakout Session-Using Header Bidding Data to Improve Yield and Audience Acquisition

Ritz Ballroom

Stephen Johnston, Founder and CTO – PubWise – Presentation
PubWise 

Header Bidding has been shown to provide lift by removing inefficiencies in advertising waterfalls. After the initial gains there is much more opportunity to capture from leveraging header bidding data.

Stephen is the Founder/CTO of PubWise which is the first truly demand agnostic header bidding management and analytics platform. Stephen will provide a quick intro to header bidding, an overview of the data provided by header bidding, and concrete examples of how this data can be used to improve yield and audience.

10:15AM - 11:00AM

Breakout Session-Digital Benchmarking – Introducing metricsXchange

Plaza Ballroom

Arvid Tchivzhel, Director Product Development and Data Science Services – Mather-metricsXchange – Presentation
Mather Economics

Marigrace Davis, Senior Analyst-Data Science Services
Mather Economics

Mather Economics and the News Media Alliance, through a strategic partnership, have developed the metricsXchange to provide publishers access to accurate and consistent digital benchmarks. See how you compare to publishers in your part of the country or to markets of similar size. Mather’s Listener digital data capture product measures key metrics for online audiences, digital advertising, and reader engagement in an easy-to-use dashboard. Members of the Alliance can opt-in for no extra fee and non-members can access the data for a nominal fee. In this session, the Mather team will introduce the product, show key benchmarks relevant to the industry, and live-demo the dashboard

11:00AM - 11:45AM

Joint Session-Retaining Customers in an Acquisition Culture

Ritz Ballroom

Nicki Purcell – Dallas Morning News – Presentation
Chief Digital Officer and Senior VP Consumer Sales

The Dallas Morning News

In a world of finite resources, often the most difficult decision to make is where to focus. What areas do you “double down” on to meet your objectives? For so long, we have been focused on acquisition. We organize our teams, budget, and measurement around new subscription start goals and related KPIs.  We all know it’s easier to retain a customer than acquire a new one. Yet, we don’t reflect that mantra.

Follow the Dallas Morning News‘ journey from precise measurement of retention impact on the business, efforts to increase retention and including which metrics to set – all the way through to the newsroom – as we focus on achieving the critical goal of keeping your paying customers happy.

11:45AM - 12:00PM

Conference End-Closing Remarks

Ritz Ballroom

Matt Lindsay
President
Mather Economics

12:00PM -

Safe Travels-see you next year!