Content Strategy & Tactics: Best Practices from a Portal

Content Strategy& Tactics:Best Practices from a Portal Don Sena Managing Editor, MSN October 2, 2007

Portal Content Best Practices: Agenda • The complexities of a portal • Content planning • Breaking News on a portal • Embrace Your Engineers • Data-informed editing • The thin green line • Q & A

Portal Content Best Practices: Complexities of a Portal Multiple content properties • From Autos to Yellow pages. Lots of channels = ‘ownership’ & balance issues Multiple Services • From e-mail to messenger to calendar to chat, etc. Myriad business models • Ad impression-based; $ per click/UU; Ad rev share; etc. Content partnerships: big and small Bottom line pressure: broad & specific • Revenue, marketing, advertorial, etc. … All challenging the cohesiveness, relevance, usability, integrity of sites

Portal Content Best Practices: Complexities of a Portal Question What other complexities, challenges, obstacles are out there?

Portal Content Best Practices: Layers of planning Proper HP content planning brings myriad benefits • Increased quality and relevance to users = increased engagement • Proper mix and distribution of content, partners, etc. • Allows you to deal with the revenue pressures • A solid plan allows better reaction to content we have to react to Three levels of planning • Monthly Forward Planning • Weekly Planning: Builds upon Monthly Plan, keeps HP timely and relevant … But, we must know when to blow up the plan … • Breaking News: The “can’t-miss-this-today” story, i.e. breaking news, sports, health, stock market, event coverage, etc.

Portal Content Best Practices: Annual/Monthly Planning • Monthly planning … • • Should account for at least 33% of all HP leads • • Alleviates Topic Trainwreck • • Increases engagement, CSat • • Better sell-through of content • Could be very big: Election, Super Bowl, Oscars • Could be enterprise projects: Immigration or national security/civil liberties • Could be predictable: Tax season, Valentine’s Day, • Or …

Portal Content Best Practices: Annual/Monthly Planning • Monthly planning … • • Should account for at least 33% of all HP leads • • Alleviates Topic Trainwreck • • Increases engagement, CSat • • Better sell-through of content • Could be very big: Election, Super Bowl, Oscars • Could be enterprise projects: Immigration or national security/civil liberties • Could be predictable: Tax season, Valentine’s Day, • Or … • When do people buy Xmas trees?

Portal Content Best Practices: Weekly Planning, dayparts To daypart or not to daypart … • In 24/7 publishing environment: How, when and why do you rotate content? • How do you parse your main inventory? • How do you slot all inventories? • How many templates do you have?

Portal Content Best Practices: News in the Portal Creating culture and environment to handle news and ‘of the day’ programming • Hiring decisions are vital • With limited resources, establish roles and processes for covering breaking news before news hits • Form close collaboration & virtual teams with partners & cross groups (content providers, tech teams, etc.) – they all come together •Build and test actual execution scenarios & templates (photo sizes, actual wording, etc.) • A mantra: Accuracy, Speed and Quality • It is not just about this story

Portal Content Best Practices: News in the Portal Virginia Tech: Early morning coverage

Portal Content Best Practices: News in the Portal Blowout Templates used later in day

Portal Content Best Practices: News in the portal

Portal Content Best Practices: Embrace the Engineer The marriage of technology and editorial programming is what separates Web from other media forms and needs to be embraced more • Create an environment where engineers/tech teams are interacting with editors, sharing ideas, showing what is possible • Build a test site – a sandbox – to take new ideas live • Make yourself and your team responsible for breaking this wall down Examples •Hiding Olympics results on Yahoo! •March Madness and the “printable bracket” • Innovation emerged during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath • MSN Extra

Portal Content Best Practices: Working with Data Question How do you use data to inform editorial decision-making?

Portal Content Best Practices: Working with Data Question How do you use data to inform editorial decision-making? Hourly data Monthly data for seasonality, spotting trends Inform headline writing Day/hourly affinities Focus groups/surveys/polls Segmentation (demographic and behavioral) Does any of this replace the “editorial gut?” Of course not

Portal Content Best Practices: The thin green line Working with advertising, marketing and other monetization teams User Interest Revenue

Portal Content Best Practices: High Rev/Low UI content •Two big types of revenue pressures: Hi Rev/Low UI or Advertorial • Have a robust, accepted Editorial Policy & Guideline document • Help establish carrots and sticks: Mendoza lines • Attempt to establish UI levels for each channel/property per month (user interest spikes, ‘Super Bowl’ months, etc.). Then, have rev teams map the revenue • This is not a ‘User Interest vs. Business interests’ discussion; it is a ‘short-term business vs. long-term business’ discussion … … Protecting user interest/editorial is good business

Portal Content Best Practices: Know your Competition Questions Name one thing your competition does better than you? Name one thing you do better than your competition? Is this important to know?

Portal Content Best Practices: Best of the Best Practices 1. Take Risks

Portal Content Best Practices: Best of the Best Practices 2. Remember the puppy on the paper 1. Take Risks

Portal Content Best Practices: Q&A Q&A and Discussion

Content Strategy & Tactics: Best Practices from a Portal