“Many media companies’ to-do lists are simply too long, ruthless prioritisation is essential”
Jim Bilton on revenue diversification.
Revenue Europe, which takes place next Tuesday, is now almost at capacity, so if you want to join us in Berlin, act now to snap up one of the last remaining tickets. Giles at Global Hotel Consultancy can also sort out any accommodation requests quickly.
Staying on the subject of Berlin, a special mention to Tubular, a key event partner. Tubular specialises in social video analytics and insights, helping media owners understand how audiences engage with video content across platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
In Berlin, you can hear Tubular’s Laurel Dunne speak on, “Unlocking social video’s revenue potential”. If you’re unable to join us in Germany, our pre-event interview with Laurel covers a few of the insights she’ll be unveiling.
Now we’ve covered that, we move…
Many of you know Wessenden Marketing’s Jim Bilton, and if you don’t then you should.
Jim is not only the founder of one of the media industry's leading consultancies, but he also serves as the publisher of wessendenbriefing, a bi-monthly newsletter renowned for delivering some of the sharpest insights in global publishing.
At Revenue Berlin, we’re honoured to have Jim serve as the event host, with the added bonus of hearing a few of his key takeaways as the day wraps up.
In advance of Berlin, we sat down with Jim and asked him to introduce himself as well as garner his latest thoughts on media and revenue diversification.
Supply chain management: the strategic imperative
Jim founded Wessenden Marketing over 30 years ago with a very clear belief, “That all media businesses are founded on distribution and control of their supply chains,” adding, “At the time, that view wasn’t very fashionable.”
“Firstly, distribution then was a mechanical afterthought after the luvvies in editorial and the suits in advertising had done their work. Secondly, “distribution” meant print, either through postal subscription or via the newsstand.
“Thirty years on, that founding belief has been proven to be 100% correct. The distribution channels may now be multiple, complex, overlapping and predominantly digital, but the principles are exactly the same and smart supply chain management is now recognised as a strategic imperative.”
Jim’s views are grounded in substantial experience, “My own personal background is a mix of specialist roles in media companies and general management: before setting up Wessenden Marketing in 1992, I had been the managing director of a leading media services & logistics company. Employers included PPA, International Thomson, COMAG, United Newspapers, Magnum Distribution and AGB Research.”
He says that his fascination with data and finding real-world solutions to complex problems lies at the core of Wessenden, whose tagline is ‘Insight and consultancy for media organisations’. Jim adds, “Our operation has six key pillars: Consultancy & project management; Market information; Market research; Live events; Networked communitie; and Non-Exec & Mentoring services.”
Building Diversified Revenue Models
We moved on to the main theme of Revenue Europe - diversified revenue models. I asked Jim whether diversified revenue models were an essential part of the modern media mix. Whilst Jim agrees, he adds a note of caution, “Revenue diversification is now an absolute given. Yet it is not an end in itself.
“Ultimately, the bottom-line is the bottom-line. If an activity is never going to make money, then there must be other compelling strategic reasons for doing it.”
Jim outlines a number of consistent problems he encounters with media companies, many of which are related to revenue diversification, “The most common problems that we encounter with clients are….
Many media companies’ to-do lists are simply too long and ambitious to do everything well: ruthless prioritisation is essential.
There are too many knee-jerk targets (i.e. “My competitors are doing this, so we’ve got to do the same – just bigger and better!”). What’s the business case?
It is easy to over-engineer diversification. Start as quickly as you can, but start small. Be ready to tweak/kill-off at speed. And learn from everything – the good and the bad.
Putting the wrong people in the wrong roles. Many diversification plays crash due to poor project management and sloppy implementation.
Every company is in transition, and “extending the runways” of what still delivers revenue and profit is just as important as doing new things.”
To tackle the issue, Jim says that Wessenden operates a disciplined two-way assessment process, “We work back from the end-user/consumer - do we really know what they want?”
Wessenden also examines the media company itself, “Does it have the skills, knowledge, people resources, tech platforms and cash to do this properly? And is the content actually as good as they hope it is?” He concludes that for revenue diversification to effectively proceed, “An audit of current assets (sometimes undervalued) is essential.”
Dennis The Menace
Wrapping up, I asked Jim which media companies were standing out to him, particularly given his broad perspective on the industry, “That’s a really difficult question, as there are so many brilliant examples, both companies and individual brands, with many being market-leading in very specific areas.”
However, he singles out the Beano comic as being particularly inventive, “My own personal, slightly off-the-wall, favourite is The Beano comic, partly because I read it as a child myself! This 86 year-old title has preserved its subversive humour, whilst adapting to a much kinder, modern audience, but one that still appreciates its essential naughtiness.”
“At the same time, it has extended into live events and awards (best joke competition), sophisticated schools support services (Beano for Schools), TV cartoon production (Beano Studios) and research & consultancy services built around its deep insights into Gen Alpha (Beano Brain). And it still has a print magazine at the core. What’s not to love about it?”
Where to find Wessenden and its products
Finally, we asked Jim where we could find out more about his company’s services:
wessendenbriefing is an audience and revenue-focused news review whilst mediafutures is a regular survey of media company business models, trends and performance metrics. For a free sample copy of either/both, just email Jim (jim@wessenden.com).
mediashapers is an annual survey of the key individuals and companies who are shaping the media business. For the link to a recent podcast, just email Jim (jim@wessenden.com).
If you're unable to attend Berlin, then don’t miss out on Mx3 Converge…
Mx3 Converge in London (Nov 4-7): Our final event of the year will see media and tech leaders come together for immersive discussions, hands-on demos, and in-depth networking across four themes: content, audience, monetisation and AI. You can choose to attend all four days or select individual themes. Full details.
What we’re reading…
What the FT learned using AI: The first lesson the FT learned “was humility”, as it became clear that the value of content AI produces is “only as good as the tool itself”. The team spent six weeks training a large language model (LLM) but when they saw the underwhelming result, the newsletter team did not buy in. "It was the best kind of failure, we’ve learned a lot from it”.
Google's sky-high fees silenced our journalism - Daily Mail exec: The ongoing DOJ antitrust case against Google being heard in NYC will soon reach its denouement. The weight of evidence is now overwhelming - surely Google will have to be broken up? The excellent Ricky Sutton breaks it all down.
Pirates of the Digital Sea: Why Publishers Can’t Unite Against Theft of Their Online Content: Very soon, a young college kid will be able to configure an AI, take all the stories from the NYT, WaPo, Wall Street Journal and CNN, and amalgamate them into a shiny new website, taking all the ad revenue with him. It’s coming. And fast. Paul Gerbino issues a clarion call for collective action. Now!
To catch up to all things MX3, go to our website.
See you in Berlin and London in Oct & Nov 2024!