IT 201-701

1

• IT 201-701
• Introduction to Information Systems
• 10/02/07

2
Agenda

• About Me
• Tribune Interactive at a Glance
• State of the Interactive Space
• Traditional Medias Challenges
• The Roll of Product Development
• Newspaper.com Redesign
• Redesign and National Launch of Metromix
• Whats Next?
• Q A

3
About Me

• Education
• BBA in Management Information Systems, Minor in
  Computer Science from Southern Methodist
  University
• MSc in Information Systems from DePaul University
• Work Experience
• IT Specialist/Consultant at IBM from 2002 2006
• Product Analyst/Manager at Tribune Interactive
  2006 - Present

4
Tribune Interactive at a Glance

• Tribune Interactive is the Internet branch of
  Tribune Company
• We have produced and continue to manage popular
  and recognizable websites like the LATimes.com,
  ChicagoTribune.com, and Metromix.com as well as
  aspects of Tribune's print and online classified
  advertising operations
• Tribune owns stakes in CareerBuilder.com,
  Apartments.com, Cars.com, FSBO.com, etc.
• With more than 50 websites overall, Tribune
  Interactive ranks among the nation's leading news
  and information networks and our sites attract
  more than 15 million unique visitors per month
• We recently completed work on 2 major company
  initiatives
• A complete standardization and redesign of all
  our major Newspaper websites, which just finished
  deploying
• Creation of a brand new database/CMS platform
  (built on Ruby on Rails) that supports a newly
  designed version of Metromix.com which is
  currently being deployed in several markets
  across the country
• Currently Released in New York, LA, Chicago,
  South Florida (Miami area), Baltimore, Orlando
• Several other markets to come through 2008 as we
  extend our national footprint

5
State of the Interactive Space

• Participation and Contribution
• Many Users value other Users contributions as
  much as they value the opinions of Professional
  Journalists/Producers/Editors
• User Generated Content is not going away and has
  become an integral part of the user experience
• Aggregation of Content
• Become the first place users first visit even if
  they dont stay
• Do users care where content comes from as long
  its relevant to them?
• Harnessing the Long Tail of Content
• Syndication through Embeddable Content
• Websites are no longer Walled Gardens of
  content
• There is value to your content living elsewhere
  extend Brand reach and drive traffic back to your
  site you may never have reached in the first
  place
• Localization and Personalization
• Data Mashups and the rise of Google Maps users
  now have more relevant ways to view data
• If you know what Im looking at, give me better
  recommendations
• The Personal Dashboard everything I need in one
  spot
• Video weve reached the bandwidth tipping point

6
Traditional Medias Challenges

• Ad Revenue continues to move online
• Sites like Craigslist are eating away at the
  Newspapers Classifieds revenue stream
• Does the subscription model really work online
  when most anyone can get what they want for free?
• Attracting younger Demographics
• Media has always had a professional voice
• What users have to say is just as important?
• Challenges adopting moderation and governance
  policies
• Some blogs get more traffic than our largest
  sites
• Content Creators vs. Aggregators
• Media companies are Content Creators how do we
  use that to our advantage when Aggregators like
  Google simply pull our content onto their sites
  (and searches)
• While Interactive Departments are the fasting
  growing areas in most Media companies, they still
  produce a small portion of the revenue
• How do we catch up in terms of new products and
  improving what already exists?
• Rapid staffing and product development can create
  a bubble effect in your own organization
• New open source technologies have become easier
  to build and scale with do we adopt these or
  improve existing legacy systems Time to Market
  vs. Operating Efficiencies
• Interactive is easy to measure, but tough to
  forecast

7
The Roll of Product Development

• Product Development is responsible for several
  things
• Initiation Work with Marketing to identify the
  business opportunity and goals of the product
• Market and Consumer research
• Revenue Modeling and Opportunity Assessment
• Analysis Can we turn the opportunity into a
  tangible Product? What is it?
• Understand User needs both of the Consumer and
  our Producers
• Understand Advertiser needs what and how can we
  sell?
• Design Conduct and Manage all Requirement, Use
  Case, and Design work
• Iterative feedback with our Technology teams
• Usability and Consumer Testing
• Development Deployment Work with our
  Technology team who will be delivering the end
  product
• Testing and QA
• Deployment plans and Training for Producers
• Iterate
• Brand Creation its not just a website its a
  Product
• What makes it different?
• Why should people use it?
• How do we market it?

8
Newspaper.com Redesign
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Newspaper.com Redesign- Project at a Glance

• Need Tribune Interactive (TI) centrally supports
  over 10 different Newspaper websites and their
  various extensions. Lack of a standardized set
  of templates (site pages), functionality, and
  vendors made the ability to both support and
  quickly improve sites increasingly difficult and
  inefficient.
• Goals
• Create a global set of templates that are used
  across all Newspaper markets leveraging CSS to
  allow for visual and stylistic differentiation
• Standardize ad placements to improve network
  level ad sales
• Standardize all supported functionality and
  vendor offerings this includes Search, Geo
  Mapping, User Generated Content (photos, rate
  review, commenting, message boards), Blogs, and
  Video
• Improve Directory Structures and URL creation to
  enhance SEO
• Create a better user experience than what was
  currently being offered
• Result
• All TI supported Newspaper websites have been
  re-launched
• We are beginning to see increases in UVs and
  PVs across all sites
• Global changes are now easily being made on
  weekly and monthly release schedules

10
Newspaper.com Redesign- The Old
ChicagoTribune.com
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Newspaper.com Redesign- The New
ChicagoTribune.com
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Newspaper.com Redesign- The New Sun-Sentinel.com
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Metromix Redesign
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Metromix Redesign- Project at a Glance

• Need Metromix has been a successful
  Entertainment and Nightlife site in Chicago for
  the past 10 years. The site needed a facelift
  and theres an opportunity to create a nationally
  established brand and ad network. The platform
  Metromix also was running on needed to be
  overhauled to support future products.
• Goals
• Roll the new product out in all Tribune markets
  and explore other options through partnerships to
  increase the sites national footprint and brand
  reach
• Create a better, more functional user experience
  than what was currently being offered
• Standardize ad placements to allow for network
  level ad sales
• Create a brand new Platform (CMS and underlying
  database) to drive Metromix and other TI products
• Experiment using Agile Development methodologies
  and a new Technology Framework (Ruby on Rails) to
  improve development speed and operating
  efficiencies
• Result
• Currently Released in New York, LA, Chicago,
  South Florida (Miami area), Baltimore
• Orlando and other Tribune markets will roll out
  by end of the year
• The new Platform will be powering all
  Newspaper.com Entertainment sections and will
  also be expanded to new product verticals

15
Metromix Redesign- Chicagos Original Metromix
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Metromix Redesign- The New Metromix
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The New Metromix (contd)
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Whats Next?

• Continued development on our new Newspaper and
  Metromix sites
• Fix Bugs and Tweak existing features
• Build out features that fell out of scope or were
  slated for a later Release
• SEO and Video Initiatives
• A Taxonomy and Data Strategy Project for all of
  Tribune Interactive
• Create one standard data strategy for the entire
  organization
• Ensure data can be input once and used multiple
  places
• Install a Taxonomy Services Tool that will
  automated the classification of data allowing for
  deeper relationships to be created amongst our
  data
• Exploration of New Product Opportunities
• Facebook Application/Widget Development
• How can it be leveraged and how does it change
  how we think about Product Development going
  forward?
• Continued exploration and development of Social
  Networking and User Generated Media tools
• Further Extension of our Products onto Mobile
  devices

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Q A