Letters 2 Warren

May 20, 2013

Dear Mr. Buffett,

I took it upon myself to dive into Momaha (and Momaha.com) this weekend. Targeting a niche community - like Omaha mothers - is a great way to build a valuable audience. However, I think there are some smart ways we can increase the value of Momaha while we differentiate the platforms on which it is published.

For example, Danielle Herzog’s weekly online column called The Sassy Housewife, is a wonderful content brand. It’s well positioned and appears to be well-read. However, instead of simply re-publishing one of her most popular online columns in the monthly print edition of Momaha, we must differentiate the printed version from the online version. We’re not encouraging the most engaged mothers from the online audience to read, share and pass-along the print edition if we’re simply reprinting content they’ve already consumed.

Furthermore, finding an underwriter for Danielle’s column can increase the value of the publication and site overnight. We must start asking ourselves what brands would appreciate being attached to an advice column like Danielle’s? We must search for a brand that desires to deeply connect with local mothers in an authentic way leveraging the power of Danielle’s local brand.

Furthermore, some of Danielle’s articles illicit numerous comments and additional questions from other local parents. We must leverage the best of these comments to enhance the printed edition of the magazine. If local news is all about names, elevating the prosumers of Danielle’s content to the print edition sells more papers.

Let’s reengineer Momaha.com.

Andrew Davis

May 17, 2013

Dear Mr. Buffett,

I hope your annual meeting was productive. I decided not to make the trip to Omaha to attend. It’s my hope that you, Terry and I can sit down soon to discuss increasing the returns on the BH Media group to 20% over the next five years.

I’ve been reading the Omaha World-Herald everyday for three weeks now. (I actually read the online version.) Today’s story of the Hampton Lunch Lady, Sharon, retiring today after 43 years showcases a tremendous opportunity to drive long-term revenue from a single brand.

Last week I was in Newark, NJ presenting to Prudential. Prudential is currently running a campaign designed to help people imagine their first day of retirement. The campaign is called “Day One.”

Why not invite Prudential to underwrite a weekly column - in every single one of BH Media’s markets - where journalists profile someone in the community retiring? This is no ad buy - it’s an opportunity for Prudential to support the people who’ve served local citizens for decades in a way that makes their brand relevant.

Let’s reinvent the way we drive revenue.

Call anytime.

Andrew Davis

April 29, 2013

Dear Mr. Buffett,

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, I’ve done a lot of thinking about citizen journalism and its role in local news coverage. Not just in a time of crisis, but as an ongoing source of credible news gathering.

In Winnipeg, Manitoba the Winnipeg Free Press has extended their community presence into a physical coffee shop called The News Cafe. They host town meetings, local author forums, panel discussions and even politcal debates at the cafe and stream them live on the web. Most importantly, it’s given the Newspaper a ‘face’ in the community inviting reporters to mingle with patrons. If local news is all about local names, is there a better place to cultivate sources than a coffee shop?

In each of the markets we serve we should look to partner with an existing, local cafe or coffee shop brand. Not just to give our newspaper’s a local presence but to help train and identify a new generation of news gatherers. Newsgatherers who everyday, or in a time of crisis, understand the value of credible, verified and responsible reporting.

Is their revenue here? Of course. Local events and even training sessions shouldn’t be free, they should come at a cost - either to the coffee company involved or the constituents attending events.

Let’s bring the newspaper brand to consumers and help them become part of the newspaper brand. See you at Scotter’s News Cafe?

Talk to you soon,

Andrew Davis

April 29, 2013

Dear Mr. Kroeger,

Let’s extend our newspaper brands into a local, physical space. Scooter’s at 12^th and Howard is the right kind of Newspaper partner. Why?

In Winnipeg, Manitoba the Winnipeg Free Press has extended their community presence into a physical coffee shop called The News Cafe. They host town meetings, local author forums, panel discussions and even politcal debates at the cafe and stream them live on the web. Most importantly, it’s given the Newspaper a ‘face’ in the community inviting reporters to mingle with patrons.

We don’t have to open our own brand of news cafes. Instead we should partner with someone like Scooter’s. Not just to give our newspaper’s a local presence but to help train and identify a new generation of newsgatherers. Newsgatherers who everyday, and in a time of crisis, understand the value of credible, verified, and responsible reporting. If local news coverage is all about local names - let’s cultivate local sources.

Is their revenue here? Of course. Scooter’s should be willing to underwrite this venture in exchange for the local exposure they’ll garner.

Let’s bring the newspaper brand to consumers and help them become part of the newspaper brand.

Talk to you soon,

Andrew Davis

April 23, 2013

Dear Mr. Buffett,

Tourism drives business. This week I was invited to provide the keynote address at the New Hampshire Governor’s Conference on Tourism. What a fascinating event. 

Both Boston newspapers (the Globe and the Herald) manned trade show booths trying to convince New Hampshire attractions of all sizes and shapes to buy advertising in their newspaper properties. The effort looked tiresome.

The more newspapers you own the bigger the opportunity to leverage the network of newspapers to drive tourism across state lines. Ads don’t generate vacations, travel articles inspire locals to embark on journeys that make memories. That’s what travel writers do.

I couldn’t help but think New Hampshire’s state funded ad campaign (of $7 million dollars) would have better been spent on underwriting a Sunday travel feature in the two largest papers in New England. The editors at the Boston Globe and Boston Herald know what their readers want to do on vacation and I can guarantee the stories they’d assign about New Hampshire would drive far more tourism than their 30-second spots.

Let’s leverage the BH Media portfolio to generate local business from tourists in markets we have another media property. It makes good business sense.

Call anytime,

- Andrew

April 23, 2013

Dear Mr. Kroeger,

Local newspapers don’t just drive local business. Their travel sections drive tourism. This week I was invited to provide the keynote address at the New Hampshire Governor’s Conference on Tourism. It was fascinating.

The more newspapers you own the bigger the opportunity to leverage the network of newspapers to drive tourism across state lines. Ads don’t generate vacations, travel articles inspire locals to embark on journeys that make memories. That’s what travel writers do. Except newspapers aren’t rewarded for the vacations they inspire.

New Hampshire is spending $7 million on an extensive ad campaign. That money would have better been spent on underwriting a Sunday travel feature in the two largest papers in New England. The editors at the Boston Globe and Boston Herald know what their readers want to do on vacation and I can guarantee the stories they’d assign about New Hampshire would drive far more tourism than their 30-second spots.

Let’s leverage the BH Media portfolio to generate local business from tourists in markets we have another media property. It makes good business sense.

Looking forward to talking with you about underwriting a travel section in every paper we own.

Call anytime,

- Andrew

April 8, 2013

Dear Mr. Buffett,

I have received my credentials for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting and taken the liberty of reaching out to Mr. Terry Kroeger to discuss my three-point plan for revitalizing the newspaper industry. 

While I’m sure the week of the meeting is extremely busy for you, please let me know if you have a half-hour to discuss opportunities to work together.

One of the only things media companies, brands and consumers have in common in todays fragmented media landscape is the desire to be reached with the right content on the right media at the right time.

It’s this simple premise that leads me to believe that underwriting - not advertising - is one of the best ways to achieve parity and success.

Brands should be buying access to audience via content brands not per media. Ad rate cards are too complicated, with too many choices and far too many unclear goals.

We must leverage the journalist as a platform, build content brands that extend across media, and invite brands to form long-term relationships with those content brands - no matter where they’re distributed. We must help advertisers understand the power of underwriting.

Again, please let me know if you have any time the week of the annual meeting. I have great expectations for our future success.

Thanks,

Andrew Davis

Author of Brandscaping  

April 8, 2013

Dear Mr. Kroeger,

I’d imagine you’re looking forward to this year’s Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. With the event only a few weeks away, I was wondering if you might have time to chat about the newspaper industry and how, together, we can grow the business.

Specifically, I’d like to discuss my three-point plan:

1) The journalist as platform

2) Content brands as revenue drivers

3) Trans media dominance and logical revenue streams

I’ve received my credentials for the event and would be more than willing to arrive early to discuss the opportunities, should you have the time.

Please let me know if you’d be interested in spending an hour together discussing the new media world and where newspaper brands can drive bigger, longer-term growth.

Looking forward to seeing you,

Andrew M. Davis

April 2, 2013

Dear Mr. Buffett,

In 1995, I was invited to write and produce segments for Charles Kuralt’s syndicated show American Moment. Being tasked with finding unique American stories, ones no one else had told, and asked to write short, compelling narratives that uncovered a slice of American history wasn’t easy. But it was rewarding. One of the unique things the show’s producers required of their writers was that we “show our work.”

Afternoons at the library, location scouting photographs, pre-interviews, maps, historic photos all had to be submitted before the segment was selected for air.

While the digital world wasn’t what it is today, this simple idea of ‘showing your work’ has a place in the lives of the journalist of today. We must ask our journalists to ‘show their work’ - not to the editors and publishers of the paper, but to the audience we serve. Why? Showing and distributing our work (in short bites) on social media platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram and even on our brands websites builds anticipation, interest and audience for the final produced work.

I call this the content continuum: a continuous sequence of insight leading to the evolution of a story across platforms and media.

Charles Kuralt died two years after I had the pleasure of learning from him, but the lessons he taught me still apply in an age where the buzzwords are disrupt and disinter-mediate.

Let’s take old media lessons and apply them to the new world.

When can we chat?

Andrew Davis

April 2, 2013

Dear Mr. Kroeger,

In 1995, I was invited to write and produce segments for Charles Kuralt’s syndicated show American Moment. Being tasked with finding unique American stories, ones no one else had told, and asked to write short, compelling narratives that uncovered a slice of American history wasn’t easy. But it was rewarding. One of the unique things the show’s producers required of their writers was that we “show our work.”

Afternoons at the library, location scouting photographs, pre-interviews, maps, historic photos all had to be submitted before the segment was selected for air.

While the digital world wasn’t what it is today, this simple idea of ‘showing your work’ has a place in the lives of the journalist of today. We must ask our journalists to ‘show their work’ - not to the editors and publishers of the paper, but to the audience we serve. Why? Showing and distributing our work (in short bites) on social media platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram and even on our brands websites builds anticipation, interest and audience for the final produced work.

I call this the content continuum: a continuous sequence of insight leading to the evolution of a story across platforms and media.

Charles Kuralt died two years after I had the pleasure of learning from him, but the lessons he taught me still apply in an age where the buzzwords are disrupt and disinter-mediate.

Let’s take old media lessons and apply them to the new world.

When can we chat?

Andrew Davis

March 25, 2013

Dear Mr. Buffett,

As a child, my swim team met every Friday at Pizza Hut to carbo-load before the big swim meet. One day, standing in line at the counter, a woman in front of us asked for a large pizza and a diet coke.

“Would you like your pizza cut into eight slices or ten?” Asked the cashier.

“Eight, please. I could never eat ten,” the woman responded.

Advertising budgets aren’t getting bigger, they’re just getting sliced more ways. I call this phenomenon CMO Pizza. With the rise of search engine marketing, digital display advertising, online video, podcasting, app development, social media… (the list goes on and on,) Chief Marketing Officers are struggling to find effective ways to reach their audience without diluting their ad spend. 

The result: media brands (and newspapers specifically) are increasing their costs as they try to keep up with the next big thing, while their clients ad budgets are staying the same.

Instead of trying to offer everything to clients looking to reach our valuable audience, we must stop trying to be everything to everyone. Where does our brand, and our content, reach the highest quality audience?

Let’s stop offering them too many ways to slice their ad budget and help the focus on the few things that will drive the most value.

Let’s find a time to chat.

Andrew Davis

March 27, 2013

Dear Mr. Kroeger,

It was so nice to read the recent story about Omaha World-Herald reporter Steve Jordon and his 45-year coverage of Warren Buffett in today’s American Journalism Review.

It was with even greater enthusiasm that I learned Mr. Jordon’s book: The Oracle & Omaha is being released this April by the World-Herald’s book publishing division.

Jordon’s content brand - Warren Watch, is exactly the kind of thing that builds a loyal, high-quality audience over time. Mr. Jordon’s successful (and highly-engaging) article about his front porch is just another opportunity to create a content brand driven by a trusted talent that could result in another book.

We must look to every reporter as part of a content continuum. We must hone in on what they’re passionate about covering and encourage them to create content that moves from short-form commentary to books.

Jordon may be considered an anomaly, but I firmly believe that we can use a formula to replicate his successes on an even grander scale.

Let’s find a time to chat.

Andrew Davis

March 18, 2013

Mr. Buffett,

Greetings from Austria! As promised, here are three things I learned from my European speaking tour:

1) The advertising agency of the future is part media company, part talent agent and part production company.

2) Owning access to an audience increases an agency’s ability to differentiate in the online world.

3) There are more newspapers in European airplanes than I’ve ever seen in the Americas.

Looking forward to discussing these evolutionary changes at some point.

Andrew Davis

March 18, 2013

Mr. Kroeger,

Austria’s been quite an experience. However, my flights here revealed the perfect use of a micro-daypart by local newspapers. As soon as the aircraft doors closed the flight attendants rolled down a cart of local newspapers. (Remember your electronic devices must be off.) On one flight 100% of the passengers were reading a newspaper… a print product. That’s perfect micro-dayparting.

Looking forward to chatting soon,

Andrew

March 12, 2013

Dear Mr. Buffett,

I was happily surprised to receive a friendly call from Carol Loomis yesterday afternoon. Thank you so much for passing along my latest letter. Carol provided me with some insight into her publishing deal with Portfolio publishing.

While I’m happy to confirm that Fortune was remunerated for the re-printing of their articles, it does further reinforce my belief that publishers with talented journalists (newspapers included) should be working to cut out the middlemen that are siphoning off revenue from these kinds of deals.

Agents, publicists and book publishers are reaping the rewards of Fortune’s long term investment in people like Carol. The more newspapers, and as a result, journalists you add to the BH Media portfolio, the bigger the opportunity to begin publishing longer-form content designed to be purchased by your newspaper brands’ built-in audience.

I envision a world in which BH Media’s publishing arm encourages the creation of issue-driven long-form content by local journalists looking to expand their reporting and writing. These kinds of opportunities could increase the portfolio’s revenue by millions.

Thanks again for passing along my letter. I am speaking in Austria this week to an exclusive group of the world’s top ad agency executives. I’ll report back next week.

Thanks,

Andrew Davis

Author of Brandscaping