One of the basic news values goes along the lines of something is news when it is unusual. We’ve all heard the saying of, “When a dog bites man, it’s not news. When man bites dog, it is news.”
I know this may not seem like it has anything at all to do with Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail,” but I think it helps explain Anderson’s thoughts as they pertain to the news business. You never know what people will be interested in when they go to a news station website. So you need a lot of information to be there…and to cover a lot of topics. Some of them unusual.
It’s the long tail of news…in a world of abundant information.
As Anderson said, the more we explore, the more we are drawn to things. News, like most businesses, is fighting for money. Money in the sense of readers and viewers to pitch to advertisers. A friend of mine is a sports producer in San Antonio. He says you would be amazed at how many women write and thank his station for covering the WNBA. They’ve become loyal customers of a station because of a niche topic that no other station covers.
It’s the long tail of news…and, in this case, sports.
In “The Long Tail,” Anderson lays out an idea that everything should be made available to the general public. You have to have some level of popular content to get people in the door – but once they’re there, they can dig around and find other stuff. Stuff they didn’t know about that is probably obscure. Every niche can find an audience. In turn, every niche can turn a profit.
Anderson spends a lot of time on the music business, which is a perfect example of the long tail. However, I immediately thought in terms of movies. Several of my favorite films – “Swingers” and “Office Space” in particular – were not successful at the box office. However they eventually found an audience on DVD. That audience developed over time by strong word of mouth. When Vince Vaughn hit it big in “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” people started to look up his past work. “Swingers” then had an even bigger audience. “The Lost World” got people in the door and led them straight down the long tail to “Swingers.”
If a business has any sense, they would adapt to the long tail. First, the Internet makes it very easy to offer everything you have to the public. Whether it’s books, paintings, pens or peanuts. Think big. Even if your painting didn’t sell in your hometown and others sold better, keep it available. You never know what will find an audience. In terms of marketing, the long tail shows the importance of social interaction. Much of it is driven by the reactions to your peers. We saw this with Amazon recommendations and continue to see it today. Earlier this morning, two of my Twitter friends said they were going to “give in” and finally go see “Inception” because people couldn’t quit talking about it. “Inception” likely wouldn’t be on the long tail (it’s a hit), but seeing Leo’s performance may inspire you to watch some of his other movies you may have missed. And finally, businesses subscribing to the long tail need to change their approach. A business needs to be flexible and creative. I was willing to try Google Buzz and Wave because I love Chrome and Gmail. Buzz and Wave sucked, but it hasn’t hurt my love of Google. I will try the next product it comes out with, as well. Who knows…my exploration may eventually lead me to another Google app I never heard about.
It’s the long tail.
• • •
Earlier today, I got pretty upset that the Twitter Fail Whale made another appearance in my life. I sat back, took a deep breath and moved on to something else. But I was still kinda irked. “The World Cup is over,” I thought, “so why is Twitter still screwing up?”
As Cindy frequently points out, we get awfully angry at these great, free tools that Web 2.0 provides. Key word there is free.
In “Free,” Anderson says, “Free has emerged as a full fledged economy.” Anderson argues that free has become the norm. And much of that is because of the web. So much of the web content is free, it’s become expected.
Anderson lays out six broad categories of free. “Freemium” means a basic version of something is free and a better version is available to buy. Advertising often supports free stuff, like Google. Cross-subsidies is the third category. In other words, a restaurant that offers a free drink with dinner, knowing you’ll drop $30 on the meal. Anderson talks about music exclusively when talking about zero marginal cost. He points to recent examples of bands giving up on people paying for music. Instead, they try and get them to come to concerts and buy shirts. The final two categories are labor exchange (you help make something better) and gift economy (like Wikipedia, everything is free. No strings attached).
I think it’s hard for businesses to wrap their minds around this notion of free. Everything has always been about money, so how does it make sense to give stuff away? I’m lucky enough to work for a guy who does get this. He’s fine with giving away a $500 “prize” if it means interacting with potential customers through social media. He’s fine not charging for a service call, hoping it leads to something down the line. Oh…and guess how much he’s had to spend in advertising in the past year? $0…as in free.
To pull off this approach, companies have to be willing to give and take. Not every free venture is going to be a hit. They may lose a little money along the way. But eventually, it should come back in spades with brand loyalty. The change in scale is however big they choose to make it. Some companies can afford to offer products at no cost, others can’t. But even the ones who can’t can likely find ways to make something work. Finally, I saved the best for last. When marketing their products, companies have a new asset – social media. Guess what? It’s free! Companies like the one I work for can survive and thrive on $0 marketing budgets.
As Anderson said, free has a psychological aspect to it, as well. People like getting something for nothing. It’s up to business to like giving away something for nothing.
