Cory Bergman of MSNBC; Jim Pastor of ESPN Local and Kinsey Wilson of NPR Digital Media tackled issues related to how local “local” must be and what’s the best mix of national brands and platforms with local news and info.
As Kinsey said, it’s making sense for the national brands to lead with identity and offer thought leadership, infrastructure, platforms and tools for the sake of efficiency and consistency but let local information drive incremental value.
Pastor said that while the ESPN Local brand carries weight, its 50 owned radio stations and 375 affiliates contribute a lot of local content value. Bergman saw a key growth opportunity for local media to play a role in discovery and search where they’ve largely been underperforming.
Kinsey said NPR saw more immediate opportunities in the larger markets because that’s where newspapers are failing fastest and that’s where the greater number of start-ups that are potential partners.
The panelists considered the question of local information in terms of the balance between scalable, database driven-information from public sources (e.g., police reports, inspection reports) versus news and editorial from professional and citizen journalists. It seems this is a problem in motion and the right balance may vary market by market and in any case will definitely change over time as business models and economics evolve.
Rick Ducey is the managing director for BIA/Kelsey. He is an expert in digital media innovations, competitive strategies, new product development and new business models, including digital ecosystem collaboration strategies.
Ducey oversees the firm's consulting, research and advisory services areas. He is also the program director for BIA/Kelsey's Video Local Media advisory service. This program provides coverage and analysis of how online, mobile and broadcast video technologies, competition, shifting consumer demographics and media usage trends are driving changes in the media ecosystem and SMBs and other advertisers can be successful in the new environment. Ducey assists clients with their business planning and revenue models, strategic research, market assessment, and designing and implementing digital strategies. He is also a cofounder of SpectraRep, one of BIA�s companies, which sells a patent-pending IP-based alerting system that he co-invented.
Prior to joining BIA in 2000, Ducey was senior vice president of NAB's Research and Information Group. In this position, he was in charge of the association�s new technology assessment, audience and policy research, strategic planning and information systems, including all Internet operations, and he also developed publications and seminars.
Before joining NAB in 1983, Ducey was a faculty member in the Department of Telecommunication at Michigan State University where he taught and did research in the areas of emerging telecommunication technologies and strategic market research. He also served on the graduate management faculties of George Mason University and George Washington University in telecommunications management and the University of Maryland, where he taught strategic market management and research methodologies. Ducey was selected as the Spring 2011 Shapiro Fellow at George Washington University where he teaches entrepreneurship in new media. He has published a number of research articles and papers in these areas and serves on editorial boards of leading scholarly journals in the communications field. He has also worked at radio stations WSOQ-AM/WEZG-FM and Upstate Cablevision in North Syracuse, New York.
Ducey received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, M.S. from Syracuse University and B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
