SIIA Executive Face-Time
Hal Espo, formerly of the DOI Federation and now running Contextual Connections, interviews Glenn Goldberg, president of the Info/Media group at McGraw-Hill. An insider tells me that he reports directly to Terry McGraw. Normally they do webcasts, but this one is in person. Hal apparently does all the Executive Face-Time interviews.
Goldberg seems to be a MH lifer, but prior to that worked in government.
Billion-dollar portfolio, B2B publications are doing well. Because they are a large company, they are selective about the markets in which they participate. It's a challenging environment in the US but a robust market in China. "Scale and leverage matter." You can overdo on scale, but customer notice is important.
When asked where growth was coming from in the next 12-14 months on the B2B side, he responded that the energy markets have been robust overt he last 5/6 years. MH is in Russia, in Asia - "content really matters; editorial really matters". He mentions the lesson of "sticking to your knitting" - and he's absolutely right.
Goldberg looks a bit restless on the stage - as if he'd rather be playing football or something.
Playing in an environment where heavy investment is going on, this is important to MH on a B2B level.
He talks about the MH Construction Network - over the last 10 years the value prop has not just been around advertising but also around solutions. How leverage-able is your brand in that space? Taken an ad-based business model and developed a really integrated proposition around tracking the lifestyle around commercial construction. Your customer needs to evolve with you. You sometimes have to work at the pace of your markets as well (true enough!).
In-depth about JD Power - bought about 4 years ago. Relationship had primarily been with OEMs. Do a syndicated survey on a yearly basis, but asked themselves what else can be done? They began to do consulting, branching into the "C-Suite" - moving up the value chain of the company. That kind of evolution doesn't happen as quickly as some people would like.
Each of the MH businesses has benchmarks/standards (JD Power, S&P, MHE) - "we don't want to be all things to all people", but building deep w/in certain verticals.
He describes Umbria - a recent acquisition. Until that acquisition, they did syndicated studies every year - but MH needed to provide more assessment more frequently. Umbria has the ability to pull from the web comments about brands, organize these comments based on "tribes" (customer segmentation), and use that to supplement the once-a-year service to add additional value.
What about the customer? Who can get information from just about anywhere, immediately? "We still believe people care about quality content; we think it's a balance."
What role does advertising play? "Advertising was the core of many of the franchises that we own - absolutely essential part of the value prop of our B2B business, but we have dramatically morphed those business models" - getting away from ads. "You don't want to mess up your brand." Apparently there's great interest in monetizing that content on the web, but they don't want to dilute the brand. "You need to be thoughtful around how advertising plays."
As for the commoditizing of news? "We're in the content business, but how we do that is changing." He cites Steve Adler - "create content as we always have, winning awards, helping people make important decisions. We'll also curate content. What are the best thinkers saying about a subject? And we'll also create communities via the Business Exchange Online."
What about television - particularly local broadcast television? "It needs to change - there's no question it needs to change. News early in the day and late at night is still relevant. I don't think it's the medium - it's partly about the value proposition - we need to invest in local news; we do believe it has a role to play. There's still an incredible value in broadcast. There's a dichotomy going on - you have these big events like the Super Bowl or Academy Awards, and you have local events. The balance is something we're all trying to figure out."
And the big question: "What keeps you up at night?"
The answer is "I say the same thing everybody else does. We have people who understand what the customer needs. I think I have the right people to really be a part of the solution for the next 25 years - but we don't always get it right. How do you get the tech people and content people to talk the same language? Can you get it done, can you break down the barriers and align people and keep things simple?"
And what about the children? "The world truly is borderless now - it's great for countries, individuals, and business. At the end of the day, all of our kids still need to build relationships. And they'll be a little bit different, the devices will be a bit different, but they still need to be holistic about it."
Audience questions:
John Blossom: "One of the challenges you must be facing is that sometimes benchmarks change and get questioned - how do you see the role of S&P these days as benchmarks are changing?" Goldberg: "We're very proud of the fact that over the last 50 years we've helped create a language around the credit business that's being used and will be used for many years. We welcome the opportunity to respond to this - the most important thing is to take uncertainty out of the marketplace."
Lee Greenhouse: "In an environment like this, there's a lot of pressure to trim costs in a hurry - what are the risks as manager that you'll overreact and cut back too much and find out later you should have been more selective or surgical?" Goldberg: "That's the balance, isn't it? Here's Platt's doing really well, and we have a very large presence in Washington covering regulatory issues. But we've made a decision to cut back in Washington and redeploying on a global level."
Another questioner talks about "selling information by the pound on a subscription level" - I think of a lot of library and institutional subscriptions.
What I offer:
