Candace Beeke, editor of the Houston Business Journal, returns to the BusinessMakers Show to explain exciting changes happening at HBJ. Our favorite print publication is going multi-channel and you will want to hear this!
Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard on the radio and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com. It's guest time on the show, repeat guest, because with me with me now, once again, I have Candace Beeke, the editor of the Houston Business Journal. Candace, welcome back to the Businessmaker Show.
Candace: Thank you, Russ.
Russ: Well, there were two reasons that I decided we needed to do this again. First reason was we did it 18 months ago. There was a lot going on in the newspaper world at that time. Your interview was fantastic and is extremely popular. It's still being viewed all the time now.
Candace: Great.
Russ: Simultaneously. I know there's been a lot of changes that have taken place at the Houston Business Journal since then. So, let's just start there. Tell us what's going on. What's changed?
Candace: We have changed a lot, and actually, it feels like talking about the temperature when it's still going up, because we're changing constantly, even as we speak now. So, let me just recap some of the more important changes we've gone through. In January, starting January 1, we rolled to a new content strategy, where we break news first on the web, and then we use our weekly edition, which is still very popular. It has grown in circulation every year. We use that to analyze and go behind the headlines, and the reason we made the change is because as a business leader who subscribes to HBJ, if you are waiting to get breaking news until Friday morning when you get the print edition, you're probably not at the time of your game. There's so much happening in business, in Houston, and across the world, that you need to know by the minute. So out of respect to our readers and what they need, we pledged that we would turn our strategy on its head, and our reporters now write four to five web items each day, and their beats; and then they write a centerpiece story analyzing trends, in the print edition; and they also each of them take a hub page, what we call a hub page, where they gather pieces from the web, go a little bit deeper, bring some of the thought-leader personalities from Houston onto the pages, and really help our readers navigate.
Russ: Totally fascinating. I mean, clearly the space has sort of been undersieged since the internet was developed. To me, what you've done is you've gone from a weekly to an hourly publication.
Candace: It feels that way. It does feel that way.
Russ: Wow. How do the reporters - I mean, their world is completely different.
Candace: I was surprised, pleasantly, because they embraced it, and what I said to them was, "You just keep chasing the news. You keep talking to the right people; you keep reporting the right news. Let the editors worry about the platform. Be platform agnostic." So if they're breaking news, we're gonna put it on the web, but if there's more to the story that requires more in-depth interviews, or it requires more space, or maybe it requires infographics and photos. That's perfect for the print platform, and we still do that, and they actually have no more work than they used to, but it does change the cycle of their day.
Russ: Do they start sometimes what they think is gonna be an article in the print edition, and it turns up being edited down for the digital version as well?
Candace: No, usually it's very organic, where they'll go after a story and they'll report the basics, and I'll say, "Is this breaking news?" Yes, it is, then it goes on the web, and I'll say, "Or does it deserve a larger treatment," and we look at that individually, case by case. Every week, we have a centerpiece story, and it's two, or three, or four pages, and every week we still have our face-to-face print interview with a C-level executive in Houston, and we still do our business journal interview with interviews in print, with a top-level chief executive in Houston.
Russ: Okay, now, I've noticed. I've seen some HBJ breaking news stories come in like at midnight, it seems like.
Candace: We don't let the reporters sleep. That's the first thing, yeah.
Russ: Okay, yeah, right. So, I mean, is it truly around the clock?
Candace: It is around the clock. Midnight would be unusual, but absolutely. I mean, I remember standing, literally, in a horse field while my daughter was taking a horse lesson, and Steve Jobs had just died, and it was 7:00 or 8:00 at night, and I called anybody I could get on the phone from the news room. I found a reporter to write it up, and then immediately found another reporter to make phone calls to our Fast Tech 50 winners, and asked them how did Steve Jobs affect you? And so we broke the news online. The next morning, we added to the story online, and that's just - we call it the story ladder. We just - when it merits it, we go deeper.
Russ: This is a huge paradigm shift, isn't it?
Candace: It's one of those that's welcome, though, because when you try to straddle two or three platforms, because we also deliver news on social media now, it's exhausting, and it's really a pointless, a futile race. Just deliver content, and our readers will choose what platform they want it on.
Russ: Okay, now I'm curious, though. Do you have any reporters that might be of my generation that are having a little bit difficult time adjusting to it?
Candace: Well, this is something that all of American city business journals has transitioned to, in 43 markets, and I'm sure in some newsrooms there is pushback. We haven't seen it in Houston. Everybody understands that it really is organic and it makes sense for our audience. I would just make sure those reporters understood we are trying to deliver the best product to our customers. If they want breaking news when it breaks - and why wouldn't you? Why would you rather have your breaking news four days later? - it really is the best thing for the customer.
Russ: Really cool. Well, I remember distinctly in your interview 18 months ago, we sort of went down this path about how your handling these different channels, and you had what I thought was a real cool answer. You say, "At the end of the day, it's all about content." I think that's probably still true, but what you've adjusted to now, it's about content and about timing of delivery.
Candace: Yeah, it really is, "Do you need this news now?" Is this content that serves you in its immediacy? Or do you need us to go in deeper and talk to more people and analyze this data for you?
Russ: It's kind of interesting too, from my perspective. There's always sort of been this comparison that I've got to sort of experience, being associated with the Houston Business Journal, a difference between a daily and a weekly journal. Well, this kind of messes those lines up a little bit, doesn't it?
Candace: Well, perhaps, because the dailies are also figuring out how to deliver the content their readers want, via the platform their readers want it on. the biggest difference between a business journal and a daily is our audience. We're serving highest-level CEOs, highest-level executives. The dailies have a mass audience, and that could be much more complicated. For instance, I could go in a room of business leaders, and I guarantee you, every one of them has a Smartphone, and it's probably the newest model they could get. They probably have a tablet. Maybe they have a mini-pad. I mean, these are people who crave information, and they're gonna get the technology they need to get it the fastest they can. For the daily, they have such a wide spectrum of readers. They can guarantee that their audience has a Smartphone, or wants the news mobilely.
Russ: Right, interesting. Speaking of the daily, I interviewed these guys, these upper-end technology guys from Austin, Cattle Loon Studios, two years ago, and their new project at the time was the newspaper, the daily, from the News Corp, which was News Corp's attempt to get digital. It was an iPad subscription paper, paid subscription, and it subsequently has failed. So, it was interesting to see it dive head first into that world, but it's still not real well defined, is it? Or is it not what the future's gonna be?
Candace: I always call it the Wild West. I mean, this is an industry that's changing constantly, because our audience is changing constantly; every new piece of technology. But I will say that if the content is - you get what you paid for. So if the content is something you can only get from HBJ, then you'll pay for it, because it's that valuable. It helps you make business decisions you wouldn't make otherwise, and it's a challenge for every publication to figure out what is the best way for me to deliver this content to this audience.
Russ: Okay, quite a challenge it is. Okay, so before I let you go, I always like to head down this path. Let's imagine that we have a young, aspiring journalist. Maybe they're just getting ready to go to college and they've already gone out and starting blogging. They understand that world too, but what advice would you give them about heading down this path in 2013?
Candace: I would tell them to specialize. Don't be a generalist. In journalism, work for niche publications. I think the business journal is a wonderful example of that, because we have a very specific audience that we serve. We aren't competing with a lot of different media and that gives these journalists the opportunity to excel at one area. I think if you cover all beats at a daily, you're more vulnerable.
Russ: Okay. Well, Candace, I really appreciate you sharing your story and updating us.
Candace: My pleasure.
Russ: You bet. That's Candace Beeke, the editor of the Houston Business Journal, and this is the BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com.
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