DX of the Newspaper Industry – Strategies of Sankei Shinbun
April 14, 2021
Mr. Yosuke Torii
Director of Sankei Shinbun Co., for DX Promotion
DX (Digital Transformation) has somehow become a buzzword nowadays. Today, let me talk about how the newspaper industry struggles to survive by tapping into the potential of DX. Sankei Shimbun Co., Ltd. is no exception, where I started my career in Osaka as a journalist nearly 40 years ago. My news coverage had focused on social problems including incidents and accidents until I was seconded to one of the subsidiaries Sankei Digital Inc. as CEO six years ago. Having been a super “analogue” person, I had to DX myself to lead this company positioned at the forefront of technology.
I believe the year 1995 was a turning point for paper-printed news and magazines. In January that year, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred, followed by the sarin gas attack by a Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo in March that triggered widespread media coverage. Newspaper kiosks marked record-breaking sales. Later in November, young people queued up to get the newly-released Windows 95 that spearheaded the Internet era. Over the past twenty years, smartphones have brought about monumental impact on our lives and revolutionized the flow of information.
In the meantime, the first baby boomers who had been loyal newspaper readers reached their retirement age and will surpass their average life expectancy in 5 years. The number of newspaper circulations continue to plummet across the country. It is self-evident that newspaper businesses will wane if companies depend on printed format. Having said that, journalists do believe newspapers should not go extinct and the industry should develop a resilient business strategy that will outweigh the erosion of an ink-and-paper revenue.
Three years ago, I had the opportunity to make a fact-finding tour to Europe and America and learned how newspaper companies such as the New York Times and the Washington Post managed to turn adversity they had faced a decade ago into opportunity by promoting digitalization. They succeeded in reaching out to highly-engaged readers by analyzing their behaviors such as how long they stayed during each visit and how deep they went into a site.
Our company launched a number of web-based services 10 years ago, including online news portals, and have been making strenuous efforts to attract paid subscribers to complement advertising revenue and keep our business strong. To further accelerate digital reform based on data-driven marketing strategies, our company also launched the DX Headquarters last July with the ultimate goal to deliver superior customer experience, enhance media value and maximize our profits in the digital business. It is a small team with only 12 staff working on how best to deliver satisfying services to members of “Sankei iD,” a free membership structure that forms the basis of our digital business. All members have an access to silver-key contents, while golden-key contents are available to paid subscribers that include featured articles, insights and commentaries, editorials as well as unique services like on-line rakugo (Japanese traditional comic storytelling) performances or getting invitations to revues by the Takarazuka Revue, a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe. The DX Headquarters holds meetings every morning and evening and share the number of free and paid members gained the previous day. Based on daily and monthly numerical targets, we engage in extensive discussions if those numbers are not met to identify effective measures to take. One of our successful initiatives was to reinforce relationships with our sponsors by sharing detailed reports after analyzing the extent of positive impact brought to cosponsoring companies when a certain event gets extensive media coverage. For example, a shogi tournament called Kisei-Sen sponsored by Sankei Shimbun and our cosponsors attracted wide and extensive attention when the nation’s youngest professional shogi genius Sota Fujii won the championship last year, which generated advertising effect worth 50 years of sponsorship money.
Sankei Shimbun launched another subsidiary company named “Sankei Research & Data Corp.” last October which conducts on-line marketing surveys and telephone interviews to nearly 70,000 senior members of “Sankei iD,” analyzes their trends and provides research results and consultancy to companies that provide products and services to middle-aged and senior citizens. Before I close my speech, let me touch upon a new joint venture we launched last December named “Lifura LLC” together with Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) which aims to seek business opportunities for information banks through demonstration experiments to be conducted over one year. By making extensive use of data sets compiled in our daily life, we plan to provide support and advices to meet diversified needs and expectations of people at different life stages.
Let me wrap up my speech that covers major initiatives taken at Sankei Shimbun to accelerate DX in a strategic manner.
resilient business strategy that will outweigh the erosion of an ink-and-paper revenue.
Three years ago, I had the opportunity to make a fact-finding tour to Europe and America and learned how newspaper companies such as the New York Times and the Washington Post managed to turn adversity they had faced a decade ago into opportunity by promoting digitalization. They succeeded in reaching out to highly-engaged readers by analyzing their behaviors such as how long they stayed during each visit and how deep they went into a site.
Our company launched a number of web-based services 10 years ago, including online news portal, and have been making strenuous efforts to attract paid subscribers to complement advertising revenue and keep our business strong. To further accelerate digital reform based on data-driven marketing strategies, our company also launched the DX Headquarters last July with the ultimate goal to deliver superior customer experience, enhance media value and maximize our profits in the digital business. It is a small team with only 12 staff working on how best to deliver satisfying services to members of “Sankei iD,” a free membership structure that forms the basis of our digital business. All members have an access to silver-key contents, while golden-key contents are available to paid subscribers that include featured articles, insights and commentaries, editorials as well as unique services like on-line rakugo (Japanese traditional comic storytelling) performances or getting invitation to shows by the Takarazuka Revue, a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe. The DX Headquarters holds meetings every morning and evening and share the number of free and paid members gained the previous day. Based on daily and monthly numerical targets, we engage in extensive discussions if those numbers are not met to identify effective measures to take. One of our successful initiatives was to reinforce relationships with our sponsors by sharing detailed report after analyzing the extent of positive impact brought to cosponsoring companies when a certain event gets extensive media coverage. For example, a shogi tournament called Kisei-Sen sponsored by Sankei Shimbun and our cosponsors attracted wide and extensive attention when the nation’s youngest professional shogi genius Sota Fujii won the championship last year, which generated advertising effect worth 50 years of sponsorship money.
Sankei Shimbun launched another subsidiary company named “Sankei Research & Data Corp.” last October which conducts on-line marketing surveys and telephone interviews to nearly 70,000 senior members of “Sankei iD,” analyzes their trends and provides research results and consultancy to companies that provide products and services to middle-aged and senior citizens. Before I close my speech, let me touch upon a new joint venture we launched last December named “Lifura LLC” together with Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) which aims to seek business opportunities for information banks through demonstration experiments to be conducted over one year. By making extensive use of data sets compiled in our daily life, we plan to provide support and advices to meet diversified needs and expectations of people at different life stages.
Let me wrap up my speech that covers major initiatives taken at Sankei Shimbun to accelerate DX in a strategic manner.