New Swift Exec On The Move
Chief Executive Officer Bill Toler continued his tour of Swift properties with a stop at the Internet Ventures Group (IVG) headquarters in Reno, NV. Bill focused on future goals by asking IVG two important questions: where do we want to play, and how do we expect to win?
These questions will determine how IVG expands new opportunities and solves problems of revenue by freeing up properties and reinvesting into new audiences. Audiences, as Bill explained, include the geographical, target and business sectors that we may have overlooked, such as second home communities where digital real-estate classifieds could capitalize off the demand for second homes. Winning these audiences will require us to utilize current digital and print products as well as the possibility of expanding both products when the money is available.
In order to pay for these expenses, Bill highlighted the importance of cutting failing projects by making balanced business decisions in order to invest money into thriving projects and new ideas. Concentrating on three to five specific strategic areas is a good rule of thumb for a company this size, Bill explained. Going beyond five could result in problems.
“But we need to make sure our scope is wide enough not to miss good ideas,” Bill added.
And he loves new ideas, especially those that go beyond the expectation of satisfying readers.
“How do we go beyond just satisfying to actually delighting our reader and advertisers,” Bill asked.
He posed a number of new ideas that may do just that. One such idea posed reducing mobile digital versions of full-scale sites to just RSS feeds of headlines for the next day’s news. This would reduce clutter and bait readers into picking up the print version or visiting the site to read the full stories.
Another idea revolves around beating Craigslist and Ebay by taking the nuisances out of buying and selling items online.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever bought anything off of Craigslist,” Bill asked. “It’s a fairly unsatisfactory process.”
Bill has a “polite disregard” for those on Craigslist who make meeting arrangements and item descriptions about as accessible and appealing as the website’s hackneyed design. So he posed a way in which newspapers can pick up the slack, by warehousing classified items in order to better arrange meeting and description.
Bill closed the meeting by emphasizing the importance of knowing our audience so that we can create a more valuable proposition for advertisers, giving the entire IVG team something to ponder for future endeavors. Read more about Bill!
