This document summarizes a presentation by Alan Soon, co-founder and CEO of The Splice Newsroom, about optimizing media businesses around customer needs. Soon argues that many media organizations have failed to address declining attention by not understanding what problems they solve for their audiences. He advocates a "media by design" approach where organizations clearly define the problems they aim to solve, who benefits, who would pay, and how to validate and iterate their approach based on customer feedback. The goal is to treat audiences as customers and fulfill their needs in order to regain relevance in a time of information abundance.

1. Media by Design:
Optimizing a media business
around customer needs
Business of Truth: Digital Impact Forum
Belgrade, September 2017
Alan Soon
Co-founder & CEO, The Splice Newsroom
@alansoon

2. ● 20+ years as a career
journalist in radio, TV,
newswires, magazines, web
● Newsroom digital
transformations
● Specialist in editorial strategy,
operations, change
management
ABOUT ME

3. Splice delivers business
intelligence on best
practices and people
behind the transformation
of the media industry in
Asia.
ABOUT SPLICE

4. 1. We report on trends,
talent, and media startups
across Asia.
2. We teach and drive
discussions on the future
state of media.
WHAT WE DO

5. THEY READ US

6. It’s 2017.

7. It’s 2017.
Where’s the silver bullet
that will save the industry?

8. Apps
Chat apps
Chat bots
iPads
Slack integration
Autoplay videos
Vertical video
Facebook Live
360/AR/VR
Instagram Stories
Instant Articles
AMP
Smart watches

9. Apps
Chat apps
Chat bots
iPads
Slack integration
Autoplay videos
Vertical video
Facebook Live
360/AR/VR
Instagram Stories
Instant Articles
AMP
Smart watches
None of these
have worked.

10. Here’s the other thing:
It’s not about trust.

11. Facts and truth haven’t
ceased to exist.
They just don’t get read.

12. Attention is the scarcest
resource of the
information age.
If you’re not getting read,
it’s not because you’re not
delivering the truth.

13. It’s because you’re not
fulfilling a need.
It’s because you’re not
solving a problem.

14. Expand your mind, change your world.
Gets you talking.
Our lives, our paper.
The paper for the people.
The world’s greatest newspaper.
All the news that’s fit to print.
When The Times speaks, the World listens.
Sunday isn't Sunday without the Sunday Times.
Bild. Read the world's fastest newspaper.
Making twice the noise.
Simpler. Better. Smarter.
Your right to know.
It's thinking time.
We are local news.
OUR SLOGANS

15. Why do people
read/watch/listen to you?THE INCONVENIENT
QUESTIONS

16. Why do people
read/watch/listen to you?
What do people need that
only you can provide?
THE INCONVENIENT
QUESTIONS

17. Why do people
read/watch/listen to you?
What do people need that
only you can provide?
Would people notice if you
weren’t around tomorrow?
THE INCONVENIENT
QUESTIONS

18. We need to start talking
about our audience as
customers.
We need to start fulfilling
their needs.

19. This is what
media by design is
about.

20. 1. What’s the problem you’re
trying to solve?MEDIA BY DESIGN

21. 1. What’s the problem you’re
trying to solve?
2. Who will benefit from such a
solution?
MEDIA BY DESIGN

22. 1. What’s the problem you’re
trying to solve?
2. Who will benefit from such a
solution?
3. Who would pay for that?
MEDIA BY DESIGN

23. 1. What’s the problem you’re
trying to solve?
2. Who will benefit from such a
solution?
3. Who would pay for that?
4. How would you validate
these assumptions?
MEDIA BY DESIGN

24. 1. What’s the problem you’re
trying to solve?
2. Who will benefit from such a
solution?
3. Who would pay for that?
4. How would you validate
these assumptions?
5. How would you get
feedback and iterate?
MEDIA BY DESIGN

25. One final thought.
We’re in a golden age of
media. It’s not a crisis of trust.
It’s a crisis of relevance.

26. Get in touch.
alansoon@thesplicenewsroom.com
Thesplicenewsroom.com
@alansoon

27. ALAN SOON is Asia's leading expert on newsroom
operations, digital transformation and building the new
business of media.
He's the founder and CEO of The Splice Newsroom.
Alan has worked in radio, TV, news wires, magazines,
and online across Asia. This gives him a 360° view on
how various newsrooms get things done — and how
things get stuck. He started out as a reporter and grew
into other operational roles including producer, editor,
newsroom manager, and a business leader.
Alan led one of the largest digital news teams in the
industry as Yahoo’s Managing Editor for India and
Southeast Asia. He’s worked at CNBC and Bloomberg
across Asia. He also advises early-stage media-tech
startups.
RISHAD PATEL is a media product and design
professional. He is the cofounder of The Splice
Newsroom and is responsible for developing the
company’s products and services.
For over twenty years, Rishad designed and developed
editorial products on the web, radio, advertising,
newsrooms, newspapers, magazines, podcasting,
branding, books, and floor rugs for companies in across
Singapore, India, New Zealand, Europe, and the United
States.
He has been an editorial consultant at The Straits Times
in Singapore, the Wanganui Chronicle in New Zealand,
and Mid-Day in Mumbai. He was also a co-founder of
Givatude, an app startup in San Francisco; Solid, a public
school tshirt startup; and Jidobox, a Singapore-based
fintech startup.
Who we are