Thursday, May 4, 2017

Everything is on the table’ in Torstar turnaround as revenue slides

The Globe and Mail's Susan Krashinsky Robertson writes:
"The new CEO of Torstar Corp. and publisher of the Toronto Star does not yet know how he will transform the media company, but at its annual general meeting on Wednesday John Boynton had a clear message: 'Everything is on the table.'
"Mr. Boynton, who took over the role at the end of March, was hailed by the company – and again on Wednesday by Torstar board chairman John Honderich – as a 'turnaround specialist.' The families who control Torstar are hoping that his deep background in marketing and advertising will help the newspaper and digital-media company appeal to marketers whose budgets have been flowing to giants such as Google and Facebook, at the expense of media companies who invest heavily to create content.
 "The company needs to change its conversations with marketers, Mr. Boynton said in an interview, and even to change the metrics upon which it sells ads. Clicks on digital ads 'are kind of a nineties measurement,' while the company should be working to sell ads on the basis of performance for marketers – including whether audiences actually see and digest the messages of those ads. Its subscriber data also represent a rich source of information about customers that could be used to better target them."

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