InformationWeek

September 14, 1998

Think Globally, Act Globally

Media companies use IT to market their content worldwide, while improving networks and standards

By Monua Janah

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MEDIA

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With data from Hoovers Online

The media industry has truly gone global. Many publishing, multimedia, and advertising companies have worldwide offices and a strong presence in cyberspace, and this poses new challenges for IT executives. Companies must find efficient ways to manage, store, and reuse content in print and online. They also need to build networks that can transport data-including voice and video-around the world quickly and reliably. In addition, IT managers have to decide how best to implement standards companywide.

As media companies expand their reach, the overall level of IT spending is increasing dramatically. "Some companies need to spend 10% to 15% of their sales over the next couple of years to implement the needed process and system changes," says David Brodwin, a partner at Andersen Consulting.

How to get the most benefit from existing editorial content is a key focus of publishing companies such as Primedia Inc., a rapidly growing New York conglomerate that owns specialty magazines, educational products, broadcast channels, and testing and certification programs on the Web. To prepare printed content to be published online, Primedia tags it using the markup languages SGML and XML. "We are modifying our production workflows to be media-independent," says Steve Gemignani, VP of IT and new media at Primedia.

TV companies not only have to manage their programs, they also need to track their inventory of commercials and promotions. USA Networks, the cable-TV division of USA Networks Inc., in New York, is acquiring an integrated-broadcast information package to manage all of its on-air content. The Gabriel package from Management Science Associates Inc., is based on an Oracle7.x relational database running on Hewlett-Packard Unix servers.

After the integrated system is implemented, USA Networks plans to use it for a variety of business purposes, says Jim Degni, VP of IT. For starters, the company will maintain a database of programs and commercials-when they were acquired or created and when they aired-so it can track program performance against other networks. The package will also let USA Networks track billing for commercials and do sales analysis. Finally, the software package will facilitate information-sharing between network salespeople and the advertising agencies, a step toward electronic commerce.

The challenge for IT executives at Young & Rubicam is to devise a way for the New York advertising agency to share information-text, graphics, and video-electronically with its global clients. That way, customers would be able to participate in the creation of the advertisements and keep abreast of their progress.

Young & Rubicam plans to extend its existing intranet, based on Lotus Notes, to its customers, says Jim Scielzo, senior VP of IT. The agency is working with a software company called EMotion, using a tool called Creative Partner, to do that, and to integrate video and graphics into the Lotus Notes environment.

Many media companies are expanding their presence on the Web by developing new sites. They're also experimenting with online business plans.

For example, in June, The New York Times Co. launched www.nytoday.com, which brings the total number of Web sites for the company to 30. The site is designed to create an online community for New Yorkers. It offers a detailed guide to the Big Apple, including cultural and sporting events, restaurants, maps, real estate, and job listings. Once a user registers at this free site, he or she can get a free E-mail account, access a calendar, and download small files to a PalmPilot personal digital assistant.

Write Once, Publish Often
Instead of building the site on its own, the Times hired Zip2 Corp., a company that has built several applications for newspapers. Another reason for choosing Zip2 is that it had recently acquired Pantheon Systems Inc., a company that specializes in bridging new and legacy systems. The Times plans to reuse content published in the newspaper on the Web under an "enter-once, publish many times" model.

Zip2 created the Web site using a Microsoft SQL Server database running on NT servers, its own Web-publishing tools, and custom tools developed specifically for the project.

The Times is also trying a new advertising plan for this site. For a small fee-about $200 to $300-the company will create a microsite for local advertisers, such as cinemas, bars, and restaurants; the cost includes a certain number of free revisions. "That's not a lot of money per buyer, but the idea is to sell thousands," says Steve Luciani, executive director of information systems and technology. So far, the Times has sold several hundred ads.

Primedia is building E-commerce Web sites that use content from its various publications. "Primedia is a targeted media company-meaning that its information relates to specific market niches," Gemignani explains. "We are able to combine our content with specific products and services within that niche to create mini-communities online" for shopping, chat, and other services. Examples include the Internet Gift Registry site, which uses content from Modern Bride magazine, and Garden Escape, a joint venture of Horticulture magazine. As part of its corporate Web site, Primedia is developing an online media kit that will let advertisers review contracts and rates online.

Building Scalable Networks
Many media companies are rebuilding their networks or revising their network strategies to accommodate the ever-increasing network traffic created by new client-server applications. In many cases, these companies are just beginning to consider using the Internet, rather than private networks, to deliver data.

Times Mirror Co., which publishes the Los Angeles Times and numerous other publications, is overhauling its WAN, which now consists of T1 (1.54 Mbps) lines and frame relay services. The long-range goal is to support any application the company needs, including voice and video. But the first project will be a new messaging system based on Lotus Notes. The network will also let the company move many of its newspapers, which now use minicomputer-based editing systems, to client-server systems. Times Mirror hasn't determined which technology it will choose, but is considering both frame relay and ATM.

CIO Judy Kallet is spearheading the network project. Named to her post last year, she is the first joint CIO for both Times Mirror and the Los Angeles Times, its largest newspaper. Before that, the top technology position at Times Mirror was VP of IT, and there was little coordination among operating units. After Kallet came on board, she put together a committee to evaluate the network traffic at all the operating companies worldwide, and the new network strategy reflects that committee's recommendations.

The network is also a top priority for Young & Rubicam's Scielzo. He has to make sure the global network that connects people in 360 offices worldwide and is used to transact business is up and running smoothly.

Young & Rubicam's network uses leased lines, frame relay services primarily from AT&T, and

Cisco routers. But now that its business needs are expanding and its bandwidth demands are increasing, the company is evaluating various emerging technologies. Scielzo says he's considering virtual private networks, which provide a way to send business traffic securely over the Internet.

"We are looking at encrypted traffic across the Internet as a way to perhaps augment and ultimately displace frame relay services." No decision has been made on virtual private networks, he says, because "I don't think the technology is fully formed yet."

The New York Times Co. is also developing a new corporate networking strategy. The company has replaced its T1 line between New York and Boston, where it owns the Boston Globe, with a T3 connection. This provides more than enough bandwidth for most company data, which is mainly text. The company uses the surplus bandwidth to provide duplicate Web connections.

The Times' Internet provider is UUNet, and the Globe's is BBN. Now, both papers can use either provider. The company plans to set up T3 connections for all its regional papers and facilities within the next year. After that's done, all the Web servers will be consolidated in data centers in New York and Boston, which will reduce maintenance and management costs.

With the rise of media conglomerates-companies that own a wide variety of media, often across several continents-managing IT assets and setting IT standards companywide are becoming major priorities and major headaches for IT executives. Some companies opt to standardize hardware and software as much as possible. But Primedia and other companies emphasize that the various units should be given as much independence as possible, both in overall business strategy and in IT choices.

Declarations Of Independence
Primedia's business philosophy is to let its 18 units operate independently. "We buy companies because of the management and the ideas behind the products," says Gemignani. "To go in and arrogantly say 'you need to use Lotus' Office Suite or Microsoft's Office Suite' and change the editorial workflow could cause chaos."

For now, Primedia doesn't plan on implementing global enterprise resource planning. But part of its Workplace Learning Group, a division that specializes in providing products and services for continued education in the workplace, is implementing SAP's enterprise applications suite; however, there are no plans to roll it out companywide. "Sure, you can roll out SAP to everybody in the company, but you probably can't give them the right answer in all the right places," says VP of IT Gemignani. "What you gain in control, you give up in flexibility on the business side."

There are only two areas in which Primedia has standardized. All the companies use the Ceridian payroll processor, and they all use Hyperion's financial and tax reporting system.

Primedia does recognize that it's important to facilitate communication and the exchange of ideas across the various business units. Gemignani created a technology committee with representatives from all the companies. The group, which meets six times a year, performs joint R&D and discusses technical and business issues. Gemignani also participates in a new media committee that focuses on advertising and content aggregation. As media companies continue to grow and diversify-and boost their online presence-they'll need to rely on IT more than ever.

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