Abstract
In times of crisis, companies focus on their core competences. Content production—and thus intelligent information management—is regarded as a core competence of classic media, but is unable to find a market anymore.
Competitive Intelligence is a defined process—a systematic approach to information acquisition, aggregation, processing, analysis, displaying and distribution which classic media are often lacking. Financial Market Information Services are showing the way to deal with “Big Data” in the benefit for the consumer in converting data to information and—by contextualizing—to knowledge and action. Instead, in particular in editorial offices it is often only the gut feeling of the editor ruling. Thus, many classic media seem to be one of the last strongholds of an old business operation style which never adapted to modern times.
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Notes
- 1.
Particularly from military intelligence and market research.
- 2.
Illegal data collection constitutes espionage, in marked difference from CI.
- 3.
Even though software can be very useful in collecting, storing and analyzing information and data, it must always be seen in the context of its ultimate purpose, which is supporting human specialists (cf. Michaeli, 2005, p. 473).
- 4.
This requires editorial transformation of journalists’ incorporated cultural capital into objectified cultural capital in order to generate economic capital.
- 5.
Open communication via social web applications now enables recipients to exchange cultural capital on the same level, i.e. among recipients.
- 6.
However, cross-financing in this sector (e.g. radio) is accomplished via broadcasting fees and/or advertising.
- 7.
Since about the 1990s, information has been accepted as a production factor of its own (cf. Reucher, 2009, p. 46).
- 8.
Translated from the German original.
- 9.
Due to shorter product cycles and a higher intensity of competition.
- 10.
Conversations with product managers of the companies named above yield the following reasons: the solutions are too extensive for the size of even the larger Austrian companies, requiring disproportionate implementation efforts, e.g. additional staff or licenses. In addition, the topic is said to be not yet an issue among Austrian managers.
- 11.
One of the few studies to empirically prove the lack of systematic data and information gathering in preparation of strategic decisions in Austrian companies: Roitner, 2008
- 12.
The prices for reliable, valid market studies exceed €50,000, especially when performed by international business researchers.
- 13.
- 14.
Especially in the Anglo-American world these studies have formed the basis of much scientific and praxeological work (e.g. Grüblbauer, 2008).
- 15.
In Germany, the term “Kompetitive Intelligenz” first appeared (in a title) in a 1998 paper by Salmon & Linarès.
- 16.
The term “sound carrier industry” shows the core of the problem: In the real sense, the music industry revenue was generated by the distribution of music. Artists were dependent on the distribution through a “sound carrier” (e.g. CD, LP,…), to distribute their work to the target group. With digitalization, i.e. the faultless, intangible reproduction of music, “sound carrier” have become obsolete and thus the entire business process of the music industry for the distribution of the works of musicians. As artists could sell their works via direct marketing now and consumers could reproduce music almost infinitely without loss of quality (cf. Dolata, 2008, p. 356).
- 17.
Kollmann defines Data Mining as “the filtering of specific data constellations with potential causal explanations on the basis of pattern recognition in the data of an extensive data base.” [Translated from the German original] (Kollmann, Tobias in: Sjurts, 2010, p. 97).
- 18.
Genetic algorithms are stochastic search procedures that attempt to arrive at an optimal solution by starting from one or more acceptable solutions (Cf. Moros, 2012).
- 19.
Modeling of the structure and information architecture of the brain and nervous system of animals and humans.
- 20.
Fuzzy Logic refers to a theory developed specifically for modeling the uncertainties and vagueness of colloquial descriptors such as “a little”, “rather”, “strongly” or “very”.
- 21.
Experts identify trends based on their competence and experience. Example: the Delphi method.
- 22.
When scanning, the following two different strategies can be applied. One strategy is to enable the widest possible data base search. The initial search begins with a small number of pages and is then extended to other sites that are in direct connection with it. Another strategy is the type of search that focuses in the first step on one website. Here are links recursively invoked to look more deeply for information on a page. To evaluate the relevance of a page, the following key indicators are determined: backlink count, PageRank, forward link count, location Metric.
- 23.
Useful tools for this purpose are a variety of social media monitoring and analytic tools, but also bibliometric analysis and classical sentiment and media resonance analysis. The distinction between the tools begins with the considered data sources and extends to the presentation of the results. Thus, the quality of the tools can not generally be determined, but only with respect to specific research questions. Each tool is particularly well suited for certain aspects. Therefore, good results can be achieved primarily through a combination of several measurement and analysis instruments.
- 24.
What matters here is which tools are used for analysis. There are numerous monitoring tools, but their suitability can always be determined only with respect to certain requirements (cf. e.g. Grüblbauer & Haric, 2013).
- 25.
Therefore it is necessary that the selection of data sources, data quality assessment and the definition of “data noise” can be controlled dynamically via a user interface.
- 26.
“In contrast, a trend that is poorly understood or incorrectly interpreted must be regarded as strategic disinformation—which may be more dangerous than a trend that has been ignored.” (Liebl & Schwarz, 2010, p. 325).
- 27.
Translated from the German original.
- 28.
According to a study from the field of knowledge and information management, the global digital data volume doubled every 2 years—a choice between “haystack or treasure chest” loom on the horizon (cf. Schädler, 2008, p. 191).
- 29.
Other journalistic forms such as the interpretive or investigative journalism intend the procurement of new information or interpretation of existing data.
- 30.
The term “informatics” is etymologically originated from the synthesis of the terms: Automatic and Information.
- 31.
It is well known that the Internet has evolved from the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) in 1969 established by the US Department of Defense. But it is relatively unknown that networking of stock market and financial market participants was developed using electronic media, since the nineteenth Century. This network has been made available to the public market in 1969 in the form of the Alternative Trading System (ATS) to process transactions and to provide information. This “network of scores, telephone, punch card reader, fast printer, telex terminals and disk storage connected the processing of signs, data and information to the decision-making process in financial markets.” (Reichert, 2009, p. 116 [translated from the German original]) So in principle, the form of today’s Internet has been prepared by the financial network rather than by the military network, because it was basically accessible to public in contrast to the technical network of the U.S. Army (cf. ibid, p. 84). In this respect there is next to the “military” is also an “economic history of the Internet” in the sense of “a mercantile alternative to warfare-oriented media historiography of the Internet.” (ibid, p. 88 [translated from the German original]).
- 32.
Regarding ‘revolutionary’ importance of XBRL see UK Government Office for Science, 2012, especially pp. 32ff.
- 33.
Traditional media such as newspapers had high barriers to entry: “Printing presses are expensive, and those who owned them enjoyed a collective monopoly over the news and information” (Harkin, 2012, p. 118). Mainly due to the digitization, the market conditions of media companies have changed: Google made information accessible to everyone for free. This service is also used by most traditional media for their research. Since the 80s, changes in the ownership structure of media companies and associated cost-cutting measures—partly at the expense of quality journalism—favored the negative development (cf. ibid, p. 117).
- 34.
How media companies must act in order not to abolish themselves, because they maintain their traditional business models, which are largely funded from the allocation of the advertising surfaces for years, has been shown e.g. by “The Economist”. While the crisis of journalism and the newspaper is ubiquitous, the “Economist” has developed differently: Between 1999 and 2009, the magazine has increased its paid circulation of about 720,000 to 1.4 million. (Harkin, 2012, p. 117). Instead of exchangeable messages to the mass, they produce USP-focused content for ‘niches’. In the classic manner of the Schumpeterian entrepreneur scrutinize “The Economist” the framing of traditional media: Comparable mass production to lower costs through economies of scale effect, for 80 % of consumers, or quality leadership in narrow niche markets. Hayek and Schumpeter pointed out that it is the entrepreneur as ‘game changer’, which destabilizes existing equilibria, thereby creating innovation and generates income.
- 35.
Bloomberg has described the benefits of intelligent data management, in the form of data journalism, compared to a sheer data collection as follows: “The mere input of data remains in the background. Instead, well-educated people can sift through the data for us, who are not only able to store this data, but also to categorize and classify data according to where they belong. […] The Analysts are those who can provide insight into specific contexts of markets or sectors.” (Bloomberg, 1998, p. 63) Thus, the search engine Google does not compete with content-producing media, provided that media companies know their USP. Google News generates lists of search results, but not contextualized information with added value. However, the search engine of Google provides a transparency of the information market, which shows that most of the media offer the same messages more or less identical in wording. Here is the beginning of self-devaluation of journalistic production: human intelligence would be different.
- 36.
The example of the financial markets illustrates the meaning of competitive intelligence logic. Applied to media companies it could be shown: There is an increasing convergence of human intelligent procurement, processing and analysis of information and its further development through the introduction of new media in combination with statistical processes and big data. It’s not just the text “data”, but even more the metadata that describes the information. At the same time, there are new ways of contextualizing and analyzing competitive intelligence with which the decisive added value for users offers—especially for information-oriented media company whose core competence is the content.
- 37.
Data journalists are highly qualified analysts, not robots for copying, moving or storing data (cf. Bloomberg, 1998, p. 63). As long as online editors are even paid less, compared to print editors, the possibilities are limited to operate data journalism. In this respect, the business model of information media applies to the management of ‘big data’ in competitive intelligence, as well as to data journalism. This is explained in the Editorial Guide from Bloomberg:
-
The “Five Fs” of reporting: factual word (adherence to facts), first word (news value), fastest word (subsequent action of an event), final word (complete story), future word (relevance for tomorrow)
-
Therefore every story must include additionally the “Five Pieces”: markets, economy, government, politics, companies—“These five pieces provide the context and perspective necessary to comprehend the meaning of events.” (Winkler, 2011, p. 29)
Data are just raw materials of the media. These must be prepared contextualized to generate information and knowledge as a result. Only through this information- and knowledge-content media companies create non-exchangeable value and benefits for the consumer.
-
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Grüblbauer, J., Haric, P. (2016). Making Money with and through Information and Knowledge: Reflections on the Inner Context of Competitive Intelligence, Trend Analysis and Revenue Models of Media Companies. In: Lugmayr, A., Dal Zotto, C. (eds) Media Convergence Handbook - Vol. 2. Media Business and Innovation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54487-3_17
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