Don’t Make Me Cry

MBA, News Corp. Hey all, this is a sad day for me, Roy Hills, and is most likely an even sadder day for you when you learn the news I am about to break. This blog post will be my last for this summer, although I do still have three weeks left in this internship. I will give you a moment to let it soak in and please don’t get all teary eyed. Okay now that we got that out of the way, I wanted to recap how my internship has evolved from my expectations and goals into what it ultimately has become.

Initially, coming into my internship at News Corp, I was told that I would be doing digital sales strategy and most likely working for Fox News. Now digital sales strategy can mean a whole variety of different things. For me, it has meant everything from being tasked to help the sales team to strategize on how to sell advertising space to increasing the efficiency among the sales teams and how they interact with different players and databases within the organization. I have looked at demographic data to determine advantages that Fox News offers over its competitors and highlight potential advertisers to the sales teams. Additionally, I have also looked at different ways to help maximize monetization from advertising of new emerging digital platforms such as mobile. The variety of projects and the constant change of landscape in the digital field is what I have enjoyed the most about working for News Corp.

News Corporation’s philosophy has always been about making money, which is good thing since that is the reason why most companies are in business. This philosophy really carries through to all divisions within the company. With this in mind, I will be looking back at the many trends I have researched within the emerging digital media advertising space and report on my findings. This report will be my “vision” of what the website can do to further increase its future revenue. Oh yeah, I also got “promoted” or more accurately I am just going to be doing the job of three people. I am taking over next week for an employee taking off to Mexico and a retiring intern, in addition to doing my own job. Should be fun! :-) (Yep, that is a smiley face)

Mid Summer Check In

MBA, News Corp. Now that I, Roy, am about halfway through the summer and a month and half into my internship, I feel that this would be a good time to let you in on my personal, deep thoughts about New York City and News Corp. My inner thoughts could befuddle even the most learned, so be careful reading on. To start, I love living in New York City, but I know that is a shocker. I have always wanted to live in this city and I am finally getting to accomplish that. There is just never a dull moment, which is not very good for my sleep habits. There is a reason they call it the city that never sleeps because honestly people are always out and about, which I love. Now that’s all I have to say about that.

As for my internship at News Corp and Fox News Digital more specifically, I am enjoying the heck out of it. I have been able to learn many things that both I knew that I wanted to and stuff that I had no clue existed. I have been able to research and recommend advertising capabilities for the IPad to thinking of creative uses for QR Codes. Additionally, I have been able to see from the start to finish the process of how digital advertising gets sold, published and delivered. Although I personally do not necessarily want to be in sales directly, having this understanding is crucial to any role I might want in digital advertising strategy or business development.

Going forward I have been tasked with creating a business plan type thing (not exactly sure if it will be a full business plan) which will show the implications of the changing internet landscape as it applies to the Fox News website. This research and plan will allow Fox News to strategize on how to better monetize their current digital advertising against these trends. As you may have heard, News Corporation has made headlines recently with respect to the Wall Street Journal online. They are going to start micro billing for its content. Many in the online news industry are watching closely to see whether this business model or the current one of paying through digital advertisements is best. I initially believe it will be somewhat of a hybrid of the two, but I guess I will have to see what I discover in my research.