About Products in Publishing

As Digiday told us in December 2018, "Product managers have become the must-have new hire for publishers":

"On some level, publishers need product managers these days simply because they are more complicated than they once were [...]

And as those products have proliferated, tensions have emerged between editorial and sales, which are both trying to use the same digital real estate to meet differing goals."

This why more and more publishers are hiring Product Managers and have started talking about "Product Management" instead of "Project Management".

It's also the reason why The New York Times recently "introduced their Newsroom Product Desk", which they announced at the end of last year.

Focused coverage

However, while publishers are increasingly hiring "product people" and are switching from projects to products, no one is really dedicated to writing about it.

Sure, Product Management is covered thoroughly in magazines and blog posts (so many blog posts...) and the publishing/media industry is not exactly moving under the radar.

But I haven't been able to find someone covering the cross-over of the two – and certainly not from a "hands-on" perspective.

That is why this newsletter exists.

Who is it for?

It is, naturally, written for people working with Product Management and digital development and projects in the publishing/media industry.

But it's also written for those working with the product teams and for those who are just curious.

If you are working in the publishing or media industry alongside product people, think of this newsletter as your window into the madness – or maybe a bridge of some sort.

It's not just for the product professionals – that's the point I'm trying to make here.

What is a publisher/publication?

That's the point. A publisher is no longer just a purely editorial, journalistic organization. A lot of organizations and companies are publishers and media companies these days.

This newsletter is for everyone publishing content – and interested in the products and innovation in that space.

Innovation? Really, innovation?

"Innovation" is a word that gets bounced around quite a lot these days. My focus will be on proper, actual innovations and development in the media industry.

It might be a worn-out word with all the wrong connotations – but it's still the closest we have to a word describing the process of building new stuff, developing products (and the business in the process) and, well..., innovating.

So, my pledge to you is this: Hype words and hot air will be kept at an absolute minimum and each post should point you in some direction or help you with a decision or other kind of action. It's never just words.

I promise I'll do my very best.

Get updates:

You can also follow this newsletter on Twitter and a more experimental LinkedIn page.

About me:

My name is Lars K Jensen. I have a background in classic journalism, before I moved into digital news, digital development and Product Management.

I've previously worked as Project Manager and head of Denmark's first editorial development team and the Head of Products – all within the Danish publishing/media industry. I spent 10 of those years in the development/R&D department behind Ekstra Bladet, the biggest news website in Denmark.

I am currently the Head of Digital & Product at Willmore, a consultancy agency in the Danish publishing industry. I help with building products and publications – all the way from the first assumptions to launch (and from that and to the next launch...).

You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn (I mostly post in Danish – for now...) and email me at lars@larskjensen.dk. I'd be happy to hear from you.