Adapting to a multi-channel media landscape

Enabling Media Asset Management across multiple distribution channels

Abstract: To survive and thrive in a transformed industry, media companies need to shift from a single channel model of production and distribution to a multi-channel model incorporating online media. Integration across disparate systems is needed to support content intake from multiple sources and deliver content to audiences across different channels, formats, and devices. Learn how to develop a flexible media asset management infrastructure to succeed in a changing media landscape.

MuleSource and the MuleSource logo are trademarks of MuleSource Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only. www.mulesoft.com | info@mulesoft.com | 1-877-MULE-OSS All contents Copyright 2008, MuleSource Inc.

1 Surviving and thriving in a new media landscape

The media industry is undergoing a seismic shift. In just a few years, technological innovation has entirely transformed the media landscape, with new forms of media such as web, mobile, and social rapidly emerging and online publishing of news, editorial, music, and movies becoming the norm. In their wake, traditional mediaprint, broadcast and radiohave declined drastically, with more audiences consuming media and interactive content online than ever before through an increasing number of channels, platforms, and devices. These major shifts have had dire business consequences for media companies. The mass migration of audiences from old to new media outlets has led to a sharp decline in overall print circulation and broadcast viewership in the past several years. In turn, advertising sales and revenue have dropped significantly, and many media companies struggle to stay afloat financially. Newspapers, for instance, have been especially hard hit. According to a 2011 report on the state of news media by the Pew Research Center, between 1990 and 2010, daily circulation of newspapers fell by 30% and in just 4 years, advertising revenues dropped by a staggering 46% between 2006 and 2010. And since 2009, major metropolitan newspapers in the United States such as The Rocky Mountain News, The SeattlePost Intelligencer, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many others have drastically scaled down operations or ceased publication altogether.

All media firms, not just print publications, face similar challenges. In order to survive and thrive in the new media landscape, firms must adapt their business models to new modes of content creation, publication, and distribution. They must move away from the vertically integrated model of production and distribution that has long dominated traditional media to a multichannel media asset management platform that aggregates content from a dense ecosystem of sources and delivers it to audiences

Adapting to a multi-channel media landscape

wherever, whenever and however they want it. In short, they must embrace the new paradigm of online media. An integrated system for media asset management is critical to the successful implementation of this paradigm shift as it is core to how firms aggregate and distribute their content. For example, the successful surfacing and delivery of on-demand video content requires interactions between a digital asset management system, various data enrichment and transcoding systems, web services, and external content providers. Existing media IT infrastructures, however, often consist of multiple isolated systems, originally built to support older modes of single-channel distribution. These have proven to be insufficient for handling the increasing complexity and high content volumes of a multi-channel system. Instead, orchestration between various systems is required to retrieve and ingest content from a myriad of sources, enrich it with metadata, and deliver it in the right format across various devicesdesktops, mobile devices, tablets, etc.in a seamlessly coordinated fashion. As such, the choice of integration approach can have a major impact on the ultimate success or failure of a media organization. Key challenges faced by media companies who need to modernize and align their IT infrastructures with new business models include: Increasing agility to better respond to audiences and changing business needs Enhancing flexibility to handle heterogeneous content sources and formats Seamless scaling to accommodate rapid growth and high content volumes

MuleSoft has helped dozens of major media companies all over the world, ranging from newspapers to broadcast stations to new media operations, overcome these challenges and implement robust media asset management solutions that enable growth and success. This whitepaper explores the key challenges faced by media firms in further detail and how these challenges can be solved by application integration, discussing several different integration approaches and the ideal architecture for an agile, scalable and flexible media asset infrastructure.

2 Increasing agility to better respond to audiences and changing business needs

For media firms, the ability to deftly respond to changing business needs and quickly deliver fresh content to an always-on audience is mission critical. News organizations, for example, now face fierce competition from social media sites to be the first to break major news stories. In order to retain audiences, entertainment companies need to constantly fine-tune their content offerings to satisfy the fickle interests of consumers. And as more firms move to incorporate interactivity into their online channels, they must be able to effectively respond to sudden business changes without major disruptions to user experiences. For this reason, media firms require a media asset management infrastructure that increases their agility. During the heyday of old media, media asset management was comparably simpler. The core of such an infrastructure might have been a traditional content management system (CMS), which is well suited to the challenges of managing, editing and approving documents. For straight-through processes where a set of writers or other content producers create assets, editors modify and approve the assets and publishing takes place via a single medium, these systems could be quite effective. Where integration with ancillary systems was required, firms often built their own integrations around the CMS system, directly wiring together systems in a point-to-point fashion.

Adapting to a multi-channel media landscape

As firms feel the pressure to shift to a multi-channel model, this approach is becoming increasingly outdated. Although such custom built integrations are typically quick to implement and particularly well suited to the single channel model of production and distribution, they present several disadvantages to firms that want to increase their agility in a new media environment. Since systems are directly integrated in a point-to-point architecture, it becomes increasingly difficult to add new systems or onboard new content partners in response to changing business needs. When the vast majority of content followed a single flow and passed through a single content management system, this was a manageable problem. However, as sources and distribution channels proliferate, this approach fails to meet the challenge. In a new media environment where it is necessary to quickly and easily connect a vast number of systems more than ever beforecontent management stores, transcoding applications, workflow monitors, delivery systems, external content partner systems, and morepoint-to-point architectures built around a single definitive CMS infrastructure are obsolete. A particularly apt illustration of the shortcomings of a CMS infrastructure is a leading business magazine in the United States. In print since the early 1910s, the magazine was one of the early adopters of online media and began publishing editorial content on the Web in the 1990s. With the media industry still in the early stages of a major shift, the company did not anticipate a need for third-party content aggregation and multichannel distribution capabilities. As such, the company relied primarily on a CMS system and built custom integrations to other systems as needed. In a new multichannel environment requiring many more systems, however, this kind of architecture became overly complex and time-consuming to modify or maintain. To align its infrastructure with a multichannel model, the company chose MuleSoft as the core of their integration platform, enabling them to separate integrations from business logic. Now, the company can seamlessly connect a wide range of systems, such as a CMS system, application server, database, and Web services, and quickly make modifications to their infrastructure to address changing business needs. As this example shows, media companies need an integration layer to increase agility and stay competitive in the fast-paced media industry. Integration enables media companies to quickly deliver new content and rapidly on-board new systems, laying a solid foundation for meeting future business needs with ease. Moreover, an integration layer dramatically reduces the maintenance burdens associated with bespoke infrastructures, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership and freeing up developer time to focus on innovating new content offerings and user experiences. Mail Online, the worlds most visited online newspaper provides another example of how integration can enhance overall agility in a media environment. As the online presence of The Daily Mail, one of the United Kingdoms leading daily newspapers, the online news site receives nearly 100 million unique readers each month and more than 6 million every day who visit the site for breaking news, sports, show business, science, and health stories from across the globe. To manage and deliver news articles to its massive audience, Mail Online built a customized media asset infrastructure consisting of point-to-point integrations. Unfortunately, this legacy infrastructure failed to support their explosive growth and was ill suited for handling the increasing complexity of their asset management processes. Using Mule as their core integration platform, which connects multiple back-end systems with their front-end site, they are able to quickly publish new articles, efficiently manage edits and modifications, and better respond to the evolving interests of their readers.

Adapting to a multi-channel media landscape

Similarly, broadcast media companies also benefit from an integration layer, which improves their agility in meeting changing business requirements. Scripps Networks, the leader in lifestyle media and parent company of popular brands such as HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, FINE LIVING TV Network, and Great American Country (GAC), delivers content to audiences in different formats across multiple channelsTV, broadband, and web. The company needed an infrastructure that could perform a variety of business functions and accommodate frequent business changes. With Mule ESB, they can easily modify workflows, increasing overall business agility and minimizing maintenance costs.

Learn more about how Scripps Networks modernized their legacy infrastructure to accommodate changing business needs.

http://www.mulesoft.com/case-study-scrippsnetworks

When evaluating how to increase business agility, top questions to ask include: How is the landscape in my part of the overall media industry changing? What changes do I need to account for, both in the short term and long term? What distribution channels will I utilize now and in the future? Can I respond quickly to sudden changes in the market while minimizing impact to customers with my current infrastructure? How quickly can I onboard a new content partner? How can I evolve my legacy infrastructure to accommodate my strategic direction?

3 Enhancing flexibility to handle heterogeneous content sources and formats

Related to the challenge of increasing business agility is the need to make media asset management infrastructures more flexible. In a multi-channel environment, media companies deliver content that is acquired from one of many sources, including external content partners, syndicated wires, user-generated content, and more. In addition, firms need to deliver content to audiences in a format that is compatible with their preferred devicebe it a laptop, mobile phone, or reading tablet. Firms end up working with many different systems, each with their own data formats and communication technologies. For this reason, media companies need infrastructures that can flexibly handle heterogeneous content sources and formats without slowing down workflows. Many legacy infrastructures, however fail to flexibly support the wide range of data formats and communication technologies typical of multi-channel environments. As discussed previously, media enterprises often build infrastructures around a CMS application and directly integrate additional systems with custom, point-to-point connectors. In a single channel model where only a handful of applications comprise the entire asset infrastructure for a company, such an approach is expedient for enabling data transformation and communication between different systems. With the shift to multi-channel models and the explosion of available content sources, this is no longer the case. The number of potential touchpoints that need to be integrated has grown exponentially, making a point-to-point architecture unsustainable. Now, for instance, an online publisher might aggregate media assets from a CMS, syndicated wire services, numerous blogs, and multiple content partner systems and distribute them across an equally large number of channels, such as TV, print, Web, social media, and syndicated networks. Firms need to enable communication across these various channels so that media assets can flow seamlessly from one system to another.

Adapting to a multi-channel media landscape

To support a heterogeneous media asset environment, media companies need to orchestrate across disparate systems with an integration component. Such an integration component needs to provide support for all the various existing technologies in the environment and be flexible enough to accommodate emerging technologies as well. An integration platform enables media enterprises to quickly and easily connect numerous systems, enhancing their overall flexibility and ability to support a wide range of data formats and communication technologies within their media asset infrastructure.

A major interactive content publisher provides an excellent example of how to enhance flexibility with integration. The company delivers entertainment, games and movies, sports, and technology and business news, across several web properties. To publish content and aggregate content from third party sources, the company used Mule as its core integration framework, augmenting its legacy CMS applications and content stores. Mule provided a highly configurable solution with a wide range of connectors and communication technologies, enabling multiple, simultaneous modifications and unrivaled flexibility. When evaluating how to enhance flexibility, top questions to ask include: What are the different content sources and formats flowing through my system? Does my current infrastructure support all of these various sources and formats? What processes are required to deliver content to audiences in the right format regardless of the device they are using? Will my choice of an expedient integration approach enhance my flexibility or in fact, diminish it?

4 Seamless scaling to accommodate rapid growth and high content volumes

A final key challenge for media enterprises is scalability. Under traditional distribution models, broadcasters produced and aired programs at particular time slots, print publishers created and issued new content daily, weekly, or monthly, and audiences consumed media according to set schedules

Adapting to a multi-channel media landscape

determined by content providers. With the shift to multi-channel models and the centrality of online media in particular, these practices have been entirely upended. Now, media companies work with growing numbers of content partners to provide content and consumers can access content on demand, 24 hours a day. Media companies must not only deliver an increasing volume of new content on a continual basis, but also accommodate the schedules of their audiences. And because online media is particularly prone to sudden spikes in popularity and demand (e.g. viral videos), media companies need to be prepared to handle high content volumes and rapid audience growth. As such, seamless scaling is an absolute must. For many firms, the challenge of implementing a scalable media asset infrastructure is further complicated by the need for complex human interactions in certain business processes. For instance, an online magazine company might automate content retrieval and transcoding processes, but require final approval from an editor before publishing it to their site. To incorporate human interactions into business processes, media firms often utilize a Business Process Management (BPM) tool to manage complex workflows with both automated and manual tasks. In BPMcentric media infrastructures, workflows begin with the intake of content, either from an internal content management system or external content partner, which is then passed to the BPM for further processing. Unfortunately, a BPM alone often fails to scale properly under heavy content loads. This is especially true in a multichannel media environment when content is sourced from tens or even hundreds of content partners and the number of consumers demanding access to content can suddenly peak on short notice. In the ultra competitive media environment, firms cannot afford such bottlenecks, which slow down content delivery, lead to poor audience experiences, and create openings for competitors to gain an edge. Media companies can improve their scalability by augmenting their BPM systems with integration middleware. By using a middleware component such as an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) at the core of their infrastructures, media companies are better equipped to handle massive content volumes and accommodate rapid audience growth. Illustrating how an ESB can complement a BPM and enable media asset infrastructures to scale seamlessly is a global media management company based in the United Kingdom. Fully embracing an online business model, the company provides video on-demand services to leading broadcasters and global brands and delivers content to millions of viewers directly to their gaming consoles, mobile devices, PCs, or Macs.

In a typical scenario, the company receives video content from a clients asset management system and is responsible for enriching, transcoding, and delivering it to audiences. With over 3,000 hours of content flowing through its systems each month, the companys existing infrastructure, which relied primarily on a BPM tool to handle complex workflows involving human interaction, could not scale to meet the massive volume of media assets. With Mule providing a bridge between external client systems and their legacy BPM solution, the company significantly improved the scalability of their infrastructure and saved millions of pounds in software and hardware costs as well as developer time. When evaluating how to scale seamlessly, top questions to ask include:

Adapting to a multi-channel media landscape

What kind of business growth do I anticipate? In which channels will this growth materialize? How will my infrastructure support it? How scalable is my current infrastructure? Can it scale quickly and seamlessly to handle high content volumes during peak traffic times? Are my asset management processes fully automated or do they require human interaction? How will my infrastructure support a mix of automated and manual tasks? Does my BPM scale sufficiently on its own or does it create bottlenecks? What are the potential consequences of maintaining my current infrastructure as is?

5 The Software Architecture for Media

Integration is absolutely essential for media organizations to survive and thrive in the face of recent transformations in the industry. Media infrastructures need to be agile to respond to changing business needs and audience demands, flexible to handle diverse content sources and formats, and scalable to accommodate rapid growth and high content volumes. By achieving agility, flexibility, and scalability, media enterprises can effectively navigate, and capitalize on, the new media landscape. The most successful media companies utilize integration middleware that enables rapid onboarding of content partners, satisfies increasingly on-demand audiences, and orchestrates between diverse systems with ease. Selecting the right integration strategy and supporting architecture is one of the most important decisions media firms make. MuleSoft has extensive experience in providing solutions tailored to the needs of media organizations. Serving as the backbone of media infrastructures, Mule has been deployed in dozens of media companies across the globe. MuleSoft can help you evaluate your key challenges and objectives and develop the key integration applications that will help you succeed in coming years. To learn more and contact an expert visit http://mulesoft.com/mulesoft-digital-media

About MuleSoft
MuleSoft delivers the worlds #1 integration platform for the cloud and enterprise. Built on the most widely used open source application infrastructure products, Mule ESB, iON integration platform as a service (iPaaS), and Tcat (enterprise Tomcat server) provide an ideal combination of simplicity and power to todays web applications. The companys offerings boast more than 2 million downloads and over 3,200 organizations in production, including leading companies such as Walmart.com, MasterCard, Nokia, Nestl, Honeywell and DHL, as well as 5 of the worlds top 10 banks and over 35% of the Global 500. MuleSoft is headquartered in San Francisco with offices worldwide. For more information: www.mulesoft.com, or email info@mulesoft.com. Download Mule ESB: http://www.mulesoft.com/download/

MuleSoft and the MuleSoft logo are trademarks of MuleSoft Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only. All contents Copyright 2012, MuleSoft Inc.

Adapting to a multi-channel media landscape