Knowing just how critical customer focus is in the digital age - and how hard it has been for news companies to achieve - Media Management Center has created a new seminar, to be offered for the first time October 5-8, 2008, entitled "Beyond Commodity: Customer-Focused Strategy for Digital Media."

"In this fast-moving digital world, it's absolutely essential that news companies develop their abilities to understand what consumers want - and then act on that knowledge," said Michael P. Smith, executive director of Media Management Center (MMC). "Customer focus is one of what we call the Five Strategic Footholds that will enable news companies navigate through these challenging times. But it's been one of the hardest to implement for news companies, which have struggled both with the concept and the practice of customer focus. That's why we've developed this new seminar."

At the seminar, MMC will unveil surprising new consumer research probing how consumers choose which Web sites to spend time on and outlining what online users care about. And MMC experts will lead participants through the essentials of building a customer-focused organization, from metrics to culture change.

The seminar, part of MMC's series of Digital Strategies for Media Executives seminars, was developed for MMC by innovation and audience expert Stacy Lynch. Formerly Director of Innovations for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Research Manager for the Readership Institute, she has both directed groundbreaking media consumption research and helped news companies take action on consumer insight. She is now a consultant and MMC associate, focusing on what drives use, loyalty and long-term differentiation in digital media.