ShortCutCommute Intelligently

ANDREW

Gibson

Journalism senior

LAURADavison

Journalism MA

candidate

KRISTOFFERSON

Culmer

Comp. Sci.PhD

candidate

MANAVSinghal

Comp. Sci.PhD

candidate

JAKEKreinberg

BusinessMBA

candidate

Public media has a problem“For PBS, young adults have sometimes been a ‘lost generation,’” Jason Seiken, the network's general manager of digital, said. “Children watch ‘Sesame Street’ to learn to read, count and be nice. Then they disappear until middle-age, when they learn to appreciate ‘Masterpiece Theater,’ ‘Frontline’ documentaries and nature shows.”

-- The Wrap, 2013

RJI Student Competition criteria

• App must be optimized for mobile devices

• Delivers content to clearly defined target market

• Must serve up content from at least two public media providers (using individual APIs or the Public Media Platform)

• Content must not be divided based on where it came from

ShortCut is a business news application for commuters.

Most commuters get to work by driving alone

Average commute time? 25.4 minutes

Census Bureau, American Community Surveys

How ShortCut worksStep 1: Input commute time

Step 2: Select audio and/or video

The problem we solve

KATIE

Chicago

30 minutesby

train/walking

NATASHA

Los Angeles

45 minutes by car

SHERMAN

New York

60 minutesby ferry and

car

How ShortCut works

How ShortCut recommends stories

• Content-based recommendation system• Calculates a similarity score between

content and user profile• Factors in score– Key words in title– Content source– Length of content

News from across providers

More than a dozen programs

Competitors

WNYC’s Discover (iOS and Android)

NPR’s Infinite Player(iOS)

Tribune Co.’s Newsbeat

(iOS and Android)

ShortCut’s competitive advantages

• Focuses on business news • Content from multiple public media providers

• Audio and video content

• Android platform

“Android is more popular among young people.” -eMarketer

Age Android iPhone

18-24 43% 31%

25-34 40% 34%

35-44 33% 29%

45-54 27% 25%

55-64 17% 19%

Source: eMarketer, 2013

Primary target audience

Smartphone owning 25- to 49-year-old professionals living in urban and suburban areas (especially those with longer-than-average commutes)

People who consume news daily on smartphones

Income Percent

Less than $30,000 30%

$30,000 to $74,999 37%

$75,000 or more 37%

Age Percent

18-29 37%

30-49 40%

50-64 31%

65+ 25%

-- Pew, 2012

Primary target markets• New York (35 min.)• Washington, D.C. (33 min.)• Chicago (31 min.)• Atlanta (30 min.)• Riverside, Calif. (30 min.)• San Francisco (30 min.)• Baltimore (30 min.)

Source: U.S. Census data

Secondary target markets• Minneapolis• Seattle• Dallas• Boston • Denver• Austin

Source: U.S. Census data

Secondary target audience

Casual podcast listeners

ShortCut can turn them into public media super users.

Marketing ShortCut• Tap public media orgs in priority cities to act

as ambassadors• PR outreach to tech and professional lifestyle

publications (i.e., Mashable, Fast Company, Current)

• Word-of-mouth marketing: “Word-of-mouth is absolutely our biggest source of growth.” – Uber Chicago Manager

Paid marketing options

Current financial position• Total sponsorship and underwriting

revenues per annum ($229 million)– APM: $25.1 million– NPR: $43.9 million– PBS: $158.7 million– PRI: $1.3 million

ShortCut revenue potential• Integrate with sponsorship network

currently in place with public media• Delivering audience that is young,

educated and has above-average income• Goal of raising sponsorship rates by 1

percent– $2.29 million

Possibility of ads• 320x550 banner: $3-15 CPM

• Full-screen audio interstitial: $25 CPM

• Voice controlled: >$25 CPM-- Bryan Moffett, National Public Media

Audio advertising is burgeoning

• “The digital audio audience for online radio continues to grow, since the audio medium is highly accessible with very few barriers to entry.”

-- IAB, 2011

+

Familiarity

Pledge Drives• Users will be able to make donations• Donations could go to providers,

programs or member stations• Vital to individual stations– KBIA: $512,494– 49.2 percent of revenue

Yes, we did usability testing

(And thank goodness we did.)

Development next steps• Voice commands: skip, pause, play, like,

dislike• Integrate additional programs

– PRI’s “The World”

• Show total commute progress bar– Functionality to add time during an in-progress

commute

• Ability to download playlists to the phone

• Business news from NPR, PBS, APM and PRI– Customizable to a user’s commute pattern– Learns user preferences over time

• Targeting young professionals in major metro areas

• High monetization potential through sponsorship messages and donations

ShortCut, in short

ShortCutCommute Intelligently