When they come back happy, sell them more

— Published January 17th, 2003  |  by David Moore

Roddy is chief technology officer at TCM, the new media arm of Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH). TCH own the Irish Examiner, and also have newspaper and radio interests all over the country, and in Northern Ireland.

You come from a journalism background - how useful do you think your journalistic skills and experience have been in your new media work?

They've been very important: high standards are vital, as is a healthy dose of cynicism. I'm proud to say that I can spot a snake-oil 'solution provider' within 30 seconds of starting a pitch.

The deadline thing, too, is good training for when you run 24x7: a lot of new media organisations could learn from how newsrooms are organised; how journalists can and will roll with breaking news when the need arises - just like the techies have to when there is a crisis - and how team spirit is key to effective operation. Being able to spell korrectly is also a bonus sometimes.

What do you see as the main functions of a newspaper's website - support the offline brand, generate revenue... other things?

I'll take all of the above, and a few more. Obviously, it's nice to generate revenue, to look after the title (by, mostly, looking after the fabled younger reader who may switch off newspapers), but it's in the joining the dots between all the businesses that TCH runs that we're seeing the benefits.

What do you think are the biggest mistakes that people in the Irish Internet industry have made over the last couple of years?

We've not worked together very well as an industry: the example I'd give here is that we never got coherent enough to get somebody, anybody to deliver flat-rate, always-on Internet access. Here's a message to anyone working in online content in Ireland: the reason your children are starving is because we spent 1998 wondering about how to use Flash, instead of delivering a nice stream of new users online.

The killer assumption that a lot of very smart people made, and continue to make, is that techological innovation is the same as a great product. It's not the innovation that they buy: that's the bit that makes them look smart to their boss. It's the great product - or, the just-as-good-as-all-the-other, product - that's got a little bit more going on that they want. Plan to bring them to where you want them in simple steps, and when they come back happy, sell them more: that's key to great customer loyalty, and that's key to increasing revenue down the line.

Which sites (apart from your own) do you visit regularly?

The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk) and Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org) are daily visits, and Boards.ie (http://www.boards.ie) is where I lurk online bitchin' about stuph. Workwise, Google takes me where I want to go, scarily directly at times.

What's the next big thing for the online content industry?

I don't see any disruptive technologies rolling down the track. It's just doing what we do now, but better. Better content, richer user experiences, faster delivery, better payment methods.

Some of Roddy's sites:

• The Examiner (http://www.examiner.ie)
• Recruit Ireland (http://www.recruitireland.com)
• Thomas Crosbie Media (http://www.tcm.ie)