I sat on a panel at last week’s NAA Conference to discuss how online newspapers can maximize their advertising revenue.  We were asked to suggest solutions that the audience could take back to their publishers.   This struck me as an opportunity to put a sense of urgency into the attendees who may not otherwise take action.  

 No one doubts that the world will be a very different place when this conference next convenes in 2010.   Its not even the end of Q1 2009 and, in close succession, we’ve already seen the demise of two major market newspapers which have survived for over 100 years in Denver and Seattle.  Undoubtedly, this is not the end of it.   

I began my newspaper career about a dozen years ago…first with the Newspaper National Network on the newsprint side and the last 10 years online with a succession of companies that hosted newspaper web sites, sold them technology and represented their advertising space.   In all that time, I never actually worked at a newspaper.  My experience has remained at an industry level, first attempting to prove the branding capabilities of 4C newsprint advertising to the likes of P&G and Nestle and then doing the same for online newspapers.  To date, I have personally enjoyed a few pyrrhic victories but it is becomming sadly apparent that the war is being lost. 

The signs were there over a decade ago when Monster.com drilled through those seemingly impenetrable silos of the newsprint world and started siphoning off valuable Classified revenue.  Newsprint newspapers maintained the operational infrastructure to write, edit and hand deliver a media product to virtually every doorstep in America.  That is, until the Internet came along and made just about every aspect of this delivery system obsolete by enabling digital content to be delivered electronically directly to your home or office computer.  I would liken this to traditional media throwing a party, the Internet swoops in, absconds with all the guests to a cheaper yet more immediately gratifying soiree and sticks the newspaper industry with the check.   The write down of all that excess CapX capacity will be very painful. 

 So what does the newspaper industry do?  IMHO, re-tool and hold on for dear life to the one thing they still have that makes them unique….their local voice.   To that end, my suggestion to the NAA Conference audience was to go back to their newspapers and recommend starting with a blank piece of paper and figure out how they can better monetize against that one undeniable and incredibly valuable asset they have left.  

Listed below are a few of the suggestions we have made to BlackBox Media clients which we believe could help get the ball rolling in the right direction.  At the very least, they help form a baseline for collaboration beyond your own borders.  It is not possible to swallow a watermelon whole….it needs to be cut up into bite sized chunks.  Serious systemic issues still need to be addressed but perhaps these could start the conversation…

• Research:  My apologies if I am being redundant, but newspapers must take a blank page approach in order to figure out what role they play in their readers lives and their relative value compared to the other media options available today.  The truth may not always be what you want to hear but media is nothing without an audience and you need to listen to what your readers want.   Bottom line, newspapers need to regain their prominance as the most trusted brand and primary conduit for local content in all its forms.  A shotgun approach won’t work.  With reliable research, you can be more linear and produce more tangible success metrics.  Executing on these initiatives in bite sized chunks will yield more sustainable victories.  And, by having the discipline to stay the course, you will attain your goals more quickly than throwing everything against the wall at once.        
• Micro payments.  Through research, define what your readers like best that they can’t get anywhere else and then test to see if they would be willing to pay $0.05 or even $0.10 a day to get it online.  The side benefit would be creating more “premium” inventory that can be sold at a premium price.
• Content Syndication:  Newspapers are woefully short on content in lifestyle categories that tend to be most valuable to advertisers like Personal Finance, Travel, Health and Parenting.  There are reasons why BusinessWeek.com can command $45-85 CPMs.  Of course, local news and sports remain a mainstay on newspaper web sites but they are readily available on a national level from many other sources and have basically been made a commodity.   There are a number of companies that offer quality lifestyle content that would pass the “editors test” which can be had for the cost of a rev share.  Incorporating some form of localized social media works particularly well in lifestyle categories.  The Indy Star’s Indymoms.com is a good example.   To succeed, these new content areas need to build a following and will require commitments to promote them heavily both online and in newsprint. 
• Convergence:  You need to figure out how to more effectively sell the newsprint/online products in tandem.  Cross promote using a url in print ads or create a promotion that can only be entered online are just two examples.  I would strongly suggest working with your “frenemies” in the Broadcast TV who are suffering just as badly and have common online competition.  You might find enough common ground for a JV.  This has been done before in various markets.  For starters, TV is obviously a good source of video content.  
• Mobile/Social:  More work needs to be done to figure out how to better monetize your mobile platform by linking your terrestrial site to mobile applications.  Same thing on the social side.  Conversations start local.  Be the conduit through which local affinity groups can find each other. 
• Clean UI/Larger Ad Units: If your site looks like a pinball machine, there are probably too many ad units per page.  Don’t throw multiple units at the bottom the page just because you can.  The benefit is NOT linear.  Stuffing ad units wherever they will fit only serves to dilute your site’s ability to drive brand recall and ROI.  Banners and buttons are long gone and even leaderboards, squares wide towers, although standardized are now becoming too ubiquitous to have much impact.  Test 1/2 page units…they are more like a newsprint reader experience, expanding ads can provide multiple touch points for interaction like an “advertorial”.  Bottom line, incorporate any unit in a non-cluttered environment that will make the advertiser stand out and then pre/post test to provide definitive results.       

These are a few topics and I am sure there are many more that can work as stand alones or in tandem.  If you are already doing these initiatives…figure out how to do them better.  If you are not…get started.  A strategic plan cannot work unless you plot out each step along the way with milestones to check your progress against your goals. 

It’s the 4th quarter, 4th and goal with :30 left on the clock and you are trailing by 5 points.  This is gut check time and things need to get done. I am looking for a reaction so please, punch my lights our or just say thanks but please take action..NOW.  The clock is ticking. 

If you are interested in sharing what you have found effective and want to hear what others are doing, let me know and we’ll assemble a group of like-minded industry leaders to compare notes…but only after rock solid NDA’s have been signed by all. 

Keep those thoughts and comments coming! 

David Teitler - CEO, BlackBox Media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 9:49 pm and is filed under Local Market Intel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.