“What does your audience want from you – and do you know what they will pay for?”. -from PWC
Many newspapers have not honestly asked themselves this question because if they did they would be the largest creators of business websites in their DMA. As a consultant I work with local business owners to do things like build / rebuild their websites, add their sites and business to listing sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Yelp and others.
Newspapers should be doing this, not me. It should be a big, growing part of their revenue stream. I know of only one newspaper doing something close to this and that is Cox Ohio publishing. Here’s an excerpt from a quick interview with Internet General Manager Ray Marcano from Cox Ohio Publishing explaining more.
End America East Session Follow up with Ray Marcano:
RI- Looking forward, what will your main revenue streams be?
RM- Direct sales not tied to print / classified upsells. Our direct sales are up 30% year over year.
RI- Tell me about your Ad Studio business. When did it launch? Who is using it? Is it a major revenue stream?
RM- We started that business in 2008. Our biggest customers are media companies outsourcing to COX for ad design. It is a significant new revenue stream.
RI- Is an online only presence like the what the Seattle P-I did anything your company has considered?
RM – No because our product is thriving, that’s not to say we don’t have stand alone online sites because we do have 937moms.com and activedayton.com
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