Mel Rob

Taylor Curley

Digital Cage Match

Editorial vs. Sales

America East Newspaper Conference March 15, 2011

Hershey, Pa.
TEAM CURLEY
 Mel Taylor Media
How we help Newspaper

refresh
blow up
overhaul & rebuild
outdated web business models
Mel Taylor Background
Run Web like Newspaper
Think like Publisher / Owner

1. profit in this order

2. operations
3. editorial
Editorial vs. Sales

Internal Conflict
 FAIL

Online Journalism/Content
looking for
Revenue Models

SMART

Proven Revenue Models

that support
Online Journalism/Content
Rob Curley
• Brian Greenspun
• Deep Pockets
• Unlimited Patience?
• Las Vegas Portfolio
• Culture & Staffing
Rob Curley
• Inventory Management
• Profit / Loss & Cash flow
• Sales Team Effectiveness
• Revenue Projections
Costs
Rob Curley
• Editorial independence
• Sales calls
• Multi-media sales kits
• Video
 Rob Curley
Editorial & Revenue
• Washington Post
• Naples News
How long ?
To Reach
Profitability
Bigger
Not
Always
Better
Who Runs Site
Financially motivated or….

• Make it impressive
• Drive page-views
• Win cool awards
• Sell more print
?
Ad Mix
do they see
local business
looking great ?
 Print

News Hole
 promo
LOGO
sections

Online
Ad hole
DUMB
National Ad Networks
( at local level )

REMOVE
from home-page & section fronts
Consider day-parting
danger of ad networks

Ad unit
designed to
look like
editorial
How GREAT sites
lose money
 Online Video
show me the money
online video
that pays

Remember all that video stuff

you bought for the newsroom?

Take back half of it, and give it

to the sales department.
 Re-think
EVERYTHING
• Vendor Deals
• Aggregation & RSS Reduce Costs
• Local Indie-Journos via
• CMS Platforms > Open Source
• Local Ad Networks > Crowd Source
• Sales-Based Video > Revenue Share
• Management
 New Workshop from Mel Taylor Media

Online Business 101

for Editorial, Programming & Web Producers

When content creators understand online business models…

they create more advertiser-friendly & profitable websites
BEST PRACTICES
Advertising Sales
 MelTaylorMedia.com

•Jeanne Straus
Publisher/Owner:
9 Newspapers -border of PA NJ NY

•Mike Scobey
COO: Print -Calkins Media
Publisher: Doylestown Intelligencer

•Aimee Eckley
Director of Interactive
PA Newspapers / Times Shamrock
RUN ONLINE
LIKE PRINT
SAME RULES
SIMPLE First Steps

• Who’s in charge?
• Ask client about ad spend
• Compensation adjustment
• Pitch current print clients
• Simplify ads & packages
 Steps for
Success
• Understand Competition
• Know Your USP
• Leverage Digital
– Cost Reduction / Operational Efficiency
– Increase Revenue Share
– Increase Audience Share
1. Compensation RUN
2. Management
3. Simplify inventory
WEB
4. Apply pressure LIKE
5. Raise Rate PRINT
USE EVERY TOOL To Grow
• audience share
• revenue share
Cannibalize Print ?
 solving fear of
cannibalization
if we don’t
offer digital…
someone else will
 Overhaul
Compensation
• Revenue & New Business
• Per rep & manager
• Per month
• Commission
• 25% or more for new biz
• 10% or below for transactional
 Overhaul
Compensation
> Grow % of clients using web
> Bonus & PENALTY
• Don’t hit web ? Lose PRINT bonus
• Don’t hit web….all the time?
> Lose acct or job
 Compensation

DO NOT bonus based on:

• Page views
• Unique users
 instead…

bonus & compensate

on revenue & profit
What in Common?
Local Ad
Dollars
AOL’ s
hyper-local play
for local ad dollars
via journalism
 Over 800 Sites…so far
555 in Q4 2010

• 18 states
• Over 100 in California
• 73 in Massachusetts
• 40 in Georgia
• 30 in Philadelphia
• 3m uniques; Dec 2010
Launched in February 2009
 Communities Avg size: 50-70k
PATCH Philly Regional Publisher:
Former Publisher @ Journal Register

Lehigh County

Bucks County
Main Line
Philadelphia
Region
Chester County
Today: 30
Summer 2011: 60

South Jersey
Delaware County
 Will Patch Succeed ?

• Who knows
– Doesn’t matter

• Patch is more proof…

– Local dollars up for grabs
diverting attention away
from item of significance
Deadly Mistake
only focus on….
• traffic
• community
• banner ads
• journalism skills
 Sweet.
Newspaper is falling
right into our trap
 Patch Grows
• Efficiencies of scale
• Walmart effect
• Infra-structure
• Additional revenue ops
 Huffington Post
& The Great Roll-Up
similar to isp, cable, radio, newspaper

• Low-cost & profitable

• Pageviews & uniques
• Management success
• Leverage web 2.0 & 3.0
• Social, viral, commenting
 Overcoming
Common Objections

Groupon Newspaper
Not Already
Facebook Doesn’t
Interested have Site
Google Work

Tried it.
Don’t See
Cable No Budget Did not
My Ad
Work
 At Work Day-Part
Internet Prime Time
Mon-Fri 9a-5p

Morning Evening

Mid-day
 Total Readership
Newspaper: xxx,000
Online: xx,000
Total Reach: xxx,000
Website: xx,000 Unique / readers
Mobile: x,000 Apps, alerts
Total
Online Social: x,000 Facebook, Twitter
Email: xx,000 Opt-ins
YouTube: xx,000 Subscribers
Home Page
LARGE
Premium
Unit
Hyper Local
Blogger Network
Farm System
for Newsroom
 Newspaper TOOLS
• Legacy
• Feet on street
• Local content creation
• Client relationships USP
Unique
Selling
• Brand familiarity Proposition

• Print / Traditional distribution

 Newspaper TOOLS

• Video
• Social & Mobile
• Integrated / cross platform
• Large newsrooms
• Aggregation, Blog networks
 Newspaper USP
unique selling proposition

What can Newspaper offer…

that PATCH & OTHERS can’t ?
America East
Hershey, Pa
March 15, 2011

MelTaylorMedia.com
Twitter: @MelTaylorMedia 267-625-5313
Mel@MelTaylorMedia.com