A-B-C Revenue Generation: Do the Little Things Well

In baseball, lots of singles and doubles are more prevalent than a grand slam. More games are won with what former Yankee's Manager Joe Torre called "A-B-C baseball," a reference to doing all the little things right in the game.

On a hunch, while at the min day Summit in New York, I bumped into Hanley Wood President Peter Goldstone, and asked him what percentage of ad sales came from grand slams (major accounts). "Great question," he said, "we're doing an analysis right now and more and more it is the smaller accounts -- no doubt we need to do much more for this audience." Philippe Guelton, COO of Hachette told me it was dependent on the title, with Car & Driver supported mainly by eight large accounts, while the ratio was flipped for shelter magazines.

As large ad expenditures ebb (hopefully for just the short term), it is A-B-C baseball that will increase web revenues. But setting up an ad department predicated on selling grand slams is not the way to get there. "We had to reduce the cost of sales," explained Jeff DeBalko, Chief Internet Officer for Reed Business. "We can't be flying people around the country for $30,000 accounts."

Look for inside sales departments and self-serve ads to be the new norm, with many of the execs telling me that they are looking to set up directory listings. The key, said Jim Spanfeller, CEO of Forbes.com, is to look for ways to monetize differently. "Move your brand to the web," he told the audience, "not necessarily your product."

It's Mine -- But Not Just Mine Alone

Was on vacation last week, so just opened Mine, Time's new effort to give me news I will peruse.

The slim magazine features a silky matt cover and a compilation of stories decided by choices I made of whether I prefer sushi or pizza (both) or dinner with Socrates or Da Vinci (I can't remember my choice). Whatever I opted for provided me with an article from Travel& Leisure, Real Simple, Food & Wine, Time & Golf magazines. Each story maintained the brand of its parent -- so formating jumps from a serifed font, to non, back to serif, which was odd feeling. I understood what the marketing team was thinking, but it felt less like a magazine directed to me -- rather than a sales book for the brands.

I Googled one article, "South Africa's Beautiful Wine Country," and was stunned that the story was over two years old. I wondered if the nine restaurants listed were still even in business (in which case, that would be another story, "Restaurants Live Longer in South Africa."

The sole sponsor for the project was Lexus, and one ad touting it's Navigation System personalized "my ad" by inserting "fine food," "bistros" and the name of my town. I only know that these words were inserted because inexplicably they changed they shaded those words in the copy. Looked contrived.

I'm not saying this wasn't a good idea -- indeed I give huge kudos to Time, American Express & Lexus for being so innovative. Indeed the buzz it generated and the fact that I spent hours reading every morsel and dissecting what I was reading certainly surpassed the mere seconds people otherwise might spend on a page.

Yes, there were some glitches, mailing, stories chosen, old stories, and questionable decisions on layout and creative. But the bigger story is that the trio were willing to try something new, to get people excited. And in that regard, Mine is a huge success.

Quick Notes

• Bad news follows good for the New York Times, as it reports losses of $75m. Guess that is $15m per Pulitzer.

Schmidt's Advice to Publishers

I was stuck at home with the flu so couldn't get out to the Newspaper Association of America's conference in San Diego. Bad one to miss. Most of recent years' events would have tested an insomniac's affliction, but this year, Eric Schmidt was brought in as a headliner to kick some -- er, motivate publishers to seek new ways to reach out to readers and focus on, wait for it, advertising.

Now, really, that is priceless: The 10-year old Internet prodigy telling the century old media scions a thing or two about audience development and making money from eyeballs. According to my friend and Nstein colleague, Christopher Hill, who bore witness to Schmidt's carefully chosen words in his closing keynote, Schmidt attempted to move the dial from foe to friend, appealing to publishers' egos by calling papers trustworthy and curators of the public record. He almost sycophantically exalted the printed form versus the web presentation. Simultaneously he wove in bits on cloud computing, networking and data mining. All of these strings were tied up with the meme of innovation. With these technological tools and newspapers' strengths for story-telling, he gave advice on how newspapers be more relevant -- and make money. But the fun began when the Q&A started. Someone asked Schmidt to speak frankly about what newspapers have done right -- and what would he do if his 'fantasy' came true and he woke up to find himself a publisher! He praised them for getting onto the web back in the 90s. Then he took a circuitous path to a direct hit: "What have you done for a second act?"

He said that first and foremost he would try and figure out what his reader wanted. Ha!! Those words transported me back to 1995 -- when we were launching two new "ezines" for IN Jersey's portal: The Surf Report and Neo. The duo were unapologetic in its embrace of Gen Xers who shunned pro-sport coverage (a staple of newspapers) in favor of X-treme action like surfing and (snow & skate) boarding. Our coverage was superb (yes we used real writers) and our national and even international following for both were robust and enthusiastic. At the time we asked our sister dailies if they wanted to repurpose our efforts in print. I might have just as well asked them if they would like to pepper their food with cockroach feces.

Newspapers thought they could shovel their product from their editorial systems to their web content management systems, and all would be right with the world. Any attempt to create content outside the bastion of the newsroom was met with contempt. There was no room for innovation for a newsroom back then. Neither in how they presented the news online - nor in their understanding of what was news.

While everyone blames the Internet for eroding print sales, could it be that the real problem was that newspapers didn't adopt coverage to their changing audiences? As if playing hot potato with NFL and MBA coverage "no, really, you take it" the major tv networks realized they just couldn't get the fan following particularly in the 18-35 audience -- and cut back accordingly. And that was a decade ago. And yet, papers devote proportionally massive real estate and man-power to covering pro sports, yet are derisive when they cover surfers who "flaunt the laws, and surf during rough weather." Just whom are they appealing to?

Last month at NAA's MediaExchange, Chris Dorsey, Digital Media Sales Director for Forum Communications paper in Fargo, ND was on a panel on contextual advertising. Dorsey was explaining how contextually speaking, Fargo is a cold place, and what is of interest to his constituents is what to do when it is cold -- or when the river rises. Beer blasts and drying up wet basements. So Dorsey created a home-page product called "Marketplace Offers." For $149 a month, businesses can advertise Ladies' Nite Specials or offers to remove mold. Every listing has a print or mobile response -- all facilitated by the paper -- a vendor doesn't need to have an IT staff at the ready to do this. Readers can subscribe for daily emails of specials. This morning's count: 125 business offers, or nearly $20,000 in monthly revenue for something with that should be exceedingly high margin (self-serve sales origination page).

This is what Schmidt was talking about. Know your audience and create a service that reaches it. Don't try and lock your content behind a paywall -- unless you cover a niche market and have created value for that information. What information do people find valuable? Is it alerts to buy a new car or to be notified of job opportunities?

The lesson is not just for newspapers, but magazines, bloggers, ecommerce folks, anyone. People pay for that which they perceive to be valuable – whether it is a lead, a job tip, where the ladies' night specials are -- or how to dry a wet cellar.

Ad Placements -- Contextually Speaking

In the biz we call it "make goods:" when an error or omission with an ad calls for the publisher (or broadcaster) to make an adjustment. An example would be running a car ad next to editorial about a car recall. In fact, in print, there are proof readers who are responsible to catch just those types of errors.

The online world is a bit more dicey, as ads (or even editorial) are usually served dynamically, which is how the Drudge Report had this unfortunate combination of a gun promo above the tragic massacre in Binghamton, NY. So if proof-reading is not the answer, how can online publishers safeguard themselves from this type of truly disastrous positioning?

The key is to be able to contextually understand the nature and tone of a story. General Motors would no more want its advertisements next to a story of its current economic malaise than it would next to a recall article. One solution would be to have the editors tag the story as being negative or positive. It's a great idea but limited in practicality since stories may run that are from wire services, stringers or archives where tags would be limited. Further, it's debatable whether editors would take the time to tag (accurately) anyway.

A better solution would be to automate the process of tagging and create metadata by semantically analyzing the content; using a taxonomy for categorization and sub-classification, authority files for entities and analyze by tone and sentiment. This would prevent specific categories of ads from running on certain types of stories. True, the challenge is made more difficult if the ads are being served from a network. However, this should be an easy programming work around.

If I were a brand advertiser advertising online, as part of my risk management I would want assurances that my ad would not run under conditions that might damage my brand's reputation. Or else I would want a make good.

So Look Who's a Publisher Now

Content marketing guru Joe Pulizzi joined me on a webcast I hosted for Nstein in early month on a burgeoning marketing sector: content marketing aka custom publishing. The webcast was part of the monthly Double-Down on Digital series Nstein is offering this Spring on how publishers can tap into new revenue streams -- providing they have an agile digital content supply chain.

Content marketing is a subject that fits this blog so perfectly as it answers the question of "so just who is a publisher?" The answer is: anyone. Anyone with a story to tell and a means to tell a story. Case in point, the uproarious viral video series by JetBlue targeted at corporate big wigs whose wings have been - ahem -- clipped. The series is clever, timely and positions the company beautifully.

More conventionally, brand advertisers rely on print for custom -- which has now extended to newsletters and the Web. Some do it up big, like Proctor & Gamble's teen site Being Girl. The site is loaded with frank, age-appropriate content geared to girls entering puberty and through their teens. Launched in 2000, the site receives more than 3 million monthly visitors from around the globe and is customized for 44 different countries.

I spoke with Bob Arnold, the global being girl digital marketing manager for BeingGirl, and asked him about the site, his audience and the content. Arnold said the site seemed like a natural fit, given the company's depth of knowledge on FemCare. The entire site is produced in-house by P&G staffers and the "editor-in-chief" role seems to fall on the shoulders of Iris Pregger, PhD in women's health studies. She and her team scope and write the age-appropriate content for girl. Indeed Pregger has a column "Ask Iris" that Arnold says "receives a couple hundred questions a week."

The articles are informative, although obviously tilted toward product. I asked Arnold how hard it was to navigate the balance of information versus corporate stewarship. "For us, we wanted to make sure we provided a value -- and shape business behind that," he said. "If you make consumers first, ultimately they will reward you." The real eye-opener for Arnold, who does not portend to be a publisher, was that this market was so under-served. The other issue was dealing with a seemingly day-to-day morph of his audience. "In this day and age [teens] attitudes and tastes change rapidly, and it challenging to keep up with that," he said.

BeingGirl's success doesn't surprise Pulizzi who sharpened his teeth in custom publishing when he was head of that division at Penton Media. His mission was to corral the advertisers who wanted to communicate directly with its customers through entertaining or informative content and bring them into the Penton Content Supply Chain.

According to Pulizzi, most companies don't take the P&G route of creating this content inhouse. "They really don't want to be pubishers, they don't have the will, the expertise or the knowledge," he explained. Advertisers are looking for help, and publishers are uniquely positioned to provide it. "At Penton, we were really good at telling a story and we wanted to grab a slice of that content marketing pie," he explained. At Penton custom publishing brought in about 20 percent of annual revenues. "Advertisers are going to get this done -- the question is who will get they turn to?"

Rocky Mountain Low

The decision by the E.W. Scripps company to close the Rocky Mountain News on February 26 -- a month shy of its 150th birthday was more evidence of a vastly troubled industry. The mourning in Denver for the favorite voices that were silenced, was the exact way I felt in 1982 when Cowles Media stopped the presses on the Buffalo Courier-Express. (That paper resulted from the union of the Buffalo Courier and Buffalo Express, whose vast archives extended back to 1828, and whose ownership included a guy by the name of Samuel Clemons, aka Mark Twain.)

1982, you might recall, is the year that economists harken back to, usually in the context of "the worst economy since 1982." Some numbers:

• Median houses: $83,000
  
• a gallon of milk: $2.24
• a gallon of gas: $1.30

Whether 2009 will win the dubious distinction of surpassing 1982 as worst year, there is no doubt that the perfect storm of a bad economy and changing technologies kills businesses and hastens transformations. What changing technology impacted newspapers in 1982? Hot metal typesetting (truly the very first movable type!) to phototypesetting -- also known as "hot-type" versus "cold-type." The cold type process eliminated the need for a skilled set of laborers who deftly created lines of copy for press. Adapting to the technology required negotiating with unions, investing in technology and dealing with the criticisms that phototype was a generation less than hot-type. (There would often be a blurriness that drove readers nuts.)

The other technological change that impacted the C-E was, believe it or not, television. The evening news on TV had seriously eroded evening newspapers, causing many of them to move into the morning slot -- such as the C-E's competitor, the Berkshire Hathaway-owned Buffalo (Evening) News. A decade of plant closings and subsequent exodus from the Buffalo area saw the population plummet and advertising shrink. Sound familiar to today's woes? The C-E had actually invested in cold-type but hadn't been able to implement it because of union constraints. And suddenly the voices of syndicated Chicago columnist Mike Royko and New Jersey's Jim Bishop were eliminated from the Buffalo news diet. Over the next decade many two newspaper towns shrank to one. Denver dodged that bullet for yet another decade before succumbing last month.

This traipse down memory lane is not to belittle the sorrows of newspapers today. Rather it is to show natural evolutions that occur following every technical advancement. Savvy papers moved from evening editions to morning, and savvier ones realized that they could use those presses they reserved for news to print commercially for others. Still the savviest will be those who follow the upgrade path available to them, and while it won't be easy, it is still a more graceful morph than, say, the horse and buggy to a car.

Yes, the models have to change, and yes the infrastructures have to change, and yes union contracts will have to be rewritten. But there is an upgrade path. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, all but out of the pulp business, is seriously talking about going all digital. It wouldn't surprise me if Hearst migrates its San Francisco Chronicle into web only as well. ImpreMedia's Hoy New York went all digital in January. The Detroit papers are both ceasing home delivery save for Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. They are evolving: losing their tales that are heavy to transport.

The next step is modifiying the notion of church and state. Notice I didn't suggest eliminating church and state, but modifying it. There is room for a little integration, a little cooperation. And how about democratizing news -- so that not just reporters determine what is news worthy. Perhaps the model will be to open up the gates for users to assist as field researchers, while a writer/editor follows up and fact checks. We all trust readers during catastrophes -- why not create a process for readers to assist in the newsgathering process? HuffingtonPost is popular for its voices -- and the voices it aggregates.

The Rocky Mountain low being felt right now will not be just an isolated event in the news industry. And we will look back at this time as a transformative one, as going all digital will not be a last-ditch gasp at life -- but a viable alternative. The voices that ceased in the '80s when the presses were stopped, were not silenced with the shuttering of the RMN, but have morphed into Inside the Rockies and I Want My Rocky, two new sites by former writers. No doubt the ownership and business model may change. So while yes, in 2009, just like in 1982, some organizations will be hastened to die, some will hang on, others will adapt -- and some pure-plays will be borne. "Without failure, the culture of risk fades. Without risk, creativity withers," says NYT Columnist Roger Cohen who points out that churn is the American way.

Or to paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of the death of newspapers is greatly exaggerated.