Money on the Web

This is probably a d_b, but I wanted to see if maybe people could pool their ideas, whether its something your shop did or how a shop you've heard of has made money off the Web or used the Web to make money on the print product.

 

Selling advertisements in photo galleries. Since they get the most traffic, we would put a photo add in one of the photo slots so people see the ad as they are sorting through the pics.

 

Do you have a Web cam and an intern?

 

ESPN has that "Insider" deal where you have to pay for extras. A similar approach could work for newspapers. Give basic coverage on the website for free, but charge a fee for more in depth stuff. It probably won't bring in big bucks as only the hardcore news junkies are likely to pay for it, but it would be a start. It could also be a way to transition to pay sites: Make more and more of the content part of the subscription service and people might start paying if the cost is reasonable.

Hell, the porn industry has had this science down since the beginning of the 'net and it seems to be doing OK...You can get a few pictures and a short video clip for free, but you gotta pay for full access. At least that's what I've heard.

 

I think the Insider won't work for small papers, and even for large ones, it would be a niche type of deal. But if you have the means to do it, it certainly couldn't hurt. You could do the same thing that ESPN does with Mag subscribers. They get the Insider for free. So could your print subscribers.

I like your idea mustang. You could do that with a podcast, too. Have a 10-second spot in the middle of it, or if it's a longer one, you could do a couple spot ads in there. And video, as FDP seems to suggest.

I don't just want ideas for my shop. I think every single person in the industry should be thinking about this, or else they won't be in the industry long. If all the smart (and stupid) journos on this site put their heads together, I bet we can help each other.

 

Sorry, folks, but if I stumble across ads in the middle of a photo gallery or at the start or the middle of an audio or video clip, I'll either skip right by them, ignore them while busying myself with something else (if I can't skip) or stop clicking on that site's exciting gallery, audio or video "extras" altogether.

You try to hold me captive as a viewer/visitor, I'll tell you and your site to go eff yourselves. Either give me content that makes me want to keep coming back and clicking through or just say good night. I'm too used to my DVR and zapping the commercials to go back to the '50s or '60s in terms of audience passivity re: advertising.

 

It doesn't matter if you look at it. It's still there. You can't completely ignore it. Companies are still going to advertise. I skip ads, ignore popups, throw subscription cards on the ground just as much as the next guy, but advertising isn't meant to grab everyone that sees it.

 

The online model is not much different than the print model -- it's still ad driven.

With the online model, however, you have technology that can send message to specific readers based on demographic data. That can be huge.

The only question is this: when was the last time you clicked on an online ad?

 

You could say the same about a telemarketer or a door-to-door salesman or even an infomercial. You and I might not buy it, but someone will.

 

I ignore it too. Most people probably ignore it. But when the photo gallery gets 4x as many views as your circulation its a good way to sell an ad.

 

If your paper is still trying to generate ad revenue based the number of people who click an ad, your paper needs to leave 1998 and jump into the 21st century. That was the biggest mistake online media made in advertising. Nobody interacts with a newspaper or TV ad yet those ads are still considered successful. Why should people be expected to interact with online ads? Page views, not ad clicks should drive revenue.

 

It's moved to a CPM model. It will be tough for a small-town papers to make money online in that model. But those small-town papers' print product will stay around longer than the larger metro papers.