newspapers' digital competitors and how to beat them

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• Who they are • What they’re doing • How to beat them

Digital Competitors

MelTaylorMedia.com

Steps for Success

• Run Web like Business

• Understand Competition

• Leverage Digital – Operational Efficiency

– Increase Revenue Share

– Increase Audience Share

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1. profit

2. operations

3. editorial

in this order

Run Web like Newspaper Think like Publisher / Owner

Who Runs Website ?

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Webmasters

Designers

Editors

Tell you

what you can

and can’t sell

Always done it that way

Platform can’t do it

We don’t offer it

Don’t have time

Too expensive

Bad user experience

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• Hit our web budget

• Web rev up 500 %

• Web traffic is strong

• 50,000 Facebook Fans

Beware

Who Should Run Website ? Compensation tied to digital profitability

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TRADITIONAL • Other Papers

• Community News

• Specialty News

• Magazines

• TV

• Radio

• Cable

• Outdoor

• Yellow Pages

NON-TRADITIONAL • Google

• Groupon

• Facebook

• Digital agency

• Geo-Target national sites

• Self-publishing

• Hyper-local sites/blogs

• Yelp & review sites

• Craigslist, Angie’s list

• Monster, Cars, Realtor.com

Local Biz Bombarded

Advertiser TV

Newspaper

Radio

Direct Mail

Directories

Traditional Channels

Reach Local

Yellow Pages

Groupon

Patch

Facebook

Indie Sites

Search

New Channels

Direct Relationship Twitter, Facebook, Business Websites

Local Consumer

Middle-Man Channels

Advertisers benefit from new, multiple ways

of reaching local consumer

MelTaylorMedia.com INVESTOR PRESENTATION 9 / 2010

between advertiser & consumers, avoiding middle-man channels

EX: Twitter, Database, Blogs, Social, Mobile

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Online deals = small

Newspaper sales = big

• Online is small %, but fastest growing

• Advertisers moving larger % to web

• Outsiders talking to clients. They’re buying

Skepticism

solving fear of cannibalization

if we don’t

offer digital…

somebody else will

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Who are they ?

Patch: Priority Plan

• Local news source

• Trusted community partner

• Local Media replacement

• Create excellent journalism

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AOL’ s

hyper-local play

for local ad dollars

via journalism

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Why is Patch doing this?

• AOL’s dial-up dwindle

• Need new revenue

• Local media downsizing

• 50% of local budgets on sideline

• Local media protecting legacy biz

837 Sites…so far 555 in Q4 2010

• 20 states

• Over 100 in California

• 73 in Massachusetts

• 40 in Georgia

• 30 in Philadelphia

• 3m uniques; Dec 2010

Launched in February 2009

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PATCH Traffic Growth

Oct 2010: 1.71 mil Dec 2010: 3.03 mil Feb 2011: 4.41 mil Ap 2011: 6.91 mil

ComScore

Philadelphia

Region

Today: 30 Summer 2011: 60

Bucks County

Delaware County

Lehigh County

Chester County

Main Line

Communities Avg size: 50-70k

South Jersey

PATCH Philly Regional Publisher: Former Publisher @ Journal Register

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Will Patch Succeed ?

•Who knows – Doesn’t matter

•Patch is more proof…

– Local dollars up for grabs

Huffington Post

• Traffic

• Low-cost

• Advertisers

• Profitable

$315m

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Costs

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Patch Marketing Staff… Freshest Breath in Town

FREE Holiday Parking Courtesy of Ardmore PATCH

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o Local Editor; $40k o MacBook Pro, camera, smart phone, police scanner

o $500 freelancer budget per month

o Regional Publisher; $80k

o Regional Editor; $80k o Oversee group of 12 Patch sites

401K match Performance bonus

Medical & Dental

Editorial Pay & Positions

o Ad Manager; $60k base o 5k signing bonus

o 90k at plan

o Cell, laptop, wireless card

o Budget

SALES Pay & Positions

401K match Performance bonus

Medical & Dental

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• Newspaper • TV • Cable • Yellow Pages • NAA • Bloggers

POACH

Recruitment

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Patch University

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• Be local online ad expert for small biz

• Host WEB 101 seminars for small biz

• Attend chamber & trade functions

• Convince buyers to shift budget to digital

• Visible presence in biz community

Sales Job Posting

Devil ads

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other LOCAL

competitors

Employees Dec 2009: 124

Dec 2010: 3,100

75% of Deal Market

Users 2008: 400 k

2009: 1.5 mil

2010: 40 mil

Average User Single

Female 18-34

Income: 70k+

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HARVESTING your audience

> Partner

> Run Groupon Ads

& Newspaper

NO

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Yellow Pages

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Cable

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Google Places

Google Business Photos

Orange County, CA Phoenix, AZ Bay Area, CA

San Antonio, TX St Petersburg, FL

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American Express

helping local business

buy banner campaigns

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Newspapers DIGITAL SERVICE

Divisions

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TRIBUNE DIGITAL SERVICES

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Online Radio

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o 94 mil REGISTERED users

o 34 mil ACTIVE users

o Est $200 mil revenue for 2011

o Top 50 national advertisers

o Growing sales force

o San Fran, NYC, LA, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Atlanta

Pandora

Pandora

# 2 all-time free iPhone app # 1 all-time free iPad app

Jan 2011

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Targeting of local ads

on NATIONAL SITES

o Geo-targeting

o By format

o Audio, Video, Display

o Mobile

Pandora

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Hyper-local sites

& Web Sales

for Local TV

o Quickie hyper-local sites for local TV

o No upfront costs

o Call center pitches local biz in TV’s name

o Rev share approx 60% to DataSphere

o Keeps primary relationship w/client

o DataSphere retains advertiser data

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How To Win

What can Newspaper do…

that others can’t ?

USP Unique Selling Proposition

USP • Superior local reach

• Feet on street

• Trust & Brand familiarity

• Client relationships

• Local content creation & curation

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How Newspaper Wins

Combine Newspaper USP with

New Digital Tools

USP Unique Selling

Proposition

Newspaper TOOLS

• Legacy

• Feet on street

• Local content creation

• Client relationships

• Brand familiarity

• Print / Traditional distribution

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New Newspaper TOOLS

• Video

• Social & Mobile

• Integrated / cross platform

• Multi-media newsrooms

• Aggregation

RUN ONLINE LIKE PRINT

SAME RULES

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Grade Yourself

• Newsroom knows Web-biz 101 ?

• Reps knows website basics ?

• Reps overcome common objections ?

• Reps know how local biz uses Web ?

• Reps help local biz understand Web ?

• Most web inventory sold local-direct?’

• ALL Executives Web-trained ?

Client Questions

• Current marketing allocation

• Current digital allocation

• Digital you are considering

• Who’s pitching you ?

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Early Steps

• Run as business, not hobby

• Who’s in charge?

• Comp adjustment

• Know & pitch current clients

• Simplify sales process

Overhaul Comp

• Revenue per rep & manager

• New business per rep (per month)

• Grow % of current clients

• High commission: new clients

• Low commission: transactional

• Bonus & PENALTY

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Reps Operating Blind

Fully aware of how clients are spending budgets?

• All reps as super sellers

• Slowly grow web-only force

• 1 point of contact for client

• Offer many solutions

• Reach & power of all platforms

Integrated & Separate Sales Reps

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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

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• cpm

• pageviews

• uniques

• click-thru rate

• leaderboards

• pixels

• impressions

REMOVE ALL

Geek Speak

?

Who Runs Website?

Mandatory Skill Set

1. Entrepreneurial

2. Biz-Dev & Direct Sales

3. Digital DNA

4. Traditional Marketing

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Online Journalism / Content looking for

Revenue Models

FAIL

Proven Revenue Models that support

Online Journalism / Content

SMART