GATEHOUSE MEDIA VENTURES UPDATE

June 2012

Gatehouse Media Ventures: Why We Formed Ito Accelerate the new business development activities

o Focus on “disruptive” innovation

o Create a VC-like funding and management structure

o Provide the best incubation environment

o Generate material growth both “organically” in the

new businesses and in collaboration with the

GateHouse newspapers

Criteria for the Businesses We Build

o In the center of long-term, sustained growth

industries

o No more than one-step away from the transaction

o Direct connection to our existing GateHouse value

proposition / assets

o Reasonably near-term cash flow generation and

capital requirements

Propel Marketing: Background

Customer facing solutions: email, reputation and presence management, websites, social marketing, calendaring/appointment-setting

Performance-based commerce: pay-per-click, deals, couponingOnline/ digital media: mobile, social, online directories, online display, digital outdoor

Advertising & Marketing Spend By U.S. SMBs

Source: 2011 BIA Kelsey

$ Bi

llion

s

$22.4

$40.2

Propel Marketing: Local Market Demand

o Frequently mentioned in customer surveys by the publishers

as a top priority (i.e., digital marketing solutions)

o But most SMBs either don’t know where to start, or have had

a poor experience before

o Low current penetration, particular in areas like mobile web

sites and social marketing

o Almost uncapped upside: huge latent demand and available

share from other media

Propel Marketing: What the Customers NeedWhat the SMB wants How Propel Delivers It

1. “Show me why I need it”

• Simplifies complex marketing options • Consultative sales, educational seminars; ongoing in-person contact

2. “Pick and execute the right components for me”

• Expertise in digital marketing for SMBs• Product bundles that align with SMBs’ objectives and capabilities

3. “Save me time doing it”

• Automated interfaces with vendors; integrated workflow

• Customer-facing campaign managers

4. “Save me money doing it”

• Large volume discounts from the integrated vendors• Automated workflows and elimination of redundant data entry

5. “Show me the results” and “demonstrate the ROI”

• Ongoing education for the SMB about what success means

• Integrated reporting dashboard with real-time data• Live interaction with Propel client managers

6. “Make me feel comfortable throughout the process”

• Tied to the trusted newspaper brands• Transparent performance through integrated reporting

• Dedicated campaign and client managers

The Market Size

• In the GateHouse markets we do business with approximately 300,000 businesses

• In those markets there are approximately 2 million businesses

Propel Marketing – more than an idea…

o Building full team of digital marketing experts

o Integration of multiple internal and external

services

o High volume of low-value transactions

o Highly-efficient, centralized technology-driven product support and distribution

o Easy to do business with

Customer SegmentationSmall Large Small Small Medium Medium

Characteristics No or poor websiteNo mobile presenceNo Google places

Website, No mobile presencelimited or no social

Dedicated mktgLead-focused, ROI

Use outside agencyBranding

Business Types Small home contractorsHair, skin careSmall restaurantCar repair

Large home contractorsInsurance AgentsMD, chiro, dentistReal estate agentSmall retailLarge restaurant

Smaller car dealerSmall banksOutpatient clinicsAttorneysLarge retailReal estate broker

Multi-location car dealersRegional banksHospitalsRegional retail

# of employees <5 5-20 20-500 500+

Spend/month $100-200 $200-500 $350-1,000 $1,000+

Products Website creationMobile siteSERSocial setup

Mobile siteWebsite upgradeSocial setup, mgt liteSERIdentity MgtRep Monitoring

Mobile site, call trackSocial mgt liteSEMOnline media, Audience ext, re-targetRep monitor, identity

Social mgtSEMSEOAudience ext, re-target

Goals of the Propel Marketing Organization

o Create a full service digital

marketing team

o Offer high impact & timely

products

o Provide high-quality customer

service and products

o Evolve products– customer

driven

o Implement turn key service offering for partnerso Time & Expense Savings

o Leverage technology to create efficient delivery, communication and reporting

Current Product Offering - Overview

o Initial focus on providing full range of

solutions to SMBs

o Ability to best aggregate results into one

place for reps and customers

o Only white labeled solutions with single

sign on capabilities

o Set foundation of products/services and

build upon initial offerings

o Goal: Propel Marketing portfolio will have

solutions to match customers needs

regardless of their digital marketing

stage – one size doesn’t fit all!

o Create product packages to help with early

sales activities

o Expand offerings and improve process

PropelRep – Reputation Monitoring

PropelList – Business Listing Cleansingo Provide businesses with the ability to verify and

manage the accuracy of their business information on the web focusing on submission and updates to major search and directory sites.

o Why: Accurate and complete business listings are an important first step in online marketing. More than 40% of online listings are inaccurate, incomplete, or missing. 

o What we do:o Submit listing information to all major

search engines and directories.o Listing data updated any time and provided to

top data providers for future releases to directories (Acxiom, InfoUSA etc.)

o Save our clients the time and effort of validating listings on hundreds of different sites.

o Verify listings to provide better placement to stand out from competition.

PropelWeb – Desktop Website Creation

Only 13% of websites contain a phone number on the homepage

Only 25% have an email address or contact forms 36% of SMB sites are single pages

PropelWeb – Mobile Website Creation

PropelWeb – Mobile Website Creation

95% of smartphone users have searched for local info!

+ 90% of these users took action within 24 hours+ 61% called a local business after searching+ 59% visited in person

PropelWeb – Mobile Website Creation

• 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly-designed mobile site

• 40% have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience

PropelSocial – Creation & ConversationsFacebook Twitte

r

PropelSearch – Search Engine Marketing

PropelOptimize – Search Engine Optimization

PropelTrack – Call Trackingo Robust call tracking solutions to provide complete

activity reporting from any advertising medium for complete measurement of effectiveness.

o Why: SMBs have varying level of expectations but are looking for ways to quantify the results of their investments. Phone call tracking provides SMBs the ability to generate unique local or toll-free numbers to be used on their sites or in any of their advertising campaigns (social, search, print, radio, direct mail etc.) 65% of businesses still rate phone call leads as one of the highest quality leads they can get.

o What we do:o Create unique local or toll-free call tracking

numbers that are provided to businesses that ring to their local number(s).

o Track and record all public call information.o Provide call detail and recordings within the Propel

business dashboard.

PropelTrack – Reverse Proxy & JavaScript Rewrite

PropelLocal

PropelDisplay

o Same display networks as core GHS units

o PropelRetargeting – remarket to users across the web

after they’ve visited a customers website - DataXU and

Google Ad Network

o Direct buying services available – guaranteed

placement/inventory

o Utilize PropelTrack solutions with all display campaigns

PropelDashboard

Future Propel Offerings

o Social Media Management Tool – DIFM & DIY

o Email Marketing Management

o Email Marketing – 3rd party distribution lists/targeting

o Desktop and Mobile Site Content Management System for

SMBs

o Single sign-on for each customer to manage all services

within the Propel Dashboard

Organizational Structureo Sales Channels:

o Direct sales channel

o GHS regional sales channel

o 3rd party partner sales channel

o Operations:

o Marketing Implementation Specialists

o Ops/Development/Specialty

o Client Services

o Process:

o SFDC – Partner Portal – centralized system for all

processed requests

o Various sales channels don’t dramatically change

fulfillment process

Organizational Fulfillment Process

Early Findingso Good success with service oriented businesses – top

YP categories

o Important to create packages that have a natural

progression for upsell opportunities

o Managing customer expectations early:

o Results

o Timing

o Search budget – customized for

client/geography/category

o Must be SMEs – can’t make this up

o Mobile presence opportunity – requires education

o Ongoing training & education – customer and SMEs

o Good results for early campaigns – clicks, calls,

emails and engagement

How to go to marketSmall Large Small Small Medium Medium

Characteristics No or poor websiteNo mobile presenceNo Google places

Website, No mobile presencelimited or no social

Dedicated mktgLead-focused, ROI

Use outside agencyBranding

Business Types Small home contractorsHair, skin careSmall restaurantCar repair

Large home contractorsInsurance AgentsMD, chiro, dentistReal estate agentSmall retailLarge restaurant

Smaller car dealerSmall banksOutpatient clinicsAttorneysLarge retailReal estate broker

Multi-location car dealersRegional banksHospitalsRegional retail

# of employees <5 5-20 20-500 500+

Spend/month $100-200 $200-500 $350-1,000 $1,000+

Products Website creationMobile siteSERSocial setup

Mobile siteWebsite upgradeSocial setup, mgt liteSERIdentity MgtRep Monitoring

Mobile site, call trackSocial mgt liteSEMOnline media, Audience ext, re-targetRep monitor, identity

Social mgtSEMSEOAudience ext, re-target

Wedge Website, SER, Social setup

Site upgrade, mobile, social DIY/DIFM Lite

Rep monitor, Social DIFM Lite

Audience extension, targeting, Social Mgt

Sales Coverage SureWestPM - Telesales

SureWestPM - Telesales

SureWestPM – Field Reps

SureWestPM – Field Reps

What Propel Means for People in this Room

o Access to the entire product and delivery portfolio

through a single sales interface; training; customer

support and delivery

o Robust sales operations infrastructure including lead

generationo Upgrade from current product set

• Better and broader set of products

• One point of contact

• Better reporting

• Better marginsNext Steps:

oRapid deployment across GateHouse Media

oWave 1 – week of July 16th – details to be finalized

Appendix

PropelRep – Reputation Monitoring

o Ability for businesses to monitor and manage information and mentions about their business across the web including social sites (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare etc.), review sites like Yelp, Yahoo and Google, content sites including news and blogs, and any other smaller sites that publish content mentioning the particular business.

o Why: Monitoring your business reputation will ensure you’re aware of what others are saying about your business across the web and allow you to communicate with them. It gives business owners control over their reputation. Reputation management is equally important as the mobile web continues to grow at explosive rates, giving business owners the tools to protect their brand(s) and be alerted if others attempt to impersonate them on the web.

o What we do:o Perform comprehensive, initial search for mentions of the

business across the web and provide a comprehensive report of identity status and mentions to date.

o Offer real-time ongoing monitoring with customizable alerts (i.e. negative review posted on Yelp, blog mentions, etc.)

o Include competitive benchmarking for web presence and mentions across the web

o Surface a daily verification report within a Propel dashboard displaying their business listing’s presence

PropelWeb – Desktop Website Creationo Ability for businesses who either don’t have a website, or who

are not satisfied with their existing website to create a cost and effort-effective solution that will be visible to potential customers searching for their products and services online.

o Why: With more 20% of searches on Google being local, all SMB’s need to have a presence on both desktop and the mobile web. A large amount of SMB’s that have sites today aren’t properly using them or have only a splash page. A recent sample showed that out of 500k SMB websites, only 13% have a phone number on their homepage, 24% have an email address and/or contact form and 36% of the sites are single page sites.*

o What we do:o Provide various size templated website solutions (1, 3, 5,

10 page and custom development options)o Copywriting/content creation and design process plan for

customerso Design and social media integrationo Proper SEO structureo Call Trackingo Hosting, domain and consultation services

PropelWeb – Mobile Website Creationo Ability to create a mobile website for customers that

have an existing desktop only site.

o Mirror the look, color scheme and content of the

existing website.

o Create a better user experience when visiting the

businesses website on a mobile device.

o Integrate current analytics

o Ability to make content updates/changes – DIFM (Do it

for me)

o Competitive product offering and pricing

o Scalable Solution

PropelSearch – Search Engine Marketing

o Placement of geographical and keyword-targeted ads across the major search engines targeting users who are searching for the SMBs product or service that is located in the area.

o Why: Online search continues to grow and saw overall growth of 9% YOY for September which exceeded 19.3 billion searches in 2011. SEM provides customers with the ability to target the user based on their location and what they’re searching for at that exact moment. It provides customers with a targeted platform with an auction based pricing model. It’s predicted that 26% of the digital advertising budgets will be spent on search.

o What we do:o Interview SMBs about their target audience and messageo Create multiple creative copy formats and keyword sets to

generate the lowest CPMo Daily to weekly optimization of the campaigns based on

performance goals (clicks, CPC, CPA)o Provide full reporting including leads (calls or email

submissions) generated from the reverse proxy site

PropelOptimize – Search Engine Optimizationo Process of content, site architecture and linking practice to improve the SMB’s ranking in the large search engines. The goal is to put the business where their customers are searching.

o Why: With 3% of traffic from search engines coming from paid search and 97% from organic search it’s important for businesses to be found towards the top of the first page of the search results. SEO is a longer-term strategy and investment that pays dividends on long-term traffic and leads for an SMB. If they’re not listed when a users is searching for their product or service it’s a missed opportunity.

o What we do:o Interview SMB to gain insight into their current

business strategyo Create SEO plan including content updates/generation,

site code adjustments, link building, blogs, article submissions etc.

PropelTrack – Proxy & JavaScript RewritesTechnology that provides Propel the ability to track complete responses from any online marketing campaign including calls, traffic and contact form submissions without requiring the SMB to make any changes to their existing sites and campaigns.

Why: With many types of advertising online, it’s beyond the click to the customer website. Traditionally after the click to the customer site, we’re unable to measure activity which hurts perceived results by SMBs. By using this technology we’re able to create a mirror of the customer’s site and replace existing contact information with our local tracking numbers and email forms. This site is then linked to from all campaigns to provide comprehensive reporting/results.

What we do:o Create a proxy rewrite for customers running almost

any marketing solution with Propel.o Apply proper tracking information and numbers to siteo Provide full reporting

PropelLocal

o Claim business profiles on the major search engines and other platforms: Google Places, Yahoo/Bing, Yelp, etc. Providing the SMB with free exposure targeting users searching for them directly.

o Why: 97% of consumers search for local businesses online, according to Google. In order to best represent themselves when appearing in search, SMBs should provide as much information about their business products/services etc. in order to stand out in search result pages locally.

o What we do:o Claim business listings on Google, Yahoo and Yelp

and create an enhanced profile for the SMB.o Add links, photos, videos, special offers and

detailed company information including hours of operation, categories, keywords etc.

o Post live updateso Allow the business owner to respond to reviews

PropelDashboardo Provide a one-stop-shop for viewing and

downloading comprehensive analytics and reporting tools across all Propel products.

o Why: SMBs don’t have time to be sifting through pages and pages of reports and logging into different systems in order to see how their marketing dollars are working for them. A centralized dashboard containing reporting for SEM, web analytics, call tracking, reputation management and all other Propel products creates an easy-to-use administration area for SMBs to access data.

o What we do:o Connect all third-party vendors into

one Propel-branded dashboardo Allow for both internal and client-

level accesso Surface reporting and analytics for

all products purchased through Propel