If Newspapers Acted Like Online Marketers
I listened to a great show on NPR today about the newspaper industry. They talked about how it’s not so much a crisis in readership but in advertising revenue. They only get 10% of the ad revenue online that they did with their print editions. It made me think…what if newspapers acted like online marketers.
If newspapers acted like online marketers…they would sell information. There would be downloadable PDFs (ebooks) from the local movie critic, restaurant reviewer, and sports writers. Sure you could get the information free, but not in one place.
If newspapers acted like online marketers…they would become affiliate marketers. They could run affiliate ads for products that their readers might be interested in. If they ran a story about a sports tournament they could run an ad for tickets to the game and make a percentage off of every sale.
If newspapers acted like online marketers…they would learn SEO. They’d select their online niches and optimize their site for those words.
If newspapers acted like online marketers…they would be available on Amazon’s Kindle.
If newspapers acted like online marketers…they would run PPC ads for their products. i.e. Best books (local music, restaurants) of 2009 from the New York Times. This would be local information or whatever their market is.
If newspapers acted like online marketers…they would reach out to local bloggers and feature them.
If newspapers acted like online marketers…they would start an email list with a rundown of things on the web site and get sponsors for it (have ads).
They’d also raise their prices for the print edition, beef up the content as far as in-depth reporting, especially for the weekend editions. They’d use their web site for breaking news and video.
Couponers love the Sunday paper. Maybe you could sell just the ad inserts in bulk for the coupon crazed who are now buying 6 or more copies of the paper. They could also publish weekly guides to saving on your grocery bill that incorporates the coupons.
I’m not an expert on newspapers but these are my thoughts as an online marketer and newspaper reader.
8 Responses to “If Newspapers Acted Like Online Marketers”
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March 16th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
There’s a huge problem with this mode of thinking (speaking as a journalist). First of all, “print” journalists see themselves first and foremost as writers. Introduce the idea of keyword optimization, and they’ll balk at the idea … for good reason: it makes the quality of the writing terrible.
Other problems: You can’t raise the price of newspapers. The only reason readership isn’t “down” is because they’re probably counting online views. A paper copy is no longer sustainable, and charging extra for it will only make it that much more obsolete.
Downloadable e-books probably won’t work very well either. I hate downloading files. It’s slow, they’re often too big and take up too much space, and as online readers, people are lazy and won’t take the time.
Don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer. Unfortunately, online newspapers will have to adopt some sort of online marketing tactics, but I believe it will result in a watering down and less hard-hitting product.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Re: Sandi. I like what you are saying about writing. All journalists I have met are very proud of their writing. Writing for the web is not very stylish, although it is stylized. I enjoy reading a well-written article. Imagine Michael Pollen edited to fit a web site. Grrrrrrr. So I think the issue is an important one, but one that will likely be beaten down by the realities of the market. By the way, the NY Times keeps raising its price and I keep willingly paying it.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Sandi, Thanks for writing. I think the site should be optimized (title tags, etc) – the writing doesn’t necessarily need to be. In other words the sections.
I’d rather pay more than have newspapers keep shrinking and the quality going down.
Many people buy and read ebooks now and read them on their phones. Maybe you’re not the target market but there is a market.
Rather than waiting for advertisers to bring ads, you can select ads yourself and put them on the site. I see this as a good thing.
Whatever happens I hope the industry can adapt. With more marketing hopefully the sales end can continue to finance the hard-hitting reporting.
Janet
March 17th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Some food for thought – one of the best articles I’ve read about the newspaper industry in a long time: http://www.new.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=68950293409&h=B4D9R&u=4lI2d&ref=mf
March 17th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Hi Sandi,
You make some good points, but this “can’t do” attitude is part of the problem. Newspapers have failed to adapt, which is why most of them will be out of business within the next five years.
Re: SEO – Writing for readers is 10x more important than writing for search engines. 90% of your search ranking is determined by inbound links (citations). A well-written article with citations will out perform a keyword-optimized article with no citations any day.
Re: E-books/PDFs – You would be surprised how many readers will give up their e-mail address in exchange for high quality content. Creating a downloadable file (or e-book) can give your content more perceived value.
Janet – I think you offered some great suggestions in your post.
There’s going to be a lot more carnage in the newspaper industry this year. It will be interesting to see who’s left standing in 2010, and what they did to survive.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Jeremy,
I am with India’s largest media company. We have 4 – 5 dailies published from several cities here.
I am responsible for the SEO of the online versions. We do more than 10,000 stories a day and have close to 5 million pages cached by Google. As a part of my responsibility I have been taking sessions with the story writers who are used-to to the traditional method of writing. They prefer using synonyms when they put a story about a topic. This actually kills my keyword richness and therefore the theme of the page for a search engine.
I completely buy what you said about citations but its practically not possible for us to get citations for all the stories we do everyday.
Whats your recommendation?
March 18th, 2009 at 4:24 am
[...] Janet Meiners Thaeler imagines what would happen if newspapers acted like online marketers — which is funny because, you know, they are. [...]
February 7th, 2011 at 10:09 am
[...] Once people start switch to online sources, the way they get news, what they read and how they read it shifts and will not go back. Even, if like me, they really loved newspapers. This is how just about anyone college aged or younger gets their news. And it’s not good for the newspaper industry. [...]