Sunshine Week approaching

In just a few weeks, news media and concerned citizens around the country will be celebrating a week dedicated to the importance of government transparency and openness. A print ad is available right now at sunshine.org.

You might also want to consider putting a link on your Web site to a 30-second video produced by the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation for Sunshine Week 2009. Of course, you may also view it below:

What money-making sites have in common

First, yes we realize it has been a while since the last post here. The NCPA Winter Institute had us extremely busy lately. That's not an excuse, just an explanation.

So to get back on the horse, let's talk about the latest buzz on charging people for online content. The topic is either the 300-pound gorilla, the elephant in the room, the road to the promised land or the end of time. You pick the cliche that works best for you.

Like it or not, expect the discussion to continue on this issue. The topic was even broached last week during the roundtables part of the NCPA annual meeting. Editors and publishers were curious as to what their counterparts were thinking about this.

Might I suggest that before you spend too much time on this, first read the recent article by Jack Shafer in Slate.

Shafer makes the point that success in getting people to pay for content is not easy, but he did find common elements in the sites that are working. He writes that those sites have at least one of three things going for them:

1. They are so amazing as to be irreplaceable.
2. They are beautifully designed and executed and extremely easy to use.
3. They are stupendously authoritative.

A site such as ConsumerReports.org would represent that third category.

But perhaps his most interesting comments are about iTunes. Despite the recording industry's best (or is that worst?) efforts, there are still plenty of places to locate free music on the Internet. Yet, iTunes makes money for Apple. Shafer speculates that part of the success comes from iTunes being an application not tied to traditional Web browsers.

Can a leap be made from iTunes to newspapers? Quite possibly, but it will take some money and plenty of geeks (sorry if that term offends).

At any rate, be sure to read the Slate column.

A money back guarantee

Now here is some inventive thinking from up in Maine. The Sun Journal of Lewiston is focusing on saving money for their readers. And the kicker is, the paper is putting its money where its mouth is (so to speak).

For six months the paper plans to print money- saving tips on its front page every day. The idea is that by the end of six months, the tips could save readers up to $1,000.

The editor is sure that readers will save at least double the cost of a subscription ($97). If you don't save the $194, the paper will pay a reader the difference between what they did save and $97.

You can read more about the plan here.

This kind of program reminds me of one of the key experiences the Readership Institute told us about a few years ago: Looking out for my best interests. In these days, what could be looking out for our readers' best interests more than helping them pinch their pennies effectively.

Are you willing to give your readers a guarantee such as the folks in Lewiston, Maine?

Does video + video = money?

Our thanks to Steve Gunn of The Charlotte Observer for making us aware of this item. Steve writes:

A couple of students at Stanford are looking at ways to put videos within videos, which the newspaper industry could adapt to put ads into videos online -- even those not on their own website. Whether this particular thing is the answer or not, this is a very interesting idea and raises others, including simply embedding advertising text on the bottom of a video put up by a newspaper -- even when its not on their site. It seems to me a small paper might find this really something to think about trying.

Here is a video from Stanford University about the process.



The technology is indeed cool, but I can foresee a huge ethics debate on this for newspaper Web sites. Most every newsroom would agree that adding elements such as those shown in the video into still photography is a huge taboo. What about when it's video?

I'm thinking papers could find a way of incorporating this technology into videos while making it clear that what you are seeing is a paid advertisement, not a part of the news video itself. Confining the ads to a space that is consistent on every video, such as across the bottom, might be one way to do that.

Certainly newspapers should be interested in beginning the discussion and finding a way of marrying the advertising with the news content without sacrificing our reputation and trust.

Thanks again, Steve!

The follow up on making money

Faithful readers may recall last month we wrote about a column by E&P's Steve Outing. In that column he outlined 11 pieces of advice to newspaper company CEOs. We pointed out that most all of his proposals made sense, but didn't address the issue of how to make money to keep an enterprise going.

Outing responded and promised more on that sticky money problem. This month he did just that.

Here is the link to his full Stop the Presses column. He even added a 12th tip this time: to run your newspaper ad staff like an advertising agency. This isn't exactly new advice, but one that has only seen a lot of lip service through the years.

The industry's own incentive plans through the years haven't exactly encouraged this strategy. If a sales person wanted to make as much money as possible with as little work as possible, they knew that the real money had been selling the print ads in the main product. Other products provided smaller returns, both for the newspaper and the sales person. I've seen many a good product die because the return on the time invested by sales persons was minimal.

Turning an advertising sales department into an advertising agency will take more than an edict to accomplish. It really is a cultural shift. And one of the primary steps in any cultural shift is getting the rewards system in line with the behavior wanted. As Brian Tracy says, what gets rewarded gets done.

Anyone in North Carolina papers having success with a transition to an advertising agency mentality? Let us know about it.

New publications coming

Think it's time to signal retreat? The folks in West Jefferson apparently see things in a different light. The Jefferson Post announced its starting up several new publications this year. Here's what they had to say to their readers:

"We believe these publications will help us reach readers interested in particular things," Lonnie Adamson, editor and general manager of the newspaper said this week. "This should give advertisers a new group of people to approach with what they have to offer. The idea is to give advertisers more options and better value by providing places to put dollars that suit their individual needs."

First on the list of publications is a weekly feature called "People of Ashe." It will be primarily produced by part-time writer Monica Neaves, who knows the area and its people well. She works full time for Sun Trust Mortgage.

The next special feature will be staff written and called "Ashe Women in the Know." It will focus on women's issues and needs from medicine to fashion to work to family.

"We debated this format," said Adamson. "We had concerns about the political correctness of it. In face, women in this area seem to have distinct, but diverse, interests. The material will seek to cover all those areas that come up. We welcome ideas. We certainly don't discourage men from reading about these issues. Maybe they can learn something from it too."

The biggest new project is a children's tabloid published monthly. It will include fun facts and puzzles and games targeted to appeal to K-6 grade readers. "Key to its success will be specifically local information, what children are doing, school menus, calendars of events," Adamson said. "We are a community newspaper and live and breathe providing information of local interest."

The name of the children's tab is yet to be determined. We are asking local school children grades K-6 to submit names and subtitles along with artwork for the cover of the first year. The winner will receive a gift certificate from a local business.

Hopefully we'll hear later how these new publications up in the mountains are doing.

Well, there goes that excuse

We've seen it in more and more newspapers during the past several years -- 1A advertising. Can't say that we ever really cared for it, but as the advertising market has tightened it becomes harder to defend an ad-less front page.

And now comes word of the venerable New York Times selling space on its front. Today's paper includes an advertisement from CBS across the bottom, 2 and a half inches tall.

And guess what? The sun came up this morning. (OK, actually it's really cloudy and foggy here, but it's still daylight and the sky is gray, not black, so that means the sun did come up.)

Many of our member papers already have 1A ads. For those newsrooms that still have the entire front page to themselves, it's probably time to come to grips with a new future. As a matter of fact, it might be prudent to offer up the space with solutions that can make you and an advertiser happy.

Besides, you can't use the New York Times as an excuse anymore.