Broadcast & Newspaper: Education for Profit.

An educated local business buys more web. Here’s a peek at how many local media properties are attracting new Internet advertisers. Watch the video above.

Helping Local Sites Succeed.

GrowthSpur helps local websites solve their biggest problem: building a profitable business.

Blogs, specialty sites, hyper-local, as well as community sites are growing faster than a weed in summertime. While traffic to these independent efforts are trending up, solid business models and sustainable profits remain elusive.

That’s why we recently launched GrowthSpur ;  a company 100% focused on helping local publishers drive revenue. We provide services such as:

• Sales, revenue and business model development
• Online advertising sales training
• EZ enabling of the best vendor tools: advertising, analytics and site management
• Sharing of best sales practices, winning strategies and tactics
• Organizing / enabling local advertising networks
• Local events and seminars

All of this with no up-front cost to local website operator.

We think we will have our hands full with independent website operators. Yet, there are some early indications that these services will be of great interest to Broadcast, Newspaper and other traditional media companies that are ramping up their web efforts.

Business Week covers our launch here.

Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine discusses need for GrowthSpur here.

Peter Krasilovsky of Kelsey Group reviews here.

RecoveringJournalist provides the GrowthSpur CEO perspective here.

NAB Radio Show in Philly.

Been invited to speak at the NAB Radio Show, (National Association of Broadcasters) in Philly on September 23.  Here is the session info:

How can Radio learn and earn from Newspaper and other Online revenue leaders?

Veteran Radio Executive Mel Taylor, now a Newspaper and Online industry expert, will demonstrate how Radio can adopt various Internet sales tactics being used successfully by print and online-only media properties.

Attendees will learn proven sales, management and content/programming practices from local market leaders in online revenue. Bonus topics covered: video best practices, account executive compensation, job description overhauls, overcoming common objections, common website mistakes, high value inventory, and integrated promotions.

Radio Newspaper Web Revenue Webinar

The RAB; Radio Advertising Bureau, presents this new Online Webinar:  Insider’s Guide: Newspaper’s Online Revenue Strategy. How Radio can learn & earn, from Print’s success & failures online. The following is the press release announcing my participation this Thursday, June 18.

This unique RAB webinar features Mel Taylor; a Philadelphia-based consultant, specializing in online revenue strategy & sales training for local media. Mel is a highly rated and often provocative speaker/trainer, with a 13 year background in Radio that includes on-air, sales & web management.

In 2002, Mel reluctantly exited the Radio industry in order to spend more time with TV & Newspaper, who were more advanced with online sales and revenue at the time. “I’m incredibly happy to finally return to Radio, helping the RAB share what I’ve learned about online revenue strategy from those online market leaders. Be prepared to hear things that you will love….and some things that will likely make you un-easy” says Mel with a smile. This ‘tough love’ session will help your station dramatically increase online revenue.

Mel Taylor’s Internet sales & consulting background includes FOX-TV, Clear Channel Interactive, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly.com, WorldNow, Tribune & others.

Register HERE today    Hurry, webinar connections are limited.
Date: Thursday June 18, 2009
Time: 9a, 12n and 3p Central
Price: $89.00
Presenter: Mel Taylor

Radio’s Online Revenue Strategy 2009

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Newspaper Web Revenue Strategy

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Rosenblum Talks Newspaper and Internet

I spent time with Michael Rosenblum and Mark Potts at the America East Newspaper Conference earlier this week.

Click above to view video interview I did with Michael, right after the sessions I moderated called: Best Practices of Successful Local Media Companies.

Below is a picture of  Michael, Mark and myself. Special thanks for Mike Paterson from Clear Channel Radio for making an appearance via big screen video.

Broadcaster Web Assessment…Questions

Here are some questions that Radio broadcasters can ask themselves, when trying to assess their online revenue strategy.

• Is your corporate Interactive VP well versed in online sales & revenue models?  Is this person primarily focused on building websites, driving user & streaming numbers…then just telling you to “go sell it”? Do you rely too much on low cpm, remnant ad networks?
• Are your websites advertiser friendly (IAB compliant), and can the advertiser have an impactful presence on your site? Are your sites offering behavioral, contextual, and/or geo-targeted capabilities?
• Do you ‘integrated programs’ provide quantifiable results for client? Or are you just throwing in some banner ads to a spot buy?
• Is your site search engine optimized? Are the individual pages/sections/content coded so that Google can find them? Are your sites using SEM, Social Networking, Blogging, RSS, and aggregator tactics to grow and leverage the audience?
• Are your websites user-friendly…. or is it a train wreck full of marketing and programming content?  Is your site full of non-proprietary content that users can easily get on any other online properties? How much high value, advertiser friendly, proprietary content is actually on your site?
• Are you doing more than just selling banners and streaming spots? Do you know that video, search, email and directories are some of the fasting growing revenue streams in 2009 and beyond? Do you have a plan to go after these growing budgets? Are you thinking about building a local ad-network?
• Does each seller & manager have a mandatory Web budget, as well as penalties for not hitting it? Is your Web commission structure similar or better than your new biz commission? Are you sure the sales reps are not just moving spot dollars to the Web line?
• Can your sales staff comfortably sell Web and overcome common objections? Do you know what these common objections are?
• What kind of training are you providing to your staff? Is it ongoing? Is your staff being trained by someone with proven online sales experience? Does this trainer have a background in selling against Newspapers, search, & online-only businesses?
• Do your managers have strong grasp of Web, and the competitive online environment? If not, how will they effectively manage the effort? Is your Sales management team actively involved in providing some input about the sites layout, format, and strategy?
• Do you know what your local, online revenue share is? Do you know how to find this out? Do you know which advertiser categories spend the most online, in your market? Do you have a specific plan to go after them?
• Do you know what Broadcast, Newspaper and other sites are doing to take dollars from you? Do your reps know their clients online strategy& budgets, as well as their TOTAL marketing budget? How many of your clients are spending on Google or the local Newspaper site?
• Is it OK for your on-air staff to have their own websites, MySpace, Facebook, or YouTube channels? Do you include Web in talent contracts? Do you have a plan in place to monetize and encourage these efforts?

 

 

 

Web Sales: Print Selling Against Broadcast

BEST PRACTICES: Below is a short list of how Print reps can sell against Broadcast, in regard to Web sales. Contact me for info on how a Broadcast rep can sell against Newspaper & Pure-play websites.
 
· Show client the local ranker.  Comscore, Net ratings or other 3rd party services, will clearly show that even the biggest broadcasters, have relatively low online user numbers and traffic. (when compared to the massive numbers that Newspapers have online)
· Acknowledge lower circulation; while at the same time highlighting dramatic increases in readership via the web. ( a more important and relevant metric )
· Provide consultative & educational assistance to client. TV and Radio sellers typically are provided little or no training for web sales. This makes for clumsy and potentially inaccurate sales pitches in the field. Print reps need to own the position of “web marketing authority” in the client’s mind. Print reps can do this thru patient and thoughtful sharing of unbiased info and case studies.
· Offer custom solutions. Local broadcast sellers have limited or no access to web designers and developers. Thus, they can usually only offer standard banner or video pre-roll units. Newspaper reps have a greater support staff to develop custom web solutions. Print reps can, and must offer more than just banners and pre-roll. Newspaper reps are better equipped to offer customized solutions that are unique, and focused on client ROI.
· Show & compare slides of “advertiser friendliness”. These full color screen caps can show the stark differences between TV, Radio and Newspaper websites. In many cases, Radio and small market TV websites are poorly designed, with cluttered and diluted ad messaging. In contrast, Newspaper sights are typically clean with minimal, yet larger formatted ad messaging.
·  Advertiser focused technology. Reps will benefit from ability to clearly communicate how GEO, BEHAVORIAL and other ad serving technologies, greatly enhances the effectiveness of client’s campaign.

What I learned from an NYC agency today.

Spent some time with a New York City based advertising agency today. Spoke with the interactive buyers, as well as those in charge of broadcast and print. Guess what? They’re ALL interested in buying web in some form, even non-banner inventory, even though they may have originally been focused on broadcast or print, or plain ole banners.

At first I thought all 3 buyers would have a separate bucket of marketing dollars from which to pull. But no. All 3 that I talked to, had access to a central pool of dollars that they could use to solve a marketing challenge; whether it be in print, broadcast, online or some other form of marketing or promotion.

Makes sense. The days of relying specifically on one form of marketing or another, are over. Lucky for me, I had a fairly large bag of tricks up my sleeve; rich media display ads, sem/seo, online video solutions, as well as event marketing placement.

More Local Advertisers Moving to Web

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Local advertisers want to buy Internet advertising, it’s obvious from the outstanding turn out we get for our “Web Advertising 101″ seminars. SEE PICS ABOVE. In every city we travel to, from Chicago to Orlando, small and mid size businesses are moving more of their marketing budgets over to the Internet. Once they get some some basic education, encouragement and proof that it will work, they starting making the move to web. An article in today’s New York Times highlights how some papers want to make sure they get their hands on those new web dollars.

Who will teach the local advertiser? Optimally, it should be the traditional reps from the local media company. They have the relationships, the trust, and the ear of the local advertiser. The challenge though, is that the traditional reps need a better understanding of how to effectively sell the benefits of the web, in a clear, simple way that the small business can grasp. That is not easy, especially when many traditional reps rely on the local “web expert” to help them through the sales call.

TIP: it’s not a good thing when a newspaper or TV rep responds to a client who wants web, and says…..”let me get my web guru in here to talk to you. I’m not too sure about this web thing”. This makes the traditional rep look out of touch and disconnected from the new world of advertising.

The race in on. Ad dollars are moving online, with TV, Radio and Newspapers ramping up their local sales efforts with varying degrees of success. The current soft economy only accelerates this process. The smart local properties (usually newspaper) understand they’re primarily competing with independent dot-com companies like Google, Shop Local, and other online media companies that have their eyes set on local ad dollars.

Few will profit, most will fail. In each market, only a very few Broadcast & Newspaper companies will turn an online profit. With outside ‘pure-plays’ taking about 50% of every dollar out of the market, the remaining ad dollars will be sucked up by the most aggressive, serious players. In most cases, it’s the local newspaper, and one (not all) of the local TV broadcasters.

EXAMPLE: Radio gets less than 2% of every online dollar spent in a market.Why? Radio has yet to put together a strong plan to play in this space. The chart below shows where local, online advertising dollars are spent. Ironically, Radio’s sales force and large listenership makes them well positioned to do well online. It’s just that the seasoned radio executives can’t run the web efforts in their spare time with little or no resources, training or assistance. Thus, Radio is stuck in the mud with driving web revenue.

Focus on Local Media Niche Sites

Some local Television, Radio and Newspaper companies are getting smart. These forward thinking broadcast and print companies are developing niche, content specific, as well as aggregation sites. This strategy offers advertisers a focused environment, that hopefully, they would want to place their brands within.

Example of this strategy in the Radio space: ToastedRav.com. Named after a regional delicacy, Bonneville Radio in St. Louis understood that cluttered station sites are of little interest to most advertisers, as well as avid listeners. Instead of building a typical site for each of their 5 stations in town, they built a local entertainment and info portal, that was supported by all 5 stations. To see more about how Bonneville Radio executed this idea, click here.

Want to see what a typical, WEAK radio website looks like? Click here to see the cluttered WXTU site, from Beasley Broadcasting in Philadelphia.

In TV land, NBC steps up with their new take on the local portal concept. This time, without the help of Internet Broadcasting; IBS. See press release here. In this iteration, they dump much of the irrelevant TV marketing stuff like anchorman pictures in the header, and overt TV promotional fluff. Instead, they go with a collection of local content, from in-house producers as well as the local competitors. This is smart. See the NBC CHICAGO  example here.

Newspapers like The Morning Call in Suburban Philadelphia have recently rolled out beta versions of LehighValleyTraffic.com and LVBrideandGroom.com. In addition to their Metromix entertainment offering, these local niche sites allow the paper to offer advertisers a clean, focused environment for their marketing messages.

Up next, is a look at their revenue plan. Can these well known local brands translate increased user traffic into cash ?

CBS “Re-think Radio” in Philly

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CBS Radio President; Dan Mason had a standing room only crowd today in Philadelphia. It was the next stop on the “Re-Think Radio” road show. Held inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel in suburban Bala Cynwyd, it was billed as “a look inside the next generation of Radio”. See Kurt Hanson’s coverage of the Chicago session here.

President of Digital Media; David Goodman went through some highlights of their ground breaking project with AOL Radio, as well as an overview of the CBS Radio digital network; its available ad inventory, and how advertisers can take advantage of its universal reach. For more on David Goodman’s take on CBS Radio and Digital, read here.

The crowd of local media buyers, agencies, and local CBS sales reps were also shown a variety of online initiatives that the Radio giant is ramping up, including their home grown, custom radio player called PLAY-IT.  Radio Sales head Michael Weiss touched on topics like posting, and providing an easier, more streamlined experience for buying Radio.

Philly Market Manager; Marc Rayfield introduced his line-up of local CBS Radio personalities; Howard Eskin, Mike Quick, Merrill Reese, and Michael Smerconish. All spoke briefly about their experience in Radio, and the renewed vigor that their industry was embracing, via fresh thinking, new products, and platforms.

Separate Web Sales…Or Super Sellers ?

Separate web & traditional sales force, or team of “super sellers”?  It’s one of the biggest issues facing local Broadcast and Newspaper companies today. Some consultants suggest that hiring ‘web only’ sales staffs is the only way to guarantee web success. 

We tend to disagree for the following reasons, and offer a hybrid solution instead.

Buyers want audience, not just ‘Newspaper’ or “Web”.  Having a separate web staff for your local media brand allows your traditional rep to distance themselves from the fastest growing part of your revenue model.  It’s also in conflict with the true nature of the local media business, which is audience aggregation and advertising. It’s no longer just about Newspaper publishing or Broadcasting.

Local media will once again thrive, when it realizes that they are the premiere providers of access to a quality, local audience, using a variety of platforms; print, web, broadcast, mobile, etc.

Buyer “face time” limits. The media buyer relationship is one of traditional media’s most valuable assets. The traditional sellers will always get a chance to present the latest offering from their company. On the other hand, it’s very difficult for a new, or unknown rep or media property to get a chance to present to this same buyer. In addition, and from our experience, busy media buyers prefer to have one point of contact for each media property. It’s vital that the rep getting the face time, is knowledgeable in the entire product line.

Traditional sellers leaving Web dollars on table. In this tough ad environment, marketers are pulling back and re-allocating budgets. This makes it even more important to leverage each and every media buyer touch-point. Senior sales reps can no longer be given a ‘pass’ in regards to web sales; no matter how much traditional revenue they bring in. We understand that this can be a very touchy subject. With traditional reps having the best relationships with buyers, they need to be financially motivated (or penalized) when leveraging that relationship. It’s all about pulling maximum share from the buyer, whether it’s in the form of print, broadcast, web or promotional dollars.

Finding quality sellers. Where do you find sales reps for your online only team?  If they’re good, they’re likely employed and won’t come cheap.  Many are already working for a dot com or other online company. Your best sellers are already working for you. Train them to become super-sellers. They need to present all of the platforms that can help the client reach a desired audience.

Must leverage the traditional business. Competitors like Google, niche sites, directories and others, are looking to grow their local online share at the expense of Broadcast and Newspaper. Traditional media must leverage the assets that these players do not have at the local level: dominant reach, client relationships, sales force, marketing muscle, and a trusted brand.

Traditional media should employ the following web sales structure and strategy:

• Immediately and consistently train all traditional sellers. Transition them to “super sellers”. These reps will sell and confidently explain all advertising products and total audience reach. At the very least, these traditional sellers will be able to uncover web opportunities and comfortably provide general web and package info. They will be motivated to bring in the web specialist if necessary.
• Simultaneously, local media must build a staff of web specialists that are comfortable selling multi-platform. In the near term, these web/multi-platform specialists will:
  >   Target categories that do not get consistent attention
  >   Target new business
  >   Assist traditional sellers when needed
• Compensation & job descriptions must be modified to reflect equal importance of Web & multi-platform sales. Driving web and multi-platform revenue will have the greatest chance of success, once management applies the same structure and rules as they do for the traditional business.
• Special web training for mid and top level managers. How can you manage what you don’t fully understand?

Can Newspapers Dominate Local Internet?

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I’ve now spent the last 9 years helping Broadcast & Newspaper build their Web business. Recently, I’ve been speaking to local Tribune advertisers about the benefits of online advertising. The response has been exceptional. See pics above. 

What have I personally learned from traveling the country and spending time with traditional media companies? Alot.

Lesson #1.  Not every TV, Radio and Newspaper will be successful in the local online space; no matter how big their offline success has been. The biggest reason for why many will struggle, is that they have yet to accept the fact that the local media business has changed forever. No longer can they rely on tactics and methods that have served them well over the past 50 years.

Lesson #2: Newspapers are currently in the best position to dominate the local online space. Why? Because they are doing more than just talking a good game. They are taking serious action. Hiring online only staffs, training, and total transformation of sellers and managers into multi-media experts. Newspapers have already realized that they are in the local news and information business, no longer just in the local newsPAPER business.

Some in TV and Radio still believe they are just in the TV and Radio business.

Lesson #3.  As wireless, hi-speed Internet becomes the primary way that local audiences access information, audio and video will continue to play a larger role. Listening to online radio and podcasts will be as easy as touching a button on your cell phone or wifi enabled I-pod. Surprisingly, much of this audio content will NOT come from traditional Radio sources. Rather, it will be produced by those not pressured by the day to day burden of running a Radio station. Watch for Newspapers to really step up their audio and video productions capability. Speaking of which…….

Are you familiar with Michael Rosenblum? You should be. He is currently installing a MOBILE JOURNALISM culture into the Newark Star Ledger. Yup. He is training the print reporters to use video.

It turns out that they’re both in the same business. Newspapers and local TV news stations.

They both go out into the community, find stories, process them and then distribute them back to the community, charging for the ads that accompany them.

And as both papers and TV move to the web, they begin to find themselves running into each other. In terms of stories. In terms of content. And in terms of advertisers.

In the end, probably only one will survive. But which one?

 Click here to read more from Rosenblum’s excellent Newark adventure.

Web 101 Education for Local Businesses

An educated local business, is more likely to buy Web. That’s the philosophy behind my recent projects with the Tribune Company.

Just did some ”Web 101 for Local Business” seminars for The Chicago Tribune & The Baltimore Sun. These well attended events are more proof that there’s a whole new stream of ad dollars that will eventually be placed online. These dollars are going to come from local, small and mid-size businesses.

Re-Launch of Philly.com

       

It was truly an awesome experience watching the team at Philly.com  prepare to re-launch their site this past weekend. Since January, I’ve been blessed to be working on some separate projects for Philly.com. Thus, I was able to sometimes get a peek at seeing what it takes to re-invent, an already dominant news and information site.

One of my favorite past times at Philly.com is barging in on managing editor; Yoni Greenbaum. Normally I like to use some sort of weapon (like a hammer) to get his attention (see pic above).

Funny thing about Yoni, I’ve been an avid reader of his excellent blog Editor on the Verge for quite some time. On occasion we would correspond with each other via our blog comments and emails. So it was with great pleasure that I discovered that Yoni recently took the gig at Philly.com. Small world!

For more detail on the re-design / re-launch of Philly.com, click here to read Mark Pott’s blog. Mark is the acting VP of Editorial.

Take a look at the newly re-designed Philly.com . I think you’ll really be impressed. Congrats to Eric Grilly, Mark Potts, Brian Tierney, Todd Berman, Yoni and all of the crew at Philly.com.

 

The WEB FIRST Newsroom.

The video above features the Rockford Register Star and their take on “Journalism 2.0″. It’s a look at how Newspaper companies are smartly transforming their entire staffs into multi-media experts. This is happening within editorial departments, graphics, sales, marketing… you name it.

Some call it a WEB FIRST Newsroom, some call it reverse publishing. I call it ‘the way it needs to be’.

The race in on. In each market, only a few traditional media companies will carve out a successful, profitable online business. Who will those winners be? Hint: Those that do MORE than just dump their traditional content online.

In a fast changing Web 2.0 world, local media companies must use every tool, platform and tactic at their disposal. Thanks to Howard Owens for the tip.

RELATED POST:

Michael Rosenblum; the Godfather of Mobile Journalism, has a great post here that discusses how Newspapers can beat local TV to the punch…….online.