Concentrating on boosting online ad sales revenue is one way members are combating declining print ad sales in this tough economy. Here are ideas they’re trying:

Publisher Janette Larkin of Des Moines Business Record shared:

* Converting all e-newsletters to Constant Contact.

* Adding the AABP National Business Report as bonus content to existing statewide business news content aggregation product.

* Starting new Forty Under 40 alumni group on Facebook as part of the 10-year anniversary celebration in October.

Springfield Business Journal is rolling out a new paid access model of a Lifestyle section.

Inside Business launched a weekly business e-mail newsletter in July. The Norfolk, VA company partnered with the daily newspaper, The Virginian-Pilot, so articles are generated from both news departments and link back to corresponding website. They’re selling ad sponsorships for support and have secured their first advertiser. The ad is a medium rectangle (300x250) and priced at $250 per week.

They are in the process of redesigning their website, with plans to make it more attractive and interactive from a social networking standpoint. They plan to use Drupal as the new CMS for the site. They are also exploring the notion of some paid content online.

E-mail “Text Box”
Central Penn Business Journal has introduced a "text box" ad in daily e-mails. The concept is that there is an ad zone about three stories into their e-mail that is formatted as a text-only ad -- advertorial type. Therefore, it looks more like a part of the news. Of course, it is marked as paid advertisement with a box around it to designate it as advertising. They have been selling that position with some success for $500/week.

Social Community
The Business Examiner launched an online social community in April. It's grown to 1,100 members and is driving their events postings, story comments and discussion groups. The firm they are working with will also introduce a photo and video sharing platform in to the community in August.

The Tacoma, WA company will integrate their TV show segments and event photos into the platform. That will allow them to have a centralized storage and sharing location (they are currently using Flickr, YouTube, etc for hosting media). They are using the community to engage readership and encourage interaction with their various products.

The Business Examiner is also looking into reducing their mailed print copies by about a third and moving into digital-only subscriptions. Their printing and postage costs are still above average for the industry (although printing is considerably lower than last year). With careful planning, the newspaper should maintain its ratios for Verified Audit Circulation.

In the last four months, the Tacoma, WA company also has been using e-mail more for marketing content and encouraging readers to take advantage of print archives by highlighting features only available online.

Organizing Content
Because of the implosion of daily newspapers, Crain’s Detroit Business is pursuing organizing content by geography and delivering weekly e-newsletters to specific counties within the coverage area. They've also created insert rates for zoned advertising. This is a response to the death of a daily print newspaper in Ann Arbor, MI.

« Back