Borrell Associates, Inc. took a look at some of the top newspapers (in terms of online sales strategies) and found commonalities among them -- meaning there are definitely models out there to follow!
Borrell Associates found all the newspapers that were successful in gaining large shares of local online revenue and growing the online business had these characteristics:
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A thirst for research and data
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Training – lots of it
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Consultative selling
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Mix of print and online ad reps
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Maximized rates
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Aggressive selling strategy
Early today, the Newspaper Association of America released the full report from Borrell Associates, Inc. that highlights best practices and common characteristics from newspapers that are finding success in growing their online business. Though non-disclosure agreements and proprietary information concerns prevented Borrell from naming the top performing newspapers, the characteristics and commonalities have plenty of lessons.
In addition to detailing these characteristics, the report includes lots of graphs (so your newspaper can effectively compare itself to its market peers), best practices from The Kansas City Star, The Virginian Pilot, The Seattle Times and six other newspapers and more.
Other hints from the report:
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Diversity: “Best-practice sites, in fact, tend to be less dependent on the “Big Three” classified categories [automotive, real estate and employment]. … Top performers get 62 percent of their online revenues from these three categories, while the industry average is 71 percent.
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Market-Set Pricing: The most successful sites have long discarded the “value added” approach to Internet advertising and are setting rates according to market opportunity and according to inventory.
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Niche Products: All of the leading sites had at least one niche site that was branded separately from the main newspaper Web site.
Note -- you need your NAA federation identification number to access this report. If you don't have (or can't find) your federation number, let me know or call the federation hotline at (800) 656-4622.
Gordon Borrell (of Borrell Associates) gave NAA members a Webinar with a preview of the report last month. Laura Stinnett of the Atlanta Journal Constitution joined him with some of the best practice hints and lessons-learned from AJC. Both webinar presentations are available through NAA’s GrowingAudience.com.
And speaking of Webinars…
We’ve got two more Webinars scheduled for July!
Online Video: A Growth Guide (2 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 17)
Richard Koci Hernandez of the San Jose Mercury News will present his newspaper’s experience with video, training reporters and some of their lessons-learned along the way. Chet Rhodes of washingtonpost.com will talk about equipment, staff needs and how to take print-oriented reporters and train them to think visually. Register for this webinar here!
Related: Be sure to check out the Online Publishers Association report on online video advertising, “Frames of Reference”.
When Professionals and Amateurs Converge (3 p.m. ET Wednesday, July 25)
Professional journalists are working side-by-side – and competing with – bloggers and citizen journalists. This webinar, with Kate Marymount of the News Press in Fort Myers, Fla., will look at how the two can co-exist to better serve the journalism audience, and it will look at how newspapers are formalizing those relationships. Register for this webinar here!