API's Action Plan
Yes, newspapers are missing revenue opportunities online, according to a recent American Press Institute study. Participants at API's July "Working the Web" conference (Reston, Va., July 18-21) could have followed that news with a lot of fretting and hand-wringing, but instead devoted their energies to describing how newspapers can fight back. Over the next five years, participants said, newspapers should:
- Appoint a vice president of new-business development responsible for devising new-business models that might include new services, transactional opportunities and customization
- Develop national and local brands to secure ownership of networks and create new ad-selling opportunities
- Partner with other papers and other companies to help local brands reach wider audiences
- Develop databases sophisticated enough to support classified aggregation at the local level
- Re-establish the paper's role as ad broker, using technology to develop new models for matching buyers and sellers
- Launch e-commerce applications offering advertisers the potential of new customers beyond the local area
- Track the success or failure of new technologies
- Communicate internally to identify problems and opportunities
- Develop intranets.
Source: API's Media Center