Taming the Five Cs

Following the rush to get online, publishers now re-examine their Web strategies, aligning them along content classifieds, commerce, community and convergence. Here's a look at some tools that help.

by Bob Sims

Jerome Dorsey had barely escaped his college's journalism program before he found himself knee-deep in new media at his first newspaper assignment.

A one-time copy editor at the News Chief in Winter Haven, Fla., Dorsey helped oversee the formation and growth of the 11,000-plus circulation daily's World Wide Web business.

Through a variety of alliances made by corporate parent Morris Communications Co. in Augusta, Ga., good ideas and hard work, the News Chief's Web business had by August met most of the conservative revenue goals for its first nine months of existence, Dorsey says. But managers at the Chief and its Web business, www.polkonline.com, continued to grapple with the same business, editorial, reader and customer issues as at newspapers many times their size:

What is the right mix of content?

Are we simply a portal to the wider world?

How can we make money in an atmosphere so foreign to a small, hometown paper?

What will our competitors—Media General's The Tampa Tribune, The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group's The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., and Tribune Co.'s The Orlando Sentinel, all giants in the industry—do in cyberspace? All circulate in the Chief's territory, and all have Internet operations.

How do we keep our readers, advertisers and community involved?

Through Aug. 1, more than 1,000 North American dailies were operating online services, according to NAA. Armed with a mandate to protect the local franchise, most went online at dizzying speeds. Newspaper managers have been so busy forging online alliances, testing new products and tools, and adapting to changing technologies, it's sometimes hard to see the bigger picture.

However, there is an emerging method to newspapers' online madness. As the dust begins to settle, many successful online-newspaper operations focus efforts around the so-called 5 Cs: content, classifieds, commerce, community, and, in the not-too-distant future, convergence. Even in the News Chief's rural Polk County, high-bandwidth Internet connections are already close by, available in at least two neighboring counties.

Consider the experience of Mpath, a Mountain View, Calif., company specializing in creating online communities. When it started offering audio-chat technology, a harbinger of the 'Net's broadband future, more than 5,000 users signed up in a week.

"The Internet is really going to come down to three primary foundation applications—content, commerce and community," says Brian M. Apgar, the company's founder. "Everything we see will come down in one of those areas."

Luckily for publishers, a host of online players and tools help address these critical strategic areas. In a poster accompanying this issue, TechNews looks at how these concepts link back to the print newspaper. Below, we explore how newspapers work to connect them with the future.

The Content Choice

In the Internet's early days, critics derided print content placed online as "shovelware." But whether shoveled or "repurposed," there's no question newspaper content keeps users coming.

"We currently have, on average, 15,000 visitors daily," says Tony Courtwright, business manager for The Spokesman-Review's Spokane.net. "They go in four pages deep." That means users tap 60,000 page views per day, he says.

Spokane.net is loaded heavily with stories from the 115,193-circulation morning daily, which are muscled from the paper's CText Inc. editorial system into viewable form using templates on the AltaVista Zip2 platform.

Zip2 now moves from news content and directories into the portal business, adding broader search-and-information utilities to the mix. The Houston Chronicle was first in the United States to launch Zip2's Homebase platform with its Houston4U service. The Washington Post readies a similar portal for a fall launch, and 42 others follow close behind.

Newspaper partners say the portal tool merges their local news and community expertise with the power of AltaVista's search engine and other Web content.

"[Homebase] allows you to personalize your start page as deeply as your local soccer club or as broadly as the entire Web," says Jim Townsend, the Chronicle's content director for electronic products.

Taking a different approach to the same sort of all-encompassing Web service, PowerAdz.com of Rensselaer, N.Y., in May launched Zwire!, a turnkey solution for content, community, classifieds and other business functions following a network model, sharing local and national advertising.

"Our network is analogous to a television network that supports a local affiliate in many ways," says Bob Godgart, chairman of PowerAdz.com. "While we provide the network infrastructure, support, exposure, related consumer information and the business models, the individual papers provide local content and local advertising relationships. We have partnered with the local newspaper to individually attack local markets."

Templates allow nontechnical staff to cut and paste stories, photos, ads, branding and links to other resources. Operators enter a password to access a Zwire! site through a browser to add and update information.

Instead of such network services, other papers use publishing systems to manage Web content in-house. FutureTense Inc. of Acton, Mass., claims numerous metro-daily users, including The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Indianapolis Newspapers Inc., The Sun in Baltimore, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Community Newspaper Co. in Needham, Mass., Star Tribune in Minneapolis, and The Washington Post. (E-commerce giant Open Market Inc. of Burlington, Mass., has announced plans to acquire FutureTense, opening the door for a merger of content and commerce applications; see p. 38.)

In contrast to the Zwire! cut-and-paste model, FutureTense's Internet Publishing System, or IPS, gives publishers wide-ranging power over both their sites' look and feel and their work flow. IPS boasts a dynamic-content-template engine, revision tracking, reusable content, design and logic components, simultaneous access to flat files and multiple heterogeneous databases, sophisticated multilevel caching, and multiformat delivery.

XML: Powering the Future

Driving that power and flexibility is XML, or eXtensible Markup Language. A broader, more powerful markup language than HTML, XML will likely become the answer to online-publishing dilemmas for more and more publishers in the coming years.

By separating design from content and including metadata hooks that bolster searchability, the format helps employees publish in multiple editions and media. Chief among nonprint media, of course, is the Internet.

Along with FutureTense's online-only solution, at least three print-side developers already offer XML support—Atex Media Solutions of Bedford, Mass., which this summer unveiled its content-neutral Omnex system; System Integrators Inc. of Sacramento; and Digital Technology International of Springville, Utah (TechNews, July/Aug. 1999, p. S16).

Adopted this summer, the emerging News Industry Text Format takes XML's benefits and applies an industry-specific sheen. An incoming wire story, for instance, gains metadata tags, making fields such as the subject and author searchable, and acquires hooks to related images and cutlines.

Because XML allows the ready adoption of Document Type Definitions, which delineate subsets of the metalanguage, systems supporting the technology can readily adapt to NITF or any other DTD.

Unfortunately for newspapers, one company developing a product that could have served as an NITF-enabled bridge between traditional front ends and Web-publishing systems has changed direction. InType Inc. of Seattle, which demonstrated its Handoff product at NEXPO¨99 in Las Vegas, has since been acquired by Oxygen Media, a Web-cable convergence company targeted at women. "This means we will be leaving the business of providing Web-publishing technology to the newspaper industry," says Bob Gale, senior program manager for Oxygen Media. "We are suspending our external testing program for Handoff and won't be vending it as a product."

Changing Classifieds

Yet there's no doubt XML-based systems will become the rule rather than the exception in coming years, particularly in the heavily competitive classified arena. There, XML, and yet another XML-based standard developed by NAA, will help refine long text-based streams of print classifieds into a searchable, highly functional database.

Which brings us to the dilemma driving massive changes in the classified marketplace. You can make a credible argument that reading a print newspaper remains a superior, far more serendipitous experience than squinting at a computer monitor. As wags have often said, you can even drag a printed newspaper into the restroom.

But classifieds? If you're looking for a late-model, four-door Ford Explorer with air conditioning, would you prefer to flip through page after page of tiny, inconsitently formatted and loosely organized agate type, or simply hit a "search" button and have a list of only the relevant ads returned to you? Or, if you're selling an item, instead of setting a price inexorably in print, why not accept bids and let the marketplace decide?

For the past several years, newspapers and their suppliers have devoted much energy to developing methods to extract vital tidbits from free-text classifieds—say, the make and model of a used car or the number of bathrooms in a house—and stick them into searchable databases (TechNews, May/June 1999, p. 8). Edgil Associates Inc. of North Chelmsford, Mass., and SRA International of Fairfax, Va., which recently reabsorbed its IsoQuest division, rank among leading suppliers.

Many of these parsing solutions predate the emergence of XML, but NAA's classified-advertising standard, now undergoing beta tests at Thomson Newspapers Inc. and several classified-system suppliers, takes full advantage of the metalanguage (TechNews, May/June 1998, p. 21). The standard will help simplify the process of aggregating classifieds from numerous publications. The hordes of national, online-only competitors undercutting print publishers by literally giving the ads away make aggregation a necessity for newspapers.

In midsummer, Belo Corp., Journal Register Co., Lee Enterprises Inc., Media General Inc., Morris Communications Corp. and Pulitzer Inc. joined Advance Publications Inc., Donrey Media Group, The E.W. Scripps Co., The Hearst Corp., and MediaNews Group in taking equity positions in AdOne LLC, an Internet-classifieds aggregator operating the national ClassifiedWarehouse.com site.

Why do newspapers turn to such organizations, giving their readers an opportunity to shop elsewhere? Because they need to maintain strong relationships with the consumer, says Dan Manco, AdOne spokesman. "You want to associate a positive experience with the local newspaper," he says. "If a newspaper doesn't offer [the consumer] alternatives to find what he's looking for, he's going to look somewhere else."

A similar service is Chicago-based Classified Ventures, also backed by major media companies—Central Newspapers Inc., Gannett Co., Knight Ridder, McClatchy Co., The New York Times Co., Times Mirror Co., Tribune Co. and The Washington Post Co. Its products include Apartments.com, representing some 800,000 apartments from 20 newspaper affiliates; Auction Universe, featuring 600 affiliated media companies; Cars.com, which has inventory in 45 markets, including 25 of the top 30 U.S. markets; and two home-buying services.

Another aggregator is PowerAdz.com, which boasts more than 700 newspaper affiliates, including The Dallas Morning News, Orange County (Calif.) Register, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Buffalo Evening News, Omaha World Herald and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Like Classified Ventures, it offers a wide range of services, including the AdQuest, CarCast, AuctionHill, ThinkHomes, CareerGold and Zwire! brands.

Because they're essentially an interactive version of fixed-price classifieds, online auctions seem a good fit for newspaper sites. They're also wildly popular—after partnering with Fairmarket Inc. to provide a local auction service earlier this summer, The Boston Globe's boston.com saw overall site traffic rise 10-to-20 percent on their strength alone. Likewise, The Hartford Courant liked its partnership with Auction Universe so much it bought the company, though it later sold it to Classified Ventures (TechNews, Sept./Oct. 1998, p. 19).

While aggregators and auctions offer consumers new choices in what was once a near-monopoly, newspaper-site managers insist that's a good thing. In Winter Haven, online visitors to the News Chief's site see not only ads from that paper, but also those appearing in newspapers from Florida's Atlantic to Gulf coasts.

"I want [consumers] to see those ads," Dorsey insists. "Whatever they do, that's great."

Cashing In on Commerce

While the burgeoning e-commerce boom provides a new revenue model for often-in-the-red newspaper sites, there's perhaps a still stronger justification for newspapers to help wire local merchants.

"If local merchants go out of business, newspapers do too," Robert S. Cauthorn, director of new technology for The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, matter-of-factly told TechNews this spring. "Last time I checked, national advertising wasn't carrying the day for most of us."

Like a growing number of papers, the Star responded to national e-commerce players such as Amazon.com by building its own local electronic mall, powered by Intershop (TechNews, May/June 1999, p. 18). Intershop has since partnered with AltaVista and CyberSource Corp. to create storefronts for Zip2's Homebase portal service.

Meanwhile, Internet Tradeline Inc. of New York City, a provider of turnkey e-commerce technology, entered an agreement with the Los Angeles Times to create an online mall for the paper; in return, Times Mirror Co.'s Eagle New Media Investments LLC took a $5 million stake in the company. Using its proprietary Point & Shop solution, ITI builds and maintains online stores at no initial cost and provides the necessary training and services for each retailer. The paper promotes the site through print and online products, and splits income from hosting fees and transaction revenues.

Company officials tout Tradeline's total turnkey approach. "The Los Angeles Times chose our turnkey e-commerce solution so they can concentrate on what they do best—publish one of the largest newspapers in the country," says Lenny Khutorsky, the company's president and chief intelligence officer.

Seattle-based iCat, a division of Intel, says its e-commerce retailers number more than 6,500. The company does not partner directly with newspapers, but offers an affiliate program that allows profit-sharing with Web sites, including USA Today's, that refer customers to iCat stores.

Community Connections

Newspapers now place their content and classifieds online and build e-commerce storefronts for their Web users. But Eliza Wing, president and chief executive officer of Advance Publications' Cleveland Live, believes the future of Internet content lies in the hands of those very users.

"When [Cleveland Live] was created, we were doing more presentation of content outward," she says. "Now, I want to create a conduit for you to get back in." By 2002, she estimates that 50-to-60 percent of the site's content will be created by its users.

To that end, Cleveland Live developed its own community-publishing tools; today more than 1,400 groups post information directly to the site. Its forums include more than 40 discussion areas, which have attracted gadflies and elected officials alike. Users post food and movie reviews, and soon will be able to use live audio to chat with members of the Cleveland Indians.

With more than 250 media outlets using its community-publishing tools, Koz.com remains the industry leader. Its most recent upgrade, CPS 4.0, includes such tools as online chat, newsletters, interactive calendars, message boards and free Web pages for local businesses, nonprofit organizations, community groups and sports leagues.

CPS requires no knowledge of HTML or computer programming. Site administrators and community members use simple drag-and-drop publishing tools to create their own Web sites (TechNews, Sept./Oct. 1998, p. 17). And always keep those end users in mind: As Orlando Sentinel Interactive evaluated different community-publishing tools, General Manager Mike Bales made sure representatives of local groups tested each software package.

Traditionally, newspapers offer such space for free in the hopes of attracting more users—and advertising—to their entire range of Web services. But at The Orlando Sentinel, the start of school signals a splash into the waters of paid community publishing. One local school district paid for its Web pages in order to create a site free from the Sentinel's advertising. That was fine with Bales.

"We're not even a full year yet into our community-publishing initiative, but so far it is working very well," he says.

Convergence Ahead

Many newspaper Web sites, including Cleveland Live, have already added streaming video and audio feeds. But that's just the beginning.

Someday, says Cleveland Live's Wing, television stations owned by parent Advance Publishing could churn video direct to the Internet site. Already, a number of broad-based city sites operated by newspapers, including The Kansas City (Mo.) Star's kansascity.com, count radio and television stations as affiliates. And as cable television, telephone companies and electrical utilities throughout the country race to provide broadband, high-speed Internet access, text-heavy newspapers struggle to avoid being left in the slow lane of the (ahem) information superhighway.

The Orlando Sentinel and The Tampa Tribune, for instance, both entered partnerships with Time Warner Cable, co-owning and operating 24-hour cable television news stations in their respective markets. Those stations are poised to someday generate broadband content for the Internet.

In the meantime, securing content for broadband distribution—coming to Central and West Florida this fall through Time Warner and three telephone companies—has been the top priority for Bales at the Sentinel. "In the high-bandwidth or broadband environment, video and audio are extremely powerful. I mean that in both an editorial and advertising sense," he says. "We need to begin designing parts of our sites for users who have high-speed" access.

In the meantime, the St. Petersburg Times and other online sites already offer voice-chat technology. In a broadband world, that could grow into a true community tool, allowing individuals to create basement television programs or radio stations, according to Mpath founder Apgar.

"This whole group of people started using [voice chat] on our service for singing," he says. "We realized that something unique, something organic had happened. It wasn't planned."

While others may hold the technology cards, publishers will likely receive partnership offers from high-bandwidth companies. That's because they stand in the enviable position of being the only true local gateways to the Internet, according to Apgar. And it's in the local marketplace where community will take root and flourish.

"I believe what [community] members are going to create will be far more interesting than most things you are going to find on the 'Net," he says.

While that may be an uncomfortable thought for newspapers used to controlling all their content, it does represent a growth path. Though paved with uncertainties, such paths have to be better than the alternate routes—those that lead to slow extinction.

Sims is a Kissimmee, Fla., free-lance writer. E-mail, BKScoop@aol.com. For a list of Web-tool suppliers and their URLs sorted by the five Cs, click here. For additional information, visit www.digitaledge.org.

Sources

Brian Apgar, Mpath Interactive Inc., 665 Clyde Ave., Mountain View, Calif. 94043. E-mail, info@math.com; phone, (650) 429-3900; fax, (650) 429-3911.
Mike Bales, Orlando Sentinel Interactive, 633 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, Fla. 32801. E-mail, mbales@sentinelinteractive.com; phone, (800) 347-6868.
Tony Courtwright, The Spokesman-Review, Box 2160, Spokane, Wash. 99210. E-mail, information@spokane.net; phone, (509) 459-5109.
Jerome Dorsey, News Chief, 650 Sixth St. S.W., Winter Haven, Fla. 33880. E-mail, jdorsey@newschief.com; phone, (941) 294-7731, ext. 3065; fax, (941) 294-2008.
Dan Manco, AdOne LLC, 361 Broadway, Suite 100, New York, N.Y. 10013. E-mail, danm@adone.com; phone, (212) 965-2976; fax, (212) 334-3307.
Jack Mardack, AltaVista Inc., 444 Castro St., Mountain View, Calif. 94041. E-mail, jack.mardack@altavista.com; phone, (650) 429-4621.
Jim Townsend, Houston Chronicle, 801 Texas Ave., Houston, Texas 77002. E-mail, hci@chron.com; phone, (713) 220-7171.
Eliza Wing, Cleveland Live, 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite. 414, Cleveland, Ohio 44113. E-mail, eliza@cleveland.com; phone, (216) 515-2525.