Results matching “for web site adver”

Mark Potts, author of the Recovering Journalist blog, recently wrote about the ten changes he thinks newspapers need to make to thrive. What follows is an edited transcript of his post:

What would you do if you ran a newspaper?

Somebody asked me that question recently, and it made me pull together some of the thoughts I've had recently about the problems that newspapers are having and what they might do to pull out of their current spiral. This is hardly a complete list, but here's a 10-point prescription for ailing newspapers:

1. Make the Web the primary product.
Stop pasting the newspaper onto a screen. Reorganize the newsroom so that its work appears online as quickly as possible. ... And embrace the technology: news Web sites should be full of Web 2.0 goodness like interactive maps, social networking tools, RSS feeds, distribution to mobile devices, etc. Use the medium to its fullest.

2. Local, local, LOCAL!
There are a zillion places to get national and international news, in real time. But newspapers are virtually the only source of truly local news. ... Local news is the last unique franchise that newspapers own, and too many newspapers don't seem to understand this. ... (Why do you think local community newspapers are thriving when big metro dailies are shedding circulation?)

3. If it's widely available elsewhere, don't waste time re-creating it.
Does every newspaper really need its own movie critic? A TV critic? ... Book reviews? Stories from Washington that the AP already has? ... the answer is unequivocably no. Those resources are just wastd.

4. Zero-base the news operation.
Pretend you're starting from scratch. Look at everything that's in the paper and ask tough questions about whether it's still necessary in an age when readers have multiple sources of news and information.

5. Get the readers involved.
As Dan Gillmor has elegantly argued, the audience knows more than news people do. Much more. Tap that knowledge by encouraging reader participation in as many ways as possible: contributing news and information about their communities, sending in photos and videos, commenting on everything. This can't be a token effort, and you absolutely cannot be scared or controlling about it: let the readers get involved at every opportunity. It will greatly improve the product and increase readership.

6. Lose the editorial page.
Unsigned editorials are a relic of a bygone era when newspaper barons exerted power in their community... Here's a thought: Replace it with reader opinions!

7. Expand the advertising base.
In any market, there are thousands of small advertisers that would never consider advertising in the big local newspaper. It's too expensive and covers too broad an area. But those advertisers want to reach the same people the newspaper does. Find a way to make this happen: more focused zoning, cheaper ads, ad rep pay structures that encourage selling to smaller advertisers. This is another area where community papers are running rings around big dailies.

8. Rethink the classifieds.
Craigslist, Monster.com and countless other news competitors have decimated the newspaper classifieds business. ... Anybody who's used craigslist knows how much more effective it is than paid newspaper classifieds. Look hard at your classifieds ... Yes, that may include shifting most of the classifieds online and giving them away for free, in order to keep the critical mass of classifieds that makes them useful.

9. Find new ways to serve advertisers.
What newspapers offer advertisers--display ads, classifieds--really hasn't changed much in a century. Look for ways to change that. Get into the Yellow Pages directory business online. Aggressively offer contextual advertising. Use idle newspaper delivery resources to help local businesses with their delivery needs. Use subscription lists to help businesses find customer leads. Explore interactive advertising forms that go way beyond boring banner ads. Offer data services to help businesses manage their inventories or sell things online. It's not enough to simply sell space in the paper or on the Web site. Help advertisers make their businesses more successful.

10. Take chances. Innovate. Be fearless about trying things--and killing things.
...A wise editor once said to me, there's virtually no history of research and development in the newspaper business, which is odd considering that covering the news is a daily act of research and development. Let's face it: The single biggest innovation in print newspaper journalism in the past decade or so is...Sudoku. Newspapers can and must do better than that to survive.

Source: Recovering Journalist

Nytimes.com blogger Timothy Egan points to an interesting paradox about newspapers: how can we be talking about the death knell for newspapers when readership for many publications has never been higher?

We have all seen the stories of 1,000 jobs being cut in the American newspaper industry, just this week the LA Times announced 150 editorial layoffs. However, Egan points out, "all of this bad news is coming at a time when the audience and reach of many newspapers has never been greater."

Although the Internet may have damaged the traditional newspaper, it has also "increased the readership of some newspapers ten-fold."

US Newspaper websites attracted more than 66 million unique visitors in the first quarter of 2008 -- a record, and a 12 percent increase on a year ago, according to Nielsen Online analysis. Forty percent of all Internet users visit a newspaper site.

"A visitor, it should be noted, is different from a reader, but it's the measurement of choice. The Web is the future," writes Egan.

However, online advertising accounts for only around 10 percent of total ad revenue for newspapers. In its present form, the Web format does not generate enough revenue to support a full reporting team at a national newspaper. This is an area that newspapers need to focus on, and currently only a few newspapers are doing successfully.

Egan also discusses another interesting business model for the future; could newspapers go down the route of non-profit national broadcasters such as the BBC, CBC and National Public Radio? He discusses the possibility of a quality, independent media no longer driven by the search for ad revenues.

However, this system arguably couldn't support a nationwide competitive media, but it's something worth considering, even if it is an option with limitations.

Egan's blog puts a new slant on the debate about the future of newspapers and exposes the weakness in the argument that newspapers are in their last days. Egan's research demostrates that there is much vitality in the industry and that newspapers need to adapt to a changing media environment.

Source: New York Times

A New Yorker identified as Rick752 has come up with EasyList, Washington Post (WP) reported, which allows web users to filter and block all ads that may appear on their computer screens. While the situation is not "doomsday" just yet, there is a possibility that ad revenue from websites would decline if further improvements in ad-blocking software continue.

EasyList and Adblock Plus do not allow for any Internet ad form to seep through, including pop-up ads, in-page displayed ads and video.

Rick mentioned that it isn't a question of wanting the Web publishers to make less money and that he wouldn't have created the list if ads were less "annoying". According to him, "people really hate ads."

Both Rick and Wladimir Palant, who put Adblock together, did so for free.

Although ad-blocking software allows for de-cluttered Web surfing, it may pose a serious threat to web sites being financially sponsored by ads, according to WP.

For example, once ad-blockers are detected, the Daily Kos website says, "You're getting all the benefits of our site but we're not getting any of the advertisement revenue associated with your visits."

Rick faces a challenge when companies hide their content as ads, in which case he resorts to "whitelisting" addresses, the WP reported.

Vice President of public policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Mike Zaneis, said that he doesn't think that the situation is problematic, because only a small percentage of Web surfers currently use ad blockers, WP reported.

Source: Washington Post

See Also:
2 unrelated observations related to the American newspaper industry


 

At the Future of Journalism conference Jeff Jarvis, journalism professor at City University New York, MediaGuardian contributor and BuzzMachine blogger, offered 10 questions news outlets should be asking themselves and the Guardian in particular. Here's a selection:

1 - "Who are we?"
History is "full of companies that had failed to answer this question and lost their way", said Jarvis.

He discussed how AOL could have become what Facebook is today if they hadn't been sidetracked into thinking they were a "content company." Likewise, Yahoo could have become what Google is, if it had embraced the fact that it was "really an advertising company."

In his opinion, the Guardian is "increasingly a 'community' company" but future growth could stem from thinking of the paper as a "platform" or "network". News organizations should try to "collaborate and mobilise" effectively, perhaps by including audience reports of news events. 

3 - Are we generous?

This may be done by "sharing technology, supporting people with the Guardian ad network" and "allowing people to be stars in the outside world", reported the Guardian.
 
5 - Are we findable?

News websites should be findable and should include "distributed content, content that is open for developers to build applications (or widgets), content that is findable on social media, and content that can be consumed on mobile."

Newspaper websites should act like platforms, sharing "knowledge and promotion and traffic and advertising and branding" Jarvis said.

Other questions for newspapers to ask themselves include:

"Are we inventing new narratives?"
"Are we in data layers?"
"Are we having fun yet?"
"Are we agile?"

Source: Guardian Online

See Also:
@Future of Journalism: the benefits of Twitter
@Future of Journalism: reporting celebrity news

"Papers facing worst year for ad revenue" screamed the New York Times yesterday, a headline topping an article about a "double-digit drop in advertising revenue" at American newspapers. But apart from the information detailed after the obvious headline, two observations can be taken from the article.

1. The general public is catching on
The headline enticed enough people to click through to the story that it was driven up to #7 on the most read stories list of nytimes.com and #3 on the 10 most blogged stories. Although media bloggers have been enthusiastically documenting the ups and downs of American newspapers for several years, the fact that the article reached both of these lists shows that the general public, or at least the audience of nytimes.com, is more aware and interested in the plight of the industry. Perhaps newspaper readers, recognizing the seemingly dire short-term financial  futures of US papers, are becoming genuinely concerned about their favorite papers, the journalism they produce and the democracies which they keep in check. As the industry struggles through tough economic times, will their readers come to the rescue by buying more subscriptions or even contributing money to help keep the newshole deep?

2. Dailies vs. weeklies
What was also interesting about the NYT article was what preceded it; a full-browser window advertisement for the analytical UK-based weekly, The Economist. Whereas the print circulation of the New York Times has remained relatively stable over the past decade (while the circs of its brothers in many American markets have decreased substantially), the circulation and revenues of the Economist have doubled.

Although the Economist is recognized as one of the smartest newspapers in the world and has undergone an ambitious global marketing scheme over the past few years, some analysts attribute its recent circ and revenue success to changes in the habits of readers. A growing number of newshounds scan the headlines on the Internet or mobile devices constantly throughout the day and thus have little need to purchase the daily paper which is often a rehash of news they already know. But weeklies such as the Economist have more time to reflect upon current events and get to the "What does it mean" aspect of news, something that is very difficult to accomplish on a daily basis. This aspect seems to be a near perfect fit in the busy daily lives of people. Where they once may have taken a couple of hours to read the newspaper front to back, now, news reading habits seem to more like this:
1. scan the headlines and first paragraph almost immediately after something happens
2. skip the details in the rest of the article
3. wait a few days for a comprehensive story that tells readers what incidents mean for the world and themselves.

In this sense, it has been suggested that newspapers scale back the frequency of their print editions to 3 or 4 days a week to adhere to readers' busy lifestyles. Even US weeklies seem to be decreasing their publishing frequency to bi-weekly in order to allow more time for reflection.

Back to the Economist advertisement. It would be curious to see what kind of success rate the Economist receives from advertising in NYT and if they'll receive converts from the NYT print daily to the Economist print weekly. On the other hand, any defectors will more than likely continue reading nytimes.com for their daily headlines. The problem seems to be that brief headline-reading visits to daily websites like nytimes.com aren't encouraging for advertisers, and in turn will not help any revenue losses from downturns in print advertising.  

In a memo sent to staffers Monday, New York Times editor Bill Keller announced that the Times will remodel its global edition, the International Herald Tribune, in order to more closely coordinate efforts between the two papers. A new management structure, merged websites, and internationally oriented section fronts are among the changes being implemented.
 
"The IHT should become an organic part of the Times, closely integrated in the shared purpose of gathering and disseminating NYT-quality journalism," Keller wrote.

The restructured Tribune newsroom will include a new editorial position - editor, global edition - to oversee the integration. The integrated websites, Keller says, will ensure that the Tribune "does not compete for advertising with NYTimes.com but instead leverages its greater audience reach and more sophisticated technology."

According to Keller, the competitive nature of the global news market necessitates the change.

"The global landscape for online news is highly competitive, making scale, speed and resources essential to success," he said, "The best future online for the IHT and the NYT globally is through a joint international presence."

Read the full memo here.

Source: MediaBistro.com
 

Prominent South African newspaper Mail & Guardian (M & G) recently revamped its website with social networking and Web 2.0 functions. New features include a new layout, the ability to save article clippings, StoryHistory, StoryPredictor, the ability to comment and debate, semantic tagging, and the implementation of NewsSwarm.

In an interview with the Editors Weblog, the M & G Online general manager Matthew Buckland said that the aesthetic aspect of the redesign includes "a wider layout, top navigation instead of left", use of mixed fonts and more white space.

The new site attempts to "build networking features", Buckland said. The ability to see other people's news clippings allows a user to "meet users based on similar interests."

NewsSwarm allows users to see who is viewing what at a given time. "It's interesting from a user perspective to see what articles are important," Buckland mentioned.

StoryPredict will forecast what stories a user will be interested in based on the browsing history, which is in turn saved.

In the past, users were not able to comment but this was due to technical restrictions, according to Buckland. Now comments to the news site are enabled for registered members. "We ensure comments. We encourage users to post under real names. We ensure a high level of intelligent debate," Buckland said.

Every site except the Thoughtleader.co.za, the Techleader.co.za and the Sportsleader.co.za sites require users to register if they want to comment.

Registered users are also able to blog, Buckland said.

The advanced printing function allows for articles to be printed in a row.  

Buckland pointed out that the new site is "tagged quite heavily". Related news stories are linked to articles, even if they are "from competitors and blogs", according to Buckland.

In his blog, Vincent Maher, strategist at the M & G, said that because the old code and the database were "messy", the developing team had to reconstruct "the site from the ground up on a completely new set of technologies."

According to Maher's blog, "the project scope and order of production" included:

- Redesigning and developing front end, designing a new strategy for ad formats, new CMS
- Developing a new data structure to accommodate real-time visualization and semantic tagging
- Integrating an advertising engine and negotiating with advertisers
- Integrating national-level navigation mapping, city-level mapping through Google Maps, "contextually-relevant" outside news sources through Google News, "contextually-relevant" blog postings through Google Blog Search
- Creating new templates for e-commerce partner sites
- Rebuilding newsletter system
(For the whole list, go to Maher's blog) 

Source: Matt Buckland, General Manager Mail & Guardian Online, VincentMaher.com

See also:
South Africa: Mail and Guardian launches Amatomu blog aggregator

Since its launch on June 1 this year, the Boston Globe's Big Picture weblog has gotten worldwide acclamation. The site is simple, includes minimal advertising and maximal visual information.

The weblog's designer, programmer and writer Alan Taylor spoke to Waxy.org about the strategy and inspiration behind the site as well as his status as "a programmer in a journalist's world."

Essentially, the Big Picture features a patchwork of large-sized photographs and minimal text, focusing on the "visual storytelling" aspect of news stories. Being a developer, Taylor was able to do tasks like building templates and formatting styles himself and the site remains as his side project.

The first thing the Globe took care of was the legal aspect of using larger-than-usual photographs. Taylor mentioned that they could not find anything in the contracts that might have prohibited that.

"The general rule appears to be (my understanding of it) that the images should not be easily reproduced in print. Big Picture images max out at 990 pixels wide at 72dpi. If you scale that up to print resolution of 300dpi, you get an image that's only about 2 inches wide, so we'd appear to be within that limit," Taylor said.

When it comes to choosing stories, Taylor searches for stories and tries "to stock up for a rainy day too" by having "stored searches, some favorite photographers, some perpetually interesting subjects."

Taylor's Browsing and Posting technique:

"I use Firefox to browse the wire on an internal site, wired up with Greasemonkey scripts to give me decent-sized thumbs, extract caption and photo ID from the IMG tags. When I find an image I like, I save it to a local folder until I get about 25 or so good ones to choose from. Then I open all 25 in Photoshop, arrange the windows in a horizontal tile and drag them around to get a rough ordering that makes sense. Then I start to edit out images that don't make the cut, run a couple of recorded Photoshop Actions to size the images, and do some hand-cropping if necessary.

I also wrote a Photoshop script in Javascript that will grab all the images in a given folder and generate HTML with proper heights and widths for the images -- that's what I use as the body of the entry. Then I paste in captions (with some editing), grab some relevant links, write a short intro and post it."

Each entry takes him about two to three hours of work and he recently minimized the number of postings to three per week instead of one per weekday.

The Big Picture's width is achieved by taking the classic 1024-pixel-wide screen and taking out 34 pixels; so that it covers the majority of browser's scrollbars without using horizontal scrollbars.

Taylor points out that even though the Big Picture is not so well-linked to the main site, "they are still working on the relationship between articles written for the Globe that are online, and content that is produced for our online property only."

News articles usually use smaller photographs and according to Taylor, photo sites that have feature photographs seem to be missing "context, depth, story." He praises msnbc.com and the Washington Post, when it comes to the use of more photographs and less links to news stories. When Taylor links to news stories, he usually tries to stick to the New York Times family but he said that if the links are good he will use them from anywhere.
 
Taylor said that even if there is a question of bandwidth, "1024 pixel screen sizes are more prevalent, more people have faster connections" and that just as much quality could be obtained from still image as from a video.

Although web programmers might have bigger salaries than journalists, Taylor thinks that is changing. There is a question of how to make journalism positions more appealing to programmers.  

Taylor said that so far, the response to the Big Picture has been "over-the-top positive" but that he hopes that the "photographers" get the credit as well. In the 20 days since it was started, the blog has gotten 1.5 million pageviews, 1,500 comments for 20 entries and international interest due to it's "visual nature", according to Taylor.

Source: Waxy.org through Journadism
 

An innovative approach to Olympic coverage is for newspapers to create a whole new site with interactive features. The Toronto Star has launched a new web site on thestar.com containing Web 2.0 tools (TOPS 2.0 platform, or Torstar Open Publishing System) that will cover the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, said a Media in Canada article.

The site will have editorial pieces, photos, videos, a searchable database, live streaming, a blog, a schedule, coverage of the qualifying games as well as stories on life in China. Users will be able to leave comments and export material to their own websites.

Eleven Star reporters will be in Beijing, including some "veteran Olympic correspondents" like Doug Smith and Dave Feschuk. Advertisement on star.com includes HNC's Wellers and The Bay, American Express and Chevrolet.

Other media outlets have taken a similar approach, such as NBC's Olympic coverage on nbcolympics.com.

Source: Media in Canada

U.S. newspapers' print advertising sales dropped a record 14 percent in the first quarter of 2008, a result of dwindling real estate and job markets, and the migration of traditional print advertisers to the Internet. The decline is the industry's biggest fall since 1971.

According to Kip Cassino, research director at Borrell Associates, a media consulting firm in Williamsburg, Virginia, traditional print stalwarts real estate, recruitment, and automotive are abandoning newspapers for their own websites.

"This stuff isn't going to online intermediaries...It's going to companies that say, 'I can do my own advertising,'" Cassino said. "Newspapers' biggest competitors are their former advertisers."

But there may be a way for newspapers to reverse the tide of shrinking advertising, according to Alan Mutter of Newsosaur.blogspot.com.

Mutter says that run-of-paper (ROP) advertising - a system in which editors determine the placement of advertisements - is experiencing a revival among large national retailers. Such retailers have traditionally favored free-standing color inserts, but are considering switching to ROP ads, which present a cheaper, easier alternative.

"At a time of soaring fuel costs, it is vastly cheaper to email a digital image of an ad to a newspaper than to have paper reels shipped from a mill to a commercial printer and then have the finished product loaded on a second truck to be hauled to their final destination," Mutter writes.

Mutter says that ROP advertising is favorable to newspapers as well, "fetching a higher rate" while eliminating the "logistical nightmare" of distributing inserts.

As Mutter demonstrates, ROP advertising could be a winning scenario for both newspapers and advertisers.

Source: Bloomberg.com through EJC, Newsosaur.blogspot.com

After months of stagnant negotiation with Microsoft, Yahoo has taken its business elsewhere, agreeing yesterday to a deal with search-engine king Google. The move puts to an end, for now, a hectic four months for Yahoo (the deal still needs to be reviewed by antitrust r