Greetings to all my friends and the followers of NewMediaHub.com over the past year. Our new site is LocalMediaInsider.com, and though we have refrained from pointing this site to it quite yet, this site is now parked and all the new posts are on LocalMediaInsider.com. Simply put, the WordPress platform on which this site was built, while great for blogs, was ultimately insufficient to do the job.
Our objectives are two fold: First, to inform local media executives exactly what is working to grow interactive revenues around the country, so you can have the best intelligence. Read More »
Posted by Alisa Cromer |
04/25/10 | No Comments »
Local publishers take note and get your e-reader strategies in motion: The seismic societal shift to usage of e-readers may have been launched by the iPad. An study by Greg Harmon of ItzBelden reports 31% of the population plans to buy an e-reader by March 2010, up from 7 to 15% just a few months ago, before Steve Job’s January announcement. Read More »
Posted by Alisa Cromer |
03/22/10 | No Comments »
Ron Curley, head of interactive of the Las Vegas Sun gives a great description about how important home page design is in driving traffic. From a “truly beautiful” home page that tanked traffic, to the one that “looked like poop” but had all the links, to the final hybrid model, that still generated traffic increases. In this blog, he finally answers the age old question, does good design perform poorly? More…
Posted by Newswire |
03/04/10 | No Comments »
The internet has created tough challenges for businesses trying to manage what is being said about them on Yelp, Twitter and other review sites. Enter Marchex, which has developed a “reputation management” tool that media can resell to SMB’s, that allows them to monitor online mentions.
SMB’s consider word-of-mouth to be the source of 50% of their new business, but are frustrated by the increased importance of review sites and the internet.
“Twitter, blogs, yelp, every SMB has to deal with,” says Mathew Berk, Executive Vice President of Product Engineering at Marchex.
“The reality is that SMB’s feel victimized, sites do everything for the consumer and nothing for the businesses.” He noted that a business with multiple locations has a nearly impossible task in trying to monitoring dozens of online mentions without special software. Read More »
Posted by Alisa Cromer |
02/26/10 | 1 Comment »
The San Diego-based pure play network of hyper-local news sites is looking for expansion opportunities and partners, according to Chris Jennewein, President, U.S. Local News Network, who spoke at the Borrell Associates Local Advertising Conference.
The company launched SDNN.com in San Diego, the founders’ hometown, in early 2009 with $3 million in venture capital funds, and followed up with a site launched in Riverside. In January, the company scored a coup, launching an Orange County site, in partnership with the La Times.
About the La Times partnership, “We learn from them and they learn from us,” Jennewein said. The companies’ staff will go on joint sales calls and share revenues and the newcomer rents office space inside the La Times building. “There could not be a more ideal partner,” Jennewein said. Read More »
Posted by Alisa Cromer |
02/13/10 | No Comments »
For those who did attend Borrell Associates’ Local Online Advertising Conference “The business of making money” last week, here is a quick overview of “just the good stuff, ” as promised. First, a key statement from the conference for anyone who is a little sleepy: “The popularity of the banner is dieing.” That’s from Kip Cassino, head researcher for Borrell, who says local media can count on needing to replace banner revenues with other dollars, especially mobile (caveat: the one core use of the banner that came up at the conference is to announce a special offer attached to a jump page). A number of great companies at the conference spoke about their experiments and successes. Here is a summary of ten target areas for strategic investment in 2010 and the next three years: Read More »
Posted by Alisa Cromer |
02/05/10 | No Comments »
Now that the New York times has declared its intentions to charge via metered access in 2011, paid content naysayers are softening their argument. Essentially, the NYTimes has given the industry “permission” to charge, as one colleague put it . This chart from ItzBelden’s Paid Access report shows that newspapers who didn’t wait for permission already expanded their circulation by an average of 2.4% when they charge for online access.
Critics who gave the 2.4% sales number a failing grade apparently did not understand the question. This is not the number of people who are willing to pay online. This is the extra number that are willing to pay, period. When full html sites are locked, about 30 to 40% of newspaper subscribers also (typically) register online for free. So you might say, 2.4% prefer not to receive a newspaper at all, even a free one; 30 to 40% prefer to have internet access in addition to print, even if they have to register, and 60 to 70% of current print subscribers don’t want to jump through a hoop to use the internet, at least if they have to register again. Maybe with more significant advantages (discount coupons or text programs, access to chat with high profile columnists) they would register or pay. Read More »
Posted by Alisa Cromer |
01/22/10 | No Comments »
An article by Ken Sands posted on Poynter.org points out the problems newspaper sites are having with video content. Most of the angst centers around the cost to produce and edit quality video. But the failure of these early efforts may have more to do with poor choice of video content, ie lack of a “jobs to do” strategy, than lack of demand by advertisers and readers. Read More »
Posted by Alisa Cromer |
10/23/09 | No Comments »
The Dallas Morning News had a basic mobile site that was not generating traffic or revenues. Executives had to rethink how to create mobile information and create a platform that sales representatives would enthusiastically take into the streets to sell. Their new platform includes only core franchises with content layered on applications. Mobile traffic is on track to double and IT says the sales department is now fully onboard.
Read More »
Posted by Alisa Cromer |
10/21/09 | No Comments »
In an interview with Media Life, Gordon Borrell of Borrell & Associates says growth in local internet advertising will slow in 2010, as local businesses assess and re-align online spending, rather than continuing to switch from traditional media. That creates both risk and opportunity for local media companies, outlined below. According to Borrell: Read More »
Posted by Alisa Cromer |
10/19/09 | No Comments »
