If There Aren’t Enough Readers For News on Newspaper Web Sites Then How About Offering Other Attractions Such As Social Networking?

Philip M. Stone August 27, 2008

The major problem for newspapers is that the additional digital pennies earned from their news web sites come nowhere close to replacing the analog dollars lost by their print products. So maybe a solution is to run additional web sites that have nothing to do with news but that can attract the real masses and hopefully new advertisers – such as social networking sites for the local community?

That’s what Mecom, a large European newspaper chain, is doing. David Montgomery, its executive chairman, is firmly convinced that newspaper companies need to make more than just the price of a newspaper from its readers.  “We are launching new websites at a rate of one a week,” he said as his company announced disappointing results for the first half of the year. “A single copy of a newspaper per customer is no longer adequate. We have got to provide media in as many different forms as possible”

And for him that means rolling out gambling and social network sites. Now in the US gambling may be a bit dicey for various legal, let alone religious reasons, but Europe has no such qualms.

Also, European newspapers are very big into promotional offers. Newspaper readers, depending on the country, are used to getting cheap or free books, holidays, DVDs and the like and Montgomery says his newspapers will do more such promotions for the rest of the year.

And speaking of promotions, can you believe Murdoch’s Sun tabloid in the UK actually is running a promotion with the Royal Opera House in which all 2,200 tickets for the opening night September 8 of the fall season with Don Giovanni will be offered at prices limited to no more than £30 ($60) when the best seats usually go for £200 ($400)?  The lucky 2,200 winners at various prices will be chosen by lottery – it’s a great promotional activity for the opera house and it gives the Sun a chance to attract more upscale readers. 

So, that leads into our weekly look at what newspapers are up to these days, besides mass culls, to improve their bottom line:

• Here’s a quote you never thought you would read by “Lean” Dean Singleton: “You forget about the P&L for this.” It’s actually a case of him spending a lot of money, including buying Blackberrys for reporters so they can update web sites directly from the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week. Denver is the home of his flagship Post and Singleton says that when you have a major event such as this you go all out, and he will be spending well into six figures for the week’s coverage.  “This is a week to really showcase what we do best,” he told the Wall Street Journal. The business plan is for most of the 50,000 delegates and conventioneers to find an expanded Post – there’ll be an extra 24-36 page section each day -- outside their hotel rooms each morning. That boosts circulation, therefore ad rates, and attracts additional advertisers who want to get their message across to such an audience.  The Post and its competitor, The Rocky Mountain News owned by E.W. Scripps, believe they will do better than breakeven when the dust clears, and their editorial reputations will be enhanced.

• One classification of daily newspapers generally thought to be doing well in the current economic climate are those produced  for students on college campuses since advertisers really want to address that audience. But the free Daily Californian at the University of California, Berkeley says that isn’t so and it is cutting out its Wednesday edition to save money although its web site continues daily. It is also cutting staff and reducing salaries.

• The trend continues to drop so-called public editors – those who act as reader ombudsmen. The latest to go is the public editor at the McClatchy flagship, the Sacramento Bee.

• The trend continues for co-owned newspapers within relatively close proximity to one another to undertake production consolidation. Vincennes, Indiana is about 85 miles (136 kms) from Owensboro, Kentucky but that isn’t stopping the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer from printing the Vincennes Sun-Commercial, both owned by Paxton Media. In the case of two New York Times Company properties, The Gainesville Sun and the Ocala Star-Banner in Florida the distance is just 35 miles (55 kms) so switching Ocala’s news and copy desk functions, design, layout and pagination to Gainesville shouldn’t be too difficult.  The newsrooms remain separate.

• In trying to cut down on its newsprint usage, the Times-Union of Albany, New York says it has just about decided the newspaper is going to shed up to 28 pages weekly. Features will probably take the biggest hit. Among other cuts likely to be enacted are eliminating stand alone business sections, getting rid of the daily half-page weather map, running the entertainment calendar just once a week instead of the current  four times a week, reducing reviews such as for restaurants, eliminating one page of the two-page opinion sector, and reducing the number of syndicated columns and comics. That last point is being taken up by other newspapers including The Index of Mineral Wells, Texas that is now combining features and comics onto just one page, thus dropping several items.

• The Chicago Sun Times has outsourced its classified sales to Classified Plus Inc., of Buffalo, New York that now provides call center service to more than 200 U.S. newspapers.

• The closing of Washington DC bureaus, or the reductions down to just one staffer led Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz to exclaim in a story, “A full-blown withdrawal is underway, with newspaper companies reducing their troops here or pulling them out altogether.”

Nearly everything above is cut, cut, cut something, so it was refreshing here in Switzerland to see a rather neat way of making some additional newspaper advertising revenue. Rivella, a soft drink company  has launched a new drink called “Rivella Jaune” (Rivella Yellow), made 25% from soya with the end product naturally  yellow in color. So in Geneva for its launch Tuesday it got the 20 Minutes free paper to print entirely on yellow paper,  it took a double-truck ad on pages two and three, and placed a series of ads taking all of pages 6, 13, 19, 28, 36, plus the back page. Other advertisers were not shut-out. Very effective!