Even MORE online revenue strategies for newspapers
Multimedia content is a realm that newspapers still haven’t figured out how to effectively monetize. Things like videos, podcasts, photo galleries and interactive presentations generally do not generate the firestorm of page views that a topical or controversial article (with comments enabled) will. At least, not right away. A well-made video or multimedia presentation is “evergreen” content, meaning that it is timeless. Whereas a hot article will eventually die out when...
Read MoreRelated Articles – A Must for Any Newspaper Web Site
In my previous posts, I stated that the key to newspapers generating more revenue from their web sites is to increase their page views. The way to do this is by getting the user to interact with more of the web site’s content. Often times, users are only interested in one or two subjects. One person may be looking for sports coverage, another person may be looking for local political coverage and so on. They will skim the home page looking for that day’s articles relating to...
Read MoreMore online revenue strategies for newspapers
In my previous post, I mentioned that the key to newspapers earning money online is to generate as many page views as possible. This is because it creates more impressions for advertisements. Usually, an advertiser will pay per impression, or a “CPM”. For example, an advertiser may pay $20 for their ad to appear 1,000 times on a web site. So naturally, the more page views a web site generates, the more inventory there is to sell for advertisers. However, often newspapers will...
Read MoreRevenue Strategies for Newspapers in a Digital Age
Ok, so in my last post I said that the way that newspapers can survive in today’s digital information age is by strengthening their brand. Essentially, that means they need to strengthen their product. If they do this, they will make money again. In order to become profitable, newspapers need to transform their revenue strategies. Part of that transformation is abandoning old revenue strategies that no longer apply to today’s market. It’s addition by subtraction. A large...
Read MoreNewspapers don’t have to fail, they have to adapt
Full disclosure: I worked in the web department for a major newspaper for the past four years, so this subject is pretty near and dear to me. It seems like almost every other week you hear about another major newspaper that is either going out of business or drastically reducing the size of it’s product. People have been saying that “print is dead” for awhile now. Though I don’t believe that the print version of the paper will die out completely, I do agree with this...
Read MoreNewspapers’ new selling point… coupons?
I went to the zoo today and received a pretty aggressive sales pitch from two guys selling subscriptions to the Dispatch. What I found surprising was that their main selling point (which they had obviously been told to push) was the coupons that could only be found in the paper. Is this what it has come to? Does the Dispatch think that it’s main value is in it’s coupons section? How long before this once-mighty hometown newspaper becomes a thin packet of coupons hanging from a...
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