Put Marketing First
by Jason E. Klein
Published: PRESSTIME, December 2006
MUCH OF THE RECENT DIALOGUE in the newspaper industry has been on technology collaboration across companies to win online national advertising. While this addresses some important gaps, it misses an important point: Media properties need to be aggressively marketed and sold to gain their share of online ad revenue.
That’s because the “If We Build It, They Will Come” approach to newspaper Web marketing will not work on its own.
If you haven’t noticed lately, there are dozens of online advertising networks aggregating remnant ad inventory at rock-bottom CPMs, or cost per impressions. Publishers receive a small fraction of the potential value from their product while the aggregators reap the bigger rewards.
Newspapers deserve better. Newspaper print brands command the highest CPMs of major reach media. When well-aggregated and marketed, the newspaper online audi- ence has immense value to advertisers.
A winning newspaper collaboration across newspaper Web sites should offer major marketers the following four elements:
Complete U.S. Coverage. The customer—the national advertiser—needs to be put first. Any newspaper collaboration needs to offer complete coverage of the United States. All markets are important, large and small. If the national solution is full of holes, then it adds immeasurably to advertisers’ frustration with the medium.
Print and Online Integration. Print and online must be offered in an integrated manner. Newspapers’ unique competitive edge is its engaged and geo-targeted audience, print and online. While the medium is shifting from print to online, newspaper brand equity is still the medium’s most valuable asset.
Recent research has underscored that the credibility and trust of newspaper brands put newspapers in a league of their own. If print and online are not readily sold and marketed together, then the newspaper industry is compromising its future.
Look at the success ESPN has enjoyed in generating billions in advertising revenue through its one brand. ESPN, the leading cable network; ESPN.com, the leading sports Web site; and ESPN The Magazine, the nation’s No. 2 sports magazine, are all marketed and sold to advertisers through one integrated unit.
Clients are demanding integrated solutions that drive powerful ideas across branded, multimedia platforms. Agencies are responding by better integrating media plans across disparate buying units. The newspaper industry will only reach its full potential if it responds with a combined print and Web approach.
Premium Inventory Packages. A winning newspaper collaboration needs to be about delivering premium inventory in customized packages—not aggregating remnant banner ads by the most efficient means possible. Innovative ad units and sponsorships that leverage branded, section-specific inventory in Sports, Entertainment and other newspaper Web sections are essential to successfully engage with major U.S. advertisers. Technology and inventory are, of course, important, but the ability to understand client needs and customize solutions will be a big part of newspapers’ ability to win online.
Sales Solutions That Put Marketing First. Newspapers need to collaborate in a way that builds a complete national network while respecting company independence and the need for financial return. Any industry collaboration must be based on an open model, which invites broad industry participa- tion. Advertiser proposals must be driven by advertiser, not newspaper, needs.
A winning newspaper collaboration should be a marketing-driven, not technology-driven endeavor. The industry can make enormous strides with better standards and better use of current technology. While some investment is needed, massive, risky technology bets are unnecessary and incompatible with newspapers’ strength.
Newspapers clearly need to move to a more common technology underpinning online in order to facilitate national buys. But newspapers should realize that solving the “easy to buy” problem is inadequate on its own to open the floodgates of revenue. Any cross-industry col- laboration needs to be built around marketing premium, branded print and online newspaper inventory on a broad and deep national scale.
There is too much at stake to settle for anything less.
JASON E. KLEIN is president and chief executive officer of Newspaper National Network LP. E-mail: jklein@nnnlp.com