Run Web as Profit First Business

1. March 13, 2012
Run Digital
Profit First
MelTaylorMedia.com 267-625-5313

2. No BS
Digital Business Models
For Local Media

3. Mel Taylor Background

4. Bad News
• Phila Inquirer
• NYT regional
• Media General
• Chicago Sun times
• Chicago News Co-op

7. How Long ?
Bleed Red Ink
Before You
Clean House ?

8. Who do you
FOLLOW

9. ☺

10. let’s partner ;)

13. Digital ?
I’m thinking retirement… bee-yatch

15. ‘Traditional print journalism
has value of about zero’

16. Private
Equity
Your
Newspaper

17. New sales product each week
‘The Firehose’
Unending stream of products
No one knows what works, til you try

18. NEWS
Not a Business Model

19. FAIL
Online Journalism / Content
looking for
Revenue Models
SMART
Proven Revenue Models
that support
Online Journalism / Content

20. 3 step plan
• Run Web like Business
•1. Reduce costs
Understand Competition
Leverage Digital
•2. Increase print share
– Operational Efficiency
3.– Increasenew revenue
Tap Revenue Share
– Increase Audience Share

21. Core business
Newspapers
Journalism
Communications
Advertising
Enable Commerce

22. Run Web Like Print
Think like Publisher / Owner
1. Profit in this order
2. Operations
3. Editorial

23. Product Line
What you want to sell ?
What they want to buy ?

24. Search
Web
Social
Presence
Small
Customer
Database Business Social
Needs
Promotion Database
Video

25. Journalism
CPM Pageview
Newspaper
Social Needs
Followers Paywalls
Apps Mobile

26. Internal
Poison

27. Remove Bozos
Recent Online News Conference
Watch clip of person killing your business from within.
http://meltaylormedia.com/2011/11/if-steve-jobs-ran-your-newspaper/

29. Digital
Operations
Manual
Do you have one?

31. Digital Ops
Manual
• How we do it
• Style guide
• Process
• System
• Rules

32. Who’s in Charge
How many in charge of digital?
Salary or performance based?

33. I’m ready to give
Rob Curley
the hook
Burn Thru Cash

34. Who Manages
Digital ?
ONE PERSON
compensation & job security
tied to digital profitability
Mel Taylor Media - Dec 2010

35. Who Manages Digital ?
Mandatory Skill Set
1. Think like Publisher
2. Entrepreneurial
3. Biz-Dev & Direct Sales
4. Digital DNA
5. Traditional Marketing

36. • Webmasters
• Designers
• Editors
Tell you what you can…
…and can’t sell online ?
Do you ask pressmen about
what types of print ads you can sell?

37. Always done it that way
Platform can’t do it
We don’t offer it
Don’t have time
Too expensive
Bad user experience

38. Beware
• We hit our web budget
• Web rev up 500 %
• Web traffic is strong
• 50,000 Facebook Fans
• CPM selling

39. Where are sales experts in this picture?
a) John Paton
b) Jay Rosen c
c) Jeff Jarvis a
b
New Business Models for News

40. The day I discovered that AOL PATCH
had no idea how to make money.

41. Research

42. The New Workshop from Mel Taylor Media
Online Business 101
for Editorial, Programming & Web Producers
When content creators understand online business models…
they create more advertiser-friendly & profitable websites

43. Don’t Train
your sales staff
Until publisher is trained
Until managers are trained
Train the trainer

44. Separate Teams
1. Internal civil war
2. Print reps look out-of-touch
3. Digital rep not incented to sell print
4. Where to find good digital sellers?
5. Multiple points of sales contact - bad
7. Blame poor web sales on digital reps
8. RARE - Deseret Media - Salt Lake City

45. Internal
Poison

46. Meet Dick
• Print Sales Superstar
• Hits budget w/o Web
• 75% of clients buy web
• From competitors

47. Reps Operating Blind
Know how clients
are spending budgets?

48. Client Questions
• Current marketing allocation
• Current digital allocation
• Digital you are considering
• Who’s pitching you ?

49. Integrated Sales
• All reps as super sellers
• 1 web champion
• 1 point of contact for client
• Offer many solutions
• Reach & power of all platforms
Read: EPIC FAIL; Separate Digital Sales Teams

50. Overhaul Comp
• Revenue per rep & manager
• New business per rep (per month)
• Grow % of current clients
• High commission: new clients
• Low commission: transactional
• Bonus & PENALTY

51. Overhaul Comp
> Grow % of clients using web
> Bonus & PENALTY
• Don’t hit web ? Lose PRINT bonus
• Don’t hit web….all the time?
> Lose acct or job

52. Outsourcing Sales
Hard Sell
4-legged Calls
High Churn Rate
Clients feel pressured

53. Local Sales Effort
• Protect & grow your LOCAL sales staff
• Keep local client relationships to YOURSELF
• YOUR managers should be trainers
• YOUR managers should do 4-legged calls
• Using imported sellers, makes rep look WEAK

54. Vendors
Best Product & Price
Financially motivated?
Lowest cost & best features

55. Low Cost Operations

56. New CMS Models

59. Costs

60. Freekin’
SCARY
Media Kits

61. Sales Kit
Easy to understand ?
For local business & reps ?
Advertiser focused ?

66. The ABC 7 Coverage Area
Encompasses Five Important Counties!
With a total population
of 909,790* in the
ABC 7 coverage area,
your commercial
message is assured
of reaching your best
potential customers.
*Source: US Census Bureau 2010 population estimates

67. Tampa Sarasota Bradenton Tampa Sarasota Bradenton
Gender DMA Venice CBSA Age DMA Venice CBSA
Men 48.1% 47.7% 18-34 25.3% 21.3%
Women 51.9% 52.3% 18-49 49.0% 41.6%
25-54 48.5% 42.6%
35+ 74.7% 78.7%
Tampa Sarasota Bradenton
50+ 51.0% 58.4%
Race DMA Venice CBSA
White 88.2% 94.6%
Black 8.6% 3.1% Tampa Sarasota Bradenton
Asian 0.8% 0.4% Education DMA Venice CBSA
Other 2.4% 1.8% High School 36.8 33.5%
Some college 30.1% 29.8%
College grad 14.3% 16.8%
Tampa Sarasota Bradenton
Post graduate 6.5% 8.1%
Home owners DMA Venice CBSA
Own 75.3% 76.1%
Rent 21.5% 21.5%
Tampa Sarasota Bradenton
HH income DMA Venice CBSA
Tampa Sarasota Bradenton $50-74,999 16.5% 14.6%
Value of home DMA Venice CBSA $75-99,999 13.5% 17.1%
$300-349,000 3.3% 3.8% $100-149,000 10.4% 9.4%
$350-499,999 4.6% 6.2% $150,000+ 5.5% 5.4%
$500-749,999 1.8% 2.6%
$750-999,999 0.7% 0.9% Source: Scarborough Research, Release 1, 2011
Tampa DMA compared to Sarasota/Bradenton/North Port CBSA
$1,000,000+ 0.8% 1.3%

68. • WWSB ABC 7 is the ONLY Network Affiliate between Tampa & Ft. Myers.
• ABC 7 airs 34 LIVE, LOCAL newscasts per week.
• ABC 7 can bring your message to more people on the Suncoast than any other
media.
• ABC 7 is carried on all 3 Cable Systems along the Suncoast. (Comcast, Verizon
and Brighthouse). As well as Direct TV.
• A unique bond exists between the people of the Suncoast and ABC 7 that has
flourished for over 35 years.
• People value our thorough coverage of LOCAL news, weather and sports in
their communities.
• ABC 7 is a television station that has created strong relationships with the
community and our customers, that endure over time.
• ABC 7’s core values include being the best source of local information, providing
top-quality service to our customers.

69. • ABC 7 has multiple ways of advertising:
– Television (#1 way of advertising)
– Internet (www.mysuncoast.com – 1.8 million
page views a month!)
– Sponsorships (Ex: Van Wezel’s Friday Fest, Music
on Main in Lakewood Ranch, etc.)
– Events (“Lifestyle Expo” in January 2012)
– Discount Deals (Feature Deals on ABC 7 News)
– Mysuncoast Deals (NEW App launching in Dec.!)

70. Television is the #1 Source for
Product Information and News
Source: TVB Media Comparisons Study 2010

71. MySuncoast.com
InternetTraffic
Month Visits Page views Time spent/visit
Sept. ‘11 407,696 1,878,417 14:42
Aug. ‘11 343,273 1,732,917 17:02
July ’11 398,696 1,857,060 15:50
June ’11 351,135 1,675,632 18:00
May ‘11 325,848 1,486,342 17:06
April ’11 287,262 1,458,119 18:30

72. Leaderboard
should be called
Media Kit TOP BANNER
2 Yrs old
Complexity
& Inside-Talk
Kills Sales
2012

73. How to
Fix the Kit

74. Total Reach
On-Air: xxx,000
Website: xx,000
Mobile xx,000
YouTube xx,000
Twitter xx,000
Facebook xx,000
Email xx,000
Total Reach: xxx,000

75. MySuncoast.com Reaching xx,xxx
Sarasota adults each month
On-Air, Online & Marketing Services
for Sarasota Area Business
How We Help: Who We Help:
• Brand & Message Awareness • Yoga, Fitness & Health
Be seen, Get your message out
• Beauty & Hair
• Online Presence & Reputation • Boutiques & Retail
Looking good online
• Restaurants & Food
• Database Marketing • Entertainment & Culture
Customer email & Mailing Lists • Family & Kids
• Online Couponing • Contractors
Daily Deals, Promotions, Sampling •Doctors, Dentists, Lawyers
Success Stories……can MySunCoast.com do this for you ?
Client Logo
Client Logo

76. Another Local Business SUCCESS STORY
How can MySunCoast.com help you ?
BUSINESS NAME (Logo & picture of business)
• VERY brief description of business…. Location of Business
(BUSINESS NAME) CHALLENGE: (what they needed help with)
Restaurant launching new catering hall and menu. Needed help getting word out, having target
customers see upgrades to building, new menu , download new menu & coupon to sample food item.
PLAN ( media company name ) PROPOSED
• Large format banner on website home page, every Friday
• Custom promotion & contest to build email list, encourage sampling, Downloadable coupon
• Social media plan using Facebook & Twitter
• Produce video profile & ‘behind the scenes’ tour of business
RESULTS ( insert business name here )
• Built database of 500 using contest giveaway
• Raised brand & message awareness via:
• 750,000 banner impressions
• 400,000 logo sponsorships impressions
• 76,000 viewed video tour
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
WOW! Linda and her team did a fantastic job helping us get the word out about____. We now have a
email list of 600 and 250 new Facebook fans. The video looked great on the site, and is also perfect for
our own website and Youtube channel. John Smith, Owner, Ocean Village Restaurant

77. Helping SARASOTA Business
ON AIR & ONLINE

78. 3 Simple Packages

79. Inventory
Management
% sold local direct?

80. Dumb
Ad Networks
on Home Page
& Section Fronts

81. Remnant
Ad Network
on Home Page
Cause for Dismissal

82. Remnant Ad
on Home Page
Remnant Ad
on Home Page

83. Logo Competitor
Remnant Ad
Competitor
Remnant Ad
Remnant
Ad

84. Logo
Competitor
Remnant Ad
on AUTO Page

85. How GREAT sites
lose money
> No Super-Premium Ads
> The only local ad is pushed
outside of content area
> Low CPM ad networks
sucking up home page
of this otherwise strong
news-site.

86. CPM’s

87. Bigger
Not
Always
Better

88. CPM RoadKill
Ex-CEO

89. Rate Card
& Pricing
Supply & Demand
(not CPM)

90. Smart Practice
weekly instead of monthly rates
sounds
expensive $ 400. per month
sounds
reasonable $ 95. per week

91. Pricing
Mon
Sat
Tues Thurs Fri
Sun
Wed
$100 $150 $175

92. Super Dumb Practice
Protect ‘rate card integrity’
@ $10 cpm
and then…..
Sell unsold inventory
to ad networks @ $1 cpm

93. Un-limited Supply
+
Commodity Unit
+
Limited Demand
LOSE PRICING POWER

94. Sweet Spot Pricing
• Designate a premium unit
• Sell 24 hour exclusive
• Limit inventory…7 only…Pick a day
• Pricing
• Flat Fee….Raise rate as you sell out
• Short commitment (3-6)

95. At Work Day-part
Internet Prime Time
Mon-Fri 9a-5p
Morning Evening
6a-10a Mid-day 8-11p
10-3p

96. Your site: Reader & Advertiser Friendly ?
Train-wreck of content ?
Is your site full of non-proprietary content
that users can easily get elsewhere?

97. Client Education

98. TRIBUNE
Digital
Services

101. Get Online

106. FREE Local Plan 1st year
• 3-page website
• Domain name
• Website hosting
• Email support
Year 2 (per month)
• $4.99 site/hosting
• $2.00 domain
• Cancel any time

107. Web Marketing 101
For Local Business

108. Web Marketing 101
For Local Business

110. Web Marketing 101
For Local Business

111. Beware
Exercise
Caution
Intermediaries,
Middle men

112. Toll Taker
30% to Steve…
Proceed with Caution

113. Share cropping
Building business on land you don’t own

114. Frenemy

116. Centro
• Started out as ADVOCATE
for Newspaper Web sites
• NOW….
They rep ANY & ALL sites

117. Centro
Raised $22.5 million
• expand sales force
• target mid-tier advertisers / agencies
• automated media-buying software

118. Centro
• Middle man
• Commoditize
• Hidden spread
• Can’t sell premium ops
• Less reliant on Newspaper

119. Multiple Uses
• Rte 9 is closed
Breaking News • Lady Gaga tix on sale Friday
• Red Sox beat Yankees 99-0
Ad-supported • Deal of Day
• Coupon download
Promotions
• Win Trip
• Stand by rate now avail
Market to
• Home page unit now avail
Advertisers
• Spring special 50% off

120. March 13, 2012
Run Digital
Profit First
MelTaylorMedia.com 267-625-5313