WAN Reporting Newspaper Ad Sales Rebound
The Western Australian Newspaper group (WAN) is the first to report a rebound in ad sales, as economies and specific verticals start to show a healthy level of stabilization. Although year over year declines are still evident, 2009 quarter over quarter performance sits in a positive. Now we understand that the Australian economic environment is very different from what we experience here in North America, but the WAN situation gives merit to what we’ve been telling local publishers throughout the year – Do all you can now to be able to capitalize on the expected rebounding marketplace.
If publishers can remain afloat during these difficult times, it would serve them well to:
Manage their costs
Take the necessary steps to cut the fat in your organization. You don’t want to be too lean whereas your quality starts to slip, but you do need to be smart about where your money goes. Spend on personnel, in the areas that will help achieve your business roadmap. The WAN group, for example, cut areas in newsprint and personnel and this too has aided them in reporting quarter over quarter profits
Create products for the future
For fear of sounding like a broken record, we won’t go into too much on digitizing products, but we will say, that publishers need to get serious about things such as mobile, video and new pricing models that are based on performance
Think about partnerships of leverage
It’s a content and audience game. Think about whom you can partner with, on a vertical by vertical basis, to help you reach the big time sooner than later.
Sell print effectively
Understand the buying cycle by vertical and sell overall packages that align with it to your advertisers. This means selling print branding options more and more. Gone are the days of simple ROP campaigns.
In the words of WAN CEO, Chris Wharton, with a tight control on costs and “if the planets line up in 2010, it should be pretty good”. I think he personally gives too much credit to the planets – these guys have done a good job strategizing every step of the way (community journalism and promotions that stick). Their story is a good one to tell!
