What Little I Know…

As we roll into 2010 there is no shortage of strategy meetings and goal setting by quarter and vertical, but even with all of the internal planning, it doesn’t hurt to step back and ensure your internal strategies align with where consumers and commercial advertisers are spending their time and showing interest.

Below is our list of what we feel publishers, directors and managers at publishing groups need to focus on this year. Our list is best fitted to those who publish news content, niche publications and niche Web sites and online classifieds.

Maximize your Mobile Initiatives – this is not a new suggestion -  we’ve been yelling this one from the mountain tops for at least two years. What makes this recommendation different in 2010 however, is that it has become an imperative. It is amazing how many publishers don’t yet have a WAP version of their news and niche sites – you at least need to start there. Optimizing your mobile plan requires some additional work to ensure you have staying power in this area. We suggest looking at your mobile navigation and targeted push programs.

Freemium (free online classifieds with a paid upsell) is a Necessity – many publishers have peaked with their print adoption and as a result are now working endearingly to capture online audiences. Often times publishing groups forge ahead with their classifieds properties, model it, and price it as they would their print business and this is the biggest mistake you could make. Applying the Freemium model to your online classifieds will allow you to capture an additional online audience that you would never have otherwise. This new audience also becomes your potential uptake for other verticals or offers that you may have.

When it comes to Freemium, I hear the same objection from the field, “if we offer classifieds online for free, our offline customers won’t call us anymore”. What people fail to realize is that if you have done a great job servicing your offline clients to date, they will still contact you for their future needs. Creating attractive online offerings and an online property with purpose will allow you to increase your total market penetration by creating new ‘brand fans’. While thinking about your Freemium offering, also consider offering an attractive package if you offer a reverse publish to print upsell. You want to ensure you price and package your upsells in accordance to your audience and competition. This is your chance to be creative.

Paid Content Wall: Know what you are doing – there has been no shortage of conversations on charging for online content and as we ended 2009, there were more and more publishers talking about charging for online access to their content. There is no doubt that this movement has been sparked by Rupert Murdoch and his announcement that they plan to charge for the Financial Times online in addition to Wall Street Journal, but there are a few things that publishers need to be aware of when looking at the Murdoch model. Rupert Murdoch and friends have been talking about charging for content for the past two years and they delayed their pay-wall start dates for various reasons. In addition, Murdoch’s initial plans to charge for online access apply to his niche sites – and that makes sense. Unfortunately, many of the publishers who are talking about charging for content are looking to charge for generalist news content. The problem with that is that general content can be found online at a myriad of sites which do not charge users to access their content. When your content is niche and your Web site has amassed a large following, it generally means you’ve got premium content that cannot be found anywhere else and a true value can be placed on that.

Group your Properties and Sell them as such – as publishers, we generally have several online properties that amass their own unique audiences. Just imagine if you were to combine the traffic across all of your like sites and offer the bundled buy. You would increase your advertiser’s ability to reach their desired buyer and sell more of your available inventory.

Avoid Speaking in Parables when it comes to your Rates – what we mean by this is make this the year that you simplify your rate cards. In many cases, you have been selling the same things for a few years and by now, you’ve mastered verbally communicating your incredibly detailed and arduous rate cards, so that others outside of your organization can understand you. Take that simplified ’speak’ and use that on your rate card. Simplified pricing and grouping your like properties in a bundled buy will definitely answer a long time advertiser pet peeve.

Review your Content Sets – ensure the content you offer your users is attractive. Answer their call for engaging community related content online and in print. Use your community relations and mind awareness with your products to build online properties that relate to your users. Think outside of your news and classifieds content. Explore niche sites that speak to your community and communities of interest.