Due to financial woes, the New York Sun has reported that it may close its doors at the end of September, unless the papers publishers can raise sufficient moneys.

Readers of the New York Sun were given a heads up of the newspapers potential closing in an article released yesterday and written by Seth Lipsky, the editor. Others in the industry are looking to the papers newness as another reason for its closure – the New York Sun was launched in April of 2002. Tenure in the newspaper industry could be a valid attributor the Sun’s announcement, as the cost of the necessary supplies for printing and distributing a newspaper (gas, and paper itself) have increased substantially since 2003 and newer publications lacking entrenched supplier relationships have suffered more from rate hikes, versus those with multi-decade old supplier footholds. It is important to note that the cost attributed to producing a newspaper is another reason new players on the scene have chosen a Web only play – perhaps this could be a viable option for the Sun.

According to Seth Lipsky, the New York Sun is “one of the few newspapers in America to see substantial increases in print advertising revenues not only last year and the year before but also so far this year”. Lipsky went on in his piece to explain, “the expense of producing and distributing the paper exceeds our revenues.”

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US headquartered Pluck, a social media platform provider, will announce today that it will provide the Sun-Times Media Group with social media and networking tools, across the newspaper groups suite of Web sites.

The Sun-Times group is in good hands with Pluck, as the company is headed by Richard Rosenblatt, the individual who was responsible for selling MySpace to NewsCorp. Nonetheless, through the Pluck relationship, Sun-Times online readers will be able to take part in discussion forums, comment on blogs, and share content, along with a plethora of other community tools

“By adding new capabilities to our site, such as reader comments, photos and blogs, we are significantly expanding interactivity with our readers,” said Catherine Lanucha, director of content for the Sun-Times News Group.

Other publishers using the Pluck platform in some fashion are Belo, Cox Newspapers, Hearst, Gannett, and the obvious NewsCorp, and this is just a sampling of their very impressive client list.

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One of the largest dailies in the UK, the Times, has scheduled a cover price increase to start September 1^st.

As of Monday, the Times will increase its price by 10p to 80p. The directive reportedly came from its parent company, Rupert Murdoch’s News International, in an effort to increase revenues.

Even though Times executives argue that the increase now puts them at the same rate as their competitors, we can’t help but think that the increase could negatively affect their pick up rate. At a time when publishers are lowering prices and coming up with new incentives to encourage pick up, News International seems to be taking the opposite approach.

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I read an article this morning about the woes of newspaper revenues – pretty much the same old thing you see from anyone covering this media space in a one-dimensional fashion. The twist to this article though was that it stated that revenue declines in July of this year, were felt in both the print and online mediums at newspapers. I will side with the article and say that up until now, online verticals at any publishing house usually saw monthly increases and July represents the greatest online revenue slowdown we have seen to date.

• NYTCO – total revenue down 16.2% in July, online revenue up only 0.9%
• Media General – total revenue down 13.8% in July, online revenue up by only 5.3%
• Gannett – total revenue down 16.7%, online revenue up by only 3%

The article then went on to use more written prose to beat the issue of the dismal state of newspapers and their publishers. The reason for the perils in revenue and the slowdown in online is very clear however, and to understand it, you have to understand the traditional publisher mindset. The mindset of gouging print rates, ownership of content, and so on. It seemed that for a while newspaper Web sites were answering the need of failing print revenues, but as this article stated, this is no longer a publishers reality. Even given these dismal reports, new-age publishing pundits, me included, strongly feel that the negative revenue trends can be reversed, if only a few key changes are made at newspaper groups.

What publishers must do:

Get comfortable selling online as a standalone – bundling media, especially print media for a publisher, aids in covering inventory and gaining revenues. However, a forced bundle is not always what your Web savvy advertiser is looking for. With the understanding of new forms of advertising that pure-play online giants can offer, and effectively might I add, advertisers are looking for guided free will with spending their money, not a forced bundled purchase.

Think of your Web site as a standalone product – many publishers view their newspaper sites as an extension of their print product. In some ways this may be true: ads laced with a call to action that directs a consumer online, for example. However, when looking at keeping current and active in the minds of advertisers and the general consumer population, looking at the new and innovative ways your Web site can enable you to interact is key.

Be creative online – the world of online is far different from the static print regiment publishers are accustom to. An online marketplace allows you flexibility, agility, new media inclusion, dynamic platforms, speed to market and all for a low investment if compared to print. Guaranteed, if a publisher used the capabilities an online platform offers, they would find themselves remaining current and in the advertising game a lot longer.

Listen to your readers and targeted consumers – just because we’ve been publishing the product for over 50 years, doesn’t mean that we know best. The most effective way to produce a successful marketplace is to make it one that includes your readers and better yet includes the behaviors of the online consumer.

Flexible pricing - consider moving to pay for performance pricing for your advertisers online. The benefits of this is twofold – advertisers feel that you have partnered with them to ensure their dollars are working in conjunction with the leads and exposure you provide and it keeps your marketing and digital teams focused on the goal of building a thriving marketplace. They should never feel comfortable or content. Reinventing ourselves in this ever-changing e-enabled world is an imperative.

These are just a few of the things that publishers need to consider and or implement to stay current. The risk of not making a change to mind-set is obvious, continued revenue and marketplace declines. As we have said many times on this blog, a newspaper brings with it a lot of advertiser benefits, trust and brand recognition just to mention a few and all that we are suggesting here is that publishers build on these benefits, and do it quickly.

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The LA Times has collaborated with GoIndustry DoveBid to produce an online real estate auction site called Zetabid. The Zetabid differentiator doesn’t just stop at its auction listing style, but it extends to the sites rule of only housing or showing foreclosed homes for sale and for auction.

The Zetabid site is up and running today, but its first auction is not scheduled to take place until the end of September. In the meantime, though, anyone visiting the site will be able to view the estimated 165 properties up for auction. Each listing comes with open house times to allow those that are local to the listing to visit the actual home prior to bidding. To also ease and facilitate in the sale, Zetabid includes a “Bid Now” feature on all listings, allowing the potential homebuyer to buy the house prior to the auction, if the seller agrees.

Overall, it is an interesting concept and industry insiders will be looking to see how many homes are sold at the September auctions. With the right amount of press and attention, Zetabid could be successful, as the real estate market tries to rebuild itself. With that being said however, a few questions do come to concerning Zetabid business plan: What is the lifespan of Zetabid? Will they broaden their scope in preparation of a once again healthy real estate market? But no matter the answer to the previous questions, the current reality is still this -

• The average price of a home in the US is down 36 percent when compared to 2006
• It is estimated that by the end of 2008 there will be over 1 million foreclosures, according to the National Association of Real Estate
• Analysts believe that the home foreclosure crisis makes this the best time to buy a home in America

Therefore, if basing Zetabid’s success factor on the current reality, I think they will do quite well.

Source: Nielsen, August 2008

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I had to share this – www.typobuddy.com

The Deal Locker group saw it fit to launch a Web site that tracks misspelled ads on eBay and craigslist and it is appropriately called “Typo Buddy”. This is a great idea considering that if you type the item your are looking for, with the correct spelling on either listing site, you will miss the deals where the seller spells that same item incorrectly.

If you get a chance to visit the Typo Buddy site, you should also peruse their “misspelling blog” – there are some very funny posts there!

Note that Typo Buddy was launched in February of 2008.

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Nielsen has released its July listing of the top 25 companies in terms of online user share and stickiness. What’s interesting to note is that 16% of the companies on the list are publishers of newspapers or they own newspaper publishing companies. In addition, 24% of companies on the list dabble in classifieds. Not too shabby

Source: Nielsen Online, 2008

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A new Online Publishers Association (OPA) report, covering consumer trust levels in local media shows that not only do consumers trust local media sites, but they are more likely to take action after viewing advertisements on these mediums. Newspaper Web sites rank first, with 46% of consumers taking action - making a purchase, going to a store, conducting research, as opposed to only 37% of consumers acting after viewing a local ad on a national portal.

Additional findings in the OPA report:

• Local magazine, newspaper and TV sites attract significant percentages (48%, 40% and 39%, respectively) of consumers who had spent more than $500 online in the previous 12 months.
• 37% of portal visitors and 34% of the overall online population spend this amount in a year.

To get a PDF of the report, click here - OPA Local Online .

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Audi, notably the first OEM to do so, has come up with a media campaign surrounding an iPhone application, representing their 2009 A4 model.

The application comes in the form of a game called the “Audi A4 Challenge” and by installing the application, iPhone users can drive the 2009 model, which doesn’t go on sale until September 2008. The application is a free download and if you don’t have an iPhone, you can play the Web version of the game here.

Jeri Ward, Audi’s general manager of marketing and strategy says, “I think our customers and potential customers are smart, tech savvy, and tend to use devices like iPhone”. Ward also says that the 2009 A4 campaign will be heavily digital media based.

What really makes this story interesting is the fact that we are seeing yet another traditional print advertiser engage in new media in a completely new way. Although Audi is the first to take advantage of the iPhone as a mind-share builder, it is guessed that other OEM’s won’t be too far behind, especially if Audi does not have an exclusivity deal.

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Mejier, an American supercenter grocer, has teamed up with the Magazine Publishers of America for a huge circulation campaign.

Mejier will offer shoppers $2 off their next magazine purchase, with the purchase of any two of the magazine titles that they carry. The program is scheduled to run from August 21^st to September 6^th and the findings of the campaign will be both beneficial and interesting to anyone with a print compliment to their business. Will an incentive be enough to encourage further pickup of print products? Will the incentive draw in even those who normally do not purchase print titles? If this campaign can show a positive effect on any of the afore mentioned questions, it could give print retailers and publishers additional circulation advantage in depots where steady declines have already been recognized.

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