Sunday, January 25, 2009

Newspaper folks: Readers are a niche market

Face the fact that most people don't read unless they have to. So talk about "your readers" doesn't really help. Much more accurate is that masses of people search, view and sometimes scan headlines and ledes. Every once in a while, they stop to read.

The really good news for newspapers is that Print on Paper is the best way to search for information in the physical world. Since everyone lives in the physical world, with only brief excursions into hyper space, that means we can bring real value to networking with Google.

Try this: Think of your "newspaper" as a search platform in the physical world supported by advertising. Sound familiar? As in "Google is a search platform in the Cloud supported by advertising."

Face the fact that most newspapers are ad machines. They aggregate eyeballs and sell them to people who think they need eyeballs. That's how they made money. Journalists bemoan the fact. But it was the excess revenue by being the best ad machine for a long time that supported their reporting. It puts into a clearer perspective all the hand wringing about the "end of journalism and the threat to democratic government" and blablabla.

Meanwhile, it was alot easier to be an ad machine when there was no reliable way to accurately measure the number of eyeballs. Measured clicks, instead of eyeballs, easily flow into spreadsheets. Business people love spreadsheets. Turns out, however, that filling spreadsheets is not the same as selling stuff. Business people don't want to advertise. They want to sell stuff.

Some still believe newspapers can attract more eyeballs by "breaking news" or "great reporting". But in a Google Mart economy, while the value of information high, the correct price point is either free, or very close to free.

Consider the New Yorker magazine.

They are in the enviable position of having an audience of readers. When you Google "New Yorker", this comes up on the search page:
Online version of the weekly magazine, with current articles, cartoons, blogs, audio, video, slide shows, an archive of articles and abstracts back to 1925.
The customer gets all that for free. There are are very few outside ads on the website. All the ads are in the right hand sidebar. Away from the stories. Easily ignored. In the Print version there are full page ads. But most of the ads are also in the sidebars. (remind you of Google Ad Sense?)

So the way to make money is by selling stuff to fans. If you can identify the reading fans, it's pretty easy. Here's a cut and paste of ads from one page at the New Yorker's website.



The New Yorker
The New Yorker 47 issues for $39.95
*plus applicable sales tax
t
Name
Address 1
Address 2
City
State
Zip
E-mail

Or take a look at the Guardian Book Shop in the UK.

Lots of stuff for sale.

But "my readers don't read. How can I copy this successful model?

My bet is that about 5% of the population reads, either for enjoyment or as the best way to learn something about the world. Except for the short lived Tina Brown era (error?), The New Yorker stays focused on readers. They have earned a national, and probably now an international, audience of English speaking readers.

In every locality, probably around 5% of viewers are readers. If you are part of a chain that's not an insignificant niche market. In any case, where ever you find them, it's a growth market. Given the new emphasis on Smart by President Obama, et al. it may turn into an explosive market.

Many of you have under used Print capacity. If not, it's easy and inexpensive enough to network with a commercial printer in your area. Plus you have the long tail of content production. Plus you have at least a couple of really great editors and journalists/writers.

So make stuff readers will willingly buy. Start with books. Who knows? Every once in a while you may produce a book that goes mainstream and brings in tons of money. Don't forget that President Obama hit a homerun with a book. It accounts for most of his personal wealth. It could happen to you.

Don't split the revenue with a "publisher" who has a "distribution channel." You have a web site that identifies potential customers more efficiently than almost any "publisher." You can take orders, then print the book and deliver it to customers in the time it takes for the "publishers" with "channels" to push books out, many of which will be returned in 3 months later. No returns. Minimal distribution costs. Maybe make a deal with some independent bookstores. They have the closest contact with reading fans. Not a bad business.

While you're getting that to go mainstream, keep the ad machine running with local ads. Sell web and print ads as one package. Call it "multi media marketing services" for small local business". (The Chamber of Commerce will love it.). If you network with a local Printer, you can also sell them brochures and signs and pencils with their names on them.

Meanwhile take the chump change you get from clicks on the web. But harvest the information you're getting from the web to identify new tribes of fans. Then keep inventing new stuff to sell to your fans. If they don't read, sell them t-shirts or flowers or concert tickets.

Hint: You might want to get in touch with the best design talent you can get to. They specialize in inventing new stuff.

If the folks who sell stuff don't need newspapers, why not get into the selling stuff business. It's a much easier way to earn a living.

8 comments:

  1. The thing that I'm wondering about is, if readers - actual I-love-to-readers - are such a scarce and rarified breed, then are they a demographic that can be effectively advertised to in print?

    I mean, the people who go out of their way (relative to turning on your computer) to buy a paper, put time aside to enjoy it, ritualize the experience with coffee and a bagel, swear up and down that it can't be replaced by the web because of article quality or aesthetic appeal, etc., aren't these people searching for a brand of enjoyment quite outside of ad-scanning?

    Wouldn't appealing to this increasingly specialized niche require more than web-style monetization schemes, and couldn't such an approach even alienate the ever-shrinking tribe of ink-stained readers out there?

    I think the trick may be to appeal to readers - the real, serious readers - by closing the gap between independent and sponsored content. Rather than selling ad space, news publishers sell article space. You require a high standard of article quality from advertisers and make sure the content is clearly listed as 'sponsored' and you appeal to your literary-minded audience almost despite themselves.

    National Geographic does a particularly good job of this. Even the pieces that are obviously ads combine gorgeous imagery and intriguing writing. You know you're reading an ad, but you just don't mind.

    Creating advertising with tangible value to the viewer/consumer is going to be important to the future health of print, I believe.

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  2. Anne,
    "The thing that I'm wondering about is, if readers - actual I-love-to-readers - are such a scarce and rarified breed, then are they a demographic that can be effectively advertised to in print?"

    Not scarce, Just small and growing. The issue is not advertising, the better path is selling them stuff. Print is great stuff to sell.

    "Rather than selling ad space, news publishers sell article space."
    Nice thought, but . . .the amount of writing that is actually a good read is scarce. Sifting through alot to get a little is harder than starting with some great journos.

    Creating advertising with tangible value to the viewer/consumer is going to be important to the future health of print, I believe."

    I think that unless you are google or working with very local people, most advertising is a shrinking pond. My bet is "take what's left on the table". But invest in new print products that can be sold to loyal fans.

    Local and SMB is the real opportunity. They need marketing that is faster, better, cheaper than what is available.

    Imagine if a team with a newspaper ad salesperson networked with a Print sales person. The pitch is a "multi-channel marketing campaign" for SMB. One buy - gets you advertising on the web, advertising in Print, brochures, signs, printed pens. Now that's one stop shopping.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "in a Google Mart economy, while the value of information high, the correct price point is either free, or very close to free".
    Yes but, one of the required characteristics of a Google Mart economy is "an expectation of total informational transparency and accessibility".
    We do not have this. There is an awful lot of informational transparency, but it is transparent because the information has minimal value, ie it's not worth trying to keep it opaque.
    The stuff with real value is not readily available, therefore there is a niche for digging this stuff out and selling it to people (online or print or both). For example the specialised business or consumer press.
    It is incorrect to say that something can have a high value and a low price - if you the seller don't value it, then the buyers won't either.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Yes but, one of the required characteristics of a Google Mart economy is "an expectation of total informational transparency and accessibility".

    Yes, but...Google Mart is not a state of affairs, it's a process that is being driven by competition and the Cloud.

    You say,
    "The stuff with real value is not readily available,..."

    Getting less and less true every day. Price on cars? Best deal on X? Latest breaking news? Search + cloud is destroying the reality of previeledged information.

    Remember the gaff caught on a cell phone camera in the Virginia primary?

    Selling information is a loser. But selling stuff will go on and on. Information in Print is stuff. Information on the web is information.

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  5. one more to anon:
    Digging out the stuff is getting pretty easy. What will always remain difficult is a story or an argument that connects the dots in a way that fans will understand.

    ReplyDelete
  6. dr d - with regard to your response to may comments (I'm the same anon). You say information with real value is getting more readily available - this may be true of car prices or share prices but it is not true with the price of office buildings or loan terms or any intelligence in connection with specialist fields which could give a business competitive advantage.
    You won't find this stuff on google or youtube.

    "Selling information is a loser. But selling stuff will go on and on. Information in Print is stuff. Information on the web is information."

    That's just bollocks I'm afraid. You're getting confused between the message and the messenger. If I can get hold of information that will make you money (and of course can do it better or more cheaply than you) then you will be prepared to buy it. Whether I sell it to you in print, via text or twitter or write it on the underside of a cloud in fairy dust is not the issue as long as the way you get it is the best for you the customer.

    ReplyDelete
  7. anon..
    "That's just bollocks I'm afraid. You're getting confused between the message and the messenger. If I can get hold of information that will make you money (and of course can do it better or more cheaply than you) then you will be prepared to buy it"
    We actually agree. But it's a very, very tough market. Check out seekingalpha.com and bloomberg.com. Can you get better information to make money than what I can see for free over there?

    Re: marketing. Check out Seth Godin. Can you find better thinking than that?

    I'm not interested in office building. But I'm betting a google search on loan terms will get me pretty close.

    No doubt the information has value. The question at hand is whether you can find enough people to pay for it.

    So, you haven't convinced me yet. But please try again. Only thing is that I'm off the web until 5:00 NY time. so it will take me a little while to get back to you.

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete