Feature request: search within context (key word + author)
Create a WordPress theme provides a business directory with and without Yelp integration for ratings.
In an tweet earlier today I asked: Would you pay $40 per month for your local newspaper… if it included a free iPad? (1 year contract.)
How much would you pay to subscribe to your local newspaper, if the newspaper through in an iPad for free? At $40 per month the 16GB WIFI version would be paid for within a year. The 3G version would cost about $53 for the same 1 year term.
An interesting concept for sure, but would it work? What are the ramifications to consider? Andrew Chavez asks “who pays for the data plan? Good point, if the newspaper paid the data plan they might be able to turn off the 3G signal if the subscriber defaults on payments.
It’s just an idea at this point, curious what other out there might think about the concept.
Continue reading about Free iPad, with newspaper subscription
We’ve been thinking of incorporating something like this into our open source business directory product. For us, the sticking point is building volume. Groupon can make claims to it’s advertisers that they will send several several thousand emails for each offer. A newspaper starting this service starts with basically a list of zero.
Yes, the list will grow if promoted properly, and eventually might turn into a profitable revenue stream. But the concept is so new that estimating an ROI on a project like this will be guesswork. So what will it take to get this implemented at newspapers?
The usual suspects – time, money, talent… and management endorsement.
My next actions list:
1. estimate cost to build or buy the e-commerce platform
2. estimate cost to staff tech, sales and business office support
3. estimate ROI
4. articulate value to management and decide if this aligns business goals
I agree this concept has potential, but keep in mind that companies like groupon do this for a living, full time. It’s will take a considerable amount of commitment and effort for newspapers to match this level of service. Deal brokering definitely gets it’s fair share of attention in our strategy planning. But time will tell if
This new blog theme is my experiment in moving my project management workflow to the web. A transparent look at the career, goals, and progress of a newspaper executive.
Looking at Open Atrium as a potential replacement for our aging ticketing system and intranet.
Test site here.
Can you sell?
Do you have a twitter account? Do you know what GTD means without looking it up? Do you think community newspaper’s glass is half full or half empty?
Come work for an independent media company in Northern California. We are small, agile and independent; which means very little bureaucracy, drama and politics. If you are a “doer” a “less talk , more action” kind of person, I want to talk to you.
The Digital Media division of McNaughton Newspaper Group is looking for the right person to lead our non-traditional revenue initiatives. This includes selling solo, and as a team with existing sales staff. We offer generous compensation and an outstanding work environment.
And you get to work for the best boss in the business 
McNaughton Newspapers is an equal opportunity employer providing a drug free work environment.
That could be a real headline for local newspapers who take their heads out the sand and think about the real financial implications of a paywall strategy.
Looking at the online subscriber report for one of the newspaper websites that I help operate, I see we had 300 new online subscriptions last month. This is at 17K circulation daily newspaper. (1.76% growth per month) Those are no cost subscription starts. Regular crewed start can cost newspapers as much as $35 each. You probably see where I’m going with this…
Here’s the math I use for the headline example:
• 50,000 circulation daily newspaper puts up a paywall on their website, eliminating free access to their content.
• Churn subscriptions are reduced by 880 subscribers per month (1.76%)
• 880 * $35 per start * 12 months = $369,600 anual savings
As Sean Blanda points out in his blog post, community (small) newspapers maybe left out of coming the e-reader (iPad) revolution. I would like to lead a team of news innovators in creating a iPad strategy for community newspapers.
The following is Sean’s “very, very basic outline” I agree on all but the last point, for the foreseeable future I don’t expect newspapers to incur any costs in this endeavor. That’s right free, as in “free beer.” The way I see it getting publishers to ACT is the hard part, followed by coming up with compelling ideas. The technology is really quite trivial nowadays, so by committing the technical resources, I’m getting off easy.
Step One: Publishers band together based on common interest. For example, local Web sites likely have similar interests in the functionality of their iPad and mobile applications.
Step Two: The publishers come to agreement on a list of common feature sets and what they envision an app looking like.
Step Three:
Each publisher contributes a fraction of the total cost to hire a centralized development team (or just one developer) to maintain and focus exclusively on developing platforms with an emphasis on the Apple SDK.
So what are you waiting for, no time to loose right? Please leave a comment here with your intention to participate or email me at jboydston at gmail. Check back here often, I’ll update this page with additional info as we progress.
Traditional wisdom and countless studies show that FREQUENCY is a key measure of advertising effectiveness. Specifically regarding how many times an individual must be shown an advertisement before they are compelled into action. Figures vary widely from 6 to over 30 ad impressions required for maximum efficiency.
A logical conclusion would be that higher frequency will yield higher results. Furthermore, very low frequency (1-5 impressions) will yield very poor results.
Now lets look at some anaylitics from one of our paywalled sites:
definitions:
CTR = click through rate, percentage of users who click on an ad online
PPV = Pages read per visitor (basically, this is frequency)
CTR from subscribers (all pages)
0.51%
CTR from subscribers (paywall only pages)
2.87%
CTR from google (all non-direct traffic)
0.11%
PPV paywall pages
6.5 – 12
PPV google traffic
2.5
This is the logic behind my belief that traffic from google is almost useless to us. If google traffic RARELY exceeds the frequency required for advertising effectiveness, that traffic is truly useless to our advertisers.
Lets say news.com has 200,000 monthly pageviews. We don’t sell online advertising by the number of uniques, so uniques don’t matter in this example. News.com is able to change an aggressive $12 CPM on the impressions, and they run 3 ads per page. (many community papers get 5-7 CPM)
200 * 12 * 3 = $7,200 per month
Pre-print advertisers pay a premium to have their inserts delivered to specific geographic regions, on specific days. In print we call this “zoning.” By adding the paywall we can ZONE online ads and command a premium $25/CPM (or more).
200 * 25 * 3 = 15,000 per month
In order to determine how much traffic you might loose lose, look at the google search terms. Google used to provide 30% of our traffic, which could in theory equal a 30% drop in traffic. (-$4500 per month ouch)
However, when you look at the search terms you see that most of the search traffic is:
newspaper.com
News Paper
Town Newspaper
etc.
Very generic terms, very few searches come from individual stories. In fact the number was 7.1% That’s the google traffic we lost from blocking the google-bot.
Now the upside… Traffic did take a 25% hit, from readers as they learned to use the pay-site and come to terms with paying for access to our community. But over the course of two years users have learned that if they want to know what’s happening in our town, they have to come to our site. Our traffic has actually doubled in two years since blocking google/RSS.
The reason why? Users have to come to our site to find the headlines. They must click on LOCAL NEWS to see the full run down on the goings on around town. And that behavior is PRECISELY why we can charge a premium for local advertising. Our readers want to feel included in the community. They are NOT just reading content. They skim the story list to see what’s going on, to stay connected.
The PAYWALL is not about CONTENT, never was. It’s about access to a community.
Draft KNC10 application:
TITLE
GiveTrack.org
DESCRIPTION
Display updates about humanitarian aid in real time. Pushing back apathy by engaging people in a visual representation of positive change brought by charitable giving.
Aid workers around the globe will provide updates via web, twitter, SMS etc. Updates may include:
100 Inoculations given
Received shipment of food from Red Cross
Installed new water filter
Completed aids education class
Actions are plotted on map showing users where the aid is being provided. We can watch in real time as aid workers improve the lives of people around the world.
Updates come in throughout the day in real time, twitter style. The world becomes a better place before your eyes.
NEWS & INFORMATION DELIVERY TO GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
Makes visible the daily / hourly work being done around the world by aid workers. Encourages civic engagement and responsibility.
WHAT IS UNIQUE?
Promotes civic engagement of a younger audience by way of mobile technology and web 2.0 style presentation. Provides a new level of trust for all who want to see their money put to good use by charities.
Draft KNC10 application:
TITLE
Community Barometer
DESCRIPTION
Everyblock shows us recent building permits, but does not show us trends. Are building permits down from last year? By how much?
Perhaps we have a database of section 8 housing, and a database of fire department calls. We should be able to calculate the average response time from the fire department database, and compare it to the section 8 addresses to determine if they receive the same level of service.
Community Barometer is a static set of reporting tools designed to address a handful of specific topics like the examples above. Access to data that we feel is beneficial to the safety and well-being of all communities should be ubiquitous.
Basic datasets may include:
Building Permits
Poliece calls
Fire calls
Deaths
Arrests
Violent crimes
Fatal car accidents
etc.
NEWS & INFORMATION DELIVERY TO GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
Delivers a basic level of historical data, plotted in an interactive chart/map environment.
WHAT IS UNIQUE?
The ubiquitous of the solution. No hardware, software or specialized knowledge is required. More advanced users can even automate data collection.
Draft KNC10 application:
TITLE
Reverse Publishing Workflow for WordPress
DESCRIPTION
More than a WordPress plugin, this “wizard” style systems guides the user through the processes of reverse publishing. Web-first has been a motto in the newsroom for years, but few have actually achieved it. This technology will allow the newspaper to use WordPress as their main CMS and publish to the web in real time, providing a simple way to edit, assign and move stories from the web to the print edition.
Step 1, WRITE – Writers or first line editors select stories to be edited, and assign them to the appropriate category.
Step 2, EDIT – Editors make corrections and assign stories a page number.
Step 3, PRODUCTION – Pagination staff monitor this page for copy that is “ready to place.” Content that is ready shows green. Placed content is identified in black, and red signifies that copy has been previously downloaded, but a copy change has occurred. Text/XML can be downloaded by individual story, grouped by page or entire section.
Step 4, WEB – Online editors browse content categories and select specific content to showcase on the home page or section fronts.
NEWS & INFORMATION DELIVERY TO GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
Enabling a truly WEB FIRST workflow will dramatically improve the timeliness and volume of content news orgs are able to publish.
WHAT IS UNIQUE?
The simple wizard style interface keeps the processed streamlined and simple.
Perhaps there is a more strategic reason newspapers have not implemented the Everyblock software yet. What exactly would a newspaper implementation of everyblock look like?
⁃ A stand alone site, that the newspaper links to?
⁃ A separate section of the newspaper site?
⁃ Somehow integrated into the CMS providing context?
⁃ Something else entirely?
In order to answer these questions I think it’s important to define the expected outcome. What would be the expected goal if implementing Everyblock on a new website? Here are my top three:
1. Build online “hyper-local” neighborhood resources – Many newspapers lack a true hyper local aspect to their site. The ambition would be to segment news and information down to the neighborhood or even block level. Something most CMS’s don’t do, or newsroom organizations are not equipped to manage. Everyblock could in theory provide a framework for a newsroom with a narrowly focused workflow.
2. Publish public records – Everyblock includes some powerful data tools. From scraping & parsing data to publishing subsets in logical groups. Many smaller news organizations still collect data the old fashioned way. Individual spreadsheets are not uncommon, but completely unuseful in creating data driven web features. Portions of the Everyblock code could be used by newspapers to collect, store, organize and retrieve public data in a highly structured and consistent manner.
3. Content discovery tool – Everyblock.com in it’s now commercial form allows the user to browse it’s data in an interactive way. This process of discovery by the user is missing from newspaper sites. Everyblock could provide newspapers with an alternative to the traditional list of headlines interface.
How would you like to see everyblock used in a newspaper environment?
Continue reading about Everyblock – how would your newspaper use it?
The code behind Everyblock.com (as of June 09) was released under an open source license, but as of today I’m not aware of a single website using the technology. Newspaper in particular I would expect to have a keen interest in this software, but so far not a single paper has tried it.
What’s the hold up?
The code has been downloaded 859 times as of this writing.
For those who care enough to download, one read through the documentation is probably enough to scare you off. If you actually try installing the system, all but seasoned LINUX geeks will likely balk or fail completely. (out of date dependancies, etc.)
It’s like baking bread from scratch vs using a boxed recipe. The materials required to cook from scratch cost more, you need to be or employ an experienced cook and it takes far longer. Unless newspaper have a budget for this project of even a fraction of Everyblock’s original 1.1 million they can forget about implementing software like this.
… unless … we we simplify the installation procedures and provide tutorials on best practices and example use cases for under funded newspapers.
Have you installed the Everyblock software? Where did you get stuck? Do you have ideas on what we as the open source community can do to make it more useful to the majority of newspapers out there?
Continue reading about Can newspapers benefit from Everyblock?
Draft KNC10 application:
TITLE
newspaper-subscriptions.org
DESCRIPTION
Newspaper Subscription Network (NSN) allows community newspapers to sell website subscriptions while providing additional value to readers. Value to readers comes by way of access to all local newspaper content from member websites.
Consumers pay to subscribe to the participating newspaper nearest them geographically, included in the subscription fees is access to ALL other newspaper websites in the NSN network.
Subscribers are asked to pay the subscription fee to support their local newspaper, but NOT asked to pay again for each and every news source on the internet.
NEWS & INFORMATION DELIVERY TO GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
Increase financial sustainability for online newspapers. Provides incentives for competing newspapers to link to each other and collaborate.
WHAT IS UNIQUE?
Unlike commercial paywall solutions NSN would be open source with no proprietary logic or ulterior business motives. Subscriber data can be used to enhance advertising effectiveness, but participation is such activities is optional for each publisher.
In contrast to the current AP model, content will not be syndicated. Only unique content created by the publisher can be secured behind the subscription system. This is intended to act as a dis-incentive to publishers creating little original content and simply aggregating to collect subscription revenue.
Draft KNC10 application:
TITLE
Class-APP
DESCRIPTION
iPhone / Droid application providing realtime classified ad submission to newspaper websites.
Users can snap a photo, enter a description, price and tap UPLOAD. Vastly lowers the barrier of entry for classified ad submissions. Can be used for merchandise for sale, autos, real estate and personal ads.
Business version allows businesses to post multiple items and mange their inventory. Creates a virtual marketplace for local merchants on newspaper classified sites.
NEWS & INFORMATION DELIVERY TO GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
From merchandise for sale to personals, classified ads are content. People interact with each other, creating the 5th estate of media. Class-APP creates a platform that encourages people to submit content and share with others, particularly people they do not even know.
A relationship between the newspaper is created is non traditional readers, potentially elevating civic awareness.
WHAT IS UNIQUE?
Promotes the interaction between young smart phone users with civic media.
Sustainability – Create new revenue streams for newspaper websites, offering the commercial version of the app for classified ad inventory.
Draft KNC10 application:
TITLE
Tech co-op
DESCRIPTION
Spot.us but for web development projects instead of journalism.
Need a website that plots a database of traffic accidents on a visual timeline?
Submit your request to the CO-OP and let members vote for their favorite. If your idea is selected by members as most worthy, we develop it.
Every month we will develop the winning idea for free and release it open source.
NEWS & INFORMATION DELIVERY TO GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
Creates a steady flow of innovative open source software resources to the news community….
WHAT IS UNIQUE?
Innovative ideas are vetted by the community that will use them.
Motivates news orgs to embrace the open source movement. By pooling our resources we can accomplish great things.
Sustainability – During the 2 year grant period, the service is free. After which we may require a monthly or yearly membership fee, AP style. Some web developments will require hosting. We will provide a competitively priced option for news orgs who lack hosting resources.
Draft KNC10 application:
TITLE
ContentMobility.org
DESCRIPTION
Commoditize the technology required to create mobile news applications.
A web-based service that allows the user to create mobile websites as easily as creating a blog. Accepts data feeds (RSS, XML, ATOM, etc.) and produces a mobile version for cell phone browsers. Allows content publishers to create a mobile “collection” featuring data feeds from their own site and aggregates from others. Each site can be customized and branded individually.
Working example of an XML feed from a small community newspaper:
http://mobile.dailyrepublic.com/
NEWS & INFORMATION DELIVERY TO GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
Allows content providers with limited funds and technical expertise to publish their content on a variety of mobile platforms.
WHAT IS UNIQUE?
Aggregation – RSS to mobile is nothing new but this concept allows for the simple creation of information portals containing feeds from a variety of sources. For example I might publish a feed called “news” that aggregates the local news feeds to from two competing news sites.
Public Good – Small community organizations without the technical resources to pull off a production at this level will be able to utilize this system in a hosted environment. Costs are offset by advertising support.
Sustainability – We’ll use mobile adwords to monetize content. Using the following logic to encentify publishing content, aggregating content and selling local advertising.
1. ContentMobility retains the PPC revenue on publisher owned content.
2. PPC revenue generated on aggregated content is paid to the content owner.
3. The content publisher monetizes their mobile site by selling AdWords management to local customers and with incremental PPC revenue form syndicated content.
