BUSINESS PLAN
CLIENT: THE BLUEFIELD DAILY TELEGRAPH WEB SITE
BY BAM BAM MEDIA IDEAS
September 15, 2004
The business plan is available online at http://web.knoxnews.com/jigsha/bbmi/
Introduction
You have before you the results of seven months' work by four promising and experienced new-media professionals from newspapers across the country.
Our mission? To think beyond our everyday reality to shape a viable new-media strategy for you, The Bluefield Daily Telegraph. It's a non-traditional business plan that incorporates our knowledge, challenges, success stories and mistakes.
To accomplish our objective, we challenged our beliefs, questioned popular wisdom and dared ourselves to be different. The result is a comprehensive vision that attempts to create a complementary union between your newspaper and your Web site.
Understanding the vision, mission and purpose
We don't have to tell you about the unique responsibility a newspaper has in its community because you live it. In fact, you described yourselves to us this way: For 112 years, what began as the weekly Bluefield Telegraph and later evolved into The Bluefield Daily Telegraph has acted as a window on the region it serves. ... The history of the newspaper and its circulation area are bound inextricably.
Our visit to Bluefield served to introduce us to your organization and provide much-needed insight into how your information franchise interacts with its clients, readers and community at large. That knowledge, and our subsequent conversations about your role and your realities, fundamentally influenced our thoughts and conclusions.
You see, we believe the ultimate success of your Web site starts by leveraging the deep roots you have in the Bluefield area to build an online community that strengthens the print product and enriches the quality of local life.
Your newspaper is successful because of the organic link to the city and its people. More importantly, the sustainability of your business is tied to that goodwill, especially given the tough economic circumstances and depressed business climate.
The Web site can become an integral component of this equation. In fact, we believe its survival — and the overall health of your business — is dependent on creating an online offering that:
· Helps local businesses succeed.
· Champions causes that contribute to a better community.
· Respects the principles of traditional journalism.
In other words, let's unleash the tools and ideas to guarantee that the information published under the Daily Telegraph name is welcomed into every home on every day. Give these people a reason to read the paper, then give them a reason to visit the Web site.
Our approach
We want to tell you a story, perhaps even provide a picture. This isn't so much about what to do, it's about how to do it. And once you're prepared to accept that, explaining what not to do has as much value as suggesting what to do.
So, what did we do?
We attempted to create a document that goes beyond theory and spreadsheets. Since there's no substitute for experience, we wanted to tap into our collective know-how to compare that knowledge against your environment. The intent was to process everything through a filter that could otherwise be described as your reality. Without context, there is no value.
Here's what to expect:
· Profiles — who we are.
· Miscalculations — what to avoid.
· Can't-miss list — things you need to do.
· Resources — what's needed and when.
· Registration — what you need to know.
· Sales — what it takes to be successful.
· Content — great ideas to generate audience, readers and revenue.
· Competitive analysis — how to fend off the competition.
· What if Bluefield belonged to us? How we'd put together the puzzle.
Bam Bam Media Idea Profile
Christine Montgomery
Director of Electronic Publishing
St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, FL
BACKGROUND: Reporter — cops, courts, a little local government some features. An early-90s stint fashion editor for a mid-size Florida paper taught me the value of good content packaging long before the idea of "packaging" content for Web was even conceived. Moved to Web as a features editor at USATODAY.com, moved up and around enough to learn how to deal with third-party vendors, how to manage staff through changes and challenges and had some tough lessons learned on changing culture happens one person at a time. Became a deputy managing editor at USATODAY.com, overseeing new projects and products, including launching two sites: careers and travel under the USA TODAY brand.
TODAY: As director of electronic publishing for the St. Petersburg Times, I play a kind of publisher's role, overseeing the editorial content and directing the strategic business efforts of our site.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Introducing new ideas and concepts into a company steeped in its own tradition.
BIGGEST SUCCESS: Changing perceptions throughout the newsroom: Web is relevant to our community, holds its own as a story-telling vehicle and information source, and can bring customers to advertising clients.
Jigsha Desai
Online Producer
Knoxville News Sentinel
BACKGROUND: Studied magazine journalism and new media at Temple University in Philadelphia, graduating in May 2002. After production and editorial internships at Time.com and Philly.com, I joined the Knoxville News Sentinel.
TODAY: Completing my second year as an online producer at the News Sentinel, where I primarily handle content on knoxnews.com and our family of sites. Main responsibilities include updating the Web sites, creating Web-only content, repackaging print stories, developing content ideas to promote online use and allowing for more organization and interactivity on the site. Worked on numerous multimedia projects at the News Sentinel, five of which have won internal corporate awards. I've helped launch news sites, a paid site for college football and developed relationships throughout the company with people in advertising, marketing and circulation.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Trying to get the print folks interested in the Web. To generate some traction, I'm very visible in the newsroom and work with the print side editors and reporters to build a shared sense of purpose. I can help complement their work with quality online presentation that has the potential to reach a wider audience.
BIGGEST SUCCESS: Being part of a team that made many of our print staff — especially photographers — "get" and appreciate the value of the Web.
Sam-Ugarte Wright
Sales and Marketing Lead
The Press Democrat
BACKGROUND: 10 years across CPG, health care, publishing, retail, internet and newspaper industries. Learned that the adoption of change seems to be highest when proven one very small (albeit deliberate, strategic and intelligent) and simple step at a time.
TODAY: As Online Sales and Marketing Lead for The Press Democrat, I wear many hats. We are a department of only 5 and my duties span from programming the foundation of our sales and marketing capabilities to setting strategy and direction for those efforts.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Establishing realistic expectations for the role, value and development of new media within the organization
BIGGEST SUCCESS: Creating organic, synergistic change that pushes from both ends of the efficiency scale within the organization; reducing costs while generating record revenue. Specifically, shortly over a year in, we've freed up two full-time positions within our overloaded ITS and Prepress departments, begun capturing the interest of our existing print sales reps and created an efficient and scalable infrastructure.
John Jackson
Online Sales Director
Augusta Chronicle
BACKGROUND: My background includes many years Internet sales, corporate sales, software training and underwriting in the Finance and Insurance industry. Publishing and the Internet became a major influence in my professional career when I accepted the Director of Sales position for an Internet Publishing Company in 1999. Since then the bubble has busted and I have moved to Newspaper publishing.
TODAY: As the Online sales director for the Augusta Chronicle, a Morris Newspaper I have developed the online strategy to include online sponsorship, direct email, employment, autos, and real estate verticals. I have been involved in the strategic implementation of CareerBuilder, Legacy products, third party advertising, affiliate relationships. The primary measure of success is increase online revenue. Over the last year online revenue has increased by over 25%.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Influencing the cultural change required to ensure the success of digital advertising for retail sales representatives and managers
BIGGEST SUCCESS: Monetizing the Auto, Recruitment and Real Estate Verticals. Implementing a direct email strategy.
Miscalculations to avoid
It's been said that good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment. When it comes to interactive media — and trailblazing this new frontier — there have been plenty of mistakes. We share some of them with you here in the hope that you can avoid repeating them.
1. Resist the temptation to run the interactive department by committee in the absence of dedicated resources. This leads to ambiguity, a confused vision and divided interests.
2. Similarly, don't let your Web site operate in a vacuum. Success is often dependent on involving experienced resources from other departments once assignments and projects have been determined.
3. Don't assume someone on staff can run your Web site and perform the duties associated with their current role. It doesn't work. Your interactive efforts require a champion within the organization, someone who can work well with other department leaders.
4. Create a compelling strategic plan and do your best to stick to your purpose and associated timelines. Chasing the latest and greatest shiny object within interactive media won't get you to where you want to go.
5. Don't distribute your content online for free. At the very least, capture an email address and/or street address so you can better understand who uses what.
6. Don't be cheap when it comes to owning domain names that relate directly to your product and primary market. Bluefield may not need 100 domains, but owning more than one or two will serve you well.
7. Forget about the relatively big numbers associated with hits and page views. They're next to meaningless. Instead, focus on the number of unique users your site attracts and how you can target information (content and advertising) that plays to their interests.
8. Don't try to be something you're not, especially an Internet service provider or broad-based information portal that's not consistent with your core competency.
9. Get it in writing. Document process and designate someone who can become proficient in ad production, all the way through Web publishing (classifieds and retail ads).
10. Get it in writing, part II. If you use outside vendors to publish your advertising (any category) either write into the contract or add an addendum that states a guaranteed time ads will get posted live.
11. Don't forget that your core value to the community is not that you print information on dead tress, but that you are a trusted source of local information.
12. Stop thinking that advertising has to be separated from editorial. Your competitors aren't, and part of the reason users are flocking to national search portals (think Google) is that they can search everything at once. By not including both sides of your organization in the development process, you are giving your competition a big advantage.
13. Stop thinking that journalists are the only valid storytellers. Participatory journalism allows you to extend your newsroom resources and gets the community involved with the newspaper.
14. Don't assume that outsourcing to a vendor will solve all your problems. There are hidden costs in error tracking and resolution, contract negotiation and failed promises. Make sure to look beyond the initial costs and, if possible, try out the services before you buy.
15. Don't expect to have a Web site that people want to visit if you aren't willing to pass content to the Web in a timely fashion.
16. Likewise, don't simply duplicate online what you do in print. Online is the information and research medium; it costs you no more to post research, links to more information, complete interview transcripts and more online. Moreover, this gives your journalists a forum for complete information that isn't subject to the boundaries of page layout and other space limitations. The same holds true for display and classified advertising where color and space come much cheaper online — maximize that!
17. Don't launch a new product or site on a Friday. Start a soft launch on a Monday and give yourself time to work out the bugs. Once you have the bugs worked out, blitz the marketing campaign and announce the product to the world.
Can't-miss to-do list
New-media publishing is anything but predictable. Resources, markets, money, personalities and purpose make for a fickle environment. That said, we reviewed the industry-standard best practices and eliminated the concepts that for many reasons wouldn't work in Bluefield. What we have left are the ideas that will give your Web site and online revenue a boost.
Paid archives
Opportunity
Paid archives. Currently you have free archives on your site.
Idea
Implement paid archives on your Web site; allow for your content to be fed to a national newspaper database, thus expanding your coverage reach. We recommend Newsbank.com.
Benefits of using Newsbank.com
· Archive hosting and E-commerce services for you.
· SAVE Service Bureau to build, manage, and maintain an electronic archive.
· Distribution services of your content to schools, libraries and other markets outside of your Web site's core audience, via newslibrary.com.
· Implementation
Archive hosting requires no out of pocket cost for you; Newsbank will set it up and will implement the billing interface all while having your look and template.
· NewsBank will offer SAVE service and all filter development work free-of-charge to you in exchange for sole distribution rights of your content to the academic, school, government and public library markets.
· The Bluefield Daily Telegraph feed that appears through the archives will be added to newslibrary.com's database of newspaper articles.
Revenue
NewsBank and the Bluefield Daily Telegraph will share Net Revenue on a 50/50 basis (50% to you). Net Revenue is defined as Gross Revenue minus credit card fees, applicable taxes, processing fees, refunds, bad debt and credits.
NewsBank provides hosting services for over 300 U.S. Newspapers. Their research indicates that papers charging no less than $2.95 per article purchased should gross on a monthly basis a minimum of $10/per 1000 print circulation per title. In yoru case, this means at least $205 a month or $2460 a year.
Enhanced obituaries
Opportunity
Online obituaries. Currently, you post daily obituaries on your Web site as is.