Will Les say something that’ll help YOU build your Radio business? Most doubt it. Expect just a rah-rah speech to rally the troops and goose broadcast stock valuations.

Will Les share specific details about how CBS will monetize digital? Nah. He’ll just talk in broad, feel good terms. Mr. Moonves will likely drop a few buzzwords : social media, streaming, cross platform….yada yada yada. He’ll also share that Pandora is NOT radio…and satellite radio is crap.

Take a look at this presentation I did for the Radio Advertising Bureau and the NAB, back in 2009.  Ya think much has changed since then?

Radio and Web Revenue, NAB Show 2009

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Here’s the presentation deck I used: Run Your Website as a Profit-First Business. Sometimes I call this: Profit-First is Better than Digital-First. There’s alot of new stuff in here, as I always keep updating it.

Some items that I place even more focus on:

• Newspaper has a special ‘bond’ with local advertisers? NOPE. All that business owners care about…. is sales.
• Boasting about web revenue growth..using percentages…is total BS.  A financial analyst will laugh you out of the room.
• Many Publishers are lazy. They still delegate digital revenue to a SALARIED exec. That’s just idiotic.
• VP’s of Digital hire commission-only, outside consultants to HARD CLOSE local clients. Really dumb.
• News organizations & groups run by those with little or no digital sales background.
• Many big name CEO’s, consultants and pundits still hiding financial health of digital efforts.
• The CMS ( content management system ) is critical part of web sales. If it’s tough & expensive to use, dump it. Use WordPress instead.

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Funded by Fisher Communications, DataSphere clearly saw local media still struggling with turning a web profit. (even after all these years)

Combine that with viewers and advertisers losing interest in typical local news sites, and ever lower cpm’s….. general managers everywhere are scrambling to keep corporate off their a** and to quickly accomplish the following:

• Have a half-decent website at the lowest possible cost
• Populate it with news, content & info, at the lowest possible cost
• Hit their new, mandatory web budget at the lowest possible cost
• Get it all done while not screwing up the primary business

DataSphere to the rescue. Here’s the deal: We’ll turn on a whole bunch of ez-to-operate neighborhood blogs for ya, then have our call centers auto-dial the local businesses in your town, close lot’s of deals, rinse, repeat. How’s that sound? Oh, we almost forgot. We’ll take a ridiculously high percentage of the deal and we’ll have a primary contact with the client too. But hey, just sit there and promote it. No need to lift a finger. Cool?

DataSphere Technologies, Inc. (http://www.DataSphere.com) is a Software as a Service (SaaS) Web technology and hyper-local ad sales company focused on generating online profits for media companies. DataSphere offers a range of turnkey solutions to rapidly improve site monetization and experience with minimal investment of time and money

I like that last line; “minimal investment of time and money”

As a local media manager, you’ll love how this easily puts web revenue on the books. But in reality, you did a deal with the devil. You just handed over the most valuable part of your business (realtionship with local advertiser) to an outside technology company/middle man.

Just for kicks, ask the Newspaper publisher in town how that deal with Yahoo has been working out for them.

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Digital marketing dollars of most small business, are still up for grabs. When you take these tiny but high volumes of mom & pop budgets, and combine them with the ‘asleep at the wheel’ efforts of traditional media, you can see why Reach Local, Google, Yellow Pages 360 and a slew of indie efforts are doubling down and are going for the kill.

When it comes to big media’s foray into this space, it’s full of well intentioned, but often misguided efforts.

• Philly.com’s CEO; Greg Osberg once told Poynter: “His top focus initially, will be on building audience, especially online. While conceding the point that small growth in unique visitors and other measures may not greatly impact ad sales, I think we can get 100 percent more audience, and that would make a difference.” Whoa, hold on there big fella. Since revenue & profitability is likely the top priority of his bosses, (investment firm of Angelo Gordon & others) we are not in agreement with Osberg’s statement. Instead, we believe Philly.com (and most news sites) have a sales strategy problem, not a traffic and page-view problem. Driving zillions of page views = inventory glut = lower effective cpm. Even MSNBC declared: pageview ‘dead’. Osberg also hinted of  his plan to find local collaborators, especially in the suburbs where editorial coverage has been cut. We think this will be tough in the fiercely independent, Philly blogosphere, where some indie sites are getting bought up. (see next item)

• A Philly sports blog called 700Level, was acquired by Comcast. Another local sports site called Beer Leaguer was also just snapped up by the cable giant. This should give local, independent site owners a much better sense of the value of their work. If your stuff is good, why give it away for peanuts? If your not sure how to value your site, contact us for assistance. Indie-sites like Philebrity.com, Philly2nite.com and SuburbanOneSports.com are not likely to sell out for the relatively small pay day and employee status that the 700Level & Beer Leaguer jumped on. (we think much too quickly). Kudos to Comcast Sports Net vp; Eric Grilly, for making this smart move, while the 2 sports Radio stations in town 610WIP.com, 975TheFanatic.com, as well as Philly.com, were snoozing.

• The Washington Post hoped local bloggers would drop everything to work with the legendary site, for what some say, free. Read the laundry list of rules you need to follow, if you want to work with the WashPo.

• SacPress.com is the self-funded news project that reportedly reaches more Sacramento online readers than the daily Newspaper (Sacbee), by leveraging their Sacramento Local Online Ad Network (SLOAN). The network is now over 40 sites strong, even repping the web inventory of 4 local Radio stations. (stations owned by digitally-challenged, Entercom)

• Radio & TV taking a shot at hyper-local news. Some broadcasters admit their weakness, raising the white flag, and are outsourcing web strategy to DataSphere. Others do it themselves, and make clumsy mistakes and leave money on the table. But promising Radio efforts like WYDaily.com are a sign of things to come.

• Sites like TheBatavian, AroundMainline.com and BrigantineNOW.com are gaining traffic and advertiser support. They use the not-so-secret formula of “running their sites like a business”. They spend less time with research and theory, and more time on the streets closing deals, and making sales calls.

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Based on a true story, Moneyball shows Beane going up against his old school, know-it-all, front office. He’s tired of being in last place and squeaking by on a shoe string budget. Unable to afford star players, Billy decides to slaughter a few sacred cows and installs experimental yet logical tactics into his game plan.

Today’s Newspaper industry is like that once great, but now struggling baseball team. The key difference? They’re now forced to play on a new, hyper-competitive field called the Internet.

Think about it: the veteran print team is stuck in a rut using the same, tired strategy that served them well for years, but no longer. Today, they get trounced by those with more money & muscle ( think Google, Reach Local, Yellow Pages, independent online publishers , etc.)

Anyone on your news team play the role of Billy Beane? Go find one. Their job: encourage the ditching of tactics, managers, research consultants, conferences and professorial pundits that just don’t help anymore. This person will need entrepreneurial tenacity and a thick skin. Some old school execs will immediately try to torpedo their efforts. This person will be a threat to ‘the way it’s always been done’.

Let’s slaughter a few sacred cows in Newspaper, just like Billy in Moneyball…did with the Oakland A’s.

Areas critical to your Newspaper’s digital success or failure. 

Compensation & Financial Motivation. If you can’t fix this, just turn off your site and retire. While adjustment of compensation is the most direct way to positively affect digital sales, it’s also the most challenging…..especially when surrounded by whiny sales reps and ad managers who threaten mutiny. If you can’t apply this simple & proven principle of comp adjustment to digital, you don’t have a web business… you only have an expensive hobby.

Management Structure. Who’s in charge? If the person managing your digital effort is salaried, you’re either bleeding red ink or you’re hitting a too-low web budget. You’re also leaving a load of cash on the table. Would you ever hire a publisher or ad director and then pay them a nice salary whether they hit their numbers or not? Then why do it with those who control your digital business? Need proof that salaried execs will kill your digital business? AOL Patch, The New York Times, Allbritton’s TBD and Gannett placed salaried, editorial execs in charge of building out the company’s hyper-local business models. To date, these brainiac-led efforts have either been shuttered or still bleed rivers of red ink. Tip: Do the exact opposite of what these egg-heads did. Tip #2: Run digital like a real business, not a hobby.

Inventory Management. Publishers, editors and ad directors vigorously defend the value of their content and readership in print. They smartly price the ad inventory adjacent to the editorial. But we’re floored how often they let Google Ad Sense, Centro and other 3rd party rep firms dictate CPM’s for prime positions on their sites. This over reliance on ad networks & deadly CPM selling contributes to the worse crime of all: web managers boasting of an online ‘sell out’. Duh. Would you ever tell an advertiser that you’re sold out in tomorrow’s Newspaper? Being ‘sold out’ online exposes a serious lack of inventory yield management, poor understanding of supply & demand pricing, and the painful in-ability to quickly create programs that help a client spend money with you.

Market Intelligence. If your staff is blind to what local business wants to do online, you’re in for a rude awakening. Instead of just picking up checks and taking orders, sales reps must be vigilant with collecting client ‘intel’. They must keep up with the ever changing need of the advertiser…especially now, as many are moving their marketing dollars to online.

Some media companies blindly follow the advice of market research firms. They invest in studies about local Internet expenditures. Does this expensive market data provide a road map to digital success? If it did, wouldn’t the industry be better off today?

Local media execs also seem to perpetually debate digital innovations in both journalism and sales. Much of this happens during conference panel sessions and keynotes. We have some advice for these folks: stop debating and start selling stuff your local business community wants to buy.

Fact: Your sales force with those direct relationships with local business should be your #1 source of market research. Reps should always be doing CNA’s (client needs analysis) to uncover clues to help point your Newspaper web sales model in the right direction. If anybody should have high levels of market intelligence and know the spending habits of local business, it should be your local feet on the street….NOT an expensive research or consulting firm. Duh.

Digital Business Model Evaluation.  Ask these questions to help evaluate the revenue potential of your newspaper website and other digital efforts:  Take test #1  

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Hate your job?  Confused about the future? Take your health & family for granted? Need a career change?

Listen to these 3 simple stories…..

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Beat by Sarah & WordPress

How awesome and how embarrassing. It was a spectacular kick-off to Main Line Restaurant Week in suburban Philadelphia.

The region’s biggest movers, shakers and top socialites celebrated in high style recently. Free food & drink flowed throughout the event.

Indeed, it was awesome for AroundMainLine.com CEO & Digital Goddess; Sarah Lockard, who puts on this incredible event each year.

It was embarrassing for the legacy newspapers and magazines in town. In days gone by…. the glossy Mainline Today magazine, along with The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly.com, would have OWNED this type of event. Today, these old school, media companies are busy downsizing and scrambling to stay afloat.

Once again, BIG MEDIA got beat….and beat bad….by little ole’ Sarah and her WordPress website. While the legacy media execs were protecting the past, Miss Lockard and AroundMainline.com…. focused on bringing local business and consumers together….using the Inter-webs.

Watch this video to see all the fun.

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Will Merlin figure out how to use the Internet? Will digital and online be a profitable part of the operation? Probably not. At their New York Radio stations, they still use a lame CMS platform & online strategy from Emmis Interactive. Geez. So 1999.

• The utterly useless, MERLIN New York website: WEMP FM News New York
• The MERLIN old school Radio, typically stupid WEMP NEWS ADVERTISE HERE page.

Miss the report I did about Radio, Sales, and Online News?. <<<<Click to watch.

After the morning show, the lineup will include Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.

IQ106.9 will add Rush Limbaugh when his contract expires with CBS Philly- Radio 1210am.  Former KYW-TV anchor Larry Mendte will be a part of the station in morning drive.

Mendte sees Philadelphia Radio and Newspaper as “old and stale”. We agree. Watch Larry’s YouTube video below.  ( we like pic of his lovely wife; Dawn Stensland in background )

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