As a recent article in The Wall Street Journal outlined, the new online ads newspapers are managing to sell are cannibalizing their print-ad revenues.
The number of local salespeople peddling online ads for newspapers has ballooned to 15,500 from 5,900, according to estimates from media-research firm Borrell Associates. But, newspapers now control only 27.4% of the local online ad market, down from a 35.9% share in 2006, according to Borrell.
WuduPlz has packaged itself for newspapers to address this.
Because online ads are far less expensive than print ads and thus offer lower commissions, it’s difficult to get salespeople to focus on selling the digital products.
WuduPlz, however, is a premium online product which can demand higher rates. And, WuduPlz offers materials for both editorial and advertising to create a compelling print tie-in.
WuduPlz uses the typical, easy-to-deploy banner ads that are directed to specific local markets. WuduPlz works for both small and medium-size local businesses as well as large regional or national accounts.
Local local online ads are growing — that market expanded at a 57.2% clip last year. The big winners so far are Internet companies like Google and Local.com, which collectively control 53.3% of the local online ad market, up from 25% in 2006, according to The Wall Street Journal. “And they’ve done that with only 1,400 ad-sales reps. They specialize in selling ads that target consumers searching the Web for a particular product or service, whether it’s a plumber or a neighborhood pizzeria,” the Journal noted.
WuduPlz provides newspaper with a unique way to compete for ads with both Google and local bloggers .
Small- to medium-size businesses are a prime target for WuduPlz because their limited ad budgets price them out of the daily print paper, but they are eager to market.
The online audience is often about a third of the size of a newspaper’s print circulation, but by offering a clear path to a prime target market, WuduPlz can overcme that objection.
“Unless you take practices that have been in place for 50 years and shake the dust off the rugs, you’re not going to move the needle,” says Mark Contreras, senior vice president of Scripps newspaper division.
