New Strategy Could Help Newspapers Rebound

A new study from API and Innosight could change the way newspapers approach doing business in an online environment. The question is, is it too late?

by Kristina Knight

According to one report survey, 72 percent of respondents agreed the newspaper industry is missing out on online opportunities because they don’t collaborate. The year long Newspaper Next project says, the downward revenue and declining readership spiral can be turned around if newspapers follow a new business model.

The report suggests making several business model changes, the biggest include offering targeted, cost-per-action advertising and data driven content according to results from test papers like The Oregonian, The Dallas Morning News and The Boston Globe, rather than simply reproducing the same paper online they produce offline.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch found that the number of local businesses not advertising in the paper was at least four times greater than those that were. According to the report, “Hyper-local businesses and businesses with distinct audiences wanted to target their marketing message more narrowly.”

One way to target advertising is through niche advertising. Creating vertical content through categories such as travel, entertainment and sports are a few examples along with content areas including homes and coupons.

Getting independent newspapers to join together to create a broader network could be the insurmountable challenge. Less than half of the study respondents agreed that papers were capable of organizing and managing joint online ventures.