Is the online audience worth the investment?
As someone who has spent the past decade in the online biz, that question seems a little obvious to me.
In the Tuesday afternoon session at the NAA Martketing conference in Orlando there was a session devoted to the online audience for newspapers. Simple business model: you must be relevant to your customer and show value to your audience. And you must differentiate, show you are different from the competition.
According to Scarborough Research, newspaper Web site users shop more online and spend more when they do than from other not newspaper sites.
Here’s more: when newspaper sites shopped for items such as clothes or travel items like airline tickets, 3 of 4 actually followed through with the purchase.
Scarborough went further. Seven days of newspaper Web traffic were equal to 80 spots on radio. That’s reach for you.
NAA Conference
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One Night in… Ciao Italia
Here’s the real reason newspaper execs come to the NAA Marketing conference in Orlando – or any conference. To network. To meet, greet, boast, learn and most importantly ask questions.
Dan “Patio” Dalton. It you’re in the media biz, you probably get his emails. He is a one-man marketing machine, with a personal brand: an image of himself on his porch. I’m not kidding.
But everyone knows Patio Man. And he’s always at these conferences. So he runs into Kelly Fry, OPUBCO Communications Group Vice President for News and Information Center (now that’s a title!), and me on the trade show floor and demands we spend 30 seconds with him. He can be a pest, but that’s the mark of the good salesman I guess. He is tenacious. We give him the 30 seconds and his product is solid. In fact we have used Content That Works, his company, for a while now.
However, he convinces us to join him and his co-workers and the company CEO Paul Kamp for dinner. So now we have an adventure on our hands as they say we are headed to a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant located somewhere in an Orlando strip mall.
How could this go wrong, right?
Of course we roll in, nine strong, and grab a corner table. Place is packed. Mostly with locals I think. I’m not sure how anyone else would know about this place. Paul is a former restaurant/food critic outta Chicago, so we kinda trust he knows his pasta. In fact, he breaks down the difference between North side and South side pasta (alfredo vs tomato, sorta).
But we don’t get pasta. We order the special, the sea bass. I’ve never had sea bass. In fact, I’m not sure I want sea bass in Oklahoma. It’s great though. Really top notch fish. Served with potatos cut lengthwise. I usually try to include a price, but Paul and Dan ordered for the group so I didn’t get a good look at the menu.
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NAA Day 2 opening session
The theme here is consistent: stop telling everyone how bad the business is and start doing something about it. Newspapers should start touting what they bring to the table: local, depth of reach and niche audiences.
Radio, TV and yellow pages have all suffered audience and revenue decline, but you don’t hear them talking about it. Or repeatedly reporting it. But newspapers do. Why?
The panel this morning had a good point: advice for the industry – get over it. Quit whining. Focus on the emerging digital opportunities and protect the core product for as long as it makes sense. Tell your audience your good news, not just your loss of audience.
Again the panel urged the audience to try something, even if you fail. Innovate.
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One Night in… Raglan Road Irish Pub
Sunday night while in Orlando at the NAA Marketing conference…
Back to downtown Disney. I’m sensing this is a trend. Last night Bongo’s for Cuban. Tonight we want seafood. When near the coast, do the seafood. Probably a fresher option than in Oklahoma.
Of course we go Irish. We’re advised Raglan Road Irish Pub has tasty fish. Turns out the salmon, about $20, is really good. Came with mashed potatoes. They had some really dry wheat bread that came with dinner. It was served with what they called Guinness sauce. Tasted like honey. No, not in a “man this beer is good” way, but I think it really was honey.
We were seated right next to the stage where Paul Duffy (no relation to Patrick Duffy of Dallas fame) was the one man band. Good entertainer, talented musician, but he has a Web site from the 1990′s.
One Night in… Bongo’s
Saturday night at the NAA Marketing conference in Orlando and the crew is hungry. We cab it to downtown Disney. Not for magical tea cup ride, but for some dinner.
We wander into Bongo’s, are told it’s a half hour wait amongst all the families and tourists but it shakes out to a quick 10 minute wait.
Cuban band with congo drums is on the ground floor. We are ushered upstairs with a view that overlooks the dancefloor. Gloria Estefan concert video from Miami plays on the plasma screens.
Food is good. Menu is mostly Spanish to describe the Cuban foods. I ordered a steak, about $15. Came with white rice and plantains. I’ve had Cuban food in Miami in Little Havana. This was frankly pretty similar.
Cubans really like their seasoning or at least this place was a big fan of garlic.
Downstairs, the conga line wound through the restaurant.
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