Associated Press Teams With 40 Newspapers On Mobile Coupons

from www.paidcontent.org

The new mobile initiative, dubbed “iCircular,” will start rolling out on Monday within the mobile sites and apps of the 40 newspapers.

The iCircular feature will be found within newspaper mobile apps on the iPhone. The feature will be available on other formats, such as Google’s Android, later on. It’s HTM5-based, so that will also be available on newspapers’ web and mobile wap sites and ultimately ease iCircular’s transfer to other operating systems. The app will be situated within a special “Deals” section on each of the newspapers’ apps and mobile sites. 

“It’s essentially an app within an app,” said Mary Junck, chairman of AP’s board of directors’ revenue committee and CEO of Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE). “We didn’t want to create an app separate from the newspapers. We wanted something that would be as integrated into the newspapers as a Sunday circular is in the print editions.”

Interestingly, the program is open to all newspapers, not just AP members, Junck told paidContent in an interview. “This is meant to address a problem and promote an opportunity for all newspapers,” she added.

Launch partners include the New York Daily News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) Company’s Boston Globe, Hearst’s San Francisco Chronicle, Cox Media’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, AH Belo’s The Dallas Morning NewsTribune Company’s Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune,  and other representatives of nearly every major newspaper company. (The whole list of iCircular newspaper launch partners.)

By The Associated Press (AP) – Feb 8, 2010

Average single-copy sales at newsstands and other retail sites for leading U.S. consumer magazines during the second half of 2009, among magazines that reported totals to the Audit Bureau of Circulations:

1. Cosmopolitan — 1,753,368 (down 1.4 percent)

2. People — 1,325,330 (down 10 percent)

3. Woman's World — 1,168,958 (down 4.9 percent)

4. First — 1,041,011 (down 6.4 percent)

5. Us Weekly — 812,089 (up 1.9 percent)

6. In Touch Weekly — 746,973 (down 10.5 percent)

7. Family Circle — 715,000 (down 9.4 percent)

8. In Style — 689,705 (down 6.8 percent)

9. O, the Oprah Magazine — 662,304 (up 5.8 percent)

10. Glamour — 587,677 (down 4 percent)

11. Lindy's Football Annuals — 580,509 (down 5.8 percent)

12. Star — 574,927 (down 6.8 percent)

13. National Enquirer — 562,292 (down 9.3 percent)

14. People Stylewatch — 536,934 (up 1.9 percent)

15. Woman's Day — 469,068 (down 7.2 percent)

16. Life & Style Weekly — 461,958 (virtually unchanged)

17. Men's Health — 438,238 (down 13.8 percent)

18. All You — 432,801 (down 1 percent)

19. Vanity Fair — 421,833 (up 5.1 percent)

20. Real Simple — 411,705 (up 6.2 percent)

21. OK! Weekly — 404,423 (down 17.5 percent)

22. Good Housekeeping — 395,289 (down 30.7 percent)

23. Seventeen — 392,262 (up 0.1 percent)

24. Every Day with Rachael Ray — 367,744 (down 3 percent)

25. Weight Watchers — 364,396 (down 2.1 percent)

Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations

Newspapers continue to search for new and innovative cost cutting measures. Too bad they are not nearly as aggressive in reinvigorating their core product. My main example is my experience with Mediabids. We have been around for 10 years, more than 8,500 publications use us, we have sold tens of thousands of ads for publications and yet, nearly everyday, we have conversations with publications who are skeptical about the idea of using a website to sell newspaper and magazine advertising. Just yesterday, I spoke to a large publishing company who has gone through layoffs, product closings and downsizing in the last year and yet, despite their dire financial situation, are nonchalant about the opportunity to sell ads to the 17,000 advertisers who use Mediabids to buy print ads. Many print publications are not in the state they are in by accident.

From The Chicago Tribune. Full story here

The Chicago Tribune and other Tribune Co. newspapers plan to utilize as little content from the Associated Press as practical during the week of Nov. 8.

The goal, as the papers review costs and needs, is to see whether severing ties with the news cooperative next fall is a viable option, the Chicago-based media company confirmed Monday.

The trial is scheduled to be conducted almost 13 months after Tribune Co. gave the AP a required two-year warning that it might drop the news service, effective Oct. 15, 2010. Tribune Co. said at the time that it was keeping its options open while weighing what role, if any, the AP would play in its future.

A study by the Inland Press Association shows what you would expect in the largest papers - the last five years were tough. However, revenue increased in daily newspapers with under 15,000 circulation. 

"A triple whammy of declining circulation, advertising and classified revenue has been eroding the profits at U.S. dailies over the past five years, according to a report by the Inland Press Association. The sole circulation group showing a hopeful sign was the under 15,000-circulation category, which actually showed a 2.5 percent growth in gross revenues during the five-year period ending in 2008."

The study shows that, although the trends are not good, most newspapers are still profitable.

"The Trend Analysis average overall shows newspaper operating profits still ranged from more than 8.5 percent to 13.6 percent of gross revenue in all circulation groups except 25,001-50,000."

Informative story in Forbes this week on the Yahoo newspaper consortium. Points out some issues we have addressed in this blog before - is this really the best deal newspapers can get? Excerpt below. Full story here.

In exchange for access to Yahoo!'s ad inventory, papers turn over half of the revenue from ads they sell on the portal. Since joining the consortium, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution expanded its local reach, the proportion of the regional population who hit its Web site in a month, from 15% to 85%, Yahoo! says. The Evansville Courier Press, an Indiana daily with a circulation of 60,000, sold $1.1 million in Yahoo! ads in a week-long "sales blitz." Yahoo! won't discuss the specifics of the revenue-sharing agreement, but newspaper partners confirmed the 50-50 arrangement.

But the partnership could have an even bigger cost for newspapers. In the offline world, newspapers have traditionally dominated advertising sales to local businesses like retailers, car dealerships and supermarkets. By introducing their local advertisers to Yahoo!, newspapers run the risk of turning over their best customers to a digital powerhouse as they try to rebuild their own businesses online.

At Mediabids, we are in a similar business. Granted, there are structural differences between selling display ads like Mediabids does and selling online advertising but splitting the revenue 50-50 seems like a very high price to pay for the right to sell on behalf of Yahoo. Newspapers have an unparralled salesforce- no one else does as comprehensive a job reaching local merchants. They should get more.

And has the increased reach among local markets helped inflate the rates publications can get on their own for ads on their websites? Or has the increased inventory diluted the value of the product and decreased the overall prices?

Side note: it would be extremely interesting to see what the rate of renewal among advertisers who buy into Yahoo via newspapers will be. My prediction - it won't be good.