Stick to the basics

This has been my observation as well. No... not with just my local paper but all newspapers. You will likely recall that I recently did a study of small town newspapers in Kentucky and I can confirm the findings of the study mentioned in this article.

Unused Potential in Online Classified Ads
› › ›   Advertising/Marketing

By Enid Burns | October 13, 2005
Dramatic gaps exist between the classified offerings of large newspaper publishers, smaller publishers and online-only players, suggesting that newspapers are missing the opportunity to use audio, video and other technologies. That's the conclusion of a new study conducted at the University of Missouri's graduate school of journalism.

The research paper, "Interactivity and Vividness in U.S. Newspapers' Online Classified Ads," was written by graduate student Sarah Farebrother and assistant professor of journalism Shelly Rodgers. Farebrother evaluated the automotive, employment and real estate classifieds at 24 online newspapers of various sizes, examining their interactive and rich media features.

The study states that while many newspapers have increased interactive and rich media features on their sites, "they appear to have gone after the low-hanging fruit, those features easiest to add," Farebrother wrote. None of the newspapers studied use audio clips; video clips are deployed by only 4.2 percent; audio/video clips are available on just 8.3 percent of sites, and an IM chat feature can be found on just 2.8 percent of newspaper classified sites. E-mail notification is another feature popular with online-only sites, yet missing from the majority of newspaper publishers.

Whole article >>>

What immediately comes to my problem solving mind is; "how?" How can I develop tools that would make it easy for print publishers to evolve with the market? What learning curves will have to be overcome and what barriers might have to be circumvented.

While I agree with the article, one has to wonder if all those bells and whistle are necessary. Does a newspaper want to start offering audio and video on their websites? Newspapers communicate with still photos and well written words, should a print publication try to keep up just for the sake of keeping up? Or is there a valid motive for expanding the online presence?

I say, unless a print publisher can see a tangible benefit for implementing the bells and whistles online, be it competitive advantage, market expansion, revenue enhancement or value added service, they should focus on what they do best and that is to offer well written, creatively presented and accurate information in a manner that best fits their market. For example, instead of adding high quality audio/video content, improve the text content of the classified; make it searchable; make it attractive; make it effective; make it something that people want to read and what people want to buy.

Again, back to basics...

• Know your customer. (Better than anyone else!)
• Reach your customer. (Better than anyone else!)
• Serve your customer. (Better than anyone else!)

In my humble opinion of course.