The US newspaper industry has been able to describe the bad news recently: the false circulation of scandals, the transfer of newspaper advertisements to other media such as the Internet, and investors began to dump the stocks of newspaper companies. When I visited several newspaper groups and newspapers in the United States, the CEOs used "TOUGH" to describe the current newspaper industry in the United States.

In response to major issues in distribution, advertising, and capital markets, the US newspaper industry is exploring coping strategies: free newspapers, seeking online profit models, and editorial marketing reforms.

● Free newspaper

The core of the free newspaper strategy is to deal with the decrease in the circulation of paid newspapers and win new readers, especially young readers who are lost from paid newspapers, and win advertising revenue at a low price in the advertising market. Gannet Company, New York Times Company, Washington Post Company, Tribune Company, Knight Reed Company, the largest newspaper company in the United States have all launched their own free newspapers. The strategy is different. At present, there are three free newspaper models in the US newspaper market:

The first mode: Metro News (METRO) mode.

The Washington Post ’s “Express” published in Washington, “The New York Times” and the Swedish Subway ’s “Boston Subway”, Tribune ’s “Red Eye” in Chicago, and BELO ’s “Express” in Dallas. Belong to this model.

Reader Positioning: Everyday commuters, especially subway commuters, are mostly young people.

Content mode: Daily newspapers, the news sources are mainly news from news agencies, short and sophisticated comprehensive information and advertisements, rarely provide in-depth reports and comments, suitable for fast reading, generally can be read in 20-30 minutes.

Distribution mode: It is free for pedestrians to take or distribute to pedestrians in crowded places such as subways.

Revenue and advertising model: completely rely on advertising revenue, low-cost editing and distribution.

Market analysis: This is a typical free newspaper model created by the Swedish Metro News, a pioneer of modern free newspapers. It is worth noting that this type of free newspaper has obvious requirements for its market: large cities with large populations and developed public Transportation usually requires a subway. It has a certain substitution effect on mainstream newspapers in the major cities, and can reach a clear audience. Therefore, it can share a slice with the local mainstream newspapers in the advertising market, and have a certain impact on mainstream newspapers in distribution and advertising. Its business model is relatively mature and has been tested by the market for several years, and there have been successful profit cases.

The second mode: Gannett mode.

Since October 2002, Gannett, the largest newspaper company in the United States, has launched nine free newspapers using its subsidiary newspapers as the platform, such as the "Spark" published in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Lansing, Michigan. "Sound", Indianapolis' "CINWEEKLY", etc. was launched in Indiana. Its characteristics are:

Reader Positioning: Young people aged 25-34 in this city.

Content mode: Weekly newspaper, tabloid format, colorful and large photo cover, headline, dynamic and color layout design, no general news coverage, focusing on lifestyle close-ups of interest to target readers, supplemented by A large number of practical life information and charts, such as bars and restaurant guides.

Distribution mode: Automatic newspaper pick-up machines are provided in gyms, cafes, bookstores, restaurants, supermarkets, apartments, etc. where young people often appear, for readers to read for free.

Revenue and advertising model: Attract products and service advertisements targeted at young people, such as second-hand cars, entertainment services, catering, recruitment, house rentals, etc., whose advertising pricing is much lower than mainstream newspapers in the local market, and strive for low-end advertisers.

Market analysis: Different from the METRO model in reader positioning, content, and advertising models, the Gannet model is based on the characteristics of the market where free newspapers are located and Gannet's own strategic needs.

First of all, the newspaper markets where Gannett ’s free newspapers are located are medium-sized cities with a small population and no developed public transportation system as a distribution platform, so the distribution model must be designed according to market characteristics. Second, Gannett ’s free newspaper competes with the local mainstream newspaper. Because Gannett's free newspaper was launched on the platform of its local sub-newspaper. For example, "Sound" was launched with the help of Gannett's Michigan newspaper "Lansing Daily" printing, distribution and editing resources. In order not to form a "cannibalism" with mainstream newspapers in the market, so in terms of content positioning, free newspapers and mainstream newspapers are almost irreplaceable, so they do not pose a threat to mainstream newspapers. On the contrary, free newspapers are complementary to mainstream newspapers to better cover the local newspaper industry

The biggest feature of the US medium-city newspaper market is one city, one newspaper. Gannett ’s strategy of testing free newspapers in medium-sized cities shows the rationality and maturity of its operation: do not blindly copy other free newspaper models, and explore their own according to market characteristics. The model not only achieves the purpose of attracting young readers, but also has a satisfactory profit. According to the Gannet company's person who is in charge of the free newspaper project, the first "Sound" it launched has already begun to make profits five months later.

The third mode: Investigator mode.

In February of this year, a new free newspaper model "The Investigator" appeared on the Washington market. The newspaper was founded by CLARITY Media Co. and has registered the trademark in 63 cities across the United States, showing the creation of the largest free chain in the United States. Newspaper ambition.

Reader Positioning: High-income families.

Content mode: 64-page tabloid. The report focuses on local news, taking into account both domestic and international news, and has a commentary and reader feedback. The news report is concise, but it requires certain integrity and depth in the reporting of some important events. The front page is a clear introduction to the content. The newspaper claims to be easy to read and is aimed at readers of mainstream newspapers who are tired of traditional inconvenient reading.

Issuance mode: mainly for home delivery, a small amount is sent free of charge in the vending machine. Like the paid newspaper "The Washington Post", the newspaper is delivered to the door of 200,000 high-income families in the Washington area every morning. Revenue and advertising model: Due to the clear readership, its advertising strategy is to attract high-end advertising aimed at high-income people, which is more attractive to advertisers and poses direct competition and threats to local mainstream newspapers.

Market analysis: The investigator model may be the most worthy of attention in the US newspaper industry. If it succeeds, it may change the business model of the US newspaper industry and even the global newspaper industry.

The investigator's spear is directed at mainstream local newspapers that are mainly subscription-based, high-income readers, and high-end advertising. It can be said that the Investigator News directly challenges the monopoly of mainstream newspapers in the US newspaper market that has been difficult to break for many years, and the market structure of homogeneous newspapers has no market space (except for mega cities).

The author believes that the investigator model has a higher chance of success. The reason is that: from the perspective of the history of the US newspaper industry, most of the new newspapers in cities with mainstream newspapers have withdrawn from the market due to insufficient circulation. Since the newspaper is delivered free of charge, there is no issue of circulation. From the point of view of advertising, because the newspaper sends the newspaper directly to high-income families through statistical data, the reader's positioning is quite clear, and it is also conducive to the advertising investment of advertisers. Even if the advertising price is higher, it is easy for advertisers to accept.

The risk of this model is that the cost of distribution and content is relatively high, and it needs a period of time to be recognized by the market, so it is likely that the previous investment is large and there is no return. The owner of CLARITY media company is American billionaire Philip Anxiuz, the pocket is deep enough to cope with the big investment, but how long does it take to make a profit? Does Philip have the patience to wait until that day? We need to wait and see.

● Network profit model

The core of this strategy is to cultivate new economic growth points for the newspaper industry, diversify the income structure, and increase market confidence in newspaper stocks.

At present, major newspaper groups in the United States are struggling to find online business opportunities, and their exploration is carried out in two strategic directions: one is to seek the profit model of the newspaper's own website, and the other is to invest in business websites with potential.

1. Seeking the profit model of the newspaper's own website.

In today ’s United States, if a newspaper does not have its own website is a very incredible thing, many newspaper websites are no longer an attachment to the printed version, more and more readers are used to reading newspapers online instead of subscribing or buying The printed version, the number of users of many newspaper websites has exceeded the circulation of the printed version, some people in the press even predict that the online version will be the future development direction of the newspaper. But the development of newspaper websites faces a fatal problem: to find a viable and profitable business model. At present, American newspaper websites are exploring from two aspects: content charging and advertising:

1. Content charges

There are full charge and partial charge models for website charging. Of the 1,456 daily newspapers in the United States, only a national newspaper of the Wall Street Journal and about 40 smaller daily newspapers are fully charged, and dozens of other newspapers charge for some content, or only provide free online access to newspaper subscribers right. Full charge model:

The only model that has succeeded in this model is the Wall Street Journal. Since its inception, this financial media leader has boldly implemented a website subscription fee system. Compared with the annual subscription fee of $ 356, readers can become subscribers to its online version for only $ 84 a year. In recent years, the circulation of the printed version of the Wall Street Journal has continued to decline, while the number of subscribers to the online version has grown rapidly. The income of the printed version of the Wall Street Journal, this result is even more disappointed by the traditional paper media.

Analysis: Although the business model of the Wall Street Journal website is successful, it does not apply to other newspapers, because as the most prestigious financial newspaper, its website subscribers often regard subscription as a commercial cost, rather than pure casual reading.

Partial charging model:

For now, the full charging model is obviously unrealistic for most newspaper websites, but the feasibility of some charging models is relatively strong. For example, the New York Times website, which is currently the most visited American newspaper website, announced in May this year that it would charge $ 4.95 per month for some of the work of its review columnists. The medium-sized newspaper "Milwaukee Sentinel Weekly" also charges a fee for in-depth coverage of local teams at a price of $ 34.95. Some newspapers have also failed to charge partly. For example, the "Los Angeles Times" charges $ 4.95 a month for "Calender Live" on the website, and the number of visits declined accordingly. The US newspaper industry has high hopes for this partial charging model. Most newspaper websites now require readers to register. The purpose is to strive for targeted advertising on the one hand, and on the other hand, to track the readers ’reading habits in order to Discover which readers are willing to pay and which content can be charged.

Analysis: The key to the success of some charging models is whether there is content that can be charged on the newspaper website. Some analysts believe that there are three elements of content that can be charged: one, indispensable and good reputation; second, the content is exclusive and has Readers are deeply interested in this; third, it can increase efficiency or make money for users.

2. Website Advertising

Advertising is currently the main means of making money on newspaper websites. In 2004, the online advertising revenue of the US newspaper industry reached 1.5 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 26.7%, much higher than the growth rate of newspaper advertising. At present, when American newspapers sell website advertisements, they usually package and sell them with printed newspaper advertisements, and website advertisements are in a subordinate position. But the prospects for website advertising are quite promising. Compared with other websites, newspaper websites have their own unique advantages in attracting advertisements, such as the extension of newspaper brand effects and experienced advertising sales teams. However, newspaper websites also have their own disadvantages in the field of advertising. For example, if they cannot win the most important search-and-click advertisements on the Internet, they are not as powerful as portals or some specialized commercial websites, so their ability to attract advertisements is also limited. Website competition is the biggest issue for newspaper websites in the advertising field. The solution for the US newspaper industry is to invest in business websites.

2. Invest in business websites with potential.

As a solution for competing for online income with commercial websites, the US newspaper industry has invested heavily in commercial websites with market prospects in recent years. Especially in the past year, due to the suppression of newspaper stocks by the capital market, the newspaper industry has been more active in acquisitions. In June of this year, Scripps bought Shopzilla, an online shopping price comparison website, for $ 525 million. The company is the latest newspaper group to invest in the Internet. So far, all newspaper groups have been involved in business websites.

Generally speaking, the websites invested by American Newspaper Group can be divided into two categories:

The first category is related to the newspaper business, such as the top three newspaper groups in the United States, Gannet, Forum Corporation, and Knight Reed, who jointly invested in CareerBuilder, a classified recruitment advertising website in early 2002, in response to MONSTER ’s classified recruitment advertisement for newspapers In 2004, CareerBuilder's revenue reached more than 200 million US dollars, and its market share increased from zero to 25%. In March of this year, the three major newspaper groups once again jointly invested in a regional news listing website Topix, which can find a certain regional news from more than 10,000 websites according to the needs of users, and use commercial ads in this region as a profit point. In addition, the Wall Street Journal acquired personal financial investment website MarketWatch for $ 538 million at the end of last year.

Analysis: Investing in websites that are related to the traditional business of the newspaper industry can take advantage of the original resource advantages of the newspaper industry and the experience of the management. The investment risk is relatively small, but how to convert the traditional resource advantages into real online profitability will be investment The key to success or failure.

The other category is websites that are not related to the traditional business of the newspaper industry. For example, Shopzilla acquired by Scripps, Gannett just bought PointRoll, a technology marketing website that was acquired for $ 100 million. Analysis: The key to investing in websites that are less relevant to the traditional business of the newspaper industry is whether the acquired website has a mature profit model or a correct judgment on the profit prospects, and whether the commercial website can be well integrated into the newspaper industry after the acquisition Come in the company.

● Edit marketing reform

Facing the decline, the American newspaper industry is actively exploring countermeasures in both editing and marketing areas:

1. Reform of editing

Unlike European newspapers, which generally adopts the reform model of changing major newspapers to tabloids, the US newspaper industry does not have a common model when it adopts reforms in editing and editing. Each newspaper is exploring the path of reform based on its own case.

The Wall Street Journal carefully analyzed the reasons for the sharp decline in advertising, and concluded that it relies too heavily on B2B advertising, especially financial and IT advertising, and advertising is directly subject to the fluctuations of these two industries. The strategy is to launch the Saturday edition of The Wall Street Journal, which covers the leisure life of senior business people. Its strategy is to attract B2C advertising to reduce its dependence on B2B advertising and add new advertising sources. To cope with the promotion of the Saturday edition, the newspaper decided to send the Saturday edition newspaper to the subscriber's designated home address free of charge, so that readers who usually read the newspaper in the office also read the Wall Street Journal at home on Saturday.

The Chicago Tribune, whose circulation fell by 6.6% last year, has adopted targeted editorial reforms this year. Through reader survey analysis, the newspaper has introduced reform measures: strengthening the reading function, adding more charts and entertainment reports, so as to get used to the Internet Readers of reading methods browse newspapers to cater to readers' tastes. In response to the problem of the loss of middle-class readers in the suburbs of large cities, some metropolitan newspapers have attracted readers with more localized and close reports in recent years. The main countermeasure is to add a regional version of the tabloid to the main newspaper. The town makes detailed reports. For example, the "Detroit Free Press" will publish 13 different editions of regional tabloids every Thursday, which are sandwiched in the main newspaper and distributed to 13 different suburban towns. The Arizona Republic has similar initiatives. The newspaper has launched five special issues for readers in different regions of the city. In 2004, the newspaper made a profit of $ 1.1 million through these sub-publications.

Analysis: At present, the reform of the collection and editing of American newspapers has not yet formed a generally accepted model. Each newspaper explores countermeasures according to its own situation and has achieved certain results. But many people are more optimistic about the prospects of free newspapers and online newspapers. At present, printed newspapers are still the main source of income for the newspaper industry, and the transfer of income structure from traditional newspapers to free newspapers and online newspapers is ongoing, but no one can accurately predict how long this process will be. Reform should never be abandoned.

Second, marketing reform

The American newspaper industry pays more attention to how to strengthen marketing. To resist the impact of emerging media, the American Newspaper Association decided to use various marketing activities to promote the overall image of the newspaper this year, so that advertisers and readers can re-recognize the value of the newspaper. The Los Angeles Times, which saw a 6.5% decline in sales last year, spent $ 10 million this year on the newspaper ’s marketing to increase newspaper circulation. Some newspapers also have some successful explorations in marketing.

1. New marketing strategy for new subscribers

According to statistics, nearly 60% of new subscribers in American newspapers are obtained by telemarketing. But in 2003, the United States banned telemarketing to registered households, which severely affected newspaper distribution, and many newspapers were looking for new strategies. In the past two years, new means such as KIOSK (set up temporary distribution points in crowded places such as supermarkets), online distribution, and certain discounts and gifts have gradually begun to win more and more new subscribers, becoming a promising new marketing strategy.

2. EZPAY keeps old subscribers

The cost of acquiring new subscribers is much higher than maintaining an old subscriber. In recent years, the US newspaper industry has paid more attention to maintaining old subscribers than ever before. In maintaining the old subscribers, in addition to giving the old subscribers some subscription discounts and more generous gifts, the distribution executives have found a more effective strategy: EZPAY, that is, through some marketing strategies to enable the subscribers to provide their own credit card or bank transfer account information And authorized to pay the subscription fee according to the subscription method specified by the subscriber. Newspapers implementing this strategy found that subscribers often renewed their newspapers inertially, greatly reducing the rate of suspension. According to a survey of several newspapers affiliated to Gannett, its subscriber retention rate is as high as 83%.

Analysis: Due to the monopoly characteristics of one city and one newspaper, the US newspaper industry's investment in marketing is much lower than that of other competitive industries. The low cost of marketing is also one of the important reasons for the high profits of the US newspaper industry. However, in a sluggish environment, increasing investment in marketing is undoubtedly one of the countermeasures. It is foreseeable that as investment in marketing increases, newspapers will receive corresponding returns, but their profit margins will decline accordingly.

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