Yahoo Inc. released more details about its forthcoming advertising management platform aimed at allowing advertisers and newspapers to buy and sell space online (see related story, page 49).
The platform, dubbed AMP, will roll out in phases during the third quarter of this year, Yahoo said.
AMP, formerly known as Project Apex, will allow marketers to search for available advertising inventory through a single, integrated interface, Yahoo said. Companies can buy across search, display, local, mobile or video inventory, Yahoo said.
Newspaper Consortium members said they’re eagerly anticipating the release of the platform.
“We are highly enthusiastic about the potential of this platform,” said Jay Smith, president of Cox Newspapers. “We’re blown away by how Yahoo is working with intensity and commitment to create a collaborative and very efficient platform that we expect will have a significant impact on our sales capabilities.”
Yahoo plans to extend the functionality of the platform as well as adding additional publishers, advertisers, agencies and ad networks through the rest of this year and into 2009.
A video demonstration of AMP can be viewed at http://advertising.yahoo.com/amp.
Yahoo adds 4 to consortium
Shaw Newspapers in northern Illinois and Iowa; The Buffalo (N.Y.) News; Times Publishing Co. in Erie, Pa., and The Columbian in Vancouver, Wash., joined Yahoo Inc.’s newspaper consortium, Yahoo said. The new papers bring the total number of participants to 634 — 425 of which are dailies.
The search engine said 30 percent of all U.S. daily papers and 37 percent of Sunday papers are now members of the group, founded in 2006.
Since the launch of the consortium, Yahoo said Web traffic to HotJobs has grown by more than 50 percent, and that newspapers have also begun to sell HotJobs ads as part of their packages to local advertisers.
Meantime, 126 of the consortium’s newspapers feature Yahoo search on their sites, Yahoo said.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Star Tribune takes personalized approach to Web
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune is the very model of a modern major metro.
It’s already the city’s dominant mass medium through its printed product. But now it’s exploiting its online presence to give its readers and advertisers a more personal experience, said Jason Erdahl, the Star Tribune’s executive director of interactive media operations.
Case in point: The Home Page Experience ad program, launched in 2006. The program gives marketers an opportunity to reach Web visitors through a variety of ad formats based on the number of times a visitor accesses the paper’s home page.
“What’s worked for us is that the user sees the message in different ways as they come back to the front page,” Erdahl said. This minimizes the chance a consumer might ignore the ad because of repeated viewings of the same message, he said.
The paper (Monday-Friday, 335,443; Saturday, 372,657; Sunday, 570,443) listed the ad packages at $19,000 each and booked 50 last year.
Home Page Experience reflects the paper’s embrace of the Web, a commitment that netted the daily three NAA Digital Edge awards this year for most innovative storytelling, best local guide/entertainment site (see box, below) and best digital ad program.
That’s on top of the four regional Emmys the paper garnered from the local chapter of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, citing the Star Tribune’s animation, still photography and videography efforts.
Yet even as the paper built its award-winning programs, its staff had to contend with rebuilding its Web infrastructure from scratch following the 2006 sale of the Star Tribune from McClatchy Co. to private venture firm Avista Capital Partners.
“McClatchy had the Web operations set up so that everything was centralized through the parent company,” Erdahl said. “McClatchy did a fine job, but this gave us an opportunity to look at things again and we decided to go with the best-of-breed option.”
The answer was a mixture of shrink-wrapped and custom apps, Erdahl said.
To that end, the Star Tribune tapped Clickability Inc. for its content management software and Silverpop Systems Inc. for its e-mail and newsletter alert functionality. The newspaper also maintained and expanded relationships with vendors such as Planet Discover, which was selected to provide search engine and shopping portal support.
Finally, the paper renewed its contract with Omniture Inc. for Web analytics and installed an ad management app from Google Inc. unit DoubleClick.
“The site may not look entirely different but nearly everything has been dramatically changed,” Erdahl said about the new infrastructure.
The Star Tribune used its own resources, meantime, to create its popular story commenting feature.
“I would argue that we have the best story commenting system on the Web right now,” he said. “We do require registration, but that doesn’t stop (readers) from participating because our users are open to sharing information with us in exchange for posting on the Web.”
Users can rate comments similar to the way Amazon users rate reviews, Erdahl said.
Local-minded features
Earlier this year, the Star Tribune launched Politically Connected, a site where users can find more information on national, state and local election races. Erdahl expects the site to draw considerable traffic, particularly since Minneapolis is hosting this year’s Republican National Convention.
“We aggregate news and information from throughout the Web and our own content,” Erdahl said. The site will also track campaign financing and contributors, he said.
MyVote, an app that allows users to quickly find precinct information and learn about ballot issues, bolsters the Star Tribune’s local campaign coverage.
“As election night approaches (voters) can print out a ballot and choose who they like and bring it to the voting booth,” Erdahl said about MyVote’s capabilities.
“Then throughout the night, through the same interface, they can monitor how all the elections are going, personalized to their specific street address.”
Last month it also unveiled a watchdog blog, dubbed Whistleblower, showcasing the Star Tribune’s investigative reporting efforts. Readers can also use the blog to register their own complaints and concerns.
The Star Tribune’s site continues to have its most popular and most e-mailed stories on the front page, which are aggregated from the entire site. But with the Clickability content management app, will be able to offer the most popular stories and most e-mailed stories by specific section.
Interactive features also receive prominent display on the home page. Users can play videos or view blogs by accessing a scrolling slide-show box displayed on the right-hand side of the page.
“We have an organization committed to multimedia and some really talented videographers that work for the digital media team,” he said, citing as proof the four regional Emmys the newspaper won in 2007.
Mobile news distribution is another key component of the Star Tribune’s interactive efforts. News and information is tailored to enable users to quickly view the data they need on their mobile devices, Erdahl said, but consumers can also opt to view entire stories and articles if they wish.
“Running a long story is not conducive for a mobile device but people (may want to access) movie showtimes or go in to read certain stories,” Erdahl said. “We don’t have to replicate our entire Web site on the phone, but if you want to, you should be able to find and view that entire long story” even if it is 16 characters at a time, he said.
“You should still have that option.”
The Star Tribune’s mobile news package includes quick links to main story sections and stories about the Twin Cities’ four professional sports teams. Users can scroll down on their mobile devices to see top local and national stories.
Consumers also have the option to sign up for e-mail alerts and can subscribe to up to 20 individual newsletters transmitted to their PCs.
“We have a daily AM and PM newsletter we send to a couple hundred thousand people and have specific newsletters about the Twins, Vikings, business and a variety of other subjects,” Erdahl said. “We also have a lot of really great offers that we send out as well as on behalf of our advertisers for travel, entertainment, automotive and many others.”
The paper has plans for additional categories aimed at tapping into readers’ diverse tastes and interests.
“As we look at the categories of content on our site — not calling them sections — let’s just call the Minnesota Twins a category,” he said. “Heck, we should do that for ice fishing. Up here in Minnesota we should own ice fishing,” Erdahl said.
Group marketing
The Star Tribune is also digitizing and categorizing its archives in a bid to further slice and dice the market, Erdahl said.
As part of that initiative, the paper is relaunching a health and fitness category containing stories published since 1986.
Erdahl said the Star Tribune wants to create categories that meet the needs of various age groups and interests.
“I want all demographics. There is no limit, I want anyone who can pick up a cell phone and type something on their phone,” he said. “My 6-year-old son is a demographic. I want him to go on the site as he’s learning to read.”
StarTrib uses vita.mn power to grow stronger
The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune has a built-in digital proving ground to test features and services it rolls out on its Web site.
The paper’s local entertainment Web site, vita.mn, was used to work out bugs associated with its homegrown commenting application and the Star Tribune also used the site to test its Karma user rewards program.
Karma rewards registered users with points every time they participate or review material on the site. Top point earners win a prize.
Vita.mn contains information about Twin Cities restaurants, bars, clubs, movies, music, art, guides and other entertainment events.
A printed counterpart contains other information, including a mix of staff and user-contributed material.
Among the most popular features within the site is the Top 10 list, said Jason Erdahl, the Star Tribune’s executive director of interactive media operations.
Last year, he said, users wrote more than 10,000 Top 10 lists on more than 800 topics, which resulted in traffic counts exceeding 1.9 million page views, he said. Users viewing the lists stay on the site longer than the usual startribune.com visitor, he said.
“Users spend more time there because they are adding lists, tagging items, commenting and uploading photos for the site,” he said.
Karma, meantime, will migrate from vita.mn to the main startribune.com site later this year.
“We believe that the loyalty programs for Web and print should be merged,” Erdahl said. “If someone subscribes to the newspaper, big points. If someone subscribes to a newsletter, good points and if someone tags an item, good points,” he said.
Vita.mn won a Digital Edge for best local guide/entertainment site.
Associate Editor
The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune is the very model of a modern major metro.
It’s already the city’s dominant mass medium through its printed product. But now it’s exploiting its online presence to give its readers and advertisers a more personal experience, said Jason Erdahl, the Star Tribune’s executive director of interactive media operations.
Case in point: The Home Page Experience ad program, launched in 2006. The program gives marketers an opportunity to reach Web visitors through a variety of ad formats based on the number of times a visitor accesses the paper’s home page.
“What’s worked for us is that the user sees the message in different ways as they come back to the front page,” Erdahl said. This minimizes the chance a consumer might ignore the ad because of repeated viewings of the same message, he said.
The paper (Monday-Friday, 335,443; Saturday, 372,657; Sunday, 570,443) listed the ad packages at $19,000 each and booked 50 last year.
Home Page Experience reflects the paper’s embrace of the Web, a commitment that netted the daily three NAA Digital Edge awards this year for most innovative storytelling, best local guide/entertainment site (see box, below) and best digital ad program.
That’s on top of the four regional Emmys the paper garnered from the local chapter of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, citing the Star Tribune’s animation, still photography and videography efforts.
Yet even as the paper built its award-winning programs, its staff had to contend with rebuilding its Web infrastructure from scratch following the 2006 sale of the Star Tribune from McClatchy Co. to private venture firm Avista Capital Partners.
“McClatchy had the Web operations set up so that everything was centralized through the parent company,” Erdahl said. “McClatchy did a fine job, but this gave us an opportunity to look at things again and we decided to go with the best-of-breed option.”
The answer was a mixture of shrink-wrapped and custom apps, Erdahl said.
To that end, the Star Tribune tapped Clickability Inc. for its content management software and Silverpop Systems Inc. for its e-mail and newsletter alert functionality. The newspaper also maintained and expanded relationships with vendors such as Planet Discover, which was selected to provide search engine and shopping portal support.
Finally, the paper renewed its contract with Omniture Inc. for Web analytics and installed an ad management app from Google Inc. unit DoubleClick.
“The site may not look entirely different but nearly everything has been dramatically changed,” Erdahl said about the new infrastructure.
The Star Tribune used its own resources, meantime, to create its popular story commenting feature.
“I would argue that we have the best story commenting system on the Web right now,” he said. “We do require registration, but that doesn’t stop (readers) from participating because our users are open to sharing information with us in exchange for posting on the Web.”
Users can rate comments similar to the way Amazon users rate reviews, Erdahl said.
Local-minded features
Earlier this year, the Star Tribune launched Politically Connected, a site where users can find more information on national, state and local election races. Erdahl expects the site to draw considerable traffic, particularly since Minneapolis is hosting this year’s Republican National Convention.
“We aggregate news and information from throughout the Web and our own content,” Erdahl said. The site will also track campaign financing and contributors, he said.
MyVote, an app that allows users to quickly find precinct information and learn about ballot issues, bolsters the Star Tribune’s local campaign coverage.
“As election night approaches (voters) can print out a ballot and choose who they like and bring it to the voting booth,” Erdahl said about MyVote’s capabilities.
“Then throughout the night, through the same interface, they can monitor how all the elections are going, personalized to their specific street address.”
Last month it also unveiled a watchdog blog, dubbed Whistleblower, showcasing the Star Tribune’s investigative reporting efforts. Readers can also use the blog to register their own complaints and concerns.
The Star Tribune’s site continues to have its most popular and most e-mailed stories on the front page, which are aggregated from the entire site. But with the Clickability content management app, will be able to offer the most popular stories and most e-mailed stories by specific section.
Interactive features also receive prominent display on the home page. Users can play videos or view blogs by accessing a scrolling slide-show box displayed on the right-hand side of the page.
“We have an organization committed to multimedia and some really talented videographers that work for the digital media team,” he said, citing as proof the four regional Emmys the newspaper won in 2007.
Mobile news distribution is another key component of the Star Tribune’s interactive efforts. News and information is tailored to enable users to quickly view the data they need on their mobile devices, Erdahl said, but consumers can also opt to view entire stories and articles if they wish.
“Running a long story is not conducive for a mobile device but people (may want to access) movie showtimes or go in to read certain stories,” Erdahl said. “We don’t have to replicate our entire Web site on the phone, but if you want to, you should be able to find and view that entire long story” even if it is 16 characters at a time, he said.
“You should still have that option.”
The Star Tribune’s mobile news package includes quick links to main story sections and stories about the Twin Cities’ four professional sports teams. Users can scroll down on their mobile devices to see top local and national stories.
Consumers also have the option to sign up for e-mail alerts and can subscribe to up to 20 individual newsletters transmitted to their PCs.
“We have a daily AM and PM newsletter we send to a couple hundred thousand people and have specific newsletters about the Twins, Vikings, business and a variety of other subjects,” Erdahl said. “We also have a lot of really great offers that we send out as well as on behalf of our advertisers for travel, entertainment, automotive and many others.”
The paper has plans for additional categories aimed at tapping into readers’ diverse tastes and interests.
“As we look at the categories of content on our site — not calling them sections — let’s just call the Minnesota Twins a category,” he said. “Heck, we should do that for ice fishing. Up here in Minnesota we should own ice fishing,” Erdahl said.
Group marketing
The Star Tribune is also digitizing and categorizing its archives in a bid to further slice and dice the market, Erdahl said.
As part of that initiative, the paper is relaunching a health and fitness category containing stories published since 1986.
Erdahl said the Star Tribune wants to create categories that meet the needs of various age groups and interests.
“I want all demographics. There is no limit, I want anyone who can pick up a cell phone and type something on their phone,” he said. “My 6-year-old son is a demographic. I want him to go on the site as he’s learning to read.”
StarTrib uses vita.mn power to grow stronger
The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune has a built-in digital proving ground to test features and services it rolls out on its Web site.
The paper’s local entertainment Web site, vita.mn, was used to work out bugs associated with its homegrown commenting application and the Star Tribune also used the site to test its Karma user rewards program.
Karma rewards registered users with points every time they participate or review material on the site. Top point earners win a prize.
Vita.mn contains information about Twin Cities restaurants, bars, clubs, movies, music, art, guides and other entertainment events.
A printed counterpart contains other information, including a mix of staff and user-contributed material.
Among the most popular features within the site is the Top 10 list, said Jason Erdahl, the Star Tribune’s executive director of interactive media operations.
Last year, he said, users wrote more than 10,000 Top 10 lists on more than 800 topics, which resulted in traffic counts exceeding 1.9 million page views, he said. Users viewing the lists stay on the site longer than the usual startribune.com visitor, he said.
“Users spend more time there because they are adding lists, tagging items, commenting and uploading photos for the site,” he said.
Karma, meantime, will migrate from vita.mn to the main startribune.com site later this year.
“We believe that the loyalty programs for Web and print should be merged,” Erdahl said. “If someone subscribes to the newspaper, big points. If someone subscribes to a newsletter, good points and if someone tags an item, good points,” he said.
Vita.mn won a Digital Edge for best local guide/entertainment site.
Journal Star rolling with mobile classifieds
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star is off and running with a new program geared toward reaching text message-savvy subscribers.
Last month the newspaper (Monday-Friday, 76,848; Saturday, 70,618; Sunday, 82,835) launched a mobile classified automotive ads program using CellSigns Inc.’s Cellifieds app with plans of adding more features for readers and advertisers.
“We are offering mobile searches where if people are looking for a car, they can text Cadillac, or whatever it is, to our text-messaging program and they’ll receive a response with specific ads from their query,” said Manoj Nair, the Journal Star’s director of online operations and technology.
Cellifieds gives readers access to information about real estate, autos and employment listings. Users get information not available in print ads, including pictures, and they can contact advertisers directly with a click-to-call feature.
The paper plans to launch a similar service aimed at employment and real estate advertisers sometime this year.
The real estate service will support the short message service protocol, allowing users to receive information about a property after sending a short code, Nair said.
News alerts, promotions
At the same time, the Journal Star launched a mobile service that sends out news, sports and information alerts to registered users. Some 200 readers signed up to receive the service, dubbed JumpStart, after a soft launch of the program last month, Nair said.
The paper is working to add more advertisers and special promotions to JumpStart, he said.
“Right now we are working on a deal with a pizza chain in Lincoln to do a promotion so that when they deliver the pizza they will put the texting information on the pizza boxes,” said Nair. “And we have a grocery store lined up where they will be giving away $500 in a drawing from the people signing up for the promotion service.”
The paper also plans to build a WAP-enabled Web site to provide mobile users with additional access to the Journal Star’s news and information.
To promote its mobile classifieds efforts, the paper rolled out a dedicated Web site, www.402411.com.
“The mission of 402411 is to offer an interactive Web site where you can view instructions on how the program works and the benefits for readers and advertisers,” Nair said.
The Web site also lets readers sign up for JumpStart.
Associate Editor
The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star is off and running with a new program geared toward reaching text message-savvy subscribers.
Last month the newspaper (Monday-Friday, 76,848; Saturday, 70,618; Sunday, 82,835) launched a mobile classified automotive ads program using CellSigns Inc.’s Cellifieds app with plans of adding more features for readers and advertisers.
“We are offering mobile searches where if people are looking for a car, they can text Cadillac, or whatever it is, to our text-messaging program and they’ll receive a response with specific ads from their query,” said Manoj Nair, the Journal Star’s director of online operations and technology.
Cellifieds gives readers access to information about real estate, autos and employment listings. Users get information not available in print ads, including pictures, and they can contact advertisers directly with a click-to-call feature.
The paper plans to launch a similar service aimed at employment and real estate advertisers sometime this year.
The real estate service will support the short message service protocol, allowing users to receive information about a property after sending a short code, Nair said.
News alerts, promotions
At the same time, the Journal Star launched a mobile service that sends out news, sports and information alerts to registered users. Some 200 readers signed up to receive the service, dubbed JumpStart, after a soft launch of the program last month, Nair said.
The paper is working to add more advertisers and special promotions to JumpStart, he said.
“Right now we are working on a deal with a pizza chain in Lincoln to do a promotion so that when they deliver the pizza they will put the texting information on the pizza boxes,” said Nair. “And we have a grocery store lined up where they will be giving away $500 in a drawing from the people signing up for the promotion service.”
The paper also plans to build a WAP-enabled Web site to provide mobile users with additional access to the Journal Star’s news and information.
To promote its mobile classifieds efforts, the paper rolled out a dedicated Web site, www.402411.com.
“The mission of 402411 is to offer an interactive Web site where you can view instructions on how the program works and the benefits for readers and advertisers,” Nair said.
The Web site also lets readers sign up for JumpStart.
Prep sports scoring points
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
If you build it, they will come.
That is the hope several companies are expressing as they attempt to extend community journalism into the wide world of sports.
Last month, CommunitySportsDesk, an offshoot of the Kenosha (Wis.) News, launched a hosted service that allows local youth and recreation sports leagues to post schedules, write game summaries, input stats and box scores and upload game and team pictures to a newspaper-branded Web site.
The hosted version is the most recent iteration of CommunitySportsDesk, which the News (Monday-Friday, 24,552; Saturday, 24,215; Sunday, 27,149) rolled out last summer as an experiment to see how it could handle user-generated content flowing from the area’s youth and recreation sports teams, according to Ken Dowdell, News publisher and vice president of United Communications Corp.
“Our in-house techs built that innovative model, based on discussions with league organizers and team officials,” he said.
Reaction was positive, so the News hired additional software developers to pepper CommunitySportsDesk with additional features, including the ability for UCC to host the app, Dowdell said.
“It can be the ‘something-different’ tool that equips a traditional media company to get where they need to go with youth and recreational sports,” he said about the software, adding that he felt confident the concept would work well in other “Kenoshas” around the country.
Automatic lede writing
In addition to rewriting code that enabled UCC to host the app, developers added features that allow the software to produce basic headlines and lead paragraphs automatically, based on the data input by team representatives.
“Rather than simply offering a channel for blogging, CommunitySportsDesk helps structure the collection, processing and flow of what can be massive amounts of data,” said Dowdell.
“We’ve engineered options that can serve Pee Wee players who just need their achievements recognized to high school and adult leagues that like to collect complete stats,” he said.
Dowdell said the company is prepared to support its users as they roll out the software.
“As a result of our real-life experiences, we’re prepared to help other publishers with a community-focused, full advertising-supported business model, not merely software,” said Dowdell.
Matthew Serpe, a CommunitySportsDesk business development specialist, said the service dovetails with the industry’s adoption of hyper-local coverage.
“In a newspaper, (youth and rec sports) is an area getting the least amount of coverage. We are offering this application for youth and rec to cover themselves.”
National effort
Dell Sports Inc., meantime, plans to roll out a national high-school sports service this fall, according to Terry Dell, president of the Charlotte, N.C., firm.
The service, Prep Sports Nation, allows participants to post and share pictures, upload video and blogs and share content among students, parents, athletes and local community members.
“How cool would it be to have pictures of you, uploaded on the Web site, by everyone in the audience?” Dell said. “It’s a game of a thousand angles and it’s easy for anyone who goes and watches the game to take pictures.”
Dell said participating newspapers can download all the materials they need from the PSN site. Fans are reminded that a newspaper could use their photos or stories before they can post to PSN, Dell said.
Prep Sports Nation began beta testing the app last August and Dell said he’s modified PSN to accommodate user requests.
Reverse publishing
“One suggestion was full reverse publishing on all user photos and profile material, which we had, but (the paper) wanted to take the entire profile and feature a particular a student,” he said.
Papers can feature multiple student profiles and can also run fan profiles from multiple schools, he said.
PSN is engineered to manage rosters, schedules, and individual and team stats. Users will also be able to search for particular teams or individuals on other PSN sites and Dell said he’s working on a delivery method to allow photos and other materials to be shared among newspapers.
The system includes a stamp or watermark that identifies where the photo originated and a transmission system that can route the photo to a newspaper that requests to publish it.
CommunitySportsDesk and PSN come as newspapers try to find ways to increase coverage of local sports even as their resources are trimmed. The Amarillo (Texas) Globe-News, for example, won a Digital Edge award for its prep sports site, Pigskin Review, which launched last year (see Newspapers & Technology, March 2008)
Associate Editor
If you build it, they will come.
That is the hope several companies are expressing as they attempt to extend community journalism into the wide world of sports.
Last month, CommunitySportsDesk, an offshoot of the Kenosha (Wis.) News, launched a hosted service that allows local youth and recreation sports leagues to post schedules, write game summaries, input stats and box scores and upload game and team pictures to a newspaper-branded Web site.
The hosted version is the most recent iteration of CommunitySportsDesk, which the News (Monday-Friday, 24,552; Saturday, 24,215; Sunday, 27,149) rolled out last summer as an experiment to see how it could handle user-generated content flowing from the area’s youth and recreation sports teams, according to Ken Dowdell, News publisher and vice president of United Communications Corp.
“Our in-house techs built that innovative model, based on discussions with league organizers and team officials,” he said.
Reaction was positive, so the News hired additional software developers to pepper CommunitySportsDesk with additional features, including the ability for UCC to host the app, Dowdell said.
“It can be the ‘something-different’ tool that equips a traditional media company to get where they need to go with youth and recreational sports,” he said about the software, adding that he felt confident the concept would work well in other “Kenoshas” around the country.
Automatic lede writing
In addition to rewriting code that enabled UCC to host the app, developers added features that allow the software to produce basic headlines and lead paragraphs automatically, based on the data input by team representatives.
“Rather than simply offering a channel for blogging, CommunitySportsDesk helps structure the collection, processing and flow of what can be massive amounts of data,” said Dowdell.
“We’ve engineered options that can serve Pee Wee players who just need their achievements recognized to high school and adult leagues that like to collect complete stats,” he said.
Dowdell said the company is prepared to support its users as they roll out the software.
“As a result of our real-life experiences, we’re prepared to help other publishers with a community-focused, full advertising-supported business model, not merely software,” said Dowdell.
Matthew Serpe, a CommunitySportsDesk business development specialist, said the service dovetails with the industry’s adoption of hyper-local coverage.
“In a newspaper, (youth and rec sports) is an area getting the least amount of coverage. We are offering this application for youth and rec to cover themselves.”
National effort
Dell Sports Inc., meantime, plans to roll out a national high-school sports service this fall, according to Terry Dell, president of the Charlotte, N.C., firm.
The service, Prep Sports Nation, allows participants to post and share pictures, upload video and blogs and share content among students, parents, athletes and local community members.
“How cool would it be to have pictures of you, uploaded on the Web site, by everyone in the audience?” Dell said. “It’s a game of a thousand angles and it’s easy for anyone who goes and watches the game to take pictures.”
Dell said participating newspapers can download all the materials they need from the PSN site. Fans are reminded that a newspaper could use their photos or stories before they can post to PSN, Dell said.
Prep Sports Nation began beta testing the app last August and Dell said he’s modified PSN to accommodate user requests.
Reverse publishing
“One suggestion was full reverse publishing on all user photos and profile material, which we had, but (the paper) wanted to take the entire profile and feature a particular a student,” he said.
Papers can feature multiple student profiles and can also run fan profiles from multiple schools, he said.
PSN is engineered to manage rosters, schedules, and individual and team stats. Users will also be able to search for particular teams or individuals on other PSN sites and Dell said he’s working on a delivery method to allow photos and other materials to be shared among newspapers.
The system includes a stamp or watermark that identifies where the photo originated and a transmission system that can route the photo to a newspaper that requests to publish it.
CommunitySportsDesk and PSN come as newspapers try to find ways to increase coverage of local sports even as their resources are trimmed. The Amarillo (Texas) Globe-News, for example, won a Digital Edge award for its prep sports site, Pigskin Review, which launched last year (see Newspapers & Technology, March 2008)
Vendors target sports fanatics with fantasy sports
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
Over the past few decades fantasy sports has grown from a hobby exclusively for fanatics to a multimillion-user industry with games in nearly every category imaginable.
That growth spurt has encouraged papers such as the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah, to upgrade the fantasy sports sections on their Web pages.
Last year, the paper added Fan Frenzy software from MediaSpan Media Software to bolster its pro football contest and the Standard-Examiner this year launched sites devoted to the NCAA basketball tournament and auto-racing as well, said Mark Shenefelt, online manager.
“Fan Frenzy added fan forums, which are trash-talking boards. Users can also upload an avatar and MediaSpan made an effort to make the contests more of a community experience for people,” he said. “Another thing I like about Fan Frenzy is that they integrated the contests together so if you play the auto racing contest then you are signed up for the next contest.”
The paper (Monday-Friday, 60,345; Saturday, 61,095; Sunday, 64,375) offers a combined print and Web package for advertisers interested in the auto racing game, adding several new clients this season.
MediaSpan tweaked Fan Frenzy by adding social networking features that enable fans to create user profiles, write blogs and post videos and photos.
Fan Frenzy games are a series of “u-pickem”-style sports challenges for college basketball, auto racing and pro football. Users compete against a national audience of thousands of players in a bid to win prizes.
“What we are trying to drive forward is adding more of a local element to Fan Frenzy,” said Tobey Van Santvoord, senior manager of network development at MediaSpan Network. Van Santvoord said additional capabilities will be engineered into the app and are scheduled for release by year-end.
Room for casual fans
Vendors are also rolling out apps that target casual sports fans who still want to participate in contests.
Dell Sports Inc., for example, hosts fantasy games aimed at users who may not be fanatics but are still interested in having a chance to win at the end of the season, said Terry Dell, president.
This approach gives advertisers a wider audience to target, he said, and keeps interest among participants higher for a much longer period of time.
“In an ideal world, savvy advertisers want the exact opposite of a marathon,” he said, citing what happens to fan interest when one racer is leading by a big margin while others are lagging behind.
Instead, advertisers want services that capture the enthusiasm and interest of consumers for the longest period of time, “until there is a winner at the very last moment,” he said.
Dell hosts games for a number of newspapers, including the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Roanoke (Va.) Times.
Associate Editor
Over the past few decades fantasy sports has grown from a hobby exclusively for fanatics to a multimillion-user industry with games in nearly every category imaginable.
That growth spurt has encouraged papers such as the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah, to upgrade the fantasy sports sections on their Web pages.
Last year, the paper added Fan Frenzy software from MediaSpan Media Software to bolster its pro football contest and the Standard-Examiner this year launched sites devoted to the NCAA basketball tournament and auto-racing as well, said Mark Shenefelt, online manager.
“Fan Frenzy added fan forums, which are trash-talking boards. Users can also upload an avatar and MediaSpan made an effort to make the contests more of a community experience for people,” he said. “Another thing I like about Fan Frenzy is that they integrated the contests together so if you play the auto racing contest then you are signed up for the next contest.”
The paper (Monday-Friday, 60,345; Saturday, 61,095; Sunday, 64,375) offers a combined print and Web package for advertisers interested in the auto racing game, adding several new clients this season.
MediaSpan tweaked Fan Frenzy by adding social networking features that enable fans to create user profiles, write blogs and post videos and photos.
Fan Frenzy games are a series of “u-pickem”-style sports challenges for college basketball, auto racing and pro football. Users compete against a national audience of thousands of players in a bid to win prizes.
“What we are trying to drive forward is adding more of a local element to Fan Frenzy,” said Tobey Van Santvoord, senior manager of network development at MediaSpan Network. Van Santvoord said additional capabilities will be engineered into the app and are scheduled for release by year-end.
Room for casual fans
Vendors are also rolling out apps that target casual sports fans who still want to participate in contests.
Dell Sports Inc., for example, hosts fantasy games aimed at users who may not be fanatics but are still interested in having a chance to win at the end of the season, said Terry Dell, president.
This approach gives advertisers a wider audience to target, he said, and keeps interest among participants higher for a much longer period of time.
“In an ideal world, savvy advertisers want the exact opposite of a marathon,” he said, citing what happens to fan interest when one racer is leading by a big margin while others are lagging behind.
Instead, advertisers want services that capture the enthusiasm and interest of consumers for the longest period of time, “until there is a winner at the very last moment,” he said.
Dell hosts games for a number of newspapers, including the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Roanoke (Va.) Times.
AP targeting smart phone users with distribution network launching this summer
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press said it would launch a news service targeted at smart phone users as the cooperative further diversifies its stable of offerings.
The Mobile News Network, developed by the AP Digital Cooperative, will launch this summer, said Tom Curley, The AP’s president and chief executive officer.
“The Mobile News Network will provide a national platform for smart phone users to access local content from brands they trust,” he said. “Members can participate by providing local news that will appear alongside their logos.”
The network will give mobile users a single point of access through which they can gather news from hundreds of local publishers, Curley said.
MNN is currently being tested.
Additionally, AP is working with mobile phone manufacturers and carriers to develop a user interface to support the news, photos and video segments MNN will distribute.
Meantime, The AP released information about updated versions of its AP WebFeeds and WebFeeds Manager applications.
WebFeeds, formerly known as AP Internet Syndication Feeds, allows members to pull their satellite text, pictures and graphics across the Web.
Editors can create customized news and multimedia feeds based on specific search criteria in AP Exchange. The content is supplied as XML in the AP ATOM format along with additional proprietary metadata.
WebFeeds Manager is a free program provided by the AP to manage and route AP Web Feeds to content management systems. It supports text, photos, audio, graphics and video.
AP said that it is working with 17 software vendors to make it easier for member papers to mesh WebFeeds Manager with their content management systems.
In other developments:
•AP unveiled the Member Marketplace, a free service that lets members share text, photos and graphics with each other. The program was launched in six states last month and will be available nationwide by the end of summer.
•AP said it will use copyright licensing from iCopyright, giving online users of AP content a Web-based method to license and share AP stories.
•AP said the more than 1,900 media affiliates participating in its Online Video Network will now be able to share their local video content with other members within the network.
Finally, AP said it would slash further its newspaper members’ basic service assessments in 2009, totaling up to $21 million or 10 percent of their total AP service fees.
Associate Editor
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press said it would launch a news service targeted at smart phone users as the cooperative further diversifies its stable of offerings.
The Mobile News Network, developed by the AP Digital Cooperative, will launch this summer, said Tom Curley, The AP’s president and chief executive officer.
“The Mobile News Network will provide a national platform for smart phone users to access local content from brands they trust,” he said. “Members can participate by providing local news that will appear alongside their logos.”
The network will give mobile users a single point of access through which they can gather news from hundreds of local publishers, Curley said.
MNN is currently being tested.
Additionally, AP is working with mobile phone manufacturers and carriers to develop a user interface to support the news, photos and video segments MNN will distribute.
Meantime, The AP released information about updated versions of its AP WebFeeds and WebFeeds Manager applications.
WebFeeds, formerly known as AP Internet Syndication Feeds, allows members to pull their satellite text, pictures and graphics across the Web.
Editors can create customized news and multimedia feeds based on specific search criteria in AP Exchange. The content is supplied as XML in the AP ATOM format along with additional proprietary metadata.
WebFeeds Manager is a free program provided by the AP to manage and route AP Web Feeds to content management systems. It supports text, photos, audio, graphics and video.
AP said that it is working with 17 software vendors to make it easier for member papers to mesh WebFeeds Manager with their content management systems.
In other developments:
•AP unveiled the Member Marketplace, a free service that lets members share text, photos and graphics with each other. The program was launched in six states last month and will be available nationwide by the end of summer.
•AP said it will use copyright licensing from iCopyright, giving online users of AP content a Web-based method to license and share AP stories.
•AP said the more than 1,900 media affiliates participating in its Online Video Network will now be able to share their local video content with other members within the network.
Finally, AP said it would slash further its newspaper members’ basic service assessments in 2009, totaling up to $21 million or 10 percent of their total AP service fees.
4 questions with Lem Lloyd
Lem Lloyd, vice president of Yahoo Corporate Partnerships’ Newspaper Consortium, talks about Yahoo’s new ad management platform, AMP.
What are some of the benefits AMP brings to the Newspaper Consortium and Yahoo?
AMP from Yahoo is the advertising management platform the newspapers will be receiving as part of their partnership with Yahoo. At this stage, there are hundreds of newspapers that will be using this platform exclusively to serve and traffic ads on their sites.
Among AMP’s strengths is its ability to target ads to specific audience groups based on their recent online behaviors. Consortium newspapers also will be able to leverage the Yahoo user base and its hundreds of behavioral targeting categories. So, in addition to selling an audience segment that is comprised of its own site users, Consortium members can include geo-specific Yahoo audiences to help increase the size of their advertising buys.
We have already opened up several behavioral targeting packages, including those focused on real estate, finance and travel, to a small group of newspapers and they are selling these packages at high rates and with great success.
The first set of newspapers will begin launching with the AMP platform in the latter half of this year.
How is AMP different from Google’s AdWords program?
AMP is a full ad management platform that includes inventory management and proposal creation for display advertising.
Yahoo is also providing the newspapers with several search products, including Web Search, as well as text-link ads.
Yahoo said AMP could replace a newspaper’s current ad management system. How would that work, and is offering newspaper production software now becoming a primary goal?
As part of the partnership, papers will be replacing their ad platforms with the AMP technology. This has always been part of the Consortium deal and we’ve worked very collaboratively with the newspaper companies to create a rollout plan that kicks off in the latter half of this year and continues through next year. Yahoo is dedicating teams of folks to helping the newspapers migrate their existing platforms to AMP.
How is Yahoo going to aggregate the ad inventory between all the various organizations and maintain privacy between newspapers?
AMP will allow individual newspapers and their parent companies to package inventory together from across the network. Such buys will always be at the discretion of the members, and each paper can choose to make portions of their inventory available at certain rates for inclusion in regional and national ad buys.
Each member will have its own private dashboard in which to manage its inventory, as well as to track ad campaign metrics.
One of the aspects of AMP that the newspapers tell us they’re excited about is the new ability to more easily package greater amounts of inventory together and, therefore, to increase their average revenue per ad order, especially in valuable targeting segments, such as finance and travel.
What are some of the benefits AMP brings to the Newspaper Consortium and Yahoo?
AMP from Yahoo is the advertising management platform the newspapers will be receiving as part of their partnership with Yahoo. At this stage, there are hundreds of newspapers that will be using this platform exclusively to serve and traffic ads on their sites.
Among AMP’s strengths is its ability to target ads to specific audience groups based on their recent online behaviors. Consortium newspapers also will be able to leverage the Yahoo user base and its hundreds of behavioral targeting categories. So, in addition to selling an audience segment that is comprised of its own site users, Consortium members can include geo-specific Yahoo audiences to help increase the size of their advertising buys.
We have already opened up several behavioral targeting packages, including those focused on real estate, finance and travel, to a small group of newspapers and they are selling these packages at high rates and with great success.
The first set of newspapers will begin launching with the AMP platform in the latter half of this year.
How is AMP different from Google’s AdWords program?
AMP is a full ad management platform that includes inventory management and proposal creation for display advertising.
Yahoo is also providing the newspapers with several search products, including Web Search, as well as text-link ads.
Yahoo said AMP could replace a newspaper’s current ad management system. How would that work, and is offering newspaper production software now becoming a primary goal?
As part of the partnership, papers will be replacing their ad platforms with the AMP technology. This has always been part of the Consortium deal and we’ve worked very collaboratively with the newspaper companies to create a rollout plan that kicks off in the latter half of this year and continues through next year. Yahoo is dedicating teams of folks to helping the newspapers migrate their existing platforms to AMP.
How is Yahoo going to aggregate the ad inventory between all the various organizations and maintain privacy between newspapers?
AMP will allow individual newspapers and their parent companies to package inventory together from across the network. Such buys will always be at the discretion of the members, and each paper can choose to make portions of their inventory available at certain rates for inclusion in regional and national ad buys.
Each member will have its own private dashboard in which to manage its inventory, as well as to track ad campaign metrics.
One of the aspects of AMP that the newspapers tell us they’re excited about is the new ability to more easily package greater amounts of inventory together and, therefore, to increase their average revenue per ad order, especially in valuable targeting segments, such as finance and travel.
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