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Lessons in ad sales, expansion, from a veteran LION publisher
The latest episode of LION Publishers' podcast features an extensive interview with Kelly Gilfillan, who is among the most experienced in advertising sales of LION's members.
Interviewed by ARLNow.com Publisher Scott Brodbeck, she talks about hiring and managing sales reps, working with clients, and her experiences with successful and failed business partnerships.
Gilfillan's Home Page Media has expanded from the original Brentwood Home Page outside of Nashville, Tennessee, to a network of sites at a clip of about one launch per year.
Previous episodes of LION's podcast feature San Angelo Live publisher Joe Hyde, Broadstreet Ads CEO Kenny Katzgrau, The Batavian Publisher Howard Owens and LION Executive Director Matt DeRienzo. You can find them here, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher.
How Gannett's local news cuts are impacting New Jersey
Hundreds of local reporters in New Jersey were laid off this past year. What does that mean for the state?
Behind the purge, a newspaper industry consolidation led by a familiar player - Gannett.
Advertisers start pushing back on programmatic
Programmatic advertising helped drive the great uncoupling of advertising and content -- upending supply and demand, dropping CPM rates precipitously, and threatening the business model of ad-supported online news publishers without massive national scale and traffic.
Are we seeing a few glimmers of resistance to that model, and a return to advertisers paying higher rates to make sure that their message is adjacent to quality, responsible journalism?
Consider these headlines from the past week:
Google scrambles after British government, media outlets pull ads. Google vows more control for brands over online ads. YouTube’s ad mess gives advertisers leverage for what they really want: More data.
For advertisers, algorithms can lead to unexpected exposure on sites spewing hate. Brands try to stop supporting Breitbart News via programmatic networks, but ads slip through.
Ad agencies and accountability. Let's build ad networks that distinguish quality content from crap. The advertising industry must ‘cut off the air supply to fake news.’
Almost 20% of digital ad spending could be wasted. How much of your site's traffic is not from humans?
The big shift: A new corporate affinity for controversial social issues.
Member spotlight: Marc Levy of Cambridge Day
One of LION's newer members is Marc Levy, featured in this Q&A. He's the publisher of Cambridge Day in Massachusetts, launched in 2009 as Levy saw local news resources at print newspapers in the region decline.
Cambridge Day is powered by Levy's efforts and a team of volunteer journalists from across the community.
"While it was never my intention, and I think the reputation is exaggerated, some people think Cambridge Day is the site that holds officials’ feet to the fire both in what’s covered as news and what’s written about in the opinion section," Levy said.
News About Local Independent Online News Sites
CHARLOTTE AGENDA: Despite closing expansion site, Charlotte Agenda plans to book $1 million this year.
DATA HELP: Deadline is March 31 to apply for Pro Publica summer data institute.
MARSHALL PROJECT: Why does The Marshall Project's ‘The Next to Die’ collaborative data initiative work so well? It’s easy.
Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue
AD BLOCKING: Ad blocking goes mobile.
AMP: Tips for translating custom stories to AMP.
APPLE: Apple News is a traffic and subscription driver for the Telegraph.
E-COMMERCE: 25 percent of Gizmodo's revenue is from e-commerce.
EVENTS: Lessons from ‘Finding America’: 10 ideas and tips for creating community-driven events.
MEDIUM: “Media is broken,” so Medium’s launching a $5/month member program that offers small upgrades. Burned once, publishers are wary of Medium’s new subscription offering.
MEMBERSHIP: A membership approach to being a subscription magazine.
MOBILE: Optimizing for mobile search: New tips and old tricks.
NEWSLETTERS: Who won? The personalization email newsletter study results are in. Readers, not editors, know what they want in a newsletter.
PLATFORMS: From frenemy to friend: How Google won publishers over. Advertisers investing more in Facebook. Google, Facebook increase their grip on digital ad market. ANA calls for audits at Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest. Platform companies are becoming more powerful, but what exactly do they want?
SCALE: Truth is diluted when publishers chase scale. Despite calls for quality, big publishers can’t escape the scale trap. Revenue at Skift is evenly split among branded content advertising, live events and subscriptions. Say Media is proving not every publisher needs to become the next Buzzfeed.
Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology
ADVOCACY: Why local editorial advocacy is essential to news brands.
AUDIO: Four ways NPR is bringing radio to Facebook news feeds.
CHATBOTS: What are some ethical considerations that chatbots raise, and how should they be addressed?
CROWD SIZE: This online tool makes checking crowd sizes easier.
DIVERSITY: The gender gap persists at many top news outlets in the U.S., and it’s reflected in how stories are reported. How managers can go beyond acknowledging the diversity problem and start making a real difference.
DRONES: Democratizing the sky: Drones in visual journalism.
ECONOMY: How to localize the federal interest rate hike story.
ENGAGEMENT: Digital strategy: Prioritize community, not audience. Radical ethics in a time of Trump: How to practice democratically engaged journalism. How the Coral Project wants to help publishers get their community back from social media. Want a calmer place to discover and discuss The Washington Post’s reporting? Try this Facebook group. “My goal in public media”: How 16 producers worked to create more community-focused journalism. Ten insights, three actions toward community-driven storymaking. Future Publishing's 'trilogy' of strengths: Community, context, consumer journey.
FACT CHECKING: Fact-checkers believe appetite for accuracy will grow despite a lack of trust in news. Eight techniques for finding and fixing errors in your writing.
FOIA: "Always appeal," and more pro tips from a dozen FOIA experts. Here are 20 of the best open-records stories so far this year.
FREELANCE: Hollywood Reporter paying out nearly $1 million in class action freelancers deal.
HOME PAGE: In quest for homepage engagement, newsrooms turn to dreaded ‘A’ word. Meet the Swedish newspaper editor who put an algorithm in charge of his homepage.
LANGUAGE: Learning to identify the hidden bias in language.
METRICS: How are your stories performing on distributed media? Facebook and Chartbeat are teaming up to solve the mystery. How’s the competition doing? Create reports on your competitors. The like button ruined the Internet: How “engagement” made the web a less engaging place. So, how did my story do? It’s not all about numbers, it’s about engaging the right audience. A new newsroom metric: Reading people’s minds. http://mediashift.org/2017/03/new-newsroom-metric-reading-peoples-minds/
PERSONALIZATION: ‘News is not Netflix’: Personalization’s appeal remains uncertain for some publishers.
PRESS FREEDOM: New York bill would require sites remove ‘inaccurate,’ ‘irrelevant,’ ‘inadequate’ or ‘excessive’ statements about others.
PRODUCTIVITY: How I got my productivity groove back with Internet restriction apps.
REMOTE WORK: Making remote working work for you.
SOCIAL MEDIA: People trust news based on who shared it, not on who published it.
STORY COMMENTS: The Financial Times: Readers who comment are seven times more engaged. Seven ways to supercharge your audience through Facebook comments.
TRAINING: What skills do you need to stay in journalism?
VIDEO: Twitter broadens live video push. This video editing app is a good way to use that time you waste on your phone. How the Financial Times gets people to share more videos.
Industry News
AD TECH: Adobe is now officially an ad tech company.
COLLEGE JOURNALISM: The press and the people: College journalism in a Trump era. How to incorporate journalism students into journalism research.
FACEBOOK: Facebook is testing a beefed-up version of its local search.
A look at Facebook's attempt to be Craig's List. Campbell Brown on filter bubbles, fake news and Facebook’s role in the news industry. Facebook rolling out text statuses with colored backgrounds to the web.
FAKE NEWS: This is now what happens when you try to post fake news on Facebook. Facebook’s take on fake news, promoting strong journalism. Is it still fake news if it makes you feel good? (Yes, yes it is). Fake news, propaganda, and influence operations – a guide to journalism in a new, and more chaotic media environment. Lead Stories is debunking misinformation starting to trend on social media. Deciding who decides which news is fake. Meet the man who calls journalists on their own B.S. The problem with facts. To slow the spread of false stories on WhatsApp, this Colombian news site is enlisting its own readers.
PINTEREST: Pinterest expects to make more than $500 million in revenue this year.
PRINT: Moody's: U.S. newspaper, magazine publisher outlook negative as ad revenue slide persists.
PRIVACY: U.S. Senate votes to repeal Obama-era Internet privacy rules.
PUBLIC BROADCASTING: Under Trump’s plan to eliminate funding, public broadcasting at all levels would be affected. Relying on federal funding might be a fatal mistake for public media.
REDDIT: Reddit’s new profile pages could fundamentally transform the site.
RURAL NEWS: From coal to broadband to Trump’s budget, The Daily Yonder reports on rural life for the people actually living it.
TRONC: Michael Ferro’s creeping privatization of Tronc. A power struggle emerges within Tribune parent's boardroom. A major battle for control of Chicago Tribune, LA Times parent company, again.
TRUMP: How local news sounded the alarm over the GOP’s defeated health plan. The media should become a true opposition party. Radical journalism ethics in the time of Trump: Engagement and pragmatic objectivity. Trump administration ramps up efforts to block media.
TWITTER: Would you pay $19.99 a month for a no-ads premium Twitter? Twitter has suspended more than 600,000 accounts for ‘promotion of terrorism.’
Is Your LION Publishers Membership Up for Renewal?
For many of our LION Publishers members, it's time to renew! Your membership includes participation in the LION Publishers Den on Facebook, networking and support from fellow LION publishers, our new newsletter, discounted rates on media liability and directors and officers insurance and more.
Plus, being a member gives you access to a members-only rate to the LION Summit – a savings of up to $175 compared to the non-member rate. If your membership is due for renewal, please go to http://www.lionpublishers.com/members/dues/renew to submit your payment. Those who opt for multi-year membership save, and easy, secure payment options are available via credit card or through Paypal. (Not sure when your membership expires? You can look it up easily on LIONPublishers.com.)
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