Twitter Launches Enhanced Profile Pages For Advertisers

As part of a site redesign, Twitter launched enhanced profile pages for businesses this week allowing advertisers to drive engagement and build their brands.

Currently available to only a select group, they are promising to make the new pages available to all users through a gradual rollout. The new profile pages allow businesses to display a 835 x 90 pixel header across page, right below the account information.

Users can also include auto-expanding promoted tweets at the top of their timeline on the page, allowing them to showcase special offers and messages to visitors. The auto-expand feature allows users to display media such as photos and videos from partner sites.

Because the profile pages are “public”, users don’t have to join or log in to Twitter to see them. This could become a great advertising tool for SMB’s. The pages are easier to setup than a web site and allow SMB’s to update with tweets. Some of the first brands to launch are Coca Cola, Nike, Dell and American Express so keep an eye out for the twitter.com/brandname ads that are sure to start hitting soon.

Adobe’s Tablet Publishing Suite Takes A Slice Out Of Publisher Margins.

Just as publishers are settling in on the hefty fees they have to pay for distributing content on Apple and Google devices (30% and 10% respectively), they were dealt another blow this week from Adobe.  With the release of Adobe’s Enterprise Publishing Suite, publishers can more easily produce tablet applications using Adobe’s Creative Suite. Neglecting to offer specific pricing, the company is offering custom quotes to mid-large sized publishers based upon the following fee structure:

1.Monthly Platform Fee: This is a monthly service fee that publishers will pay to access hosted services, produce branded content applications and access prebuilt analytics reports powered by Omniture, Adobe’s Online Marketing Suite. There’s been mention of $699 per month as a starting point for publishers.

2.Per-Issue Fee: This is a fee that’s paid each time content is delivered into applications created using the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. This means that if publishers produce a daily issue they would be charged a fee every day for every subscriber who downloads new content. This fee covers the fulfillment of content into the app. These fees will start out at .15 per download and may decrease as volume increases.

Following the lead of Google and Apple, Adobe is trying to get a piece of the pie from content producers as well. If you add the 30% Apple fee to the .15 per-issue fee that Adobe charges, content producers would have to charge $1.50 per week just to break even. This is 50% more than News Corp is charging for The Daily. To deliver content daily on Google devices, the break even point is $1.17 per week or 17% higher than The Daily.

I’ve played with the Adobe pre-release for a couple of weeks now and it’s well worth the $699 software as-a-service monthly fee allowing publishers to more easily produce tablet apps directly from inDesign, but the per-issue fees are a little hard to accept.

Fortunately for publishers, there are other options. WoodWing Software, for example, has beat Adobe to market with their suite of tools which also publish tablet content directly from InDesign. While their setup and install fees may be a little higher, they are not asking for per-issue fees or charging monthly fees for hosted services. I’ve had the opportunity to tinker with their tools as well and they are just as powerful as Adobe’s without the monthly/recurring overhead.

While I’m a staunch Adobe evangelist, I have to disagree with their strategy on this one. I wish they would stick to what they’ve always excelled at, developing powerful publishing tools.  They should leave the content business to publishers or there won’t be enough business left to buy their tools.

Whatever the case, I think it’s clear that the tools are there for publishers to do it right this time and possibly turn the industry around. They need to take a tablet-first approach, and learn to create content experiences on new devices. This can’t be done with outside developers, the technology has to be embraced and become a part of the newsroom.

Device-Specific Revenue Models For Newspapers

Subscription fees or advertising? That seems to be the question at most content organizations these days.
As online ad revenue has continued to disappoint (at least when compared to print revenue), media companies are leaning away from free offerings and looking for subscription revenue in their digital offerings. It may have been a mistake to offer content for free on the web 20 years ago and it’s definitely worthwhile exploring payment models, but consideration should be made to the way that content is delivered.

Subscription and advertising revenue models are not the same on all devices. The trick is to find the right blend of subscription and advertising dollars and that may be more dependent on the type of device that content is delivered on than anything else.

With the continued growth and popularity of tablet and e-reader technology, new digital subscription and ad revenue models are emerging. The features and capabilities of various devices as well as the audiences that they attract, effect the value proposition of both content and advertising.

In general, smaller, more portable devices may provide less content capability and more advertising capability. Larger devices may provide greater content capabilities and less advertising capabilities. Based on these relationships, we’re starting to see device specific business and revenue models emerge. Smaller devices are commanding more advertising revenue and less subscription revenue, and vice versa for larger devices.

The following device features and capabilities may have an effect on subscription and advertising revenue models:

1.Share of Voice:
Limited display real estate (300 x 200 pixels on the high end), limits the number of available ad positions that can be displayed on hand held devices, this results in a greater share of voice for advertisers on small devices. Most hand-held devices only display one ad on the screen which results in an exclusive opportunity for many advertisers commanding higher CPM’s on the advertising side. Standard websites displayed on desktop monitors typically contain 3 to 4 ad positions, often buried within online content resulting in a lower share of voice for larger devices.

2. Location-Based Targeting:
One of the major advantages of advertising on portable devices is that you can engage consumers in specific geographies and at specific times. Restaurants can display coupons at lunch time to visitors within a 5 mile radius etc. IP addresses can be identified on larger more stationary devices, but location cannot generally be determined within the same tolerance levels that it can on mobile devices. Location based advertising and services are poised for substantial growth in the next 36 months (Juniper research predicts that revenue from all location-based services will rise from $3 billion in 2009 to $12.7 billion in 2014.)

3. Audience:
Consumers who engage in mobile activity are arguably a more desirable audience for advertisers than web site only visitors. This group of early technology adopters is known to be made up of educated, high income earners. They are also a highly active group by definition since they are accessing information on their mobile devices. Desktop computers, on the other hand, are becoming more common place. As bandwidth and hardware costs decrease, the demographic profile of web site visitors is becoming more representative of the general population in some areas. Once again, we see smaller devices gaining on the ad revenue side.

4. Content Display Areas:
Whereas a smaller display area helps with share of voice, it limits the amount of content that can be displayed. Portable devices are not ideal for displaying full feature stories or enterprise reporting. The likelihood of readers moving beyond headlines and short summaries decreases as the display size decreases. Desktops and tablets, on the other hand, provide more opportunities for content and make it easier to share larger volumes of content on a regular basis. It may be easier to demand higher subscription fees from larger devices as there is a greater perceived value for the content they provide access to.

5. Mobility:
Ideal for news alerts and updates, smaller devices are less effective for delivering complete content. While users will pay for convenience and delivery, they may not perceive as much value from a subscription to alert based information than they would from more complete content delivered via the web.

6. Functionality:
As device size and processing power increase, functionality increases. The ability to print, copy, share, and view more of the story behind the story is second nature for desktop computers and tablets. Even the iPad provides access to third party utilities that allow users to print. The New York Times: Times Reader 2.0 is a good example of how some media companies are starting to employ subscription revenue models on larger devices. At $4.62 a week, this desktop-installed application provides increased functionality and interactivity that’s not yet possible on mobile devices and tablets. At the same time NYT offers ad-supported iPhone and iPad applications that allow access to content without paying a subscription fee.

Mobile Strategies For Newspapers

2008 was the first year more portable devices than desktops were sold. In 2009 portable sales continued to grow much faster than desktops worldwide. In 2012, IDC predicts, there will be 285.7 million portable devices sold worldwide, compared to only 156.6 million desktops. When technology actually works, real habit changes occur. The daily habit of reading the printed newspaper is on the decline as a more connected culture is developing different content consumption habits. Content on-the-go through mobile devices is on the rise. As determined from strategy sessions across the company, the time is now for newspapers to aggressively pursue a mobile content and sales strategy.

In the short run, many newspapers along with select vendors have already begun to release and sell mobile products and services around these emerging habits. A comprehensive strategy around content delivery and audience will allow them to more effectively take advantage of opportunities and grow more long term sustainable revenue. The right strategy will also position newspapers to grow along with the expected explosive increase in mobile devices and usage over the next 24 months.

With sustainable revenue as the goal, newspapers need to enlist the entire organization behind their mobile strategy. Starting with newsroom, journalists need to learn to package content for delivery on mobile devices. Technology and legacy IT departments need to engage and develop mobile delivery schemes and mobile applications for portable/mobile devices. Sales teams need to become small business trainers and consultants, helping businesses to adapt and take advantage of mobile advertising and sales opportunities. Production teams need to start developing and designing for smaller screens. Resources need to be shifted so that newspapers can more aggressively pursue mobile opportunities.

News Room Strategies:
1. Training on Mobile Content Creation: Newsrooms/journalists need to be equipped and trained to categorize, tag and store metadata on current and archived content. As we move away from a “push” environment and towards a “pull” environment where content is being pulled from connected devices, it becomes more important for newspaper to have their content properly tagged and categorized. Newspaper also have vast archives of valuable content that can be leveraged if they can find a way to curate and filter it for delivery on mobile devices.

2. Training on Mobile Content Delivery: Email, texts, tweets, video, audio and interactive databases are the preferred methods of consuming mobile content. Newsrooms need to be using more of these tools in their day-to-day operations. Journalists should be trained in using interactive content delivery tools and databases. Rather than simply writing a story, they can be publishing interactive content/context applications for mobile devices. If there’s a major event or story in the area, they can build tools to allow readers to follow the story/event.

3. Using Social News, Social Networking and Social Media Sharing: Newsrooms need to develop strategies and best practices around social media tools which allow them to generate content as well as engage new audiences. Tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flikr need to be used with a more clear strategy on audience development. Mobile/citizen journalism, UGC and crowdsourcing are all great sources of timely local content. Newspapers can act as a filter for local UGC content.

Technology/Integration Strategies:
1. Mobile Application Development: In house or outsourced developers who can quickly create and deploy category specific mobile applications—Prep Sports, Obits, Calendars, Classifieds etc. The opportunity is in the niches with mobile. Rather than simply mobilizing existing web sites, newspapers can build niche mobile applications and become mobile pure play leaders in niche markets and verticals.

2. Mobile Site Conversion and Development: In house or outsourced developers who can convert static web and print products to robust mobile sites. The right WAP sites today function just like mobile applications. As development tools improve, it is becoming easier to build more functional mobile web sites that do more than just browse.

3. Mobile Delivery Applications: IT departments need to coordinate and assist in delivering news content to mobile platforms. Custom applications need to be built to move content easily from legacy platforms to mobile platforms. The industry is moving to slow in this area. Rather than wait for updates to existing CMS and publishing systems, IT departments need to provide workarounds allowing for easier distribution of content to the web and mobile.

Sales Strategies:
1. Business Outreach/Training: Sales teams need to become the experts on mobile opportunities, training and educating business owners on how newspapers can help them reach mobile audiences. Mobile apps and sites today are like the web was 10-15 years ago, businesses are just starting to engage and understand the opportunities.

2. Location Based Advertising Programs: As more devices are released with native GPS capability, applications around content allowing users to “Shop Nearby” , “Dine Nearby” will connect local consumers and businesses. Sales departments need to organize and build presentations around location based opportunities. New pricing models need to be put in place, as these programs will be much more effective than traditional display advertising.

3. Transaction Based Revenue: Rather than ad-only revenue, tools can be provided to allow business to conduct sales over mobile devices for a small transactional fee or percentage of purchase. Perhaps newspapers can become the “mobile Paypal” solution for local businesses.

Marketing Strategies:
1. Community/Educational Message: Just as sales teams will be educating businesses, marketing departments need to educate the community on how newspapers serve the mobile audience. Communicate all the information and resources available using our mobile sites, platforms and products. Educate the novice mobile users on how to access content.

2. Tech/Trendy Message: Marketing department should also find a way to let the tech savvy audience know what’s now available to them and how to access it. Communicate all the ways that mobile content can keep them up to date and on the cutting edge.

3. Local Partnerships: Trade with local phone retailers and auto dealers to make our mobile content available with every purchase. Free mobile E-edition with every phone, or free Local News application pre-installed. As free wifi proliferates an the cost of connection devices drops, opportunities will open up to bundle content with device purchases.

4. Mobile Opt in Database Development: Text messaging today is what email was 10 years ago. It’s still the tip of the iceberg for txt messaging and it’s already outpacing email as the preferred method of communication for younger audiences. Along with email, marketing departments need to engage in an aggressive mobile opt-in acquisition programs, allowing LANG to build its local, mobile database.

“The Word Is Alive”