eMedia Strategist

An Easy Way to Publish Media Kits

April 14, 2008 – 4:16 pm
Sales teams are always looking for ways to publish media kits, sales sheets, and other marketing collateral. It's often a challenge getting the documents on your web site and even then, they are usually PDF documents that take a long time to download before someone can read it. There's also the bandwidth required to host and deliver large PDF documents. I've discovered an elegant solution to the problem: Scribd's iPaper. It's quick and easy solution that is 100% free. I downloaded the Aviation Week media kit in PDF format (it's freely available on their web site) and put it into the iPaper format. You can see the iPaper version by clicking this link. What I like about this is: It loads very quickly into the browser window (much faster than PDF) It looks great It can be downloaded as a PDF or printed It can be kept private (e.g. only people you give the URL to) or ...

Posted in Personal | No Comments »

Enjoy High Online Margins While You Still Can

April 9, 2008 – 5:03 pm
Many media companies who have successfully embraced online media will tell you that margins online are significantly higher than those in print. One would expect this from an incremental business that leverages an existing brand, existing content and sales teams, as well as corporate infrastructure. Personally, I expect the incremental online business of any media company to generate at least 40% margin. This is one reason why we see such high multiples for media companies who have solid online media businesses. Even if total revenues are rather static, as long as the company has a solid, growing online media business, the company is making a greater profit from the same markets and assets. It is dropping a greater percentage of each dollar earned to the bottom line which is good for cash flow and enterprise value. Despite being a legitimate media for well over 10 years now, online is still transitional and ...

Posted in Sales | No Comments »

Publish Web First, Print Second

April 2, 2008 – 6:59 pm
So many publishing companies still do it backwards. They create content for their magazine, assemble it once a month, ship it to the printer, then convert it to HTML and dump 20-30 articles on their web site in one fell swoop. At least it;s better than some publishers who amazingly still don't put their content online, but it's still not the best way to maximize your print and online opportunities. There's a reason print magazines are called periodicals. They only come out monthly, weekly, etc. But online has no such constraints. New information can ... and is expected to be ... put up on a continual basis. So what do we do? Whip our editors harder, demand they create content for our magazines and expect them to also put up daily content on our web sites without increasing staff size and expense? It won't work, but I believe there's a much simpler solution. Take a product ...

Posted in Editorial & Content | 1 Comment »

Live from Publishing Business Conference

March 9, 2008 – 2:08 pm
I'm heading out to the Publishing Business Conference this evening in New York. I'm honored to be part of three panels on Monday. Beyond Webcasting - Revenue Opportunities with Rich Media - 11:15 AM. I'll be part of a panel presenting on various revenue opportunities around rich media. Personally, I plan to talk on creating low-cost, high-impact, and strong revenue producing streaming video programming via sponsorship. But we'll also cover video ads and a variety of other rich media opportunities. Emedia Roundtable Part 1 - 2:30 PM. This session will use my eMedia Revenue Pipeline article as the basis for discussion. We'll look at the various potential choke points that could be hindering you from making as much revenue as you could online. Emedia Roundtable Part 2 - 4:00 PM. In the second session, we'll take questions from the audience on where they see their chokepoints are to generating more online revenue and the panel ...

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment »

Speaking at Folio in 3 Online Sales Sessions

February 11, 2008 – 1:21 pm
I am honored to be speaking at 3 online sales related sessions at the 2008 Folio Summit later this month in Miami: Monetize Your Reader - 11:00 AM on Thursday, Feb. 21. Chris Collins (VP of Multimedia Sales for Dow Jones), Jonathan Chalon (VP and Group Publisher for Penton Media), and I will be showing how to really monetize user generated content (UGC). Where are the opportunities and pitfalls? What kinds of social media work in different markets? And how can you make the most money from online social media? As you know, I am a huge fan of UGC and believe it is one of the keys for any publisher in "owning" your market online. Sales Management Skills for New Media - 10:15 AM on Friday, Feb. 22. Jason Schaeffer (VP of Biz Dev for CNNMoney.com) and I will be talking about keys to online sales success. Regardless of your sales structure, how can ...

Posted in Community & Web 2.0, Sales | No Comments »

Six Keys to Online Sales Success

January 7, 2008 – 9:55 am
This article originally appeared in the December issue of Publishing Executive where you can read the full article. I've worked with dozens of different sales teams to help them become more effective sellers of online media. Sometimes these sales teams are integrated print/online teams, sometimes they are separate. They may be located in large markets or small, and may be business-to-business or consumer publishing companies. Regardless of size or scope, however, there are six keys to online sales success that always apply, and those companies that execute these keys are usually very successful in selling online media. Some of these steps should be taken before you even begin the sale, some during the sale, and others after the sale.  In a previous position, I once overheard a conversation one of our most successful online salespeople was having with a customer: "I don't want to take your money from you one time. I ...

Posted in Sales | No Comments »

Lessons Learned from Implementing Content Management Systems

November 2, 2007 – 9:58 am
So you want to implement or change your content management system (CMS)? Before you do, here are some quick things to consider that most media companies forget about: There is no silver bullet - There are some CMS companies who tell you their solution does everything ... and to some degree they make a valient effort at it. The problem, as one media executive recently told me, is that the one-size fits all solution is like a sofa bed. It's a sofa and it's a bed, but it doesn't do either of them very well. When developing your emedia business system strategy, look for best-of-breed solutions for the specific issue you are trying to solve, not the silver bullet solution that will answer all of your emedia needs. It doesn't exist despite what some vendors will try to sell you. Don't forget the cost of content conversion - When factoring cost, we often look at just the cost ...

Posted in Development | 1 Comment »

Taking a Position with Aspire Media

October 11, 2007 – 2:15 pm
Yes, it's true ... I am taking a position as Exec VP of eMedia for Aspire Media. In the six months since I left Penton, I have thoroughly enjoyed consuting with many great media companies--both B2B and consumer--and hopefully I've been instrumental in helping build their online media businesses. However, I have missed the operating side and being part of a great team. Aspire was one of the companies that I consulted with and while working with them I was very impressed by the vision of CEO Clay Hall, the quality of the investment team, the quality of the brands, and the talent and passion of everyone that I met there. Clay has also assembled an amazing, all-star management team that I am proud to be associated with. I'm also thrilled to be reuniting with TJ Harty, the VP of Technology at Aspire, who was my partner in crime at ...

Posted in Personal | 13 Comments »