In an interview with Capital last week, Mark Aldam, president of Hearst Newspapers, shared some of his company’s digital success secrets. For example, the company’s five largest newspapers follow this digital strategy:
- Optimize the reach of the designated market area (DMA) through custom native, video and rich digital display units.
- Connect all Hearst owned and earned media, so digital marketers can access a broad reach of target markets with a grand total of 84 million unique visitors.
- Use sales reps to acquire new, small-to-mid-sized business clients to offset the decline in print revenue. Launched in 2010, this segment of digital advertising sales has grown by 25% each year.
- Create an in-house, digital ad agency to offer customized advertising solutions including strategy, creative, custom media campaigns, SEO, search and social media management services.
Using these digital advertising strategies, these initiatives represent more than 32% of all of the newspapers’ advertising revenue and have contributed to earnings growth in excess of 88% over the last three years.
In addition to these strategies, Hearst has leveraged its use of both free and subscription sites. In San Francisco, for example, Hearst’s SFGate.com site is free, but its companion product, SFChronicle.com has a metered paywall, accessible via three different premium digital products – an iPad edition, an e-edition and responsive websites. Subscription to the San Francisco Chronicle includes digital access as well as membership and VIP access to events and exclusive offers. Free 30-day trials are available to prospective customers.
About Hearst Corporation: Hearst Newspapers employs more than 5,000 staff and publishes 15 dailies and 34 weeklies in cities across the country. Hearst Corporation also owns hundreds of magazines around the world, 29 TV stations, and ownership is cable networks like Lifetime, A&E and ESPN, among other holdings.
Insider Analysis:
Though Hearst is monumental in proportion to most companies, its digital strategies can be applied to subscription companies of any size. A few takeaways to consider:
- Test various digital strategies in sample markets before implementing them across the board.
- Look at the packaging of digital subscriptions to see where you can add value for your target customer. For example, the com offers household subscriptions/memberships. The subscriber and up to four additional family members can subscribe for one price.
- Market your subscriptions as “memberships” to create the air of exclusivity for your target market, and offer additional perks and benefits by partnering with other organizations.
