Ghost of Midnight

Newspapers attract Retailers w/ Online

The Local Onliner reports today:

The decline of their ad share with retailers has newspapers worried to death. But several execs speaking at the NAA marketing conference last week in Las Vegas said they can bring retailers back into the fold with special vertical sites.

Ken Riddick, VP of Interactive Media at The Minneapolis Star Tribune, said that the newspaper has attracted 300 businesses to its ShopMN site, which is a partnership with the Minnesota Retailers Association… Riddick is especially bullish on neighborhood-level search. “It can be very powerful, especially for smaller advertisers,” he says.

Jim Michels, director of new media for The Evansville Courier & Press, says his paper’s vertical approach has similarly had strong dividends. Home improvement is the paper’s first vertical. “We had research showing that people want to put money into their house,” he said. The resulting site, Tri-State Home Show, has sold 125 enhanced listings at up to $29.95 per month. “It is bringing in $55,000 of extra revenue,” he says. He thinks the paper can probably boost sales up to 150.