Data from Borrell and the newspaper industry’s efforts in local digital advertising are the focus of an article on WSJ.com yesterday.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121746776033899393.html?apl=y&r=26882

We have been partnering with the industry for several years and probably serve as the biggest promoter of newspapers’ opportunity to leverage their local brands and relationships into the digital world.  The article does a good job of identifying the issues – training, compensation and broader sales focus.

To succeed in this new environment, educating the local market, reinvesting in the local community that has been the newspaper’s foundation for decades, adopting a more proactive sales approach to a broader local audience, and developing local multi-channel marketing consultants are the new imperatives.  Our most successful partners are marketing themselves and becoming a more active part of their local business community, explaining that the online world is a complex environment, and offering an array of online advertising solutions that fit businesses of all sizes (search, display, directory listings, video ads). 

Online advertising at this stage is a longer sales cycle as the article quotes Mary Lou Fulton in Bakersfield.  This is best explained this way – 90% of what’s known about a newspaper ad is shared between buyer and seller, so it’s simply a price negotiation on the other 10%.  In online, only 10% of what the Internet is or can be is shared, so 90% of the discussion is explaining options and determining the best solution for the buyer by the seller.  This is a lengthy, complex process, and requires education, patience and explanation.  To those willing to make the changes in their sales organizations and approaches will go the spoils.

We’re doing everything we can do to help – training, encouragement, marketing, education, solutions.  I look forward to sharing some big success stories in the coming months as I see the energy building.  There is no denying that online isn’t just the future.  It’s here now.

Comments from Greg Sterling on the article:
http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/wsj-on-borrell-report-newspapers-losing/