GateHouse Media launches
co-branded initiative with Houzz
GateHouse Media launched a month-long nationwide sweepstakes on Jan. 15 to promote its partnership with Houzz that will provide readers with a fully co-branded experience, including the ability to purchase products directly from the publisher's co-branded websites. Among the prize offerings are a $5,000 Houzz shopping spree, daily cash prizes and Houzz discount coupons. It's all part of GateHouse Media's strategy to create local home and real estate destination channels within newspapers' websites.
MORE
The next media disruption tool: Predictive analytics
Yeah, sure – Big Data. We get it, right?
We all know that the digital age is producing huge amounts of data about consumers and their behavior. And, sure, we know that anybody who's in the marketing and advertising business – like local media companies – needs to get good at it. Right?
Not that we've quite learned how to do it yet. But surely we know – don't we? – that we simply must master it to benefit both ourselves and our customers? And we're working on it, right?
Well, I am. I hope you are, too.
Why? Because somebody is going to bring Big Data to Main Street. If it's not us, Big Data will be the next big wave of disruption in our advertising and marketing business. It's guaranteed to whittle down our local media ad revenues still further.
I've blogged about the huge opportunity and threat of Big Data for local media companies four times in the last 13 months. If you're a regular Media Reset reader, you may be thinking, "What, again!?"
If you're not a regular MediaReset reader, I strongly recommend that you catch up on Big Data and its local media possibilities here.
But I can't stop there. I keep digging deeper to learn more about what Big Data can do and how we can master its potential for ourselves and our customers. And I keep learning.
For the last couple of months, I've been digging into predictive analytics – a narrower niche in the vast expanse of Big Data. It's the sharp cutting edge that is making Big Data even more powerful.
MORE
Can local media find a new home in real estate?
Tired of losing real estate advertising dollars year after year? So are we at Morris Publishing Group.
So a couple of us attended the recent National Association of Realtors convention to see what's hot, and how we might be able to create a new niche for ourselves in the business.
We saw plenty to make us think we can do this.
MOREResearch Alert: Real estate advertisers trimming digital
Shrinking at a rate of 6.3 percent this year, real estate advertisers are "adjusting the dials" for a more appropriate mix of media. And for the second year in a row, the amount that agents, brokers and developers are spending on digital media is declining. Download a free executive summary of this new report from Borrell Associates.
MORE
Transparensee offers real estate, events listing technology
Real estate is all about location, location, location. Real estate online searches are all about speed, range and similarity. For some 75 newspaper clients, Transparensee markets what it believes to be faster, more efficient solutions for real estate and calendar listings, both online and print.
MORE
Fix it? Sell it?
The popularity of HGTV's ubiquitous "Love It or List It" series sparked an idea for a 28-page tab that was inserted in five community newspapers owned by Tampa Bay Newspapers.
MORE
We have a new website:
www.newspapers.org
America's Newspapers – the association formed from the merger of the Inland Press Association and Southern Newspaper Publishers Association – was ceremonially launched October 6 at its inaugural annual meeting in Chicago.
Dean Ridings will be its chief executive officer, effective Nov. 11.
America's Newspapers unites two of the oldest press associations to form one of the industry's largest advocates for newspapers and the many benefits to their communities, civil life, freedom of expression and democracy.
"Newspaper journalism provides a voice for the voiceless, challenges elected officials, shines a light on government, calls for change when change is needed, and exposes corruption and injustice," said Chris Reen, the president and publisher of The Gazette in Colorado Springs who will serve as the first president of America's Newspapers.
More
New association launches today;
SNPA-Inland merger is complete
A new association formed by the consolidation of SNPA and the Inland Press Association was officially launched today. The name of the new association will be announced on Oct. 6 at the association's first annual meeting in Chicago.
Edward VanHorn, SNPA's executive director, said that the merger unites two of the country's oldest press associations into a progressive new organization that will use its bigger and more powerful voice to be an unapologetic advocate for newspapers.
More