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Clickshare-backed study finds most newspapers already selling
content online; seeking to expand offerings
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SCARBOROUGH, Maine, April 24, 2001 - More than 80 percent of the
newspapers reviewed in a study by the Advanced Interactive Media Group,
L.L.C., are selling some form of content online - and more than one-third
of the papers surveyed are looking for more ways to generate revenue with
online content sales this year.
The findings were outlined in a free report issued today (April 23) by the
AIM Group, a consulting boutique that works with media companies, software
developers and dot-coms to enhance revenue and improve their
interactive-media services.
Research for the report was sponsored by Clickshare Service Corp., the
digital content purchasing service.
"Right now, most newspapers are offering very limited archives online and
bringing in revenue that could best be described as anemic," said Mike
Lawrence Blinder, AIM Group principal and director of the study. "However,
we found a number of cases where newspapers were generating significant
dollars - and we identified several strategies for newspapers to expand
their content revenue."
The study is available for free download at http://www.aimgroup.com/reports/.
Other key findings of the content-sales study:
- Most of the newspapers studied sell only archived articles in
text form.
- Almost 95 percent of those newspapers surveyed selling
archives
online
offer stories on an individual retrieval basis for $2 or less per article.
- Almost 60 percent of those newspapers that sell their archives
online
show revenues of less than $500 per month.
- Just 4 percent currently offer online content sales besides
text
archives, such as photographs and audio segments.
- Eight percent have definite plans to begin selling additional
content
online this year.
- More than 1 out of 3 are exploring how to offer additional
online
content, such as the sale of photographs, or more in-depth news stories
[and other "premium" content].
"As newspapers and other interactive-media sites seek ways to increase
revenue, one of the best ways to do that is to enhance their existing
services and increase the cash they bring in from what they already have
available," Blinder said. "Newspapers have valuable assets in their
archives, and we hope to help them 'unlock' some of the dollars in those
'vaults'."
Nell Fields, president of Clickshare, said findings of the independent
study reveal that newspapers are taking a leadership position in the sale
of online content. "It's fascinating, maybe even ironic, that one of the
most tradition-bound industries, newspaper publishing, is leading the way
in the sale of digital content. Newspapers, which were among the first to
realize a recurring commercial value for the printing press, are now doing
the same thing with the electronic commerce platform we call the Internet."
Until Clickshare, newspapers haven't had a way to leverage and extend their
existing reader and customer relationships without losing control of those
relationships, said Fields. "Newspapers can now achieve what no dot-com
has been able to achieve: parlay existing content with the exciting new
medium, resulting in a whole new, successful business model, with emphasis
on 'successful'. The AIM study shows that savvy publishers are now focused
on moving in this direction."
The AIM research was conducted in December and January. Clickshare
announced Feb. 21 that four regional newspapers had adopted the company's
technology for selling premium content to each other's users across the
Clickshare service.
About the Advanced Interactive Media Group, L.L.C.
The Advanced Interactive Media Group,
L.L.C., works with media companies, software firms, dot-coms and other
organizations to develop profitable interactive services. The AIM Group
offers strategic business planning; sales training and revenue-generation
programs; corporate workshops; cross-media alliance projects; and public
and proprietary research on interactive media.
AIM Group clients have included SAP America, ABC News, the Newspaper
Association of America, Radio Television News Directors Foundation,
Sandusky Newspapers Inc., Clickshare Service Corp., Hearst Newspapers; Belo
Corp., WRAL-TV, Raleigh, the Editor & Publisher Co., Homestore.com Inc.,
Sears, Roebuck and Co., and many others. The company's offices are located
near Orlando, Boston and Washington.
About Clickshare Service Corp.
The Clickshare Service(tm) is a platform for privacy-protected purchasing
of text, music, video, software and other digital goods. It allows a
consumer to have one account at a most-trusted website and buy from other
sites without having to pass around a credit-card number, register or give
out personal information.
Clickshare is not being marketed directly to consumers but rather to
publishers and other content owners and to companies that want to offer a
new service to their existing customers. These include banks, phone and
wireless carriers, portals and other e-commerce websites.
Contacts:
For AIM Group:
Mike Lawrence Blinder, (917) 865-4827 or (207) 883-3883
Steve Klein, (703) 218-2839 or (703) 625-1968
Peter M. Zollman, (407) 788-2780 or (407) 718-2610
For Clickshare:
Ed Bride, 413-442-7718 [Bride@clickshare.com]
Bill Densmore, 413-458-8001 [Densmore@clickshare.com]
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