CoPress

In college media, the tendency is to regard the Web as a mere afterthought in terms of revenue. For those of us at college news organizations, however, the time to start perfecting our online revenue system is now, not in five years — when it’s too late and you’re bankrupt.

Capturing value on the Web can be overwhelming because the audience and approach is different from what we’re used to with print. Chances are that your Web site users are parents and alumni, meaning that you can’t translate ads directly from print to the Web. Advertising online means leveraging resources like Google AdSense and Amazon Affiliate links and tailoring ads to match your user demographics, which you can track using an analytics service.

Making money online doesn’t only come in the form of advertisements — podcasts, minisites, events calendars and other features can be monetized through sponsors. Giving out promotional code coupons on certain days of the week is a way to both generate traffic and engage users with ads.

To dispel a myth about online advertising, we must realize that ads online are not all about generating clicks and traffic to advertisers’ sites. The point of having advertisements on a site is to build brand among readers. A study shows that when exposed to branded ads, the impact may not be direct or immediate, but “users engage better and transact more with brands once they’ve been exposed to them. ” Even if they don’t click the ad, they’re still building brand recognition and creating value in those online ads.

But the key to good money will always coincide with good journalism. The better the site content, the more eyes will come to our news sites. More eyes means more advertising potential, which ties into everything we’ve discussed before; investing in your staff, creating a web-native newsroom, and constantly innovating from within.

What is your approach to online advertising or how do you regard it? What steps can you take to improve your organization’s utilization of the medium? Sound off in the comments.

I’m a day late on this post, but there were some epic developments this week that I feel I have to share.

Around the Network

We kicked off a lively discussion in the forum on Monday asking, “What are your website goals for the rest of the semester?” A number of great ideas have surfaced from the community. Some highlights from Josh Halliday‘s response:

• Work on cross-promotion of our student-run University radio station – perhaps an app on the homepage, or even its own separate page?
• Print more posters for on-campus advertising/recruiting
• Greater attention to our online community – MORE CONVERSATION, perhaps recruit a ‘community manager’ to maintain Facebook page, Twitter account etc.

There were dozens of other goals posted, so be sure to take a look. Read more →

Tune into CoPress‘ Mogulus channel, embedded below, on Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. EST (1 p.m. CST) to see Joey Baker, Albert Sun and I speak as part of BarCamp NewsInnovation at the University of Missouri.

Unfortunately, no one from CoPress could travel to Mizzou, but we’ll be there virtually.

Be sure to participate in the chat and ask questions – we’ll answer as many as possible.

Please share the link via Twitter, Facebook, IM, e-mail, etc. Thanks!

This is cross-posted at Greg Linch‘s site.

We’ve got a problem at The Daily Orange: our ad revenue is shrinking.

Sound familiar? A newspaper that’s having trouble making ends meet!?

We were having such difficulty balancing our budget, that we cut our print Friday edition (we still publish online).

The Daily Orange is an independent student newspaper. “Independent” means that we receive no money from the academic institution that we cover (well… they don’t charge us rent; but, that’s the only help we get). We pay a heavy price for the freedom to set our editorial content – we rely on print advertising for nearly all of our income.

This is a problem. As we’re forced to slowly transition toward an online newsroom, we risk abandoning the money making print edition. This scares our business manager to death. It frightens our board. We all know that the internet is the future, but can’t see a way to monetize online content.

Read more →