The PressDisplay Blog

Hello everyone… I thought I’d share with you some of the interesting information that came out of World Association of Newspapers (WAN) World Newspaper Advertising Conference and Expo that was held in Budapest earlier this month.

NewspaperDirect was naturally there and demonstrated Adget (our recently launched online advertising solution). Adget addressed many major topics discussed at the Conference and received a lot of attention from publishers looking to transition from the declining world of print into a more profitable world online.

Robert Stalmach, Director of Content Licensing & Mobile, Gazeta.pl/Agora, Poland spoke about NewspaperDirect’s SmartEdition platform which powers Agora (Gazeta Wyborzca and Metro papers) in Poland in his presentation. And he said that “NewspaperDirect was the best e-paper provider on the market.” Thanks Robert! We think so too J

He also spoke on the challenges and opportunities the mobile channel presents for newspaper publishers.

Did you know that market saturation of mobile phones has reached (and sometimes exceeded) 100% in developing countries? I guess that’s not a surprise (we have 4 cell phones in our family of 4). But these statistics are interesting…

There are:

• 2.7 billion mobile telephones in the world
• 1.5 billion televisions
• 1.4 billion fixed telephone lines
• 1.1 billion PC’s plugged into the internet.

He went on to say that mobile convergence attracts a particular type of consumer (well educated, well informed, heavy users of the Internet and geo-localised).

The mobile Internet is dominated by what Stalmach calls “screenagers” - AKA the youth. Don’t you just love these new monikers? I guess they deserve their nickname, given that 20% of teenagers send more than 40 text messages a week. In my house, I bet it’s even higher J

The part of his presentation that I liked the most (except maybe for his endorsement of NewspaperDirect) was when he talked about the change in “consumption of media”. No longer are consumers passive readers of news. They want to be active, something newspaper publishers need to embrace (but really haven’t yet).

I imagine Stalmach’s presentation had a few publishers sit up and take notice because the NewspaperDirect booth was very busy. As a result…I’m happy to say that a number of new publishers will be joining the NewspaperDirect network as a result of this conference and you’ll be seeing their digital editions on PressDisplay.com and in SmartEdition format in the upcoming weeks. So stay tuned…

I recently read Guardian’s Roy Greenslade’s blog, “Face up to reality - newsprint is dying so join the race to an online future.” When you read his posting, you’ll see there is a lot of doom and gloom from the “facts” he quotes, mostly about the decline of share values of newspapers in Britain and Europe.

But, notice he doesn’t say, newspapers are dying – it’s the newsprint he’s against.  Just like our “Say No to Newsprint” campaign we launched two weeks ago.  Don’t misunderstand…we’re huge fans of newspapers at ND Digital – we just want to see them thrive in their transition from print to digital (which is inevitable as Greenslade projects). 

So although it’s not a pretty picture he’s painting, he does leave us with some hope…IF publishers are willing to take action and take it fast!

Thankfully many publishers do understand that generating new online revenue streams is critical to their future. But unfortunately, many just don’t know how to do it.   Thank goodness, some do…

Take, for example, CanWest Media Works Publications Inc. – with 10 daily newspapers across Canada and a national publication, National Post. CanWest recently launched new advertising options for their 11 SmartEditions which uses NewspaperDirect’s Adget technology.

In NAA PressTime’s February 2008 article “Using E-Editions to Enhance Ads” CanWest’s Senior Vice President of Publications Sales and Marketing, Kirk Allen was quoted as saying that CanWest has received high interest from advertisers for their new advertising options. Now their local advertisers can embed video and other transactional elements into their advertisements, bringing their “ads to life”.

It is not surprising that CanWest is pursuing new advertising models in its digital editions. According to Allen, the subscriber base for its e-editions increased dramatically from 15,000 customers in December 2006 to 207,000 in Dec 2007. Wow! With growth like that, no wonder CanWest is looking for new more progressive advertising models for its online newspapers. 

Gayle

Did you know that:

“Large ethical companies outperformed the MSCI World Index by an average of 25%”, Goldman Sachs 2007 Survey

And…

“80% of young professionals are interested in securing a job that has a positive impact on the envrioonment and 90% calimed they would prefer to work for an environmentally friendly employer.”,  MonsterTrack 2007 Survey

In successful organizations, Corporate Sustainability is in the center of business operations and also finding its way into employee recruitment and retention programs.  Smart employers in today’s tight labor market know that there is strong correlation between a company’s environmental practices and employee attitudes.  According to Monster.ca 2007 survey results, 78% of Canadians said they would leave their current job  for a more environmentally friendly employer”.  Providing an environmentally friendly workplace is becoming a differentiator in the war for top talent.

So, it’s no wonder that North America’s largest and most important International Conference on the Business of the Environment, GLOBE 2008, has chosen Corporate Sustainability as one of its key themes at this year’s conference, being held in Vancouver, BC at the Vancouver Convention Centre, March 12-14.

And it’s also not a surprise that NewspaperDirect will be there as a media sponsor promoting its newly launched “Say NO to Newsprint; Say YES to Newspapers” Corporate Sustainability Program, offering free access to PressDisplay.com to all attendees at the show and for a month following the event. (GLOBE attendees can register at www.pressdisplay.com with offer code: GLOBE 200

“GLOBE 2008 attracts thousands of environmental business and government leaders who value instant access to business-critical information no matter where they are,” said Nancy Wright, vice president of marketing for The GLOBE Foundation. “Corporate Sustainability is a key theme of GLOBE 2008, and so we are pleased to be able to offer attendees access to PressDisplay.com, as a more sustainable option for tracking important issues in mainstream media from around the world.”

NewspaperDirect offers governments and businesses a green alternative to the printed newspapers they normally purchase in bulk for the office.   NewspaperDirect’s “Say NO to Newsprint; Say YES to Newspapers” program is designed to support an organizations’ efforts to create a more eco-friendly environment at the office, and in the homes, of their employees.  It enables companies to provide employees personal use access to PressDisplay.com for about the price of a single newspaper subscription — at home, at work, during their commute, or when traveling.

PressDisplay.com is a standard offering at hundreds of libraries around the world and is accessed by millions of users every day who have, collectively, saved more than 24,000 trees by choosing to read their favorite newspapers on PressDisplay.com, rather than in print.

To learn more about the “Say NO to Newsprint, Say YES to Newspapers” corporate sustainability program, contact digital@newspaperdirect.com.