What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism
What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism
What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism
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Columbia <strong>Journalism</strong> School | Tow Center for <strong>Digital</strong> <strong>Journalism</strong>But even if <strong>the</strong> effort is as successful as <strong>the</strong> Chronicle hopes, Sweeney figures itwould do no more than match <strong>the</strong> current revenue from one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> paper’s biggestadvertisers. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, it will be a big help but is not, in itself, a replacementfor <strong>the</strong> old business model. “This has become a nickel-and-dime business,”he says. “And you need a lot <strong>of</strong> nickels and dimes.”* * *A decade ago, KSL, a local TV station in Salt Lake City, came up with whatwas <strong>the</strong>n a novel idea: It would start its own classified-ads section on KSL.comand end its relationship with a company that was already providing that servicefor <strong>the</strong> site.“<strong>We</strong> were making like $300,000 a year [in revenue] on <strong>the</strong> partnership, whichback <strong>the</strong>n was a lot <strong>of</strong> money online,” says Clark Gilbert, president and chiefexecutive <strong>of</strong>ficer <strong>of</strong> Deseret <strong>Digital</strong> Media. But <strong>the</strong> station, an NBC affiliate, saw<strong>the</strong> change as a way to build traffic to <strong>the</strong> site. Its classifieds service would also bea way to showcase <strong>the</strong> moral standards <strong>of</strong> its owner, <strong>the</strong> Church <strong>of</strong> Jesus Christ<strong>of</strong> Latter-day Saints. Deseret <strong>Digital</strong> Media runs <strong>the</strong> online properties for <strong>the</strong>church’s TV station and its newspaper, <strong>the</strong> Deseret News, along with sites moreobviously <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> church, MormonTimes.com and DeseretBook.com.Today, KSL.com is a powerhouse on <strong>the</strong> <strong>We</strong>b. The site has more than 4 millionunique users and generates an astounding 250 million page views a month, saysGilbert. (KSL’s sister property, <strong>the</strong> Deseret News, has a more typical audience <strong>of</strong>about 2.5 million unique users and 30 million page views; <strong>the</strong> website <strong>of</strong> a competingnewspaper, <strong>the</strong> Salt Lake Tribune, has roughly <strong>the</strong> same size audience.) Ina recent study <strong>of</strong> <strong>We</strong>b traffic data in major markets, a company called InternetBroadcasting found that KSL.com reaches 48.8 percent <strong>of</strong> its local market. Thatis more than any local media outlet in <strong>the</strong> survey but one, <strong>the</strong> Minneapolis StarTribune’s site. And it is far beyond <strong>the</strong> <strong>We</strong>b footprint <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> top local TV stations,which average under 20 percent market share. 5New Users, New Revenue: Alternative Ways to Make Money 107