As publishers continue to face the dreary reality of sagging circulation and stagnating revenues, an increasing number are eyeing the production of niche publications to reach new advertisers and audiences.
McClatchy Co. and MediaNews Group were among the first newspaper groups to emphasize niche and specialty products as a means to generate revenue.
Three years ago, McClatchy identified niche publishing as being among its top-five growth areas and MNG has grown its niche segment in recent years to more than 240 different titles, with distribution in excess of 7 million (see News & Tech, January 2010).
Now, newspapers of all sizes are beginning to leverage niche products to increase - or supplant - their bottom lines.
"We are offering a variety of products that meet the needs of consumers and connect advertisers," Becky Brubaker, the Chicago Tribune's senior vice president of manufacturing and distribution, told News & Tech.
The Tribune has more than a dozen niche products spanning fashion, entertainment, food and wine and home improvement.
"This has been a large part of our organization and it's part of our growth strategy to create new products," Brubaker said.
Also on the Tribune's agenda: growing its business-to-business services, with endeavors like its recent project to begin digitizing and selling content from its massive photo archives (see News & Tech, April 2010).
The Tribune's sales team sells ads across niche pubs with dedicated sales reps assigned to concentrate on specific revenue markets.
Leveraging distribution
The Dallas Morning News, which counts 40 niche pubs among its stable of products, is exploiting its distribution platform to reach a variety of specialty audiences, according to Jason Dove, director of preprints and direct marketing.
"We deliver to a sub-ZIP-code level so we can pull up over 2,800 different filters to define and distribute to an audience," he said.
The Morning News' Neighbors community publication and its fashion magazine, F! D'Luxe, are among the paper's most popular products. It's also launched publications covering night life/entertainment, parenting and home improvement. Dove said The Morning News is constantly analyzing new and existing products year over year, based on its business plan and goals.
"We are always looking at eliminating products that aren't generating a profit and we are always open to new niche products and audiences that look like fertile ground," he said. "And we're always doing it from a competitive standpoint."
The Morning News has dedicated ad sales teams for community-focused products, direct marketing and preprints, but Dove said every salesperson can sell every product.
"There is a concentration in some areas, where some salespeople are better suited to sell ads in a particular niche," he said.
more information :-http://www.newsandtech.com/news/article_dc789db8-6a7c-11df-a26e-001cc4c002e0.html
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
Niche Marketing or Mass Marketing For the Affiliate?
Affiliate Marketing
When customers buy a product from a vendor the affiliate who directed them to the product receives a commission based on the sales price of the product.
The problem as to wether the affiliate should start with a mass market or a niche market is very common. There are two main arguments the mass marketeer reaches a larger audience and hence can expect a greater sales volume. But a niche by definition should be easier to conquer and so making it easier to become a major expert in that field.
It is important to understand the differences between the two in order to answer this question for yourself. The niche marketeer is attempting to specialise in a smaller market one where the small sales volume would not be attractive to a larger player, he may have a prior interest in this field and become an expert in it. Whereas the mass marketeer is providing a number of different products, not particularly specialising in any one but trying to appeal to a wide range of tastes and hopefully win on sales volume.
Niche marketing does have the lions share of new affiliates and the reasons for this are clear since mass marketing requires the knowledge and application of mass marketing techniques that are becoming obsolete and being replaced regularly whilst the niche requires mainly the creation of information and content to see any results.
If you are new to all this but want to become an affiliate then dont waste any more time reading blogs buy this automated turnkey system by Ewen Chia see below for more information.
more information :-http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978263970
When customers buy a product from a vendor the affiliate who directed them to the product receives a commission based on the sales price of the product.
The problem as to wether the affiliate should start with a mass market or a niche market is very common. There are two main arguments the mass marketeer reaches a larger audience and hence can expect a greater sales volume. But a niche by definition should be easier to conquer and so making it easier to become a major expert in that field.
It is important to understand the differences between the two in order to answer this question for yourself. The niche marketeer is attempting to specialise in a smaller market one where the small sales volume would not be attractive to a larger player, he may have a prior interest in this field and become an expert in it. Whereas the mass marketeer is providing a number of different products, not particularly specialising in any one but trying to appeal to a wide range of tastes and hopefully win on sales volume.
Niche marketing does have the lions share of new affiliates and the reasons for this are clear since mass marketing requires the knowledge and application of mass marketing techniques that are becoming obsolete and being replaced regularly whilst the niche requires mainly the creation of information and content to see any results.
If you are new to all this but want to become an affiliate then dont waste any more time reading blogs buy this automated turnkey system by Ewen Chia see below for more information.
more information :-http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978263970
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Nail down niche marketing with social media, word of mouth
The age of generic is over. If the success of craft beers or gluten-free, high-protein, organic nutrition bars are any example, the name of the game is now niche products that are low-volume and high-margin, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The success of niche products has been encouraged by the growth of social media and customer reviews, which means that marketers of niche offerings need to develop a presence in these areas and truly listen to customers.
"All that information … eliminates much of consumers' uncertainty about new niche products, since they can easily find reviews, ratings and comments on everything that hits the market," the Journal reported. "For decades consumer uncertainty blocked the launch of new offerings that were too focused to be supported by national ad campaigns; today's empowered consumer is truly listening to word-of-mouth."
For this kind of marketing, campaigns should be highly targeted and focused on consumer-generated content, said the Journal, adding that "marketing executives should watch for the first online comments about their wares with the same excitement and apprehension as Broadway producers waiting for opening-night reviews."
One audience in particular that niche marketers may want to pay attention to is Generation Y, the Globe and Mail recently reported. This generation tends to research purchases more so than other generations, and values unique offerings instead of trends.
more information :-http://www.ricg.com/marketing_articles/creative_design/nail_down_niche_marketing_with_social_media_word_of_mouth/
The success of niche products has been encouraged by the growth of social media and customer reviews, which means that marketers of niche offerings need to develop a presence in these areas and truly listen to customers.
"All that information … eliminates much of consumers' uncertainty about new niche products, since they can easily find reviews, ratings and comments on everything that hits the market," the Journal reported. "For decades consumer uncertainty blocked the launch of new offerings that were too focused to be supported by national ad campaigns; today's empowered consumer is truly listening to word-of-mouth."
For this kind of marketing, campaigns should be highly targeted and focused on consumer-generated content, said the Journal, adding that "marketing executives should watch for the first online comments about their wares with the same excitement and apprehension as Broadway producers waiting for opening-night reviews."
One audience in particular that niche marketers may want to pay attention to is Generation Y, the Globe and Mail recently reported. This generation tends to research purchases more so than other generations, and values unique offerings instead of trends.
more information :-http://www.ricg.com/marketing_articles/creative_design/nail_down_niche_marketing_with_social_media_word_of_mouth/
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Apple passes Microsoft as world's most valuable tech firm
Remember that little company that needed Microsoft's financial help just to keep going in 1997? Well, today that company - Apple - just surpassed Microsoft in terms of market value.
At the close of trading in Wall Street last night, Apple had a market capitalisation of $222 billion, compared with Microsoft's $219 billion. The valuation makes Apple the world's most valuable technology firm.
It marks an extraordinary turnaround for Apple, which was on the brink of collapse before Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997. Indeed, Apple accepted a $150 million investment from Microsoft that year just to keep the company afloat.
A year later, Apple introduced the game-changing iMac, its iconic all-in-one computer, and the company has rarely put a foot wrong since.
It has subsequently launched two genre-defining products: the iPod and the iPhone, and many suspect it may be on the cusp of a third with the iPad, which goes on sale in the UK tomorrow.
Consequently, Apple's shares are now worth more than ten times what they were a decade ago, with the company now raking in $13.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter (still about $1 billion less than Microsoft).
for more information :-http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/358243/apple-passes-microsoft-as-worlds-most-valuable-tech-firm
At the close of trading in Wall Street last night, Apple had a market capitalisation of $222 billion, compared with Microsoft's $219 billion. The valuation makes Apple the world's most valuable technology firm.
It marks an extraordinary turnaround for Apple, which was on the brink of collapse before Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997. Indeed, Apple accepted a $150 million investment from Microsoft that year just to keep the company afloat.
A year later, Apple introduced the game-changing iMac, its iconic all-in-one computer, and the company has rarely put a foot wrong since.
It has subsequently launched two genre-defining products: the iPod and the iPhone, and many suspect it may be on the cusp of a third with the iPad, which goes on sale in the UK tomorrow.
Consequently, Apple's shares are now worth more than ten times what they were a decade ago, with the company now raking in $13.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter (still about $1 billion less than Microsoft).
for more information :-http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/358243/apple-passes-microsoft-as-worlds-most-valuable-tech-firm
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Trendspotting: Investing in Smart TV
The long-awaited convergence of Internet and television is upon us. Google (GOOG) says so.
Okay, we’ve been hearing that one since Sergei Brin was sucking on a Zwieback cookie. But all the same, Google TV, which was announced last week and is expected to be available by fall, might actually work. If it does, it will become part of our daily lives, unlike the many earlier attempts -- by Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) among others -- that were doomed to become little more than niche products.
Why would Google succeed where so many others, who aren't exactly dopes after all, have failed?
Partly because Google has got its priorities straight. Google TV is a natural extension of the company’s primary business, which is delivering targeted advertising. It's leaving both the content and the hardware to others.
Google’s not trying to create a cool new gadget that geeks will love and the rest of us will reluctantly learn to live with. Or not: In the earlier efforts, the actual content was secondary in nature and limited in scope, and thus pretty easy to live without.
Here, the promise is a clean merger of Internet and television, using nothing more or less than the interface and functionality that's become familiar and effortless to users of both devices. At least that’s what Google promised to deliver, and that’s certainly what the media audience heard.
So what is this thing, Google TV? As described, it’s simply Google search, but it collects matches to your queries across television programming as well as the Internet. And it uses the Google Chrome browser, so you can channel surf.
So, it’s a kind of online television and Internet guide that delivers one-click access to any programming from either source. If you’re obsessed with the Lost season finale, you can choose to watch it on television, or see a parody of it, or a rerun of an old episode, or discuss it on a blog, or see a recent interview with one of its stars.
God help us, there will be millions upon millions of channels out there, and they’re all going to be on at once.
With this project, Google is acknowledging the plain fact that television programming might seem like a business on the decline, but television viewing is one amazingly sticky habit, not least because it's absolutely not interactive, and therefore is effortless.
As noted in the company’s presentation, Americans spend five hours a day watching television, and advertisers spend $70 billion a year in the US alone to reach them. The worldwide audience is about 4 billion, and that’s about four times the number of personal-computer users out there and twice the number of mobile-phone users.
more info :-http://www.minyanville.com/investing/articles/google-tv-smart-tv-google-google/5/26/2010/id/28487
Okay, we’ve been hearing that one since Sergei Brin was sucking on a Zwieback cookie. But all the same, Google TV, which was announced last week and is expected to be available by fall, might actually work. If it does, it will become part of our daily lives, unlike the many earlier attempts -- by Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) among others -- that were doomed to become little more than niche products.
Why would Google succeed where so many others, who aren't exactly dopes after all, have failed?
Partly because Google has got its priorities straight. Google TV is a natural extension of the company’s primary business, which is delivering targeted advertising. It's leaving both the content and the hardware to others.
Google’s not trying to create a cool new gadget that geeks will love and the rest of us will reluctantly learn to live with. Or not: In the earlier efforts, the actual content was secondary in nature and limited in scope, and thus pretty easy to live without.
Here, the promise is a clean merger of Internet and television, using nothing more or less than the interface and functionality that's become familiar and effortless to users of both devices. At least that’s what Google promised to deliver, and that’s certainly what the media audience heard.
So what is this thing, Google TV? As described, it’s simply Google search, but it collects matches to your queries across television programming as well as the Internet. And it uses the Google Chrome browser, so you can channel surf.
So, it’s a kind of online television and Internet guide that delivers one-click access to any programming from either source. If you’re obsessed with the Lost season finale, you can choose to watch it on television, or see a parody of it, or a rerun of an old episode, or discuss it on a blog, or see a recent interview with one of its stars.
God help us, there will be millions upon millions of channels out there, and they’re all going to be on at once.
With this project, Google is acknowledging the plain fact that television programming might seem like a business on the decline, but television viewing is one amazingly sticky habit, not least because it's absolutely not interactive, and therefore is effortless.
As noted in the company’s presentation, Americans spend five hours a day watching television, and advertisers spend $70 billion a year in the US alone to reach them. The worldwide audience is about 4 billion, and that’s about four times the number of personal-computer users out there and twice the number of mobile-phone users.
more info :-http://www.minyanville.com/investing/articles/google-tv-smart-tv-google-google/5/26/2010/id/28487
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Australian Macworld goes digital for the iPad
The longest-running Mac magazine outside the US, is now available as a digital download.
With the release of Apple's innovative iPad tablet computer, the requests for a digital version of Australian Macworld have reached fever pitch. Everyone wants to experience magazines on the beautiful new tablet, and no magazine is more suited to reading on an Apple device than Australian Macworld!
"It is with great pleasure that we can announce that Australian Macworld is available from today as a digital download for iPad, iPhone, Mac – and even PC – through the incredibly popular Zinio magazine marketplace," says Australian Macworld associate publisher Liana Pappas.
"We’ve held off releasing until now because of the multitude of options available – it was impossible to tell whether any of them would be successful," she says. "However, one look at the Zinio app on the iPad, and our decision was made. It is the simplest, most beautiful way to view print-formatted digital content."
The June issue is the first cab off the rank, being released simultaneously on Zinio and newsstands. Readers can buy individual issues or subscribe for 12 months at a discounted rate. Back issues will also be made available over the coming months so you can catch up on any that you might have missed. You can even buy a digital version of the Mac Basics Superguide 2, which is sold out on newsstands.
Our digital issues are full versions of the monthly print magazine, and include internet links to extra online content and relevant websites. If you’re reading on an iPad, it all happens within the Zinio app – available as a free download from Apple's App Store (iTunes link).
What if you don’t have an iPad, but still want to read Australian Macworld digitally? We’ve got you covered: Zinio has reader apps for iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC, or you can read online via a web browser such as Safari or Firefox.
Reading via Zinio is as simple as reading the print mag. It offers full-screen portrait and landscape views, easy zooming to see the finer details, and the ability to browse or search. See a great article on the contents page? Just click it and you’re there.
Better still, each copy you buy is yours to keep, and will work with any Zinio app you use. You can even print your favourite articles to read the old-fashioned way – great for keeping a copy of help features handy for when unexpected problems crop up.
“This new partnership with Zinio offers our readers and advertisers an exciting new opportunity: readers can get the latest issue anytime, anywhere in the world, and advertisers have a more interactive platform and more readers than ever to whom they can showcase their products," Pappas says.
The current print version will continue as it has for the past 25 years – offering the best in Australian Mac news, reviews, columns, and features. Australian Macworld online continues to grow with new staff, a boom in readership and, soon, a great new look.
more information :-http://www.macworld.com.au/news/view/australian-macworld-goes-digital-for-the-ipad-4978
With the release of Apple's innovative iPad tablet computer, the requests for a digital version of Australian Macworld have reached fever pitch. Everyone wants to experience magazines on the beautiful new tablet, and no magazine is more suited to reading on an Apple device than Australian Macworld!
"It is with great pleasure that we can announce that Australian Macworld is available from today as a digital download for iPad, iPhone, Mac – and even PC – through the incredibly popular Zinio magazine marketplace," says Australian Macworld associate publisher Liana Pappas.
"We’ve held off releasing until now because of the multitude of options available – it was impossible to tell whether any of them would be successful," she says. "However, one look at the Zinio app on the iPad, and our decision was made. It is the simplest, most beautiful way to view print-formatted digital content."
The June issue is the first cab off the rank, being released simultaneously on Zinio and newsstands. Readers can buy individual issues or subscribe for 12 months at a discounted rate. Back issues will also be made available over the coming months so you can catch up on any that you might have missed. You can even buy a digital version of the Mac Basics Superguide 2, which is sold out on newsstands.
Our digital issues are full versions of the monthly print magazine, and include internet links to extra online content and relevant websites. If you’re reading on an iPad, it all happens within the Zinio app – available as a free download from Apple's App Store (iTunes link).
What if you don’t have an iPad, but still want to read Australian Macworld digitally? We’ve got you covered: Zinio has reader apps for iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC, or you can read online via a web browser such as Safari or Firefox.
Reading via Zinio is as simple as reading the print mag. It offers full-screen portrait and landscape views, easy zooming to see the finer details, and the ability to browse or search. See a great article on the contents page? Just click it and you’re there.
Better still, each copy you buy is yours to keep, and will work with any Zinio app you use. You can even print your favourite articles to read the old-fashioned way – great for keeping a copy of help features handy for when unexpected problems crop up.
“This new partnership with Zinio offers our readers and advertisers an exciting new opportunity: readers can get the latest issue anytime, anywhere in the world, and advertisers have a more interactive platform and more readers than ever to whom they can showcase their products," Pappas says.
The current print version will continue as it has for the past 25 years – offering the best in Australian Mac news, reviews, columns, and features. Australian Macworld online continues to grow with new staff, a boom in readership and, soon, a great new look.
more information :-http://www.macworld.com.au/news/view/australian-macworld-goes-digital-for-the-ipad-4978
Monday, May 24, 2010
Insurance firms target low-end market via phones
The sale of insurance products through the mobile phone has opened a new door for the sector to roll out cheap products expected to spur growth in the Kenyan market.
The technology is set to cut the high administration costs that made it difficult for local firms to enter the micro insurance market that has been tipped to deepen insurance penetration, which has remained at a mere 2.5 per cent of the population for nearly a decade.
Micro insurance offers risk cover to the poor with its main features being small amounts of premiums paid by policy holders.
Equity Bank and Safaricom have launched a mobile based platform that allows consumers to make payments, which are as low as Sh530 annually or Sh10.2 weekly, that local insurance firms are hoping will help them capture the low end of the market.
The mobile-based payment is set reduce the insurers wage bill and distributions costs such as running branches and agents commissions, which are insurers’ biggest cost item.
“Collection of insurance premiums and payment of claims is one of the major challenges of the insurance sector and the ability to do these through mobiles will cut costs and reduce customer inconvenience,” said Joseph Kameri, the marketing and distribution manager at UAP.
He added that savings brought by the mobile based payment system will in turn create headroom for lowering the cost of insurance products, especially those targeted at the low end market.
Analysts say that the service will help in taking micro insurance to the bottom end of the market where they are needed the most but where insurance firms find it too expensive to operate because of thin volumes.
The low insurance penetration has been blamed low confidence in insurance products and lack of products targeted at the low and mid-end niches.
This has seen the local insurance sector perform dismally compared to its peers in the financial industry notably the banking sector.
“Micro insurance presents a major growth opportunity for the insurance industry in Kenya because it is inclusive of most of the population,” says Ashok Shah, the managing director of APA Insurance.
The entry into the down market is not only expected to guarantee a steady stream of earnings for these firms, but also offer an opportunity for individuals and SMEs to be roped into the insurance bracket.
In doing so, local insurers will be following in the footsteps of the banking sector that went down-market in 2003 -- leading to sharp a growth in the sector.
Banks have seen pre-tax profits grow from Sh7.1 billion in 2004 to Sh24.6 billion in 2008 compared to that of the insurance sector that dropped from Sh1 billion to Sh500 million over the same period.
Already, local insurance firms are angling to be part of the Equity-Safaricom deal, egged on by the large number of Equity and Safaricom clients who are uninsured.
more information :-http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Insurance%20firms%20target%20low%20end%20market%20via%20phones/-/539552/924200/-/wpmk1k/-/
The technology is set to cut the high administration costs that made it difficult for local firms to enter the micro insurance market that has been tipped to deepen insurance penetration, which has remained at a mere 2.5 per cent of the population for nearly a decade.
Micro insurance offers risk cover to the poor with its main features being small amounts of premiums paid by policy holders.
Equity Bank and Safaricom have launched a mobile based platform that allows consumers to make payments, which are as low as Sh530 annually or Sh10.2 weekly, that local insurance firms are hoping will help them capture the low end of the market.
The mobile-based payment is set reduce the insurers wage bill and distributions costs such as running branches and agents commissions, which are insurers’ biggest cost item.
“Collection of insurance premiums and payment of claims is one of the major challenges of the insurance sector and the ability to do these through mobiles will cut costs and reduce customer inconvenience,” said Joseph Kameri, the marketing and distribution manager at UAP.
He added that savings brought by the mobile based payment system will in turn create headroom for lowering the cost of insurance products, especially those targeted at the low end market.
Analysts say that the service will help in taking micro insurance to the bottom end of the market where they are needed the most but where insurance firms find it too expensive to operate because of thin volumes.
The low insurance penetration has been blamed low confidence in insurance products and lack of products targeted at the low and mid-end niches.
This has seen the local insurance sector perform dismally compared to its peers in the financial industry notably the banking sector.
“Micro insurance presents a major growth opportunity for the insurance industry in Kenya because it is inclusive of most of the population,” says Ashok Shah, the managing director of APA Insurance.
The entry into the down market is not only expected to guarantee a steady stream of earnings for these firms, but also offer an opportunity for individuals and SMEs to be roped into the insurance bracket.
In doing so, local insurers will be following in the footsteps of the banking sector that went down-market in 2003 -- leading to sharp a growth in the sector.
Banks have seen pre-tax profits grow from Sh7.1 billion in 2004 to Sh24.6 billion in 2008 compared to that of the insurance sector that dropped from Sh1 billion to Sh500 million over the same period.
Already, local insurance firms are angling to be part of the Equity-Safaricom deal, egged on by the large number of Equity and Safaricom clients who are uninsured.
more information :-http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Insurance%20firms%20target%20low%20end%20market%20via%20phones/-/539552/924200/-/wpmk1k/-/
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