EditorAndPublisher.com today has a nice feature interview with George Dratelis, the Ottaway Newspapers (a Dow Jones & Co. subsidiary) corporate Internet marketing director. Two highlights:
- “I find it amazing that some newspapers are foregoing the growth opportunities all together and moving into a lock-down mode where only their newspaper’s subscribers or online-only subscribers can get access to their site. My belief is that much more revenue and growth can be achieved through an advertising-driven site.”
“I have heard some commentary at industry events that Web site development is not a ‘core competency’ for newspapers so we should stay away from that opportunity. I don’t buy that argument. Our industry has ventured into a new field with our Internet publications and related advertising opportunities so I think we need to look at what businesses are looking for as they navigate this new medium. I see a Web site for a business as nothing more than a large interactive advertisement that needs user traffic to be viable. So many small and medium-size businesses have had trouble with their online strategy because they were dealing with technology-oriented Web development firms that spoke ‘techno babble’ at them and never covered the all-important marketing component.”