This document discusses strategies for newspapers to transition to digital platforms and new business models. It outlines how newspapers have traditionally relied on advertising but now face declining revenues. It proposes that newspapers become the "essential connection" for communities and businesses by creating a digital marketplace for direct sales, lead generation, sponsorships and mobile applications. It also suggests focusing content on community topics like driving, personal milestones, entertainment and business services. The document advocates for a "mobile-first" strategy with easy-to-use mobile apps and websites to provide news, information and commercial offerings.

1. The Complete Community Connection Steve Buttry, Gazette Communications February 12, 2010 stephenbuttry@gmail.com @stevebuttry on Twitter Slideshare.net/stevebuttry

2. U.S. newspapers Most revenue from advertising Home delivery & street sales Consolidation to one daily in most metro area National papers: NY Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal Consolidation of ownership

3. 2009: 12.9% of population buys newspaper Graphic from The Digital Journalist, “Circling the Drain,” by Mark Loundy

4. Graphic from Reflections of a Newsosaur, Alan Mutter

5. “We intend to charge for our news web sites. … to increase our revenues from all our content.”

7. Newspaper Next

8. Disruption in telecommunications

10. Create Once Publish Everywhere NPR.org NPR.org Player NPR News iPhone app Mobile web site NPR Addict iPhone app Public Radio Player WBUR.org Minnesota Public Radio iTunes NPR on iGoogle

12. C3’s new relationships For the public: We will be their essential connection to community life — news, information, commerce, social life. Like many Internet users turn first to Google, your community should turn first to C3, whatever the need.

13. C3’s new relationships For businesses: We will be their essential connection to customers, often making the sale and collecting the money.

14. Our current relationshipwith business customers Huge expense line in budget Lots of inefficiency Ad rates dropping Ad revenues dropping Lots of digital competition

15. C3’s digital marketplace Move beyond advertising Direct sales (tickets, reservations, gift registries, sports paraphernalia) Lead generation & targeted ads Sponsorships, memberships & events Mobile ads & applications Handle multiple needs (yes, competing ads)

16. The new relationshipwith business partners Revenue line in budget (maybe still expense line, too) Delivering high value, tailored to needs One-stop shop for connecting with customers

17. Community Content Driving Home Conversation Calendar Local knowledge

18. Driving How often do you buy a car? How often do you drive, gas up, service car? Databases, conversations, services focused on drivers’ everyday needs

21. Driving How often do you buy a car? How often do you drive, gas up, service car? Databases, conversations, services focused on drivers’ everyday needs Connect auto services with drivers (emergency repair services)

24. Personal content Births Youth milestones School Graduation College life Military service Weddings Parenthood Divorce Jobs, pets, holidays, food, interests, health Illness Empty nesters Retirement Reunions Obituaries

26. Personal news Big news in small circles Some we do as formula, some we ignore Great opportunities

29. Entertainment Traditional entertainment in digital form Entertainment news User-generated entertainment, events Games

30. Business services Direct sales Local search Mobile applications Communication & marketing services

31. Enriched news content What’s happening now (Twitter, liveblogging, real-time video, traffic, scanners, live-streaming) Community engagement in news, enterprise, sports coverage Storytelling (narrative, multimedia) Aggregation, curation

32. C3 at Gazette Communications Reorganized to separate content, product Developing new processes, tools to develop content independently from products Content repository under development Long way to go Hoping to learn from your efforts

35. More than 140,000 iPhone apps available

36. 2 billion iPhone apps downloaded

37. Droid, Nexus One, BlackBerry, Pre, iPadSources: GB Guide blog, Apple

38. Mobile-first strategy Executives must emphasize mobile priority Journalists focus on mobile news & info delivery & presentation Tech staff focuses on mobile apps Sales staff meets business customers’ mobile needs

39. Mobile-first strategy Text messages Email Applications Tweets Easy-to-use mobile web sites Podcasts Location-based news & commercial info

41. Do we want to be the monks or Gutenberg?