Gannett, Others Look to ‘Emerge From Chaos’ as Hybrid Print-Web Players
by
Published: May 04, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Myth: newspapers stuck their heads in the sand and just hoped the internet would go away.
Reality: Newspapers took some of the biggest, earliest swings on the web, most turned out to be misses, and then got steamrolled by Google just like everyone else.
The nation’s print media may be on life support, but some are quietly building digital portfolios again — albeit on a smaller scale — and some are starting to bear fruit.
We’re not talking about the digital editions of papers themselves, but startups that take old media in new directions. Gannett, for example, the nation’s biggest publisher with 85 dailies, has acquired a half dozen startups, and taken stakes in several others that will contribute meaningfully to the $1 billion in digital revenue it expects to collect in 2009. For those keeping score, News Corp. missed the $1 billion mark in 2008, even with MySpace in the portfolio.
“Gannett is trying to harness technologies so that it can emerge from this chaos as a hybrid digital company,” said Ken Doctor, news analyst at research firm Outsell.
Digital diversification
Gannett’s portfolio of digital start-ups includes Pointroll, which powers some of the most innovative rich-media display ads on the web, including Apple’s ads on The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Pointroll, acquired in 2005, is now up to 350 employees and served a billion impressions for 1,500 agency and advertiser clients in 2008.
“The ultimate goal is to transform Gannet into a real digital leader by leveraging the strength of content and the audience that it has and extending that into the digital world,” said Pointroll CEO Jason Tafler.
Other digital investments at Gannett include ShopLocal, which is putting Gannett newspapers’ circular business (still an $8 billion business) online; Ripple6, maker of social networking tools; and MomsLikeMe, which operates 80 local mothering sites around the country. All are being integrated with Gannett’s Digital Media Network, a network of Gannett-owned sites, including 85 daily newspapers and 23 TV stations, launched last week…
Read the entire article here…
Digital Portfolio Offers Advertisers Unprecedented Combination of National Reach and Local Engagement
MCLEAN, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) announced today the formation of a groundbreaking network that will change the way advertisers reach their target customers. The Gannett Digital Media Network ties together more than 100 digital communities with a combined reach of approximately 25 million people.
Included in the network are Gannett’s best-of-breed news and information sites, led by USATODAY.com, the web site for the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper. It also includes the local sites for Gannett’s massive network of newspaper and broadcast properties, representing some of the most recognized brands in their communities, such as AZCentral.com and IndyStar.com. The consumers visiting these sites are incredibly attractive to advertisers. On the whole, they skew higher on metrics such as education and household income and, according to a recent Jupiter Research study, local sites rank highest for trust in advertising and attract consumers who spend more money online. This combination of national reach and true local engagement makes the Gannett Digital Media Network unique.
Beyond news and information, the Gannett Digital Media Network can also help marketers build relationships with influential audiences on a variety of growing niche sites, including:
- MomsLikeMe.com (www.momslikeme.com), an innovative new local social network for moms in 80 markets across the country;
- HighSchoolSports.net (www.highschoolsports.net), the largest prep sports site in the country, reaching teens, moms and dads;
- Metromix.com (www.metromix.com), the local entertainment and nightlife guide reaching the young urban market; and
- BNQT.com (www.bnqt.com), which operates the leading action sports network online, attracting millennials and extreme sports enthusiasts everywhere.
“The Gannett Digital Media Network gives marketers access to diverse and attractive audience segments through our unparalleled combination of national and local media sites,” said Josh Resnik, vice president and general manager of the Gannett Digital Media Network. “National advertisers will be thrilled with the opportunities presented to them by our Network. We can combine the broad reach of our network with the engagement and affinity found on local sites to help marketers effectively reach their target customers.”
In addition, the newly launched Gannett Digital Media Network leverages the most innovative technologies to help advertisers establish meaningful connections. This includes Gannett’s own top tier digital marketing solutions: PointRoll, the world’s leading provider of rich media advertising, having served more than 85 billion rich media ads in 2008 alone; ShopLocal, which offers a comprehensive suite of solutions used by the country’s largest retailers to reach their customers online; and Ripple6, the only enterprise class social media platform that combines social media tools for users and publishers with social marketing tools and embedded word of mouth analytics.
“We are fortunate to be so closely aligned with leaders in the digital marketing space. PointRoll, ShopLocal and Ripple6 offer marketers innovative ways to connect with their customers. Advertisers are seeking new ways to reach consumers online, and we have integrated those solutions in order to make it easy for marketers to engage with users on the Gannett Digital Media Network,” said Resnik.
About Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. is an international news and information company operating on multiple platforms including the Internet, mobile, newspapers, magazines and TV stations. Gannett is an Internet leader with hundreds of newspaper and TV Web sites; CareerBuilder.com, the nation’s top employment site; USATODAY.com; and more than 80 local MomsLikeMe.com sites. Gannett publishes 85 daily U.S. newspapers, including USA TODAY, the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper, and more than 850 magazines and other non-dailies including USA WEEKEND. Gannett also operates 23 television stations in 19 U.S. markets. Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the United Kingdom’s second largest regional newspaper company with 17 daily paid-for titles, more than 200 weekly newspapers, magazines and trade publications, and a network of Web sites.
Apr 21, 2009
New social networking communities seem to be on every virtual corner these days. Marketers understand that social media can be a powerful strategy that supports niche or segmentation marketing. However, when brands build out communities it’s obviously a business decision that has incurred significant resources – including dollars.
I wondered how do they integrate marketing objectives, while ensuring that the “social” aspects, the heart and soul of the community, are authentically and transparently developed and nurtured? When Chris Kieff offered the opportunity to interview one of his Ripple6 client’s from Meredith Corporation’s recently launched Mixing Bowl, a food and recipe community – I said yes!
About Mixing Bowl
Editors touch every piece of content that exists on our branded sites. We post recipes after they’ve been triple-tested in our kitchens, write how-to articles, and so on. We don’t run Mixing Bowl that way because we want it to be a site created by home cooks for home cooks.
I’m (Heather Morgan Shott) very present on Mixing Bowl (my username is CoolCookie), and my profile page states that I’m a Mixing Bowl editor, but I’d never censor conversation or edit content. I’m there to answer questions as well as contribute to the community just like a typical member would by posting my own recipes, sharing my opinions, and joining groups. From a business point of view, Ripple6 offers advertisers access to a very sophisticated and extensive analytics system.
Read the entire article here…
Behavioral Insider Article in Media Post by , Friday, March 27, 2009, 1:30 PM
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As data miners drill deeper into the social media terrain for meaningful insight, we are starting to see how online conversations are a kind of behavior. The places, ways and times that people interact with one another online are themselves choices that reveal something about their place in a community and perhaps their likely value to marketers. An interesting project from social media platform provider Ripple6 illustrates the ways in which behaviors within social media can both identify key brand advocates and activate them on behalf of a brand.
Ripple6 is a Gannett company that provides both publishers and brands with a range of social media tools. For Proctor & Gamble’s Rouge Magazine site at www.rougemag.com, Ripple6 built a closed community (“The Salon”) where invitees from the P&G mailing list could converse about beauty regimens generally as well as a specific product P&G was promoting. One of the aims of the project was to find advocates and activate them outside of this closed community.
According to Ripple6 CEO Sang Kim , a number of analytic tools can be used to identify potential brand cheerleaders. “What was cool is that one of the things you could see was peer helping,” he says. “Someone would say that they had tried something and it didn’t work, and then someone else would chime in and say that they had experienced the same thing and here is how it worked better for her. That is clearly an advocate — someone who doesn’t just say this is great but actually shows you how to get greater value out of the product.” In other words, the conversation revealed a behavioral gesture the brand would want to enlist: the propensity to reach out and advise.
Read the entire article here…
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George Moser, SVP Field Operations and Geoff Merrick, VP Professional Services
NEW YORK – Ripple6 (www.Ripple6.com) a leading provider of white label social media solutions to enterprise class marketers and web publishers, announced today the expansion of their executive team to manage the explosive growth of the company. George Moser assumes the new position of Senior Vice President of Field Operations and Geoff Merrick joins as the new Vice President of Professional Services. Both executives add extensive experience in business and leadership positions to the Ripple6 team.
“In a year when marketers are looking to social technology for strategic advantage, Ripple6 is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of their businesses. George and Geoff are key additions to our executive team, ” said Sang Kim, Founder & CEO of Ripple6. “Their experience, leadership and energy ensures our position as the leader in social media business solutions. We’re expanding across the entire organization, so we’re poised for explosive growth in the coming year.”
George Moser brings more than twenty years experience to Ripple6 serving in senior management positions in high-growth companies and emerging start-ups. Prior to joining Ripple6, he served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide sales for Vettro, a global provider of Enterprise Mobile applications to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to Vettro , Moser served as Vice President of North American Sales for SPSS (NYSE: SPSS), a global provider of predictive analytics software and solutions. In that capacity he grew new license revenues for the company by 50% year over year, helping to nearly double the company’s stock price during his tenure. Prior to SPSS Moser was COO of Net Perceptions (NASDQ: NETP). He led the company through explosive growth, and a successful IPO to become a recognized leader in the web based recommendation market. In his new role, Moser will be responsible for driving the strategic growth and direction of Ripple6′s field operations – including global sales, pre-sales, customer service and sales operations.
“I look forward to joining the team at Ripple6, as it has quality offerings, an impressive customer list and a leadership position in the rapidly expanding social media market,” said Moser. “Ripple6 is positioned for significant growth in 2009 and I look forward to working with Sang and the team to realize the company’s full potential.”
Geoff Merrick assumes the lead of the Ripple6 Professional Services group which manages the customization and deployments of the Ripple6 platform. The Professional Services group is responsible for best practices and maintaining an efficient and scalable delivery approach which best leverages the platform’s core capabilities.
Geoff has over 15 years of experience in strategic consulting including helping build the professional services organization for Siebel Systems (now part of Oracle) as well as founding a technology consulting company (OKERE), which was acquired by Fujitsu. OKERE was among the first partners of Salesforce.com in both product and professional services capacities and among the first consulting companies focused exclusively on SaaS solution delivery. Merrick brings with him experience delivering a wide range of technology solutions to various industries and Fortune 500 Companies.
Ripple6 has openings for exceptional individuals in numerous positions across the organization. To find out about specific openings please visit: http://www.ripple6.com/about/careers.aspx
About Ripple6, Inc.
Ripple6™ helps marketers and publishers implement their business strategy through social media. The company provides an enterprise white label social media platform to create consumer engagements and relationships, enable social marketing, generate consumer insights, and facilitate commerce and collaboration. It is easily customized to incorporate a brand’s look and feel for integration into an existing web site or to create an entirely new site. Ripple6 a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), is based in New York and its list of clients and partners includes Procter & Gamble, Meredith Corporation, and General Mills. For more information, visit www.Ripple6.com.
Media inquiries:
Rich Ullman
Ripple6, Inc.
SVP, Marketing
646-254-6787
