It has been a successful strategy with online accounting for over half of last years profits.

Having the same sales force selling print and online will always come up against the problem of the sales team selling volume first. It is very hard to make that team competitive with an online only sales team.

Was great to see you do a post about this issue. The Borrell report certainly got me to write about this topic on my blog as well.

While a separate “attack the mothership” strategy is best, traditional media will struggle with the challenge of hiring a quality, web-only sales staff, and how to deal with clients that want one point of contact.

I suggest a near-term hybrid approach; train/motivate traditional sellers now, modify sales commission structure that encourages web sales, and start process of creating a web-only sales staff.

Mel Taylor
http://www.MelTaylorMedia.com

I am one of literally THOUSANDS of smaller publishers that do it all. The cover shoot and audience analysis done by “In Style” magazine is more revenue than I will see in ENTIRE issue of my magazine.

That being said, I exist, survive, pay the bills and every now and then go on vacation (Killington, here we come).

For BIG publishers, the plug may or may not be pulled…or the day may come when it’s pulled for them!

For tiny publishers like me (concretewavemagazine.com) I’ve already made my decision – I am going to let a THIRD PARTY handle most of my web stuff. Sure, I still have my site, but the real big web stuff goes down at another site called silverfishlongboarding.com.

In exchange for a page in my magazine, they allow me to have a forum and post a blog at their massive website.

How massive?

Silverfish is getting over 53 MILLION pageviews a month. I let them enjoy the ad revenue from their site (a number of their advertisers also advertise in Concrete Wave).

For a small publisher like me, I have outsourced my internet presence and it is liberating.

There are some who will say “but you’re missing out on that revenue.” To them I say, look what I gain:

1. thousands of folks who I’d never reach on line

2. my magazine becomes the official “program” or memento to be on-line

3. I build a foundation to grow and spread ideas

4. no matter how much I put into my own website, I don’t have the time, energy or ability to reach what silverfish has achieved

Again, if you work at a big publisher, I can understand that my ideas might be a little out there…but trust me, I have my hands full handling subscriptions, dealing with editorial and oh yeah, SELLING ADS!!

happy holidays
the skategeezer

I think Scott has done a great job of illustrating how the convergence method can screw the pooch… now let’s imagine how the “cut the cord” model might fail.

I’m an online rep involved in a big sales competition with the print dorks in my publishing company. I meet a buyer through a friend at a party. The buyer is introducing an under the radar product that would play really well in one my company’s print titles. However the print guys are just too far ahead of us in that sales race and I really don’t want to see that damn Smith get that trip to Mexico.

So what do I do?

I hard sell the buyer on some of our online products that don’t quite fit.

One of two results come next:

I make a sale, the campaign brings in sub-par numbers compared to the print campaign they ran somewhere else and the buyer ends up stopping all potential buys from my company for the next year. I just screwed my publisher’s name and reputation… to win a trip to Mexico (or to keep Smith from winning a trip to Mexico).

OR

I don’t make the sale and rather than refer the lead to my internal print rep Smith (like I said, I can’t stand the idea of that idiot getting that trip) I let the lead quietly go to another publisher.

Ultimately there is a disaster scenario waiting down whichever road you choose. The trick is to know what your people can do, what your products can provide, and what your market will accept. Once you have a real understanding of where you are, you can begin to chart a course for where you want to be.

The other issue is that the execs in integrated firms made their careers in print. Saving print is their mission!

Think of it as if it were two different media companies. When two publishers compete, it’s typically the case that one has an offering that better serves the clients needs. Clients don’t always make the smartest decision, but many of them are capable of learning when they’ve made a poor decision. And then they shift their dollars accordingly.

The market sorts itself out.

The publishing and media industries are going through a massively disruptive period — taking an approach that reduce near-term pain will likely lead to longer-term pain.

“If one rep does not own that client relationship, that proposal turns into a cat fight between reps who represent print vs. digital.”

I the print and digital reps are cat fighting to see who can BEST serve the client’s needs, then the client can end up better served than the typical gerrymandered “integrated” proposal.

I don’t know of many publishers who have fully cut the cord, but I do know of some publishers who are on a much steeper online revenue growth track than the industry average.

Marcus,

You’re absolutely right that publishers will be challenged to provide integrated service to a client you who buys both print and online. That said, you might stand to benefit from the competition between print and online. Assuming you’ve committed a particular budget for that publisher brand, if the online rep is able to earn (and I do mean earn) more of that budget, that may not be a bad thing.

Great piece… cutting the cord may be somewhat drastic, but snipping it a bit and allowing the best to hang on may work!

http://www.pubexec.com/pubtalk/pubtalk.bsp?var=story&sid=84368

And I do think that – among those reps who carry both – there is a shifting of the tide. In many cases, they are selling online harder and holding the lines stronger.

Are you seeing any traditional publishers that have made the break to online as you describe, and seeing results that makeup for any loss in print revenue?
Thanks…. have a nice day.
-Dan