130 Year Old Michigan Newspaper Takes Internet Ad Sales to the Next Level with Local Thunder®
Petoskey News Review generates new revenue streams with successful local online shopping environment
PORTLAND, Maine, August 12, 2008 — As most newspapers nationwide strive to find new revenue streams to counter the continuing down trend in traditional print advertising, the Petoskey News Review in Michigan, one of the nation's oldest newspapers (now owned by Schurz Communication, Inc.) is now generating new revenue streams thanks to the creation of a highly successful online shopping environment.
With the help of Local Thunder, an innovative creator of next generation online advertising platforms for local media outlets, Petoskey News Review developed a shopping website featuring rich-content display ads, e-commerce capabilities and opt-in email campaigns for local consumers. In just two months, the new site www.shopsmartupnorth.com brought more than 45 new online advertisers to the newspaper. Christy Lyons, Petoskey News Review's Advertising Director explains:
"We needed a strategy to generate new advertising dollars without negatively affecting our traditional print advertising revenue. Our corporate office mentioned that they had worked with Local Thunder to develop online initiatives for their radio and TV stations and when we heard about their successes, we knew that we had found the right partner for us. Their turnkey solution had us up and running in under 8 weeks and since our launch in May, 45 new advertisers have already committed budget to the new site as an extension of their promotional mix."
In addition to generating incremental revenue from their existing advertisers, Lyons reports that their new online shopping environment is already helping the newspaper forge new relationships with non-traditional advertisers.
"One of the most appealing aspects of our new initiative is that we have been able to offer an effective promotional platform for smaller businesses that traditionally have not had the time or the resources to develop a Web presence or to do any kind of print advertising", comments Lyons.
One of the keys to the paper's early successes with their new online initiative has been cross promotion. "We have invested heavily in print and radio advertising and have taken every opportunity to talk about it at business events in our local area. It has really paid off so far and we are very optimistic for the future," concludes Lyons.
Local Thunder offers innovative products and solutions that help local TV, radio stations and media groups leverage their strong offline brands in the online space. Local media in all size markets across North America have chosen Local Thunder as the foundation for their local online revenue strategy and the company's fast growing customer list KWCH in Wichita KS, ABC affiliate KERO 23 in Bakersfield, CA and NBC affiliate WAGT-TV in Augusta GA, to name a few. The Local Thunder organization is a team of experienced broadcast, technology and marketing professionals dedicated to keeping clients on the forefront of Internet localization.
For additional information contact:
Veronique Froment
HighrezPR
veronique@highrezpr.com
(603)537-9248