HARRISBURG– The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, host of America East, announces a new program for
all newspapers to boost revenue, print and online audience up to 50 percent by reaching the nation's largest, untapped, targeted audience: Kids.
Gordon Borrell,
Alan Mutter and the
Los Angeles Times see the larger implications of this strategy as a means of
monetizing local with demographically and geo-targeted content that is curated, aggregated and user-generated at low cost or no cost. Read their comments, below.
There are 80 million kids in the U.S – that’s half of newspapers’ total audience for print and online, and three-quarters of newspaper site uniques, according to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).
To reach this audience, PNA is offering subscriptions to
TeenTribune.com and
TweenTribune.com – two websites that, through an arrangement with the AP, aggregate local news stories which spawn user-generated content from students and moderated by teachers. (Think Huffpo for Kids.) In the past year, almost 50,000 teachers have signed up from 15,000 schools and published almost a million comments.
TweenTribune has generated 5 million page views per month, which is more than many newspaper websites in the U.S. Through the PNA program, newspapers subscribe to the service, and have the option of a newspaper-branded print or online (or both!) version of
TweenTribune.com and
TeenTribune.com, for use in their communities and local classrooms. Newspapers also keep 100 percent of local print and online advertising revenue and share in revenue generated by national ads.
Monetizing local
TeenTribune and TweenTribune take hyperlocal a step outside the box, by targeting both geographically
and demographically. Extending this strategy to other demographic groups (seniors, military, Hispanics, etc.) could be the strategy that local media companies have been looking for.
"This ebullient innovation opens a door for an underserved audience and provides the kind of incremental revenue that, strand by strand, eventually just might rope journalism back to a financial mooring,” James Rainey reported in his On The Media column for the Los Angeles Times.
"This is the way local media companies ought to be thinking," Gordon Borrell of Borrell Associates said.
TeenTribune and TweenTribune are multi-platform (print+online) and multi-generational (kids, parents and teachers). The multi-platform play allows newspapers to generate profits instantly, by selling advertising into the locally branded print or online version.
Case Study
The (14,000-circ.) Valdosta Daily Times generated $18,000 in new revenue in two days, Alan Mutter reported on his Newsosaur blog.
"TweenTribune is almost pure profit for newspapers, because it provides hosting, tech support and customer service," Mutter wrote.
How big is the youth market? James McNeal, a former marketing professor at
Texas A&M University, estimates conservatively that children influence more than $100 billion in food and beverage purchases (alone), Matt Richel of The New York Times reported.
For more information, or to participate in a webinar to learn more about this product, please contact Tricia Wright, VP, Association Services, Pennsylvania Newspaper Association at
triciaw@pa-news.org or (717) 703-3070.