In one very important aspect, online publishing is no different than conventional publishing: It still has to generate revenues. But how? Newspapers & Technology Associate Editor Marcelo Duran examined the steps newspapers can take to monetize their online operations with Saxotech Inc. Vice President of Corporate Marketing Paul Harris.

On issues newspapers are facing when it comes to online publishing:

Harris: Standardizing, centralizing and monetizing. Those are the three driving issues for online publishers today.

Most publishers I have spoken with tell me that their online operations need to become a revenue-generating line of business on par with other existing business units within the next two years, many within the next year.

In order to monetize the Web, online publishing must first be centralized, and in order to centralize, you have to begin with a standard approach to your Web publishing operations.

 

Newspapers that have under-invested in Web initiatives in the past are feeling the most pain as they are faced with integrating home-grown sites with back-end systems. A lack of standards within these organizations makes it hard to scale online publishing to feed the growing online audience and to serve advertisers.

Building a profitable online advertising business that provides a foundation for revenue for years to come is challenging for newspapers that must also support legacy advertising systems.

Of course, all this must be done in within a model that allows them to quickly respond to emerging market opportunities.

On how vendors are responding to these issues:

Harris: Vendors fall back on their strengths. Legacy ad or front-end editorial vendors are working to adapt their existing products to support online models. Vendors with core online publishing strengths are deploying integrated online advertising solutions and streamlining the integration to print editorial systems.

On features newspapers are asking for when it comes to online publishing:

Harris: Editorial staffs are asking for more control over online content. Publishers want better business analytics to help them track online trends. And advertising executives want a clear picture of their online advertising inventory, along with the ability to instantly create new multimedia products. Keeping in tune with the Internet culture we live in, everybody wants everything yesterday.

On how feasible it is to have online publishing standardized in order to allow users to quickly share content:

Harris: You’ve hit a key driver for standardization: content sharing. It’s not how feasible this is, but how quickly can publishers respond to this critical business issue. Several groups have established standards for online publishing that enable users to easily multipurpose content. Independent newspapers are fueling niche sites with shared content. Adopting a standard approach internally is a critical step that can’t happen fast enough for many publishers. Industry-wide standards are another story.

On what standard would be most helpful to online publishers:

Harris: Presenting content for syndication is the best example of a case for a common online publishing platform in the newspaper industry today.

On how long it would take to implement a set of online publishing standards:

Harris: History has shown us that, unfortunately, the establishment of industry standards can take years to complete. For example, traditional telephone companies were late to market with broadband services because of years of waiting for industry standards. In that case, the incumbent’s stalling for standards allowed cable operators to enter and establish an early market lead in residential broadband.

Another good example is Java. Many people are using it - but it is not an industry standard nor has any standards body approved it.

On what helpful development you have seen that has driven online publishing over the past year:

Harris: Fully integrated online advertising with online publishing is probably the most significant development over the past year. Publishers that centralized their Web operations over the past five years are moving on to more advanced online advertising business models. The continued increase in user participation is also driving how publishers deliver content. In fact, it is not about delivering content; rather it is about engaging the reader and getting them involved in the story.