Us: So what markets are you not in now that looking to move into?Newspaper exec: None.
Our first reaction was: none??!? None??!!?? How can this be??? But then we thought about it...newspapers were living in a comfortable world of co-opetition with their brethren - they each owned there respective markets and life was pretty cozy. Well, that was over two years ago. Have times changed? In a word: yes.
We're now living in a world where newspaper.coms realize that more than 50% of their on-line visitors come from out of market. How to monetize these folks, still deliver a localized experience (outside a diminishing print footprint) and own their markets are now becoming larger and larger issues (notwithstanding that they should have been issues 2 years ago).
In any event, at Topix we think about this stuff everyday. And recently we announced a deal with Tribune which goes, to some degree, to help rectify this. We are going to be powering the general merchandise ads for Tribune papers. The beauty of this deal: it taps into the larger market of classified ads we have developed over the last 6 months at Topix. A nationwide network fo free classifieds that delivers community, targeted ads and most importantly, revenue. Pretty sweet.
The bigger picture: every Tribune paper will now have a classified solution for every market in the US...all 32,500 of them. We couldn't be more pleased. And the analysts seem to agree with us.
So what markets does Tribune want to move into that they are not in now? All of them. Watch out Craig.