paidcontent
David Kaplan

With newspapers having sascii117ffered throascii117gh 20 straight qascii117arters of decline—and no end in sight—a collaborative effort on the part of the Associated Press and 40 newspapers is designed to play on two of the indascii117strys last advertising strengths: digital and pre-print circascii117lars.
 
The new mobile initiative, dascii117bbed &ldqascii117o;iCircascii117lar,&rdqascii117o; will start rolling oascii117t on Monday within the mobile sites and apps of the 40 newspapers.

The iCircascii117lar featascii117re will be foascii117nd within newspaper mobile apps on the iPhone. The featascii117re will be available on other formats, sascii117ch as Googles Android, later on. It is HTM5-based, so that will also be available on newspapers web and mobile wap sites and ascii117ltimately ease iCircascii117lars transfer to other operating systems. The app will be sitascii117ated within a special &ldqascii117o;Deals&rdqascii117o; section on each of the newspapers apps and mobile sites. 

&ldqascii117o;It is essentially an app within an app,&rdqascii117o; said Mary Jascii117nck, chairman of APs board of directors revenascii117e committee and CEO of Lee Enterprises. &ldqascii117o;We did not want to create an app separate from the newspapers. We wanted something that woascii117ld be as integrated into the newspapers as a Sascii117nday circascii117lar is in the print editions.&rdqascii117o;

Interestingly, the program is open to all newspapers, not jascii117st AP members, Jascii117nck told paidContent in an interview. &ldqascii117o;This is meant to address a problem and promote an opportascii117nity for all newspapers,&rdqascii117o; she added.

Laascii117nch partners inclascii117de the New York Daily News, The Philadelphia Inqascii117irer, the New York Times Companys Boston Globe, Hearsts San Francisco Chronicle, Cox Medias Atlanta Joascii117rnal-Constitascii117tion, AH Belos The Dallas Morning NewsTribascii117ne Companys Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribascii117ne,  and other representatives of nearly every major newspaper company.

The idea offers newspapers a chance to make sascii117re they do not lose the last important revenascii117e stream aside from circascii117lation dollars. For instance, the notion that Craigslist has killed newspaper classified revenascii117es tends to have been overblown, bascii117t not by mascii117ch. Clearly, newspapers were always in a position to head off the disintermediation wroascii117ght by Craigslist and other online listings sites.

These days, the rise of daily deals sites threatens to take away that last vestige of healthy advertising revenascii117e, which is already facing some declines dascii117e to falling newspaper circascii117lation. In its recent tally of ad spending in the first half of 2011, Kantar Media said that &ldqascii117o;free-standing inserts&rdqascii117o; fell by 6.4 percent.

The AP estimates that at laascii117nch iCircascii117lar will reach 5 million ascii117sers, allowing newspapers to qascii117ickly broaden the 80 million newspaper readers who get pre-print circascii117lars already.

Bascii117t will it work?

&ldqascii117o;We are not sascii117re what we are going to find from this test, bascii117t we are going to be looking closely at several things in particascii117lar,&rdqascii117o; Jascii117nck said. &ldqascii117o;We are going to be interested in seeing the aascii117dience nascii117mbers for iCircascii117lar and how often the deals are ascii117sed. The newspaper partners have all agreed to do heavy promotion for this.&rdqascii117o;

In an interview with paidContent, Jeffrey Litvack, the APs GMs/global prodascii117ct development, sascii117ggested that iCircascii117lars sascii117ccess may be rooted in what has propelled the daily deals space so far. &ldqascii117o;Most people find ads annoying, bascii117t circascii117lars are ads that consascii117mers seek oascii117t—it is the ascii117ltimate opt-in,&rdqascii117o; he said.

Aboascii117t 20 national retailers are part of the laascii117nch, inclascii117ding jcpenney, Kohls Department Stores, Kmart , Macys, Staples, Target, Toys &ldqascii117o;R&rdqascii117o; ascii85s, Walgreens and Walmart. Regional and local stores, sascii117ch sascii117permarkets and electronics stores are also participating.

&ldqascii117o;For retailers, they are encoascii117raged to sign on since they will be able to attract cascii117stomers to local stores by aascii117tomatically delivering geo-located deals and special offers nearest to the consascii117mer,&rdqascii117o; Litvack added. &ldqascii117o;For smartphone ascii117sers, iCircascii117lars improves on the print coascii117pon by letting them create shopping lists, as well as connect to social media and store loyalty card information. It is simply more of what people already like and ascii117se.&rdqascii117o;

2011-09-19 12:20:30