Ideas on Audiotex p.

By: M.L. Stein

Newspaper execs say it can be profitable ? with a little hard work sp.

Who would believe that a baseball announcer's recording of George Brett getting his 3,000th hit would inspire 89,000 calls to the Kansas City Star's audiotex system?
Associate editor David Zeeck would, because that is what happened when the paper's Star Touch Audio Information Services advertised the recording.
"It blew the door down," he said at a panel on audiotex at the Associated Press Managing Editors' convention.
Zeeck and two other panelists, Karen Stabley of the Baltimore Sun and Tim Atseff of the Syracuse Herald-Journal, described uses of audiotex that go far beyond stocks, weather and sports.
Readers can dial information on breaking news stories, political poll results, high school football schedules and scores, teacher homework assignments, crossword puzzle answers, soap opera summaries, horse and dog races, fishing reports, how and where to order a pizza, and to hear a Halloween story.
In what Zeeck called "news enhancement," the Star also drew thousands of calls when it played tapes of the late Red Barber broadcasting a baseball game and a recorded song by Roger Miller just after his death. A thousand calls were logged the first week the latter tape was offered.
The Herald-Standard, Atseff reported, gave the Chamber of Commerce a number for its own communication purposes. In return, the chamber agreed to promote the audiotex service NewsLine in its publications, which have an audience of more than 3,000 business leaders.
Atseff termed his paper's Homework Hotline "one of the best grassroots way to reach the community."
He warned, however, that setting up such a line means a great deal of work and attention to detail.
Done well, it can be very profitable with advertising sponsorship, Atseff said. He advised that a commercial be played on every message to get listeners used to the idea of advertising.
"Otherwise, when you introduce ads, callers will be irritated by the intrusion," he explained.
Atseff also urged newspapers to assign editors to establish and become the driving force behind audiotex because, as journalists, they understand the news and information process. At the Herald Journal, assistant managing editor Stan Linhorst is in charge of the project.
However, sponsorships should be sold by the top advertising people ? "those with the most clout, influence and credibility," Atseff said.
Atseff advised against rolling out the audiotex service until a paper has a "critical mass" of advertisers.
"Subliminally, the community senses when something is valuable enough for businesses to back it with their money," he observed.
The Baltimore Sun developed its information delivery system, SunFAX, to go against new and aggressive competitors such as the regional Bell operating companies, said Stabley, the paper's director of new electronic media.
She says that the stock market, sports, weather and lottery results are the most popular categories, but revealed that the newsroom has come up with such additions as voice mail for health columnists and "unscientific" surveys on comics and other topics.
The panelists said that most calls are free for readers. The Sun's exceptions, Stabley said, are its "highly profitable" Voice Personals, which charges $1.99 per minute to respond to and retrieve messages, and its Sunline voice r?sum? service. The advertiser pays for the r?sum?s but there is no charge to respondents. The Herald-Standard charges for crossword and lottery information.
For 1993, Stabley revealed, the Sun is planning to introduce stand-alone automotive and real estate classified systems and new fax enhancements to audiotex.
Currently, readers in the Baltimore metropolitan area can retrieve documents either by Touch-Tone phone or fax.
The Kansas City Star, Zeeck said, pitches advertisers with an elaborate information kit that pledges: "Every dollar you invest hits the target!" It also says that a "captive audience" hears the message before getting the requested data and that messages can be changed easily and quickly, often by recording an update over the phone.
Financial facts cover not only stock market updates but also Dow Jones averages, mutual funds, bond market tracking, and precious metals and commodities reports, Zeeck said.
For a $10 yearly fee, Star Touch will set up a code and password for an individual's own portfolio or news requests that are played only for him or her.
"What separates our system from most others is that it's newsroom-based, and driven not by menus but by embedding the message in the news copy," Zeeck said.
The paper, he continued, believes the system has revenue potential but is not yet profitable.
One phase of the system, Zeeck said, is "news extension" ? allowing readers to receive updates on stories that will not be wrapped up by deadline time.
"It's a new tool for the newsroom to rethink the ways it tells stories, and to break out of some of the limitations of our medium," he commented.
The combined Sunday Syracuse Herald American and Post Standard described its Homework Hotline in a recent Page One story with a sidebar listing the participating schools.
"Test the system internally before taking it public," Atseff said.
He suggested creating a contest that will load up the system and fill up all the lines with the cooperation of employees and their families.
"You may be surprised at what you find," the panelist said. "We found that 16 lines had not been hooked up by the phone company."
The tests, he predicted, can stave off future disasters.
He compared such tests with focus groups, saying, "You'll learn a lot about what the community will like and not like. You'll learn about voices that don't sound clear, instructions that aren't clear, information that is out of date or inappropriate, or ideas for local programming.
Atseff also noted that audiotex can be used to extend newspaper deadlines. If an event will happen too late to make an edition, NewsLine can get the news out, giving journalists an opportunity to beat radio and television.
The system also can provide such refinements as letting callers hear the music the paper's critic is writing about.
"The quality isn't great but you'll be exposing the public to music and local talent they don't otherwise hear on the cookie-cutter radio format," Atseff said.
Be prepared for glitches in introducing special recordings, he warned. He related that when the H-J sought to offer recorded excerpts from the presidential debates, Ross Perot's voice hit a pitch that sounded a telephone tone, ending the recording. However, he said, the problem was eventually solved.