Keynoter at Interactive show feels a breeze

By: Carl Sullivan "Finally a breeze, if not a wind, is at our back," says Christopher M. Schroeder, vice president for strategy at The Washington Post Co., referring to the rejuvenation of newspaper new media businesses. "Most of us are experiencing pretty good first quarters. Advertisers are opening up more dollars to online. Few marketers question the quality of our audiences or that they can be reached at times of day that no other medium reaches them."

Schroeder will address these and other issues in Atlanta on May 11 at the Interactive Media Conference & Trade Show, sponsored by E&P and Mediaweek magazines, where he is a keynote speaker.

New York Times Digital posted its best operating profit margin ever, 32.6%, in the first quarter. Dow Jones reported operating income in electronic publishing was up 10.1% from the year-ago period. But alas, all things are not bright and beautiful. "Most news and information sites have audiences, who on average, spend less than 25 minutes per month on their site," Schroeder points out. "Most [print] newspapers average 25 minutes per day. How can we be a branding vehicle at 25 minutes per month?"

Schroeder also wonders what will happen when marketers shift more of their branding to their own Web sites, a la Jerry Seinfeld currently on AmericanExpress.com, and when Google and others "seemingly prove that CPA [cost per action] and CPC [cost per click] are what the Web is all about?" He asks, "Have pay-for-performance models done to CPM [cost per thousand] what TiVo is doing to the 30-second spot?" If this doesn't keep online publishers up late at night, "I don't know what will," he added.

Previously the CEO and publisher of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, Schroeder spends a lot of time at his new job thinking about the ramifications of new technology on all media. Recent travels in Korea and Japan have convinced him that "we are living in a world where all information will be ubiquitous, and more greatly controlled by the individual user than ever before."

How will his company retain audience share in this increasingly competitive and fragmented market? "No media company can take its audiences for granted," Schroeder replies. "Instead, they must constantly offer the highest level of information, content and service on the terms of the new technologies and how our consumers want to interact with them ? not as we wish they would interact with them. And by offering content and services that are at their fingertips, and make their lives better, easier, faster and more efficient, we can provide a unique and compelling online experience."