By: Staff Reports Scholarships101.com Offers New Revenue Opportunities
As online newspapers seek profitability, special sections - where topical
services and advertising can be combined - are creeping to the forefront.
CollegeJournal.com, one of The Wall Street Journal's four Web sites that
offers free content, has added a scholarship database that
matches students with money sources. If a user doesn't find a scholarship in the
database, he can then opt for having his information forwarded to banks for loan
consideration.
Pinnacle Peak Solutions, the Glendale, Ariz.-based provider of
Scholarships101.com, has been quietly racking up a list of newspaper clients
that includes the Journal, PowerAdz.com affiliates, MediaNews Group
papers, and others. The database includes over 8,000 sources of academic
funding, over 600,000 awards, and $1 billion in available funding, said Dave
Fenstermaker, executive vice president of marketing/media at Pinnacle Peak.
The company, which gives newspapers the database for free with no co-branding
requirements, has been around since 1991. The scholarship database was first
available as a CD-ROM, allowing users to find funding based on their personal
profiles. The online version includes the searchable database with tips for
students on how to become more well-rounded for the college application process.
"I think it was a nice added tool for what we already have to offer," said
Patricia Rodeawald, assistant director of Career Ventures Group, a Dow Jones &
Co. affiliate based in Princeton, N.J. Despite most newspaper's hesitation to
partner with new application service providers (ASPs), Rodeawald said that
Pinnacle Peak's seven-year relationship with Coca-Cola, providing services to
the beverage company's education initiatives, convinced her the company wasn't
going to disappear.
Pinnacle Peak does not include advertising on its site. Nor is it trying to
promote itself as a stand-alone operation, instead offering newspapers a closed-
loop site that doesn't include links to anywhere outside the affiliate's site.
The company's revenues come from the banks that are willing to pay for the loan
leads. This lead fee is shared with the newspaper sites, said Fenstermaker, who
added that students must request that their personal information be shared with
lendors before any personal information is released.
In addition, Pinnacle does not resell students' information, but instead gives
each newspaper exclusive access to user information that was entered on the
newspaper's site. Rodeawald said she hasn't gotten that list yet, but that's
because CollegeJournal.com only started using the database in late February.
Rodeawald doesn't expect to use the information for marketing purposes.
CollegeJournal.com opted for some of the topic-specific content offered by
Pinnacle Peak to its newspaper affiliates, said Rodeawald, who had the content
customized for her site. Pinnacle Peak has hired StaffWriters in New York City
to produce content on higher education and funding, including stories in 250-,
500-, or 750-word formats.
Pinnacle Peak's online offerings are bareboned when it comes to design, but
Fenstermaker said that allows the affiliates to add the graphics they want to
the site. Since Pinnacle hosts the site, graphics are all they need to get an
affiliate up and running with the database.
Unlike wsj.com, Career Ventures Group's sites are largely advertising supported,
so the additional revenue stream from the scholarship database at
CollegeJournal.com is an added benefit, especially since little maintenance work
is required at the Dow Jones affiliate.
Lucia Moses (lmoses@editorandpublisher.com)
is an associate editor covering business for E&P.
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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