Newspapers Seek to Merge Various Databases

By: Carl Sullivan Underlying all the numerous registration plans is the desire of publishers to blend their various databases into one customer-management system that would include print subscribers, registered Web users, e-mail subscribers, and classifieds registrants. Integrating all of these different silos of information is the goal of quite a few newspapers, as evidenced by the growing client list of Tacoda Systems Inc., a third-party database-and-marketing-management provider based in New York.

Last year, the company was working with Gannett Co. Inc., the Tribune Co., and Advance Publications. It recently signed contracts with the McClatchy Co., Belo, Morris Communications Co. LLC, Landmark Communications Inc., and Hollinger International Inc. "In the last year, the industry really started to capture audience data and leverage it into value," says Tacoda CEO and President Dave Morgan.

Once a big believer in incremental registration, Morgan is a convert to the sitewide required-reg model. "Two or three years ago, newspapers would have seen their traffic fall in half if they required users to register," he says. "Today, that's not happening at all. Consumers are much more tolerant and accepting of registration. It's becoming the norm." He adds some markets may have competitive reasons not to clamp down sitewide registration.

One of Tacoda's biggest tasks is helping publishers match online and offline subscribers. "The advertising and direct-marketing products that newspapers compete with will deliver that level of targetability," Morgan believes. "At the end of the day, registration makes so much sense because the newspaper ... actually owns something tangible," whereas before it only had an amorphous site-visitor number. "Now," he says, "they have an actual customer list."