Print-Online Circulation Link Is Rusty

By: Howard I. Finberg Editor's note: This "Digital Output" column originally appeared in the Sept. 17 print issue of E&P.

There is lots of talk about convergence. For the most part, the focus is on sharing editorial resources across print, broadcast, and online properties.

And while that's a great thing, I think there is an even better convergence opportunity that's being overlooked: linking newspaper-subscriber-circulation systems with online e-commerce systems.

Our online news consumers are a mixed group.

Some are loyal subscribers to the printed newspaper who like to get updates and other information. Newspapers could use "circulation convergence" to help these customers manage their accounts, such as renewals or vacation holds.

Others using our Web sites only access our news content online. For some sites, these nonsubscribers make up half of their online consumers. This is a very valuable market of potential print subscribers to whom we could market the value of adding print subscriptions to their information mix. Going after this market should be simple: Use the Internet and make subscribing as easy as ordering a book from Amazon.com.

The sad fact is that few newspapers have the technology in place to accomplish these goals. This problem is the focus of a recently released report of the Newspaper Association of America's (NAA) Circulation Federation, entitled "Come Together: Defining the Complementary Marketing Roles of Print and Online." (Full disclosure: Finberg-Gentry, the Digital Futurist Consultancy, were consultants to the NAA for this project.)

In a survey of 290 circulation managers, this convergence gap is clearly illuminated: Only 7% of those responding said their online and print subscriptions systems are electronically linked together. That leaves a whopping 93% "unconverged."

Instead, most newspapers rely on a kludge of systems that include e-mail to either the circulation department or the online department. Some newspapers even print out this e-mail and have customer-service agents type the contents into the circulation system.

The worst example is the kind of site that requires online customers to write down the customer-service telephone number, move away from their computers, and phone the newspaper to request subscriptions. This technological disconnect was shared across all circulation categories, from the smallest newspapers to the largest, in the NAA survey.

The Web shopping experience is about acting on a decision while you have time and while you are online. If a customer likes the content he or she is reading, then the newspaper Web site must provide a quick way to sign up for the print version.

Unfortunately, I do not see the solution being rolled out across newspaper Web sites soon. The dilemma is twofold:

* There seems little demand to have a fully integrated customer-service solution. Newspapers can't measure what they are missing and hence it becomes harder to develop the return on investment to integrate traditional circulation systems with e-commerce capabilities.

* The majority of newspaper circulation-management systems are "homegrown." It will take resources to either upgrade them to allow for more dynamic connection between our circulation and Web systems or to replace them.

For many newspapers, integration of circulation and Web e-commerce systems means thinking differently about customers and how to manage that information. Many circulation systems are built on the premise of "delivery-list management"; Web e-commerce systems are built on the idea of "customer management."

To use the Web effectively as a subscription acquisition method, circulation managers need to focus on building complete customer-management systems.

With a customer-management system, you can track who is a subscriber and a frequent user of classified ads. Or who has requested information from the Web site and is a Sunday-only subscriber. With such knowledge, companies can offer loyalty programs that tie a customer to the newspaper or upsell the occasional subscriber new products and services.

Beyond the convergence needed between circulation and online departments to build an effective customer-management system, there needs to be better communication between the newspaper and its technology supplier. A supplier should grasp this opportunity to help the newspaper understand why a fully integrated effort is in the customer's best interest and to develop tools and solutions that are Web-based. In many respects, these vendors need to re-engineer their systems to get away from the legacy technology of the past and use the Internet as their platform.

[For more information about NAA's "Come Together" report, call (800) 651-4622 or (703) 902-1803.]