Software Solutions for Hard Times

By: Mark Fitzgerald Gerald J. Taylor had a grand vision of a single platform that would integrate publishing, advertising, circulation and business functions at The Dispatch in Moline, Ill., where he is publisher, and at its Small Newspaper Group sibling dailies nearby in Kankakee and Moline.

Taylor is also head of the technology task force at privately owned Small, which in May signed an agreement to install Digital Technology International's solution for that grand vision at all its papers ? a project with the potential to incorporate 300 seats in four states.

After considerable deliberation, Taylor made the decision to start installing the circulation part in two Illinois papers, the flagship Daily Journal in Kankakee and The Times in Ottawa. They would solve at least one problem ? a legacy circ system homemade by someone who no longer even worked at Small.

"The timing was nothing less than stunning," Taylor says with a laugh. "There's nothing," he adds, "like spending a jillion dollars" just when the newspaper industry hits the skids.

All across the country, newspapers that had not yet made such commitments are snapping the capital expenditure purse shut. But even in these hard times ? and maybe especially now ? an investment in new- generation software is exactly what a newspaper needs.

Despite the somewhat rueful laugh, Taylor concluded that a harsh economy demanded the efficiencies and quality of service the DTI system promises. "We decided this was no time to have a legacy system that was showing less dependability all the time," he says.

At The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, meanwhile, Business Systems Analyst James Allen hears from a lot of nervous newspaper executives wondering whether they should emulate the Landmark Communications daily, which has invested more than once in self-service advertising software from Wave2 Media Solutions.

"I'll tell you exactly what I would say because we're kind of a flagship for Wave2, and I get the questions all the time," Allen says. He starts with this fact: Its first application, for classified ads, paid for itself in the first year.

"If they're thinking of spending money in this kind of climate, the inevitable next question the publisher is going to ask is, how are we going to mitigate cannibalization?" Allen says. His answer: Limit inventory if that's a concern. But realize that while self-service software may let a contract advertiser get more ads, it frees up salespeople to capture new accounts, and designers "to do the creative stuff that ultimately has a bigger price point than the ordinary stuff." And 90% of retailers using self-service are new advertisers, he adds.

Across the country, where the collapsed California housing market seemingly still looks for a bottom, Freedom Interactive just last month launched 40 real estate sites at The Orange County Register and the rest of Freedom Communications' markets.

"I lobbied to move ahead" despite the climate, says Linda Fisk, Freedom Interactive's vice president of marketing and ad products. The problem for Freedom papers was that their print real estate classified was competitive, but their interactive offerings were losing share to better sites operated by national competitors. "It's very unfortunate when a national competitor can do better than you in your own backyard," she says.

Gabriels Technology Solutions designed and maintains a solution that uses a single portal to offer rich, neighborhood-level content customized to be uniquely local for each of the 40 markets. "We were able to save on the investment," Fisk reports, "because with Gabriels we were buying functionality and search capability one time ? but serving 40 markets, rather than buying 40 different iterations of the vertical."

Vendors, too, are reacting to newspapers' new economic reality. The classified ad software maker Ranger Data, for instance, has eliminated all upfront fees and licensing payments for a per-month charge of $60 per station for its outbound call system. "We're very, very fortunate that our products are designed exactly for these kinds of times ? extremely affordable and a revenue-generating system," says President and Chief Operating Officer Tony Marsella.