Texas Rivals Unite for Online Auction

By: Charles Geraci Two Texas newspaper rivals are teaming up to sponsor a 10-day online auction, which involves more than 500 companies listing over 1,500 unique products. The auction began on April 13 and runs through April 23. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News each ran a massive catalog of the auction items in their April 11, Sunday editions.

In 60 pages carried in four sections that day, the papers featured everything from cars and televisions to travel packages and gift certificates. Since The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal ran an online auction in 2002, they have become increasingly popular among newspapers.

Among the more unusual items up for auction are: glycolic acid peel treatments, a heart scan, a "quit smoking" hypnosis package, and a $500 gift certificate for rodent control.

The auctions are organized to minimize the risk that an item will sell for less than its retail value. To prevent this, the papers are guaranteeing merchants that if an item sells, they will receive advertising space of equal value to the item's retail price. While Knight Ridder's Star-Telegram is focusing a lot on new advertisers, Belo's Morning News has mainly appealed to current ones.

The two papers decided to jointly sponsor the online auction after the Star-Telegram (Click for QuikCap), which had decided to hold an auction, learned that the Morning News (Click for QuikCap) was planning one of its own. This is apparently the first time that two U.S. newspapers owned by different parent companies have united in such a venture.

"There is healthy competition with an unprecedented amount of cooperation," said Brad Hagstrom, the retail advertising director for the Star-Telegram. He said his paper has over 600 more items up for bid and $200,000 more in total retail product value than the Morning News. As of Thursday afternoon, both papers have at least one bid on roughly 80% of their items.

The papers have collaborated by forwarding leads and holding several meetings between pressroom management, marketing, advertising, and finance teams.

And local consumers have responded to the papers' efforts. "We've had people who go to church with members of our advertising department stop them in church and ask about the auction," Hagstrom said. "This has been one of the most inspiring sales opportunities that I've ever been associated with."

Kathrine Glass, advertising promotion manager for the Morning News, called it "a great opportunity to do something fun that has never been done in this market."

Both papers plan to hold another online auction next year and may partner again.

CityXpress of Vancouver, British Columbia, is supplying the technology for the auction.