THE KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL CONTENT

By: Joel Davis Online News Execs Offer Their Strategies



SAN FRANCISCO - Know your readers. Be unique. Get the most out of
your staff.



These are the three keys to online success, panelists at the
ScreamingMedia 2000 mal/Content conference said this week.



'You have to be able to do something different,' said David Talbot,
founder, chairman and editor-in-chief of Salon.com, the acclaimed
online network. Talbot, a self-described newspaper junkie who cut
his teeth on the brash 'new journalism' of the 1960s, got the idea
for Salon.com, which he calls an online newspaper, after he sensed
a journalistic malaise in the 1980s.



'They were dreary times,' he said. 'The 1980s were an era of celebrity
journalism in magazines. And as metropolitan newspapers became
monopolies, they also lost their competitive drive...'What animates
me is breaking stories nobody else has.'



Longing for a 'sharp-elbows world' he said was lacking in journalism,
Talbot launched Salon.com with a lean budget and a big appetite for
scoops. 'It cost John F. Kennedy Jr. $20 million to $25 million to
launch George,' he said. 'We launched Salon with a $60,000 loan from
Apple.'



While he noted that profit margins for online media sites are
'exceedingly thin,' Talbot said containing costs while hiring a small
but talented editorial staff can lead to success. He believes in hiring top talent and paying them well, but he also believes in getting the most out of that talent by having staffers 'multi-task.' For instance, a political reporter who interviews a politician will typically write a story and also post the recording of the interview on the site's audio portal so Salon.com customers can hear it as well.



Talbot also shared that Salon.com not only offers content on its site, but 'syndicates' stories to corporations, such as Kimberly Clark, which recently paid six figures for access to Salon.com material. 'There are other was to 'monetize' content: Salon parcels out,' he said.



It should be noted that Salon.com recently issued pink slips to 13 staffers in a cost-cutting measure.



Knowing your readers, engaging them and maintaining them is also key, said panelist Jonathan Krim, executive editor of The Street.com. 'Make sure you know your readership,' he said. 'The better you know your demographic, the better you can charge' for content. 'Focus on your core audience and know what its needs are.'



Translating content into value, Krim added, can be done by offering such eye candy as stock tips to subscribers who will likely renew their subscriptions if the tip helped them make money. 'That's how you translate content into value,' said Krim, who spent 16 years at the San Jose Mercury News in a variety of writing, editing and senior management positions.



In addition to knowing readers, an online information provider also must understand its own technology, Krim noted. 'I don't know a technology company out there whose biggest enemy isn't technology,' he said. 'You have to understand the animal that is your IT department.'



And while a ScreamingMedia survey found that 79% of respondents dislike subscriber sites, pay-per-view is here to stay, Krim insisted. He noted that subscription cable television was initially met with a similar disdain, yet now predominates in many communities. Online information providers will follow a similar path, he suggested. 'This is not a sprint; these are the early days, this is a long race,' he said.



Also here to stay are books, which panelist Chris MacAskill, CEO of MightyWords.com, said have weathered every technological innovation. But MacAskill, whose company allows readers and writers to buy, sell and publish written content online, said there's a niche online for writing that is too short for a physical book and lengthier than most newspaper and magazine articles.



'The best-selling book online is $3 higher than the published version is,' MacAskill said. 'The customer has never complained about paying for [online content] unless they are very short articles or news they can get elsewhere.'



Because of logistical limitations, physical book publishers are resistant to publishing books of less than 200 pages, Krim noted. This creates the perfect niche for online publishers and short-story writers.



'We believe there is a huge market for material longer than a magazine and shorter than a book, and you can charge for it,' he said.