I am a 52-year-old gay man with no children, yet I now know the difference between a midwife and a doula, and Baby Loves Disco vs. Baby Loves Hip Hop. Unfortunately, little in my new-found wisdom represents good news for Gannett as it chases advertising in an increasingly crowded field of splintered "cloud" communities. (You're visiting one now: Gannett Blog.)
My education came after surfing for websites similar to Gannett's much-touted Moms Like Me, a social community for mothers initially launched by The Indianapolis Star in fall 2006, and now on most of the company's sites. The moms franchise is part of a larger digital portfolio of niche sites GCI has launched or bought, in hopes of generating more ad revenue at a minimal cost."Moms represent a critical user group with huge buying power and a longing for outside contacts and advice,'' Star Editor Dennis Ryerson wrote in News Watch. "They lead incredibly busy lives and want information that is easy to access, full of utility and as warm and refreshing as their own children."
Gannett's portfolio also features infamous-for-skin Metromix, a joint venture with financially decimated Tribune Co. GCI invested a reported $8 million in Cozi last June; for advertisers, the family calendar start-up could pair well with moms consumers. The newest home-grown microsites are the "green pages," including those in Wilmington, Del., and in Louisville, Ky.(Woven into much of this, we worry, is ethically dicey Ripple6 software. Chief Digital Officer Chris Saridakis and partners sold the consumer data mining firm to Gannett less than four months ago. At possibly under $15 million, the deal itself stretched the bounds of arms-length ethics. GCI gave Ripple6 a $2.2 million contract a year ago to provide "computer programming services related to strategic plan initiatives,'' the March 2008 shareholder proxy report says.)
Tattooed moms vs. your CPMs
Competition is keen for scarce ad dollars, as publishers create even more niche sites -- splintering the market further, and driving down CPM advertising rates again, and again.
Twitter Moms, for example, offers its own reader group on a hot topic: natural childbirth options beyond traditional midwives: doulas. In Indianapolis, Moms Like Me offers a nearly identical group. Gannett's strength may rest on the Moms local-local tagline, customized for each site: "Where Indy moms meet."
But just try keeping up. Childbirth no longer an issue? How about joining Frum Twitter Moms, for tech-savvy Jewish Orthodox mothers who "discuss life at the intersection of Torah and Internet."Got a more edgy spiritual side? There's Counter Culture Moms. "Are you Goth? Punk? Metal? Tattooed?" the blog asks. "Not like all the other moms? Then you have come to the right place!"
How about something more, oh, suburban: Polling Moms, for mothers addicted to polls and surveys. "Post your polls here, so we can all get our fix,'' says the site's creator.
'Green' dancing babies
The number of parent-focused sites Gannett faces in this increasingly crowded industry appears endless. As quickly as I discovered the Philadelphia-area mom-and-pop founders of Baby Loves Disco, I learned they also sell a line of recorded music.
Plus, they've got a blog featuring tips on -- what else -- how you and your kids could celebrate a "green" Valentine's Day: "Talk to your child's teacher about swapping eco-cards made from recycled and tree free materials you find around your home."Ripple6 on its 'brand' cloud communities
"In social environments," Gannett's consumer data software maker says, "people don't want to feel they're being used, overtly pitched or sold at. Marketers have needs and wants, too."
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
The site for Orthodox Jewish moms has predictably minimal participation. Their rabbis generally forbid Internet use, or only for men who use it somewhere other than private and only for business.
ReplyDeleteJust checked the numbers for our moms site for Feb. The entire month, let's say well short of 75K. That's the ENTIRE month.
ReplyDelete10:43 am: well short of 75K in what -- ad sales? Unique visitors?
ReplyDeleteI was at a party where this Moms site came up. The Moms there said they didn't trust these sites, and said they had their own by invitation site. To get in, you had to be identified in person by a member of the blog to see you had a baby and were for real. They met in a park. This struck me as very unusually stringent security, but they said they fear more public sites because of baby snatching and some questions they ask that the Moms felt were aimed at breaching personal security. When you think about it, there is no more protective group than Moms, and any breach of trust or security is going to result in a huge backlash. God help us if the users of the Moms sites ever find out the extent of spying that goes on there.
ReplyDeleteLet's see. If Twitter can't find a business model, do you actually think TwitterMoms would be successful? Come on. What a ridiculous posting Jim. Our moms sites are actually better than anything else out there. We have about 1.5 to 2 million moms on those sites each month.
ReplyDeleteI am not certain a gay, 52 year old, unemployed blogger, living in San Francisco, would know what a respectable, loving Mom would look like even if she hit you over the head with a diaper full of shit and a stroller full of crying babies!
As a mother of three, I feel irritated by the moms like me websites because do these moms ever play or read to their kids or just discuss the best vacuum cleaners to buy?
ReplyDelete10:59a....Explain the "spying" you are referring to in your post? It probably is not anything more than the targeted ads you are seeing on Jim's blog here.
ReplyDeleteSeems there's a cloud communities pilot project that runs through June, 2009, according to what I read on the Ripple6 site. Is the Moms thing part of this? Is this what you're talking about when you say "spying?"
ReplyDeleteSpying -- read what Ripple6 is doing. They are profiling Moms users. Jim isn't profiling or spying. Everyone who comes to this site gets the same ads.
ReplyDeleteWhatever Ripple6 is doing isn't producing much revenue, according to the last quarter results. It certainly isn't coughing up the revenue that newspaper ads bring in.
ReplyDeleteThe Moms site at my southern paper never really took off. There are fewer than 80 members in a metro area with a combined population of about 200,000. Don't know about the page views, but I suspect they're abysmal.
ReplyDeleteA free monthly magazine spun off the site allegedly produces revenue.
Management eliminated the part-time moderator during the first round of layoffs in December. These days, there's no direct link from our homepage to the site. You have to go through a couple of clicks to get there. Hmmmmm.
I understand chasing all the revenue you can, but why not put resources into the core product???
As a niche-publication-loving-person, it struck me today that Gannett isn't doing much to throw out the real, hardcore news that people expect from newspapers. Instead they are going off in all of these directions, almost aimlessly. They have a franchise which they are aren't giving much attention these days. It's kind of like a whore with a very wealthy, excellent paying client ... eventhough most of her money comes from her frequent visits with this particular gentleman, she's only focused on him when he antes up the money at the end.
ReplyDeleteWho's dumber:
ReplyDeleteJim Hopkins, Dennis Ryerson, or the "moms" who write for these worthless blogs?
Discuss.
So if people don't want to feel used and sold to, the solution is just don't tell them what's going on?
ReplyDeleteThat's wrong.
Today's dialogue:
ReplyDeleteJim Hopkins: I'm gay. And dumb.
Dennis Ryerson: (2,000 words of useless hogwash). I'm dumber.
Idiotic blog poster: Jim, you're gay. Our moms sites do really well.
Flashback to previous posts about Gannett hiring people to post, even presumably as moms.
Idiotic Blog poster: Well, that means nothing! Those posts are there! How do YOU know those aren't real moms? And I can redefine the term mom if necessary ...
(2,000 more words and posts of useless hogwash)
Jim: Did I say I'm gay?
Dennis Ryerson: Did I say I'm dumber than anyone?
The dumb company is Gannett for allowing Hopkins to flee. Regardless of your opinion of Gannett and its management, this man's blog has performed better than any one of their thousands of blogs ... and people send him money in the mail! What were they thinking?!?!
ReplyDeleteImagine what would happen if employees were actually allowed to create and produce solutions like Hopkins has?
I know what happens from real life experience. Everyone above you has to take all of the credit. At the end of the day they fire you and your other performing colleagues because their egos and agendas were too short-sighted to see what you did for them!?!?! That is a true story!
The laugh is on Gannett! I already have clients lined up to do what Gannett was paying me to do plus "my" company buys me the necessary computer equipment and software, spends money on training, will be sending me on business trips to meet clients and attend conferences and pays me bonuses for meeting performance goals.
Gannett has put many, talented people like me on the streets to compete against them for business. My money is on the people like me whose layoffs were no less than attempts by higher-ups to settle personal scores.
My goal is to make my company large enough to steal away more of the talent that is left. That's how I settle my score with the nation's largest newspaper publisher.
2:45 pm: To this day, I'll never understand why USA Today didn't take me up on my idea to launch a blog about sex. Can you imagine anything that would draw more traffic?
ReplyDeleteJim has produced solutions? Name one. (This should be entertaining.)
ReplyDelete10:29 you have no idea what you are talking about. Chabad, the alrgest Jewish outreach organization in the world, relies on websites aroudn teh world. Askmoses.com is a Chabad website that answers any and all questions. You are incorrect in your uninformed statement. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteSo Jim what is your point? Gannett is damned for doing nothing. Gannett is damned for doign something and the only smart person is you for telling USA Today to have a sex site? COmeon lets have some objectivity.
ReplyDelete2:53PM
ReplyDeleteI'll entertain you by producing one.
Gannettblog.
3:17 - You are missing the point.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, Jim's idea was good. He probably could have made it work. At any rate, it's an idea that a struggling company should have given some serious thought to.
Secondly, there are more "Jim's" in Gannett whose ideas aren't given appropriate considerations.
Lastly, I just don't understand why management hacks come on here to insult everyone. If they are that defensive and angry about this blog ... then it must be that they feel threatened by the comments being posted here.
3:17: You might be able to silence your direct reports, but you cannot silence the posters of this blog. Let Gannett's dirty laundry be aired for all. If anything, perhaps someday it will inspire change before the entire organization goes tumbling.
3:33 I am not a manager but you made my point. You are so biased that anyone, and I mean anyone who disagrees with you is a hack. You have no objectivity. Disagree with you and the eprson msut be a mindless jerk. Agree with you and they walk on water. You are what is wrong with out company.
ReplyDelete"2:53PM
ReplyDeleteI'll entertain you by producing one.
Gannettblog."
Not a solution.
Still waiting for the first example. Feel free to look up the word "solution" if necessary.
4:03 PM
ReplyDeleteIt (Gannettblog) may not be your solution, but it certainly is my solution. Who knows, it may be a solution for thousands of others, too.
Jim - but how would you ever have competed with Dan Savage?
ReplyDeleteHis most recent topics include snowballing and polyamory. How could a family-friendly content company beat that? ;-)
I played that cloud communities link, and I am wondering, is this a newspaper company that deals with communication? Marketers have needs, too? So we are giving them the keys to manipulating the readers of our sites, without their knowledge or clear consent?
ReplyDeleteThe old saying "garbage in, garbage out" comes to mind. So an advertiser goes along with this, and what additional insight does he/she get? Some Moms like giving BJs? Wow. Guess that is worth something to the people who go to strip clubs, but quality advertisers?
ReplyDelete"It (Gannettblog) may not be your solution, but it certainly is my solution."
ReplyDeleteApparently you didn't look up the word solution. Too lazy, perhaps. Typical journalist.
Anyway, let's say you cited an example. Someone said Jim has "solutions." Care to name another one?
Try very hard to come up with a real solution this time. Not a claim or an opinion, but an actual solution.
I'll predict that one bored, smart user of a Moms site will rip into the privacy agreement and terms of service agreement, and that will be all she wrote!
ReplyDeleteThe ads on this site profile just like any other website advertising. You're being naive if you think otherwise.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Jim and a sex blog...yeah a gay man talking about sex sure would draw a lot of readers. Get real.
What's the price tag on all those analytics and other information? In other words, how much does the company make in other ways besides ads? Anyone know?
ReplyDeleteI despise the cyan used for the headlines.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of something that could be made fun of on Saturday Night Live.
Creepy.