Station Thinks Outside The TV Box With Obits

With the local Saginaw, Mich., newspaper started publishing just three days a week, Meredith Corp., which owns WNEM there, stepped in to provide a much-missed service: posting obits on its new obitmichigan.com website, which can be accessed through the local WNEM TV website.

While that may not be a typical venture for a broadcast company, even in this digital age, Meredith executives say response to the service proves that they, indeed, are providing a valuable service -- valuable enough that, at $100 per obit, it garners about $10,000 a month.

ObitMichigan.com was one example of how broadcasters can reach audiences -- and make money -- by maximizing digital space in ways that go far beyond repurposing over-the-air content that was highlighted Wednesday at the BIA/Kelsey Digital Strategies for Broadcasting in Jersey City, N.J.

According to Tim Reynolds, director of interactive media of Meredith’s Local Media Group, Meredith has successfully found a number of ways to make money off its digital endeavors, offering advertisers options from display and interactive ads to content sponsorships.

While the industry wrestles with how to make money of digital ventures, Reynolds said there is secret formula for selling digital space, some of which involves promotions, like running contests, that mirrors traditional sales tactics.

“This isn’t rocket science,” Reynolds said. “It’s about sales. It’s about prospecting. It’s about helping our clients sell more stuff.”

Digital properties, however, do offer advertisers and audiences the ability to interact, provide and consume content and opportunity that they simply can’t with traditional media, conference speakers said.

Through their Web and mobile properties, broadcasters are starting to reap the rewards of offering clients interactive ads, for example, and mobile alerts as new means of reaching consumers, they said.

Lisa Bishop, Gray Television Group’s VP of internet operations and new media, said her company has both made more money and reduced costs since overhauling the way it creates and operates its mobile and web properties earlier this year.

Since moving its mobile operations in-house, and adding money-making features like sponsored text alerts, Gray has seen its mobile revenue increase 90% over last year while reducing costs by about $500,000.

The volume of sponsored texts has grown by 20%, and the number of subscribers for those services has increased by 5%, she said.

Bishop said there was some risk involved with moving in-house, because Gray lost some of the page views that resulted from using outside companies with broader reach.

However, page views mean little if you can’t make money off them, she said, adding that taking the risk of controlling content and options for dispersing it has paid off.