Local Online Media Soars In 'Space City'

The local online scene in Houston is crowded, with several newspapers and TV stations vying to be leaders in the "Space City." At stake is a slice of an advertising pie that pulls dollars from everything from big oil and national companies to mom-and-pop shops and is expected to grow significantly in the next four years.

One player has emerged as a clear leader in the market. Much like the city it covers, The Houston Chronicle’s Chron.com is vast and sprawling, ramping up to offer 40-plus niche and neighborhood sub sites in addition to the big stuff like news, weather, science and sports. Multicultural? Sure, there’s a Spanish-language edition too.

Already the No. 1 local online player in Houston -- the country’s 10^th largest media market -- Chron.com is poised to grow even bigger (we’re talking Texas, after all), as its parent, Hearst Newspapers, see the site as a key part of the company’s future.

“While our print product is very important, we have a major initiative to be digital first,” said Dean Betz, the Chronicle’s digital content director. And that has helped pull in a whopping 87 million page views a month, according to Betz.

But even with this advantage, Betz said fending off competitors in a market that has three TV network affiliates, as well as Fox and CW stations, all vying for online ads and eyes is no easy feat.

In 2009, about 57% of Houston’s adults logged onto Chron.com, versus the 43% who visited ABC13.com, run by the ABC-owned and operated KTRK, and 40% who viewed KHOU.com, the companion to Belo’s KHOU, the next most popular sites, according to Media Audit.

According to Borrell Associates, local online ad spending in Houston makes up about 14% of all local ad dollars spent in the market, and it’s expected to jump 91% from the $219 million spent this year to $418 million in 2015, said Borrell Associates vice president Bill Caudill.

In 2010, Houston newspapers garnered 24.7% of local online ad dollars, and broadcast TV got 10.4%, Borrell research shows.

In addition, Houston’s status as a Top 10 market means national companies -- Google and ReachLocal for example -- also take a fare share of the money, pushing local players to battle it out even more furiously, Caudill said.

In a market that struggles with issues like a big pool of media and cultural fragmentation -- Latinos make up 41% of the population -- that fight is even more intense. But a lot of money still flows from the oil industry and the like, he said.

“The competition is fierce in Houston,” Caudill said. “You have all these big players in television and newspapers and their worlds have collided online.”

What that means is that the primary players -- Chron.com, abc13.com, KHOU.com, Click2Houston.com (operated by Post-Newsweek’s NBC affiliate KPRC), Fox-owned KRIV’s MyFoxHouston.com and 39online.com (run by Tribune’s CW affiliate KIAH) -- are jockeying to distinguish themselves when the crux of all their content is news.

“It’s like going to a casino, and each one has a theme carpet and a theme design and a theme to their look,” said Click2Houston.com digital sales manager Vance Collins, who cited comScore data that showed his site receives over 1 million unique visitors per month, placing it third in the market behind Chron.com (4.2 million) and KHOU.com (1.2 million). “But once you sit down to the slots you see they all have the same thing.”

Overseeing sales for the only site in the market that streams newscasts live, Collins has watched online revenue rise from just $140,000 to more than $2 million this year. During the same time, the number of advertisers jumped from around 25 to more than 200, he said.

Nonetheless, Collins’ tenet that Houston’s news portals are, at the core, the same, may not bode well with others in the arena who say offering digital content above and beyond other media -- new or traditional -- is driving their success.

Betz, for example, said Chron.com has built itself on offering content above and beyond traditional news -- from the paper’s science writer who pioneered the concept of “beat blogging” to its array of niche and neighborhood sites. Complete with their own URLs, the paper runs sites dedicated exclusively to entertainment, faith, gardening and parenthood. And its network of 22 neighborhood sites is expected to grow to 40 within a few months, Betz said.

KHOU.com is also beefing up its offerings, having already broken down barriers between digital and TV news staff to further its “one newsroom” philosophy, KHOU director of digital media Christine Di Stadio said.

Based on viewer feedback -- KHOU uses Facebook as an active “conversation” forum -- KHOU is focusing on filling a hyperlocal niche, most recently partnering with the technology company Bayou City Media, which runs 65 neighborhood sites in Houston where users can post free ads, resumes, news and events. KHOU.com also recently added a special weather widget with custom, neighborhood forecasts.