
New York Times Self-Service Advertising - nreece
http://www.nytimes.com/marketing/selfservice/index.html
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patio11
I was pretty excited... until I saw the CPMs. It costs $10.50 CPMs on their
education pages. By comparison, $10.50 will get me about 200 _clicks_ on
AdWords. (The minimum of $50 a day also means that the "learn the quirks of
the site" period would be wildly expensive for me.)

I'd love for somebody to come up with something anywhere close to as good as
AdWords for me... but I'm still looking.

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DJN
@patio11

I've been working on precisely this sort of self-service ad technology for
over a year now. Something that can help site owners run a pseudo-Facebook Ads
service.

The product is finished and well worth a look. Only wish it was ready before
NYT took the plunge :)

www.trafficspaces.com/tour/

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ilamont
This has been around for a while on nytimes.com

But another interesting thing about the Times' approach to online advertising
is they don't use the low-quality ad networks that you see on many other
publishers' websites. The front page and "above the fold" ads emphasize luxury
brands and rich media from mainstream advertisers, and there is some AdSense
running at the bottom of article pages, but you won't see scammy teeth-
whitening ads (which can be readily found on the Washington Post website).
It's a smart move, even if they are leaving some revenue on the table -- it
makes the brand look respectable, and increases its ability to charge a
premium on ads it does place on the pages.

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falsestprophet
The New York Times is not "leaving revenue on the table." The Times has long
been a special case in attracting higher-than-average quality advertising.

Consider these figures from the NYT 2008 10k and that the Boston Globe is
probably representative of the class of principle papers in major cities.

    
    
      Ad revenue by category
    
                 National Regional  Classified  Other
      NY Times      70%      13%       15%       2%
      Boston Globe  29%      33%        8%       7%
      Regional       4%      56%        7%       7%
    
      source:  http://www.nytco.com/pdf/annual_2008/business.pdf

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ilamont
I was referring to unused inventory. Some publishers would rather run low-
quality ad networks than house ads, even though it makes justifying higher
CPMs much harder.

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sachinag
Take a look at the implied CPMs. They're insanely high - much higher than any
large advertiser working with their sales force would be paying.

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jonknee
It would be amazingly daft to charge less through this system than they are
already getting from big commitments. Those big accounts that buy a lot at
once would simply go through this. If you're spending more than $10,000 it
looks like you can already get a better deal. But if not you'll be able to
advertise and not have to complicate it with sales people.

That said, I'm pretty sure NYTimes.com is already getting some pretty high
CPMs (> $25 CPM). These self-serve ads won't be as visible as the large
branding campaigns, but that's where the real money is.

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mahmud
Expect to see PHP, Python and Ruby "self-service ad manager" modules for ever
CMS package on earth right about .. NOW!

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dpatru
Wouldn't it be better for the NYT to focus on their core competencies and just
outsource their ads? This is Google's specialty and thus Google should be able
to give advertisers a better value.

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falsestprophet
No. The New York Times has been selling ads since 1851. They go through the
trouble of reporting the news only to entice people to look at ads next to the
news.

Selling ads is exactly what the Times and every other media outfit is about.
They have done pretty well for themselves so far.

