Text alerts are increasingly popular with audiences - especially in areas with extreme weather. Here are key reasons to start-up a text alert program, most popular categories, how to integrate with email, and ways to monetize. Included is a case study on a radio station that signed up, literally half of the population in its county, how to choose a vendor, a recommended vendor, how to sell sponsorships and who is buying them. more

Customized shopping sites developed by the Evening Post Publishing Company include elements of business directories, coupon sites and dining guides. Each is a standalone site, but relies heavily on newspaper site promotions. Together four sites generate $400,000 a year, and growing. Here's a close look at ShopBrazos. more

A big "ah hah!" moment for one local media company came from realizing - and leveraging - huge merchant interest in pay-per-lead and pay-per-sale advertising. This case study from the Dallas Morning News was presented at NAA's MediaExchange, 2012, and includes technology partners used, types of businesses most likely to engage and potential revenues and performance metrics. more

Taking full advantage of political advertising requires a strategic plan. Even broadcast sites with sold-out onair inventory can create more digital inventory and sell new audiences (email, opt-in, etc.) via partnerships. This white paper gives a step-by-step go-to-market battle strategy, and a worksheet to create a political advertising plan. Included are case studies from two local media companies who have successfully ramped up revenues and and a slide deck of statistics to use in competitive messaging. Get ready for the 2014 political season. more

Draper Media-owned WBOC's digital effort is a stand out for a single market TV group. This case study outlines key components of its' success including agency strategy, the community directory site, native advertising that includes on-air segments and personnel organization. more

Selling to individual agents has always been problematic for Bay Area News Group. A new initiative by Director of Real Estate, Eric Bloom, however, allows the company to market to agents while letting them order both ads and programmatic delivery self serve. Here's how it works. more

The local media sales force of the future will be comprised of digitally savvy experts able to tailor suite of products and services to deliver measureable results for clients. Legacy media will be an important but smaller portion of total revenues. But only a few, companies, are moving at sufficient pace to accomplish this transformation in time to replace diminishing legacy dollars. Among them, Hearst Newspapers' Chron.com stands out. Typically the beta site for new product launches, the site's sales force is the number one in sales in the Yahoo Consortium. VP of Digital Sales, Stephen Weis, shared his strategies in transforming Chron.com sales culture with us. Here are ten key take-aways from that interview: more

Local businesses know they need social media and there is intense interest in how to create an audience development and engagement plan. Enter the new "agency-style" Facebook experts and custom-app resellers at local media companies. Early to market with some serious home-runs under its belt is Lee Enterprises. An initiative led by Tim D'Avis, Director of Digital, at Quad-City times and a team of new social media sellers, has garnered 250 customers in six months company-wide, and media sales for single contests in the $5000 to $15,000 range. Here's how they put together their plan, with three fan-building successes in the auto, pizza and casino industries. more

Looking for a contest with multiple sponsors from the salon and beauty industry? Here's a great "makeover" contest that should go in the tool-box. more

When a survey of advertisers told the Palm Beach Post "stop pitching us products" and help us go digital, Palm Beach Post decided to create an internal ad agency. In its first quarter of operations, the "agency" conducted 55 "brain-storming sessions" for clients that resulted in 22 advertising campaigns and a collective growth rate of 90%. Here is how the department was put together: more