There were a number of great revenue ideas at the 2011 SNA/Blinder Revenue Summit, which we will be posting on this site in the next few weeks. Here are some general themes we saw at the conference: 1. Large scale cultural transformation in local media is underway - and working - in a number of organizations Several executives we've already written about here - like Deseret Media and Source Media - were under the microscope at the conference. But the good news is that there are more companies showing some tranformational backbone in the space: Gatehouse's President and COO, Kirk Davis, was especially inspiring in how he is driving recruitment into the company. The Oklahoman also has entered the group of "intentional" leadership, and a newspaper in Kingsport, Louisiana, walked us through its separate digital division that engages in the agency space. The audience was equally engaged from Dow Jones, to Black Press. SNA's Nancy Lane pointed out that in spite of Deseret's CEO's message to separate or perish, the "legacy group" (it's no longer politically correct to say "legacy" at Deseret) is fully integrated, in addition to the digital only division, to say nothing of the brilliant and JOA-run real estate brokerage promoted on their site. 2. Real transformation addresses products, training, recruitment, pricing and compensation - then accountability The days of living with inhouse naysayers is coming to an end at a number of companies. But the chicken/egg situation also means that key executive serious about transformation are aggressively addressing these other issues - product, compensation, training and organization - first. As Kirk Davis of Gatehouse Media put it, you can ask sales people to "take the hill" without a game plan and ammunition. But it's not fair. And it won't get the traction you need. more

A significant source of revenues is woefully overlooked by most local media companies: User-generated, or transactional, revenues. It seems foreign to our banner-centric business models. But in reality user-generated transactions are very similar to the revenue streams classifieds used to provide. As Pat Scanlon, Director of Interactive at the Pittsburgh Gazette told us, "Readers used to pay $2 here, and $5 there to place a classified ad in a print product." Scanlon is hard a work engaging those users in making adding numerous small transactions. This week we explore a number of these revenue opportunies. more

Sometimes the most telling part of local advertising trends is how fast they are changing. One number in a recent survey stands out: 76% of local advertising prospects said they would run online advertising in 2011. What's interesting about this figure, is that it's up from 64% four months earlier. To be fair, I've flipped the numbers around a little: The actual question was whether businesses would NOT advertise online this year, including banners and directory listings. As of January, only 36% of businesses said they would not advertise online this year. In the new report to be released shortly, that number shrank to 24%. The question was asked of 9000 businesses in Borrell&Associates Local Advertiser Report. more

Last week I sent out an email about a new case study the email subject line: Do you accept Pay-for-performance advertising? My intention was to inspire members to look further at this model, by showing how the Dallas Morning News cost-per-call and cost-per-sale programs will yeild an estimated $360,000 to $600,000 annually, in their first full year. The question was misinterpreted by most of you; I got a slew of responses (about 20) in which subscribers merely answered "No," "No "Not any more," "No thanks," and so on. more

This week LocalMediaInsider released four reports on one topic: Audience extension. But the most exciting part of audience extension is the recent availability of mobile GPS-targeted ad networks: That is, media can now sell campaigns that allow merchants to reach people nearby, who may be looking at a variety of different media on their cell phones, even if the destination site is not owned by the media company. more