Houston Niche A&E site, 29-95.com, reverse publishes, takes on alternative weekly

The super sleek 29-95 has been toned down - and reversed published for home delivery.

Site: 29-95.com
Traffic: 195,000 UVs
Company: Hearst Newspapers and Hearst Media Services
Key executives: Stephen Weis, Vice President of Interactive; Samuel Brown, Vice President Regional Advertising and Digital Services

Summary: Reverse publishing from web to print is one strategy for local newspapers to reinvigorate brands that have gone stale – and take on competitors. A case in point is Houston Chronicle's 29-95, a sleek web site that captured the indie music scene in Houston, arguably better than... well at least better than any site owned by a daily newspaper company. The site hosts an internet radio station and features video "live from the living room" jam sessions of local musicians. Five weeks ago 29-95 began reverse publishing to strengthen its advertising base and provide a unique value proposition: A similar product to its main competitor, the Village Voice-owned Houston Press, with 5 times the print reach. The site itself has doubled its visitors in just five weeks since reverse publishing 29-95 as a full run Thursday tabloid in the main paper, plus 40,000 in street racks.

Challenge:  The Houston Chronicle wanted to revamp how they covered entertainment online. With numerous competitors including a very strong alternative weekly, Houston Press, in the space, they sent a team to work on the project. The team included the online and print staff who had launched MomHouston.com, a niche site with more than 1.5 million page views, plus sales, an online creatve director and interns. The A&E niche, however, had unique challenges.

“They sent us away for a week to a bed and breakfast downtown and did informal focus groups, brought in and asked how they consumer media , learn about events, what they thought was lacking," says Samuel Brown, Vice President Regional Advertising and Digital Services. The results were not good:  Chron.com and the Houston Chronicle had virtually no relevance - negative or positive - for people making decisions about where to go out on the town. "It simply did not register. People still got their information from flyers," as well  Facebook and a variety of print/online competitors.

Strategy:  The business plan was presented as if the web only company was applying for funding. The new niche site would have a separate brand, staff and promotions.

The name 29-95 was chosen to reflect the latitude and longitude – as well as to be neutral of the Chron.com brand (lot of online conversation about the "actual" lattitude of Houston and which number to round it two, with one person claiming 29-95 is in the Gulf of Mexico; it's not).

The plan also called for a year and a half of “on the cheap” street promotions to develop an audience the old fashioned way: Handing out fliers and promoting happy hours and events. "We literally asked bars “how cheap can you go on Budlight” and we might take 50 cents of of the two dollars” in return for the advertising.  Originally no campaigns were run in Houston Chronicle itself, in order for the culture to build on itself, internally and externally. The participation of the staff and street feel paid off - traffic grew to 350,000 pageviews from 75,000 uniques - and then flattened out.

“We won lot of awards, including an EPpy, for best new entainment site (in its category) and best online marketing for a site. The problem is that in the inner loop of downtown, we quickly maxed out our penetration to the tattoed , pierced indie kids and the smaller bars.”

The new product also had narrower and edgier content, including a sex advice channel (now gone), and coverage of indie rock, hip hop and underground art – and lack of any more mainstream components. “We did not connect it or promote it at all from any Chronicle project,” Brown says. "The numbers did not add up."

So the team expanded the content formula to include more mainstream entertainment, toned down some of the content and “gratuitous language that had no particular purpose” and reversed published the content back as 29-95, the Thursday tabloid. The former, largely irrelevant “Preview” section of the Houston Chronicle was folded into the new section. 29-95 the tabloid now includes the food critic, music writers, bloggers, and photo galleries from bars and cubs. The base of traditional accounts in Preview, casinos, restaurants and the symphony,  is now layered with new accounts including bars, clubs smaller restaurants. It is printed in the full run 360,000 on Thursday plus 40,000 rack distribution that has a glossy cover. Hence the new value proposition in print: “Similar prices with 5 times the distribution," as the 85,000 circulation Houston Press.

The ad staff was also reorganized. " We took people out of downtown and (gave them territories) in the neighborhoods they live in.” After a month of the new program, Brown says the site - and new tabloid - are breaking even. With 40 people in the street in the neighboods, that a lot of horse power, even given that they are “selling a lot of products.” 

Results: One of the real benefits or reverse publishing is its affect on the online brand which has also skyrocketed: After five weeks “we moved from from 75,000 uniques to 195,000 uniques.”  

The Houston Press, however, remains the powerhouse in the space with 865,000 Uniques and 3.5 million pages  views. Judging by the base of advertisers appearing in key positions, on both sites, the battle has only just begun.  But judging against itself Chron.com’s entertainment play is vastly improved and has enormous potential.

Lessons learned:  

1. “Web to print that uses web branding has been a successful trend for us. it uses the web to reinvigorate some of the print that had gotten a bit stale." Since the newspaper was already committing resources to Preview, reverse publishing had less downside.

2. The success of 29-95  is largely due to a concerted effort to create a new brand, and organize a team around it, rather than "add on" a product to the suite. The Internet radio component and street level promotional efforts have helped connect with a younger audience.

3. The full circulation value proposition: A "similar rate for five times the distribution" may not resonate as well with small advertisers who are primarily focused on the "similar rate" part of the equation. Still for larger advertisers like Cirque De Soleil, or major arts groups, the home delivery puts 29-95 in a qualitatively different category.

The author, Alisa Cromer is publisher of a variety of online media, including LocalMediaInsider and  MediaExecsTech,  developed while on a fellowship with the Reynolds Journalism Institute and which has evolved into a leading marketing company for media technology start-ups. In 2017 she founded Worldstir.com, an online magazine,  to showcases perspectives from around the  world on new topic each month, translated from and to the top five languages in the world.

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