Susan Mernit writing in the digital edge: The growing popularity of RSS among information-hungry consumers is having a direct impact …
on publishers’ audience acquisition and Web monetization strategies. Although journalist/blogger Tom Biro reports that 160 newspapers in the U.S. are offering RSS feeds of their content, only a few have comprehensive strategies for distributing and monetizing the feeds. Most, like the Ventura County (Calif.) Star, are experimenting and watching carefully to see what’s next.
…Dave Sifry, CEO and founder of Technorati, sees the big opportunity for publishers as the potential advertising revenue that could come from expanding content into to RSS feeds and blogs. “If you boost revenue by inserting ads into articles and posts,” says Sifry, “you get the benefits of an opt-in subscription model for news sites combined with a proven model of CPM or CPC advertising.” Technorati is an RSS and blog search engine that recently launched a tagging feature that makes it possible to name and group bundles of feeds (similar to PubSub Concepts, which is featured below).
Although Technorati has not signed any big integration deal with publishers to date, Sifry’s reported $12 MM in VC-backed funding and recently hired business development and sales team makes him confident that it’s just a matter of time. “We’ve got flexible business models in terms of cost and revenue sharing,” Sifry says, “And it’s an incredibly sticky way to build a deeper relationship with your users.”
Article Link: RSS Providers Analyze Newspapers’ Opportunities
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
