Three Ways Your Digital Publication Can Help Increase Print Readers
Publishing your newspaper online can leave you with some questions about how relevant it is to your bottom line, especially if your readers love to read your print version. If you have an online version and can’t figure out how to maximize it to grow your readers and increase your ad revenue, two main points for extending your publication to the digital space, then this article is especially for you.
There are three main actions steps to consider for your digital publication that can literally steer your newspaper in a whole new direction for increasing your value and revenue.
1. Use Digital Promotions To Drive Your Print
When you hold promotions that you know your readers will love and participate in, this is the perfect opportunity to use your digital version to focus on the promotion, which in turn drives readers back to your print edition. For example, if you list a contest for the best high school sports photo in order to promote the opening of a new stadium in town, you can list in your print version that submissions will be taken through your online version only. All submissions, once approved will then be posted on your Facebook page, where everyone can vote. The winners, based on the votes, will then be announced in the print version and featured in a full-page spread online only. This allows your readers the chance to explore your online version while in a new way, allows you to increase your ad revenue in online sales and keeps your readers coming back for more print, which is exactly where you want them to end up!
Create an effective social media map to promote this, and you can drastically increase your revenue in a very short amount of time with your digital version.
2. Let Your Digital Version Go Niche
When you create niche content online, you can guarantee your readers interested in the topics will flock to it, and if you promote it online you can guarantee new readers will flock to it as well. Let your digital version become an extension of your sections that get the greatest followings- automobiles, weddings, food, etc- and charge more for your ads in these sections. Again, you can always lead the reader back to your print version as a result, which is where you want them to end up!
3. Extend Your Most Valuable Content Online
When you have the ability to extend sections that readers value the most to your digital version, you create an opportunity for your ads to flourish like never before. Allowing readers to read more about a family member who has passed away by logging in online and seeing an extended article with a place to sign a guest book and express their sympathies is just one way you can offer added value to your readers while building your online presence. Take each niche section and do the same, and your advertisers will see an ROI before they even pay for the ads.
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