ajc'com

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ajc.com user registration

• ASTECH Roundtable
• Laura Inman
• Director of Market Development, AJC

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Presentation Agenda

• Organizational overview stats
• Getting to UR
• Why UR and to what extent?
• Lessons learned
• Still learning

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AJC Key Initiatives

• CIM re-established as Coxnet
• Leverage technology and resources among 16 Cox
  newspapers
• Migration to newspaper centric operations and
  strategy. February, 2003
• Re-positioning of accessAtlanta.com March, 2003
• Develop industry and market parity with new
  products.

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Launch mania 3rd party vendors multiple,
incompatible registrations

• Ajcjobs Harvest shopping tool, 2002
• cars real estate, April 2003
• Ajcpersonals, March 2003
• Legacy obits , Fall 2003
• E-gain inbound email management, October 2003
• Teen mall, Holiday 2003
• Ajcsportsplus, March 2004
• UR, April 2004
• Online Circulation commerce, May 2004
• Celebrations, June 2004
• Video, July 2004
• Fall 2004 shopping, apartments, sportsplus v.2,
  targeted ad delivery system, wireless

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Internet Management
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Market Development Team
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Print and Online Marketing

• Operational challenges
• Are we a vertical or horizontal structure? Yes
• Managing change
• The who does what scenario
• Strategy, Development, Creative
• Product Development
• Brand mgrs Sales mgrs. Mktg mgrs Content
  producers
• A 6 phase development approach (Concept,
  Research, Plan, Design, Implement, Launch)
• Synergy or Compromise
• Process that doesnt inhibit innovation
• Leverage and Integrate

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Brand Integration

• AJC parent brand sets the marketing strategy
• 973 factor
• Online marketing to determine and apply the
  message as related to online business goals
• Marketing the online and print brands shift among
  print brand marketers and online marketers, based
  on driving revenue initiatives
• online revenue focus jobs,cars, homes, travel
• traditional print revenue drivers class. retail

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AJC Stats

• Ajc.com (includes all verticals and
  accessAtlanta.com)
• 2.3 MM Unique Visitors July, Sage 2004
• April 3.2 MM May 2.6MM June 2.3MM
• Year over year comparisons in August, 2004
• Local Market Share of online users 21 March,
  2004 Media Audit
• Confirmed user registration members since 4/13/04
  launch
• 428,491 as of 8/9, people- not computers!
• Average confirmation rate is about 52 of
  registrants
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Monday Thursday circulation 371,853
• Friday circulation 424,691
• Saturday circulation 459,409
• Sunday circulation 622,065

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Exclusive Atlanta Journal-Constitution Readers
Exclusive Ajc.com AccessAtlanta.com Website
Visitors
81,077
1,782,695
965,222
2002-2003 Gallup Poll of Media Usage Consumer
Behavior
AJCs Most Loyal Customer
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Demographic Summary of AJC Vehicles
2002-2003 Gallup Poll of Media Usage Consumer
Behavior
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Common business unit objectives

• Grow market share
• Grow revenue
• Obtain or improve category leadership
• Comprehensive solution for consumers and customer
  base
• Incremental business value
• Innovate, Fail faster!
• Leverage talent and resources

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Pre-UR focus

• 7723 rule of traffic and unique visitors
• Second to the Washington Post in local news site
  market penetration
• Amassing millions of page views per month
• Selling mass, buckets of banners, interactivity
  and frequency
• Spirit of innovation and major focus on product
  development market parity
• Channels with sold out inventory and limited
  email marketing product success
• Organizational evolution
• Maintain position of breaking local news

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Why User Registration?

• Better audience knowledge
• Demos, interests, relationship with print product
• Who are our most loyal customers?
• Revenue opportunities
• Targeted e-mail opportunities
• Targeted online advertising
• Build a foundation for better product and service
• More appropriate content
• Online customer care center

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How far do you go?

• All the way..
• Deals and Steals newsletter pre-checked
• Thank you email confirmation
• 4 day window to confirm the email address

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The UR process

• Register in all areas except
• Home page and channel fronts
• Classifieds
• Buyers Edge (Harvest)
• Personals
• Health
• Your Money
• Obits
• Travel
• AJC services, store and circulation

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Post-UR focus

• 8416 post UR rule of traffic and unique visitors
• Eliminate drive by visitors
• Changed the one page counting methodology
• Understand the dynamics of the online user and
  consumption patterns
• Understand the search engine referral traffic
  value
• Drive frequency among user base
• Targeted ads and audience systems that are
  actionable
• Grow email newsletters and develop business
  strategy
• Establish a reach story that acknowledges the
  value of loyal customer base
• Create new inventory opportunities for high yield
  categories
• Integrate with circulation and establish a single
  view of the customer

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UR Preparation

• 1 year development cycle for CIM proprietary
  system completion
• ACJ projected significant loss of unique traffic
• 60 to be recovered within 6 months
• Established an email driven customer care group
  focused on service, responsiveness brand image
• E-gain inbound email management tool
• 3 FT people trained in customer service and new
  technology

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UR preparation

• Communication plan for internal knowledge
• Presented to 28 different internal customer
  groups
• Developed power point for internal customers and
  executive management
• Developed press release and main features for
  news and executives
• Technical issues
• Hosted and serviced at Coxnet,
• Legacy system integration issues limited, hence
  Astech!
• Centralized system has operational challenges
• Priority speed to market
• Customer integration
• Data czar

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UR preparation

• Marketing/promotional
• Summer Splurge Contest
• Open to all ajc.com members
• Objective was to incent accurate information
• 6 week contest ending May 31
• Tracking value limited as the entire UR base is
  eligible in the contest
• Prizes included
• Braves suite, 2,000 shopping spree, Cancun trip
  Mike Luckovich (Pulitzer prize winning
  cartoonist) personalized caricature

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Inbound/outbund email report, July 2004
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UR data results

• See handout

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Next steps for V2

• Increase confirmation rate window
• Extend the window from 4 days to 14 days with
  another confirmation notice
• Multiple email accounts, spam filters etc
• Changes to version 2
• Will not ask for income in version 2
• Will add race question in version 2
• Will only ask for zip- not city, state
• Will develop a solution for international zip
  codes

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Would we do it again?

• Yes ?
• Q A
• Thanks
• linman_at_ajc.com
• 404-526-7384