My Proposal to Restore Publisher Profitability

I read that Alphabet(Google) gets about 52% of Internet advertising revenue and Facebook about 28%. Such percentages, if so, are bad news to newspapers and other publishers.

What I propose is that newspapers and other publishers build the ability to bypass the Internet giants and keep almost all the ad revenue that their hard work makes possible. This means directly gathering information on what their readers wish to buy.

In return for a reader occasionally telling their newspaper what ads they would most like to see, the reader would be able to get to read articles, perhaps say five articles plus three for every ad clicked on and one for every ad viewed for at least ten seconds. Each ad would be large enough that the time it is viewable on screen would indicate it was of interest.

Readers would have to participate in order to read the articles they want, unless they bought say a monthly subscription. Not enough people buy web monthly subscriptions to keep the newspaper industry financially healthy.

In 1982, I could buy a copy of the weekday Washington Post for 25 cents. It probably cost more than that to print, so the content was fully supported by advertising. Sufficient targeted advertising should still be able to pay for newspaper content in 2021.

Getting down to the technical side, the most common web access device is now probably a smart phone, which can typically display up about thirty lines of text each about thirty characters long, at most.

The presentation of ad categories on a smart phone might be by a few lines of explanation and about a dozen basic basic ad category types, each associated with a 'drop down menu' or 'text box', and a select button.

With the help of a phone book, I've come up with the following basic ad category types and on the next line 'drop down menu'/'text box' specific ad types, which might vary based on actual advertiser purchases:

Health
dentist, braces, root canal, GP/family med, Gyn/Ob, pediatric, specialist*, vet, exotic vet, livestock vet, caregiving, physical therapy, speech therapy, other

Vehicle*
used by price, certified, electric, pick-up, sedan, SUV, cargo van, passenger van, American, foreign, fun, specific

Money
credit card, HELOC, mortgage, financial planner, index fund, managed fund, checking, CD, accountant, tax prep, other

Maintain
AC/heating, car repair, electrical, gutter, lawn, lighting, maid, moving, painting, pest control, plumbing, pool, pressure clean, roof, security, tree, water heater, other*

Improve
amaze me, AC/heating, bath, carpet, doors, driveway, fencing, flooring, insulation, kitchen, pavers, pool, siding, solar, walls, windows, other*

Goods
amaze her, amaze him, clothing*, shoes*, jewelry, tools*, electronics, games*, guns, toys*, furniture, linen, wallpaper*, other home, outdoor, sports, specific*, wholesale*

Food
amaze me, grocery coupons, junk food, packaged food, healthy, restaurants, coupons, Chinese, fast food, Italian, other ethnic, seafood, steak, wholesale

Other
site help*, help wanted*, classified*, flyer sign-up*, hobby, boat, horse, lawyer*, moving, shipping, wedding, other*

Total breakdown is not necessary or desirable, since advertising should sell the unexpected as well as planned purchases. The vehicle category foreign is broad enough to induce both Japanese and Korean car dealers buy ads to sell their cars.

The order of category presentation probably should vary somewhat so readers don't get stuck in an unthinking selection rut. Stores sometimes change their formats so customers must see a broader range of products.

A star(*), which would not be displayed online, means for the purposes of my explanation that a second web ad selection page would come up.

For clothing, the second web ad selection page might offer up men, women, young lady, girl, infant, boy, rebel male, outdoor categories.

For classified view/help wanted, the second web ad selection page should allow readers to choose categories used in the past by print newspapers.

For travel, the second web ad selection page would allow the desired time frame (and destination) to be specified. The hotel ads would quite often be sourced from a third party since possible destinations are very diverse.

For say healthy, there would be no second web ad selection page, there would be a wide-ranging presentation of ads from manufacturers, restaurants and stores.

For flyer sign-up, the second web ad selection page would simply collect the reader's e-mail address. Come each weekend until the reader opts out, an e-mail with categorized links to various flyer webpages would be sent to the reader. A reader viewing a certain page of a flyer might obtain the ability to read another article.

In most cases, if there is no cookie storing the reader's residential zip code, then this zip code (and in some cases [like that of restaurants] the reader's work zip code) should be requested on the second web ad selection page so that a reader in Miami gets to see geographically relevant ads.

Ad sales by a publisher would normally be by web-based means. When the publisher has not sold an advertising space, third party ad sources would be used to fill in the gap. Humans would initially help market the advertising ability of the publisher.

The home web page would also provide a link to revise the reader's preferred ad type. If I need a root canal, I'd immediately like to see my options in terms of prices and possibly appointment openings.

My proposal, if implemented, would greatly improve the ability of consumers and businesses to benefit from advertising.

A Baltimore newspaper might have a mutual arrangement with a New York newspaper so a reader in White Plains can read Baltimore newspaper articles with ads from White Plains businesses.

There is a possibility of doing something similar in the video domain too. I might be able to watch Peoria TV stations via the Internet with national and local Florida ads of interest.

Why would you want to do that?

Let those business models die as quickly and quietly as possible.

Give me a smart, regular citizen dude or dudette with a blog who keeps up with what’s happening and can provide me with some context and sift through the misinformation, narrative promotion, salesmanship and manipulation for me.

I’ve thought of pursuing this idea, then realized how little diversification there is in the media marketplace. You got a couple big players, several medium sized players, and a brief scattering of small players.

If the big players can’t be bothered to figure it out, they sure won’t think twice about taking whatever solution someone presents and running with it themselves.

But if someone wanted to do it on a smaller scale, create a ‘press pass’ account framework where you can subscribe to a region, it allows you to create additional accounts for your family members, and would be a great place for nationals or internationals to add on subscriptions for a nominal price.

Main advantage of doing it that way is consolidating costs (those network fees for subscriptions sure add up), marketing gets firm demographics to sell to advertisers, and no one has to constantly reinvent the wheel in putting together login, billing, view tracking.

But without a systems patent, I don’t know how you aren’t just giving this to USAToday or the like.

“Newspapers are dead, why would I want to reanimate them to watch ads?”

Imagine your car keeps breaking down. Would you not like to see ads featuring your possible new car?

Having a problem figuring out what to get the wife for Christmas? Why not try to “amaze her”?

What to put a deck on your new house? How about seeing your options via ads?

The last time I bought something from an ad was a washing machine.

The ad said it was the best one made, and would work great.

It was delivered and hooked up, but it never worked right.

It would quit halfway through and didn't get the clothes clean.

It would have to do the load twice, sometimes three times wasting all that water and electricity.

I found out that the manufacturer had "advanced" the technology by installing a weaker motor and they installed the Agitator in Washington DC instead of the washer.

I had to junk it and find a washer with an Agitator myself.

NO ad sent to me would give me that information.

The previous is a TRUE story.

“didn’t get the clothes clean”

I use a type of Arm & Hammer powder detergent with a lot of baking soda in it.

My friend in DC has a front load washer which makes the clothes move a lot.

I generally read lots of reviews before buying anything over $50 in price.

“Then you don’t need the ads in the first place.”

Trillions of dollars of stock market value is based on Internet advertising power.

I think that is crazy, but I know well that advertising has great value - in the billion$.

My neighbor didn’t need a paver-surfaced driveway, but his income is probably over $100,000/year and he wanted to put his income to the best possible use.

A lot of Texans probably wish they saw an ad for Cancun a week ago.

Trillions of dollars of stock market value is based on Internet advertising power.

So we can screw those rich guys real good by NOT watching ads!

How cool is that!

“screw those rich guys real good”

That’s what I’m selling today in this installment of my “fight like hell” series.

Hopefully, I’ll make a sale.

My prospects are financially hungry, which should help.

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