Yesterday at 2:00, I received a text from sources:
Kelowna.com is having severe troubles; I look at my phone with shock. Can this be true?
After confirming a few things, I tweeted, and more proof arrived that Kelowna.com employees were now on one week’s notice.
So what happened? Did the sharks get them?
Will more heads roll in similar businesses?
Review:
- Forest Fires 2003 castantet.net takes off.
- Forest fires 2009 Kelowna.com takes off
- At the time, I was working on a hyper-local social media project when Kelowna.com showed up. Lots of Money and a Domain name, and what seemed a game plan
- Most people were happy to see something new.
- The layout of Castanet was getting old.
- Everything was looking good.
- Social media, such as Twitter, was starting to get understood.
- And the newspapers in Kelowna were scaling back.
A great article came out yesterday on the blog site http://www.nieoview.com entitled.
Lessons from a .com, geo domain, hyperlocal meltdown
Adrian was a reporter at Kelowna.com until he was laid off two months ago and wrote about his thoughts on the breakdown. He Wrote:
“As journalists, we must get beyond simply delivering the same kind of content that appears in newspapers and television. We have to do more to adapt to the web’s interactive nature. We need to figure out how to use things like social media to draw readers to our sites and bring them into our (virtual) newsrooms and give them a say in what stories are covered and how.”
This statement rang home, as many people are happy being the reporter.
People are very interested in what affects their lives and their friends’ lives in a very up-close personal way, such as the Facebook Status and the 140 Character’s Twitter update.
We are in an era of wanting to avoid being told anything. We want to do the storytelling. Most people with online blogs consider themselves a writer or a journalist in its basic form. People want to explore, experience and interact. This is a world of technology with the onslaught of 3D movies and 3D TVs, and Wii game interaction.
I did hear from: Marshall Jones, Editor at Kelowna.com, who sent an e-mail telling me that:
Kelowna.com is not going bankrupt; it’s likely going much, much lighter on local news.
I found it ironic when reading Kelowna.com’s local news column today, an article about media heavyweight Corus Entertainment trying hard to arrive in the Okanagan to broadcast its new station, Local 1, a TV channel dedicated to hyper–local news. But Kelowna.com is most likely—going much, much lighter on local news. Thus the changes……hmmmm?
Anyway
One issue was getting people to go to the Kelowna.com website and getting them to come back, but more was needed to make Kelowna.com money.
What I wanted to focus on quickly was the revenue stream for them.
It seems that they may not have been making enough money
So how were they making their income?
They are promoting Kelowna businesses via online advertising.
So why did this strategy work differently than it was supposed to?
Do people click banner ads anymore?
Who is not sick of Ads on the side of everything they see online?
But the GIANTs are just letting us know they are going to be doing it
iPhone 4.0 release = the iAd Why does Apple need to make more money this way?
Twitter = Sponsored ads will stay in the feed the more interaction they get in a search
Why: because what else do you have to sell except space?
So you have to have the perfect platform and plan for them. Not just throw them up and hope they stick.
It’s about Brand recognition, not clicks, and the people selling the advertising space must understand that better than anyone.
Analytics, Metrics and Return on advertising dollars are key.
The average small business that spends money on yellow pages advertising should be more educated on the importance and how to of online.
I think Kelowna.com did a lot correct, but perhaps forgot to educate its readership on the one thing it needed most, the value of brand recognition and association which would provide the $$$ it needed
There is value in online advertising, but make sure you work with a professional that understands how to develop an integrated campaign for you.