The nation’s most popular local TV site is…
Cory Bergman March 26th, 2008
A TV site in the nation’s 35th largest market has a secret, and it will astonish you. Every month, Salt Lake’s KSL.com serves up 130 million… yes MILLION… page views from 1.4 million unique users. From a page view perspective, that puts KSL.com squarely at the top of the heap of local TV sites in the country. So how is this possible? KSL.com launched free classifieds using an off-the-shelf product in 2000, well before Craigslist gained a foothold. In 2006, they upgraded to their own technology — a clean, quick and user-friendly classifieds platform. Today, 75% of those 130 million page views are generated by free classifieds, and KSL.com ranks #8 in Nielsen-Netratings’ list of top news sites ranked by “sessions per person.” Just about everyone in Salt Lake goes to KSL.com to buy or sell just about anything.
Stephan Bergen, KSL.com’s director of online content, answered a few of our questions via email, which follow below…
Lost Remote: What makes your classifieds so successful?
Bergen: I believe most of our success come from getting into the game early. My predecessors fought hard to keep the free model, bucking the trend to charge for everything. At the time, we were one of very few sites that offered completely free classified listings. Our initial success came mostly by word of mouth, with limited on-air promotion. It literally became viral after a couple of years, as people had continual success with their ads. Now, you can walking into any gathering of people in our region, ask them if they have used ksl.com classifieds, and you will get close to a majority of them that have. We have also been successful because we control the product, not a third party. That enables us to adjust and tweak for market specific needs.
Lost Remote: How much does timing and the uniqueness of the market play into this? In most markets, Craigslist has an iron grip.
Bergen: Timing was everything. We had leadership that had vision enough to see the potential – although nobody could have ever predicted HOW successful it would become. It also took years to build the mass. This was not an overnight success. Ultimately, we were fortunate to get a foothold in the market before it became saturated with other “me toos”.
Lost Remote: Are all the classifieds free? Do you intend to charge for bigger-ticket items at some point?
Bergen: Yes. We are always evaluating different options in term of monetizing the product, but we have no plans to charge for basic listings (a basic listing includes all the text and photos). Much of our strategy is based on “the race to the bottom”. We feel that charging for listings would jeopardize that.
Lost Remote: So what’s next?
Bergen: As with any software related product, we are constantly tweaking and revising our core classified product – there are always new features and bugs to be worked on. As mentioned, we are also working on addition ways to monetize the classifieds, and we should have some of those options launched in the near future. Also, we are working on several projects in conjunction with our corporate New Media department. I can’t really say much in regards to specifics, but I will say that they are heavily community focused. I will be able to tell you more in the near future.
26 Comments Add your own
1. JT | March 26th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Where do they come up with the 130 million page views? I believed they were closer to 50-60 million.
One thing they do have - they are one of the main portals to BYU Sports. (Both KSL and BYU are owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.) Imagine how well your site would do with all the traffic from the college team in your area.
2. Stephan | March 26th, 2008 at 11:41 am
We get our site metrics straight from Omniture. We are actually forecasting near 140 million this month.
As far a BYU sports, it does give us a lift, but mostly on streaming during football season.
3. SMB | March 26th, 2008 at 11:53 am
How about LDS General Conference? I’ve seen the “super-bowl esque” TV ratings, do your web numbers spike as well?
4. Stephan | March 26th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Well, since the LDS General Conference occurs on a weekend, we do see a spike, but not one that puts it above a normal weekday. Again, our audio streaming sees a big spike, as does our video streaming, but it doesn’t really have the same page view spike as a breaking news story would.
5. Rocker | March 26th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
So what’s the business model?
6. Rocker | March 26th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Oops…didn’t see the q/a until after I hit “submit”. Although it still sounds very vague.
7. Don Day | March 26th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I believe it.
There classifieds offering is the best around - and they’ve got a pretty good news site to back it up.
8. JT | March 26th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I’ve got to say, Stephan, as a former web producer at KUTV I can appreciate what you guys do. Great job on the numbers. I constantly reference KSL.com when trying to grow the traffic at my current station.
9. Greg | March 26th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Could the 2002 Olympics have anything to do with the pageviews? My parents still have the Salt Lake Tribune and KSL in their bookmarks and still visit the site regularly.
10. Greg | March 26th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
KSL isn’t just a TV site - it’s also the site for KSL radio - a powerhouse all news station in SLC. It’s not fair to compare them to a traditional TV site - they’re not. That being said - the pageview number compared to the unique user number is amazing and they do a great job - but let’s compare apples to apples.
11. Jeff | March 26th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I see you got a link on B&C for this one.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/60000406.html#1690023969
12. Don Day | March 26th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Greg — while your point is somewhat valid - there are many TV/radio combos that don’t touch KSL. I’m sure the folks at KOMO in Seattle would give their right arm for that kind of traffic.
The Olympics, LDS conference and BYU may help… but that all obscures the central point here folks: 75% OF TRAFFIC COMES FROM CLASSIFIEDS.
13. SMB | March 26th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
@Don
…or more importantly, ONLY 25% OF TRAFFIC COMES FROM LOCAL NEWS.
14. Don | March 26th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I think most of us would be OK with “just” 32.5 million views for local news.
15. bostonmediaguy | March 26th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Why don’t these heritage tv/radio station combos pool their web resources into one site? Isn’t the web viewer the same — whether directed from television or radio? WBZ and KDKA immediately come to mind.
16. Channel 2000 Alum | March 27th, 2008 at 5:12 am
It’s not just WBZ and KDKA. How about WABC, WCBS, WWJ, KYW, KGO, KABC - the list goes on and on. Great point though - you’ve got TV and radio stations competing against each other online while in many cases working together on-air.
17. yo | March 28th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Ya let’s just waltz into NBC and others and ask for a joint venture with all the O&Os and affiliates….that should be real easy…be done by Monday. What a joke.
KSL is a great station and regardless of where the traffic comes from they do an excellent job of recruiting and maintaining loyal users. That means more $$ and that people working at KSL interactive have done their job.
18. Z | March 28th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Hey, TDC, look! A successful TV Web site with call letters as its Web address!
19. wtf TV people? | March 28th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
funny how all the skeptics go right to trying to tear down KSL with a bunch of “yeah but… ” comments.
feeling threatened you’re not doing your job much?
20. tdc | March 29th, 2008 at 9:17 am
z,
thanks for pointing that out, i’ve been waiting nearly 20 comments for the set-up…
you’ve actually just proven my point.
that’s ONE in how many hundred following that dead end approach?
don’t speak too quickly, z. march numbers for YOUR stuff ain’t lookin too good.
thanks
21. Z | March 29th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
“march numbers for YOUR stuff ain’t lookin too good.”
Huh? I’m having the best March ever. Won’t be as good as Feb was, but that’ll be tough to beat.
And I wouldn’t be calling it a dead end approach considering we dumped YOUR approach in favor of it.
22. tdc | March 30th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
gee, no need to get nasty.
but let’s see…
“dumped”??? YOU spent HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of DOLLARS (if not millions) in promos to build a brand and then “DUMPED” it?
just when YOU are coming into 4 times the TV spectrum and will have to consider building online businesses to augment them?
also, might want to delve into what gordon borell has to say to folks like the tvb last week; it sounds VERY FAMILIAR.
all the best to YOU.
sorry, i didn’t see YOUR 30+randomsearchresultdotcoms on that list the first time… but it’s there… #29.
my bad.
23. Z | March 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
“march numbers for YOUR stuff ain’t lookin too good.”
I’m sorry, who started nasty? Sure wasn’t me.
24. tdc | March 31st, 2008 at 7:21 am
what’s nasty about that?
numbers are EVERYTHING to you guys-
one of your guys runs around citing webtrends’ (which i point out is 300% higher than nielsen’s) and YOU try to deflect the critique by calling it a “simple discrepancy” (hope everyone gets a chuckle out of that every time they hear it like i do).
then, only last week, you tell us you are keeping 2 sets of books- one for promotions (must make for good headlines) and another for sales (must be what you bill for).
now, you tell us march is not as good as feb.
did i not say march numbers aren’t looking too good?
i fail to see where the TRUTH is nasty.
AND, this nielsen chart shows IB 29th out of 30 and WORLDNOW at 28/30…. that’s not indicative of a DEAD END APPROACH?
almost DEAD LAST.
let me be very clear on this- i have nothing against you guys, but at a time when you should be innovating it appears you are circling the wagons. rather than building a brand and “DUMPING” it, you should be LEVERAGING it.
don’t take it personally, though.
25. Ed | March 31st, 2008 at 9:16 am
Laugh away, but don’t confuse simplicity with scale.
2 methodologies produce 2 numbers - makes you wonder just how wrong the numbers for TV are - sadly, we’ll never know.
26. chris | April 28th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
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3G Network HSDPA 2100
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Size Dimensions 99 x 53 x 21 mm, 90 cc
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