There’s an interesting tidbit to be found in the latest quarterly earnings report from E.W. Scripps. Nieman points out that the company seems to be blaming its lower online ad revenue on its newspapers. Nieman found this telltale quote:
“The decline in online revenue…is attributable to the weakness in print classified advertising, to which roughly half the online advertising is tied. Revenue from online-only ad sales rose 21 percent.”
…which is precisely why we’ve always discouraged cross-selling. You can’t expect to grow your revenue if half of it is tied to a stream that is on the way down. Odds are this isn’t “real” money, anyway. I’ve found that companies that say they are cross-selling are actually “carving out a piece” of the print sale and putting it in the online column. This is accounting trickery, not a growth strategy.
RELATED: Newspaper ad sales are worse than you think
