It's hard to ignore the drop in advertising revenue for newspapers across the country. That's why all the attendees and vendors at ONA 2008 want to make more money online.

Tami Kirby, a sales manager with uclick, a digital entertainment company, said one way to enhance newspapers' revenue is through fun and games. uclick provides daily comics and games such as crossword puzzles and Sudoku for media outlets across the country.

"The more clickables you have on your web page, the more time spent on your page, and the more revenue coming in," Kirby said. As visitors stay on the pages longer, the more they can be drawn to ads or promotions on the pages.

"Advertisers like the idea that the entertainment is updated daily because that increases the chance for repeat and loyal visitors on that page," said Kirby.

Inform, a semantic technology company, pulls readers into Web sites by enhancing the site's content. They read the articles and identify entities such as people and places. Inform highlights people and places in the article, linking to thousands of pages with text, video and audio.

Enhancing the article creates more ad space, said Josh Kirschner, chief marketing officer for Inform.

"Your readers will also learn more to better understand your article," Kirschner said.
Many media companies such as Reuters are doing the same.

"It really provides context to data," said keynote speaker Devin Wenig during his luncheon address. "You can make money while attracting more readers."

According to the Newspaper Association of America, advertising revenue dropped 7.9 percent to $45.4 billion last year. Online advertising revenue made up only 7 percent of all advertising sales at newspapers last year.

Topix Senior Director Blake Williams said publishers can enhance keywords to attract readers searching for news through Google searches. This is a free way to increase readership, he said.

According to the Newspaper Association of America, advertising revenue dropped 7.9 percent to $45.4 billion last year as a 19 percent increase in online ad spending failed to offset a 9.4 percent reduction in print. That's because online ad revenue made up only 7 percent of all advertising sales at newspapers in 2007, and print ads still command several times more money per reader.

The declines are even starker this year, especially in June and July, based on a review of the latest monthly revenue reports from newspaper companies.

While Gannett saw non-broadcast advertising revenue drop 11 percent year-over-year during the first five months of 2008, the nation's largest newspaper chain recorded reductions of 16.3 percent in June and 16.7 percent in July compared with a year earlier.
McClatchy saw a 15.4 percent decrease in ad revenue through May but drops of greater than 19 percent in each of June and July.

In those two months, The New York Times Co. saw a nearly 18 percent ad-spending decline at the flagship Times, The Boston Globe and other news media properties, after dropping only 10 percent through May.

--Jaedda Armstrong