Morris Communications is well known within the newspaper industry for being a highly entrepreneurial media company, especially in its pursuit of new, Internet-based revenues. In the summer of 2004, Morris launched Yellow Advantage, a hybrid of online search and Yellow Pages products. Yellow Advantage is branded as “a new breed of Yellow Pages.”

Since its launch, Yellow Advantage, or a similarly-branded product, has been introduced in 20 Morris markets, ranging from Ardmore, OK (circulation 10,800), to Jacksonville, FLA (circulation 167,229). It is powered by Interchange, which provides the search technology, licenses the listings, and supplements Morris’ local advertisers with an extensive network of national advertisers. (Disclosure: Krasilovsky Consulting provides strategic consulting to Interchange).

Revenues from Yellow Advantage aren’t critical to Morris’ bottom line today, although it has a positive return on investment. Strategically, it plays a more important role. It helps defend the papers from increasingly local-oriented search engines and Yellow Pages. At the same time, it extends the range of newspaper advertising to existing advertisers, and reaches out to small business customers that don’t normally advertise in the newspapers (or their websites).

Launching Morris’ Yellow Advantage

Morris’ first beta test of its Yellow Advantage product was conducted in the fall of 2004 with The Amarillo Globe News and the newspaper’s online site, Amarillo.com. “We knew we needed a strong search component to go up against several companies that were already offering local online Yellow Pages,” said Steven Metzinger, the newspaper’s advertising director.

Metzinger and his team developed a unique print/online sale program for Yellow Advantage, which has subsequently been rebranded as “Amarillo Direct.” There are currently 43 Amarillo Direct advertisers, including “people who have previously been relying on weekly shoppers, Yellow Pages and other places,” said Metzinger. Goals for 2006 are to boost that number to 75.

Metzinger believes that the program’s success has been largely due to the development of compelling sales packages and strong “buy-in” from Amarillo’s 12 retail and eight classified/outside and direct reps selling the programs. “We had standard and premium packages for people who buy two or three ads per week in the paper, and for the advertisers who buy per month,” he said.

“We also wanted the sales people to own the program and do custom packages,” said Metzinger. “Certain advertisers took advantage of just purchasing Amarillo Direct. We also had some advertisers buying multiple categories” in the paper and online, who “just wanted to maintain their hold on the market” with multiple channels.

Part of the sales force’s ability to customize was its hand-in-hand work with the paper’s creative team, which made speculative ads for different pitches. “The success rate has been really good,” said Metzinger. Future growth will be similarly dependent on successful promotion. “We need to support it with a strong market campaign. We have been running some outsides (billboards), but we need to do a better job. The opportunity is tremendous but …it’s a complex message to get out. Localizing the product also helps with advertisers and readers,” he said.

Another challenge is to adapt to the payment schedules of small businesses. “With these smaller and seasonal type businesses, we have had to be flexible in our billing policies, allowing some to pay on a schedule that reflects their seasonally-based income.”

Expanding Yellow Advantage to 20 Markets

With Amarillo and several other markets successfully launched, Morris made the decision to expand its relationship with Interchange to 20 papers, including titles such as The Florida Times-Union, Savannah Morning News, The Hannibal Courier-Post, and The Topeka Capital-Journal.

The Florida Times-Union’s Yellow Advantage site launched in August 2005. Unlike the other Morris papers, The Times-Union already had an Internet Yellow Pages from a different vendor on its site, and needed to convert it to Interchange’s advanced search/IYP platform. But the conversion “was seamless,” said Brad Bradner, the paper’s new media sales consultant. Today, Yellow Advantage is accessible from every page of the Web site.

Working with the Interchange technology has been a special plus. It “has more to offer,” said Bradner. “It is user friendly, with many enhanced features and services.” The ability to search for businesses and to link newspaper ads and coupons is especially valuable. “It’s proven to be a good way to introduce small business to our services.”

Yellow Advantage has largely been introduced to the area businesses and users via full page print ads in the paper’s Internet Directory on Sundays, which is calculated as a $200 value in itself. Currently, Yellow Advantage has attracted 120 customers, paying an average fee of $79. About 25 of those are new advertisers.

Incubating Small Town Success

Yellow Advantage has also been introduced in a number of smaller Morris markets. Bluffton Today, a groundbreaking blog-centric site run by Hilton Head, SC-area newspaper, reports good results. Online Manager Ryan Miano said that Yellow Advantage “usually places in the top 10 of total pages viewed each month.” Advertisers are made aware of Yellow Advantage via a full page back cover listing of Yellow Advantage members in print each day. It is also advertised online on the homepage and the right rail of each inside page.

Miano added that advertisers have been pleased by the “good exposure” they receive, and “the tangible return for their investment in print and online.”

The Ardmoreite, a smalltown Morris paper in Ardmore, OK, population 23,711, has also seen a successful launch of the search/Yellow Pages service, which is locally branded as “Yellow Web.” To date, it has attracted 15 advertisers, paying an average of $199 per year. Roughly half of those are new to the newspaper.

New Media Director Melissa Mangham said the advertisers have come from a combination of telemarketing, and Yellow Advantage’s high visibility above the fold, just below the top story. “Some customers are looking for an economical solution” that is cheaper than banner ads or traditional Yellow Pages, she noted.

Mangham added that the paper isn’t expecting to compete head on with other Yellow Pages businesses, at least at first. The market is already over-served by Southwestern Bell, TransWestern Publishing (Yellow Book) and Feist,” she noted. The key is to differentiate the product by leveraging the newspaper’s legacy as a local information provider.

Not Just Swapping Dollars

With the bulk of its papers now selling Yellow Advantage, Morris is clearly making paid search more of a corporate priority.

“What I like about it …it’s got our ad people going after new customers,” said Kelly Casalino, a sales executive for Morris Digital Works who has since left the company. “The online guys see the value of deeply integrating the search throughout their websites,” she added, even if “the print guys will want to keep the print component all on one page.”

But with experience, Casalino had some words of advice for other newspapers. “Make sure you are not just swapping print dollars,” she said. “Make it simple. Do not complicate this thing. It’s a ‘print and online directory for our readers and viewers.’ She also noted that “Yellow Pages directories, *online and in print, are not a new idea. But with ‘Google-like search,’ it is a leap into the future for our viewers and readers.”