The need for targeted newspaper websites – focussed more closely on tight segmentation – was a recurring theme at the Online Media Asia conference last week. And what better exponent to examine than Google: Moritz Wuttke, the Shanghai-based founder of New Media Initiatives had a picture of one of the search engine behemoth’s massive data centres, adding “Google does well but so can we.” And later head of partnerships Emilia Ong (pictured) presented the helpful and human face of Google: She urged publishers to understand the change in media consumption, pointing to the UK’s 30 million audience for time-shifted online video. “In the next ten years, 50 per cent of all content will be available online,” she says. The main question is how to get content to readers and facilitate sharing. “You needs to make it easy for your readers to share with their friends,” she says. Ong also urges repackaging of content in targeted sites, and the use of online search. “Even Google has difficulty in categorising content sometimes, and unless there are very clear keywords, search engine struggle.” And on personalisation and participation: • an iPhone application which enables a user to take a picture of an office building and link to rental details for it; • extension of the BBC’s iPlayer where viewers decide what they want to watch will be see “your friends decide what you watch”; • the ‘Nasa Adressa’ internet café concept in Prague – where visitors can chat with reporters – as well as ‘Patch’ in New Jersey towns; and • “mutualisation of news” by the UK ‘Guardian’ where readers contributed dates and facts in response to a Tweet, and another case in which readers scrutinised 450,000 receipts for MPs expenses, and received 200,000 comments. “There’s certainly revenue potential in new media,” she says, citing the experience of Sony, which invited bloggers and locals to take pictures of themselves which was built into an advertisement. See the Sony Foam City footage: Wuttke’s message that people today do much more than read newspapers, with social networking sites crucial and IM (instant messaging) use widespread in countries such as China. “There’s lots of activity and publishers can copy from that,” he says. He also urged cooperation with other advertising networks, or “if you have a big website, set up your own affiliate network”. Another lesson from Google was to introduce ‘beta’ sites, allowing readers to decide whether they liked an idea. “Engage readers to find out what they want,” he says. Speaking at short notice, Stephan Phillips of UK newspaper publisher Archant told of successes with targeted offerings and social networking. One of these has been obituary pages where family members can leave messages. One death notice drew 1000 messages and Phillips says the site has received 60,000 messages in an area of 80,000 people. The ‘Pink-Un’ football paper’s website also has its own busy message board. “Social media is a phenomenon,” he says. WAN-Ifra joint chief executive heralded a ‘Newsroom 4.0’ concept which he says will add target group orientation, with editors selecting the content they want for specific audiences. “It’s a complete change in the way a newspaper works,” he says. “One person will make decisions for the segment.” As in FMG categories, websites need to recognise the much wider choice offered to purchasers. “We must make sure we reach target groups and are the preferred medium, reinforcing that with branding,” he says. And he urges publishers to provide support for advertising sales people, monitor competition and prepare for a trend towards advertisers requiring proof of performance. Wuttke too, warned that “like it or not, advertisers want transparency” with cost-per-action and lead referral the key elements. Consultant and publisher Peter Zollman (AIM) emphasised the message on segmentation: “Go local, especially hyper-local,” he urged … and make it a conversation. And strengthen your classifieds: There is still a lot of money to be made in classified,” he says. Later Zollman moderated a panel discussion on online classifieds, with contributions from Julian Tan (Singapore’s 701Search), Patrick Grove (IPGA and iproperty.com) and Vincent Tan of Singapore’s sgcarmart. In a fast-moving discussion, Zollman asked Julian Tan “how hard it would be for SPH to catch up”, queried whether he might be ready to sell, and elicited the information that Grove had “been trying to team up” for two years. Acknowledging everyone wants to be top, Julian Tan says there’s “no magic formula” and sometimes simple promotions – such as flyers – can work. “It doesn’t have to be high-tech to be effective,” he says. *** WAN-Ifra’s Asian online media event will become a fully-fledged Digital Media Forum in 2010 with its own standalone awards. A date next November is yet to be announced for the event, including the Asian Digital Media Awards, previously part of the PublishAsia event.