Today the Times announced the launch of two new websites in preparation for charging readers to access online content. Whilst this story has dominated the news with regards to the future of journalism, search engine optimisation companies and online marketing professionals are now debating how best to harness the potential available revenue through tailored advertising campaigns. An effective solution could determine the success of such publishers in returning to profit at a time when printed publications are losing popularity. The changes could mean that companies will be willing to pay more for an online marketing campaign if the audience is going to be a high quality target, which will pay the wages of high quality journalists.
Online News
There is no doubt that we are on the verge of witnessing a major change in the way we access our news, despite the doubts that are being cast over the newspaper’s move; it is expected that they will instantly lose 90% of their online readership. As a writer, it is evident that journalism will make an inevitable shift from print to pixel, and for too long high quality journalism has been literally given away online. The changes are set to spark a chain reaction and transform the way we consume online news content. But before that happens, other publishers will be waiting to see what mistakes the Times will make in the way they implement their new form of publishing.
The Times
The Times has opted for a paywall that will no longer let Google crawl it’s pages, therefore Times stories will no longer appear in SERPs. The tight restrictions of their paywall option will also only direct links that have been shared via social networks to the pre-payment sign-in page. Some online marketing professionals have already condemned this as the virtual equivalent of shooting oneself in one’s own foot. It has been a growing trend to optimise for social networking sites, and it was recently announced that Facebook has outpaced Google and become the most popular search platform, so restricting the ability to share popular news stories could backfire dramatically.
Online Marketing Potential
Other online news forums that have implemented a paywall still allow Google to crawl pages and visitors to the site can read a few articles before committing to buy. However, two of the biggest newspaper publishers in the US that have an online presence have decided they can capitalise on the popularity of search engine optimisation considerably by offering advertisers SEO services that will help advertisers place highly in Google SERPs when they advertise with the newspaper.
Local Search Engine Optimisation
This has the potential to harness local search engine optimisation services offered by online marketing companies, and could potentially change the way SEO companies choose to implement online advertising campaigns. The jury is still out as to how changes in the way we consume news via a computer or mobile device will affect online marketing, but there is no denying that targeting readers with tailored adverts online will reap more favourable returns on online marketing investment.
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