The Cole Digest, August 2, 1995

Gentle Reader,

The question I keep getting asked -- over and over -- is this:

"Cole, how are we supposed to make money at this on-line thingee?"

I recently dispatched L. Carol Christopher of my staff to find out. She's interviewed five of the leading newspaper on-line experts in the industry and we'll start the first of her three-part series today:

What electronic ad form will be as well-suited to this new delivery medium as the Burma Shave signs were to the asphalt highway -- as exciting, as fun, as engaging?

No one has discovered the best way to mount Internet advertising, contends David Scott, publisher of AccessAtlanta, the electronic information arm of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. A successful digital ad campaign will be "intuitively more than the display ad in your face," Scott said, making it "useful, interactive and transactional."

Forerunners in this genre include two Atlanta efforts. Rich's department store put up a special holiday gift section and used it to sell more than 6000 Swatch watches. A local Realtor eagerly linked an on-line campaign to an annual print tabloid section. These campaigns are so successful that others want to come on-line, but Scott said responding to such requests takes a while.

"Every day is better and faster. But we have growing pains," he said. The Journal and Constitution World-Wide Web site offers on-line versions of all classified ads run in Cox's Atlanta newspapers, as well as some found on Prodigy-based AccessAtlanta -- at no charge to the advertisers, who already pay $3000 to $5000 per month for Prodigy exposure.

Up the interstate, inside the notorious D.C. Beltway, Don Brazeal believes four categories of ads eventually will cruise down the information superhighway. Brazeal is editor and publisher of Digital Ink, the recently launched version of the Washington Post that's appearing on AT&T Interchange. Brazeal's four categories:

*Digitized display ads, similar to those appearing daily in newspapers, which merely present a product for sale and suggest where to go to buy it.

*Classified advertising, which "looks very interesting in the electronic world because you can use the interactive capabilities of the computer to match the buyer and the seller," he said.

*Database advertising, which is similar to catalog shopping in the print world, only the buyer can go deeper and deeper into the content, and the advertiser can constantly update the content -- something prohibitively expensive in print.

*"Commercial communications," ads that are "unlike anything in the print world," Brazeal said. Here, the advertiser has the ability to set up a unique communications area on-line, where clients, members or customers can ask questions and get answers. Electronic newspaper publishers can give advertisers a turnkey communications service -- full-blown integration not only with ad messages but with news and information from a wide range of sources.

Next week: To live and die in L.A.

Onward.

\dmc

[THE COLE DIGEST is written by consultant David M. Cole, editor and publisher of the industry newsletter THE COLE PAPERS. The DIGEST is made available to PressLink subscribers every Wednesday at no extra charge. Send comments by e-mail to cole@plink.geis.com. The COLE DIGEST is the property of The Cole Group, a California sole proprietorship. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of The Cole Group is prohibited. Copyright (C) 1995, The Cole Group. Opinions expressed are those of The Cole Group, unless otherwise noted.

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