Bob Morgan on the Information Enterprise

Bob Morgan, staff development manager at The Virginian-Pilot, spoke to API about the expanding advertising beyond the print paper. He will lead the session "The Information Enterprise" at API's Advertising Leadership in the Community paper seminar, July 23-28, 2006.

API: What is an information enterprise?

Bob Morgan: I happen to think it's the future of the newspaper industry. Newspaper companies need to think of themselves in a different way - not just as the daily newspaper, but as an information enterprise. By that I mean that your overarching objective is to be the pre-eminent info provider for your region. The objective should be to use a variety of channels to get that information to the marketplace. The daily newspaper is only one of these channels. There are four main components of our daily enterprise at The Virginian-Pilot:
1. Newspaper
2. Our online division, Pilot Online. We own hamptonroads.com and hamptonroads.tv. We were one of the first newspapers in America to have a dot-tv product and our objective is to offer streaming video - the opportunity to get real-time news in a video format. You may make a video and you can submit that to us. Our editors may choose to upload that.
3. Targeted publications: We have 16 or 17 print publications that are separate and distinct from the newspaper. They're not affiliated. The vast majority is distributed for free.
4. PilotDirect, which is a direct marketing company. We print and deliver things for businesses and use the US mail to get that delivered. That is our model.

API: Many other news companies also have various combinations of these enterprises. How is The Virginian-Pilot different?

BM: Hamptonroads.tv is one of the newest entities. We believe that will challenge local television within a few years. The popularity and audience of the Web site is growing compared to the television markets. We're constantly adding new features to our online product like a retail shopping component, Deal Spotter.

API: How has expansion into these different enterprises affected the advertising department?

BM: Our model is different in that we have established each of these as a free-standing entity. They represent additional competition for our advertising department at the newspaper. Another result is that we are significantly increasing our penetration into the commercial market place. The number of businesses that we are doing business with is far larger than what it was five years ago or 10 years ago. Particularly in the online and targeted publications ...we're reaching large numbers.