To Boost Ad Revenue, Newspaper Sites Go Social

We already talked about how the Fife Herald newspaper, in Scotland, are using MySpace. This ClickZ article discusses how many more newspapers are getting in on the social act. I don't think they all quite "get it" yet, but they are mostly talking steps in the right direction, even if they do appear to be focussing still on "revenue streams and ad inventory", before readers wants and needs. But, essentially:

For newspaper sites in need of creating more volume, enabling user-generated content "is the cheapest way to foster bigger growth".

Also, I have no doubts that it will also be one of the cheapest ways to foster growth of your site too and the "big picture" of what they are doing is a strategy you can emulate.

The only difference I see between the big newspapers and those of us with more modest sites, is that they already have enough audience to add these facilities in-house.

You may have a "chicken and egg" situation: how do you get users to generate your content, when you haven't yet got any users? And the answer to that, in the initial stages, is we should make a deliberate choice to forgo the ad revenue and inventory space that might be generated by having user content and use the social tools readily available.

Keep blogs in-house, but otherwise go out to sites that already have traffic and use those to connect with the relevant community for your topic or niche. (A newspaper near you might already have such a community!

To Boost Ad Revenue, Newspaper Sites Go Social