Value (Mis)judgement

A recent post in the TechCrunch blog described a decision by Technorati, a search engine for blogs, to drop content over six months old. What, may I gently inquire, are these folks thinking?

We'll leave aside the point that the cost of online storage is incredibly low and going lower. But even if disk space was expensive, for a search engine to voluntarily discard content that it has already invested in to collect and index is insanity. Like or it not, the business of search is becoming an all-or-nothing game. You either have all the content in your area of coverage or don't play.

This does put a spotlight on the issue of archive content, however. You may remember back a number of years ago when the newspaper industry decided its future was to give away current news for free, and charge for its archives. This model failed miserably, and the accepted wisdom since then has been "you can't sell your archives." This belief has been reinforced by the experiences of some magazine publishers as well.

But is it true that all this content that we build so expensively and guard so jealously has a "sell by" date? My belief is that archive content can be enormously valuable. The failed experiences to date generally reflect a combination of bad timing and bad merchandising.

What has held back the sale of archive content is: 1) a belief (real or imagined) that the same content can be obtained elsewhere online for free; 2) uncertainty about the value of what one is being asked to purchase; 3) price points that make a purchase decision difficult; 4) marketing efforts that range from subtle to passive; 5) the cumbersome mechanics of making a small a la carte purchase.

As it becomes increasingly evident that lots of information on the web doesn't stay readily and freely available forever, value perceptions of online content are increasing. Too, while a la carte access to archive content hasn't taken off, there are a growing number of publishers successfully making their archives available for unlimited access for an annual subscription price, often a hefty one. Combine this trend with this selling model and all the issues I cited above suddenly go away.

Archive content is growing in value every day, particularly if you organize it well and/or associate it with structured data content. Successful monetization seems largely a function of the right revenue model. The time is now to start tapping into an opportunity that is only going to grow. Gone, I hope, are the days when (true story) a publisher I know used to erase its archives in order to reclaim those oh-so-valuable ... floppy disks.

Labels: techcrunch, technorati

TechTarget Acquires KnowledgeStorm

TechTarget has acquired KnowledgeStorm Inc., a search resource that targets the needs of IT professionals and vendors. The purchase price was approximately $58 million, which included about $52 million in cash at closing and 359,820 shares of unregistered common TechTarget stock.

TechTarget will certainly benefit from an established base of those professionals and vendors. According to a press release announcing the deal, KnowledgeStorm boasts an active advertising client base of about 700, most of which will be new to TechTarget. KnowledgeStorm also attracts about 3.5 million visits per month from IT professionals.

TechTarget expects the acquisition to help increase its value among both IT professionals and vendors--and the company predicts that will happen rather quickly. Also in the press release, Greg Strakosch, chairman and CEO of TechTarget, said the company expects KnowledgeStorm to yield revenues of $12-$14 million and adjusted EBITDA of $4.5-$5.5 million during the first 12 months after the two firms are integrated. That integration should be complete by the end of the second quarter of 2008, according to Strakosch.

This deal shouldn't be surprising to anyone in the industry; and it certainly makes perfect sense for TechTarget to acquire an organization with such complementary services. In fact, just last month, TechTarget launched a new service very similar to those KnowledgeStorm provided in that it helps educate IT professionals on topics of interest. ITKnowledgeExchange.com is a user-generated content site that enables visitors to collaborate with each other on industry-related issues.

The combination of content and resources from both KnowledgeStorm and TechTarget should be win-win for the companies and the customers they serve (both content-seeking professionals and lead-seeking advertisers). Their universe just got a little larger; something both customer segments expect from their resources these days.

Zillow Launches New Ad Program

Real estate web site Zillow.com last month launched Zillow Home Direct Ads, a set of tools that will help advertisers identify and connect online with homeowners who are most likely contemplating a home-related purchase (such as moving or remodeling).

The backbone of the tool was created from Zillow's data: the web pages of more than 70 million homes that are visited by homeowners. Zillow Home Direct Ads is designed to help advertisers target ads to these homeowners by individual address, value of their home, psychographic cluster (such as urban families with children) or if they are planning to move.

The Home Direct Ads offering consists of four products: Home and Geographic Targeting (enables advertisers to target their online ads to visitors of a specific home's page on Zillow, similar to an offline direct mail campaign. Advertisers can target specific addresses, streets or ZIP codes.); Zestimate Value Targeting (by learning the Zestimate values of individual homes, advertisers can show their ads to specific home value sectors, by individual home or neighborhood); Move Predictor (Using data on homes for sale and traffic activity on a home's page views, Zillow can predict if a household is moving. This can enable appropriate service providers--such as financial institutions, cable providers and home improvement stores--to reach out to homeowners before they make any move-related purchasing decisions), and Psychographic Clusters (Advertisers can choose to target households that are comprised of any of the 65 psychographic clusters identified by the U.S. census data.)

While Zillow created Home Direct Ads for large advertisers, the company also offers Zillow EZ Ads for local and individual advertisers who want to create and buy ads to display in specific ZIP codes.

Regardless of their size, advertisers are always looking for new ways in which to reach their targeted audience. It's an enormous challenge for advertisers to understand the behaviors and motives of their potential customers in order for them to approach prospects with the right offer at the right time.

Zillow's new suite of tools provides this intelligence that advertisers truly need. If Zillow can deliver on the promise expected by its Home Direct Ads program and advertisers achieve ROI rather quickly, interest in this service will grow just as rapidly. Other online players should keep a sharp eye on this one as they assess the viability of their own online ad sales programs.

Leadership Directories Adds To Portfolio

Leadership Directories last month announced the release of its newest online offerings, the Federal Leadership Directory Online. This new online subscription database will enable users to complete all of the necessary tasks they expect from an online database today. Users can browse, search and export contact and biographical information for more than 90,000 individuals in the executive branch of government.

The Federal Leadership Directory Online will contain both D.C.-area and regional biographical offices responsible for policy-making, administration, IT, security, communications, finance, purchasing, programs as well as other areas. The database will also feature interactive org charts that will give users a visual hierarchy of the federal government from all levels, from the Executive Office of the President and Cabinet-level departments to regional offices of key agencies. Making contacts will also be easier thanks to more than 56,000 email addresses available in the directory. This includes 22,000 new ones.

Users can also build and export contact lists within a specific department or agency, or by filtering based on specific criteria, such as type of organization, location, title, job function, budget or number of employees. Listings of more than 1,000 federal programs will also be included in the database. Subscribers will also have access to more than 7,000 biographies (including more than 4.000 newly added biographies just available online) and more than 2,000 federal advisory committee members just available in the online edition. An annual subscription costs $1,200.

This new directory certainly complements Leadership Directories' properties that focus almost entirely on the government sector. Because the company has been serving its market for years, it knows what its customers want. And it seems like Leadership Directories has thought of everything. Users should be able to quickly find exactly what they are looking for and will most likely appreciate the addition of interactive org charts, which are unique to the online edition, and that will enable them to locate the appropriate departments and individuals in mere seconds. It's definitely a smart addition to the Leadership Directories product line.

Players Directory Adapts to the Times

Players Directory, a casting directory used by agents and casting directors, has enhanced its presence with a new website and a recently-formed alliance. The new site (www.playersdirectory.com) launched last month. It now features a database of more than 120,000 professional actors worldwide and more than 250,000 photos. The site also includes resumes, demo reels and resume clips.

Qualified actors can obtain basic listings that can include up to six photos and a resume. Through its parent company, Now Casting, the Players Directory also offers actors free inclusion in an agent/manager submission system and an online audition system. Additional premium services are also available.

Players Directory's agreement with Baseline StudioSystems calls for the directory to become the provider of actor photos, resumes, representation information and demo reels to Baseline, a film and television information provider. Baseline, which is a unit of The New York Times Company, serves a customer base of every major studio, broadcast network, representation firm and media outlet in North America.

For the last 70 years, Players Directory has served its niche customer base with relevant content. Now that content has a platform that will make it even easier for those customers to utilize. These really aren't revolutionary changes, but certainly necessary ones. It's vital for all directories today to continue the traditions they built in the print world into the electronic arena. There are likely many more ways in which Players Directory can make its website even more robust…perhaps some sort of social networking functionality that would enable dialogue among the listed actors and their agents is a possibility. Stay tuned.