Tags: Dix Communications (DixCom) is a family owned business that, for over 100 years, has published local newspapers and operated regional radio stations. In the early 1990’s, the company launched several online versions of its newspapers, becoming an early pioneer in digital publishing. Paul Martecchini, Head of Marketing for OpenX asked Andrew Dix, President of Dix Communications Internet, to share his insights on how digital publishers can generate more ad revenue.
Andrew Dix, President of Dix Communications Internet Division
Paul Martecchini [PM]: Let’s start from the beginning, tell us about Dix Communications.
Andrew Dix [AD]: We’re a smaller media company, started in Ohio in the late 1800’s. We own print products: daily newspapers, community newspapers, and associated shoppers and magazines. And we have radio stations in several markets, including Maryland, Ohio and Florida.
PM: Tell us about your early forays into online publishing.
AD: We were one of the first newspapers in the state of Ohio to have a website. In the early 1990’s, we began moving our products to the web. We also rolled out niche sites that were closely tied to the local markets.
PM: Did you monetize your early sites?
AD: Back in the ‘90s we weren’t doing that much monetization, however, we recognized the importance of display ads, even in our small markets. That’s how we first learned about OpenX.
We worked with a lot of ad networks that sold our inventory, but sometimes we wondered if those companies could cover the checks they sent us. And they were slow to pay. It was a bit of the Wild West back then.
Continue reading to discover how DixCom more than doubled their revenue on non-guaranteed inventory using OpenX Market!
PM: What are the challenges of monetizing revenue for local publishers like DixCom?
AD: One challenge relates to the industry, not just DixCom. We undervalued our websites. So we’ve learned how to package and differentiate our digital inventory for our advertisers. As we get better at that, all of our CPMs – guaranteed, non-guaranteed – go up.
Our strength is in our content. We offer original news, which always attracts higher CPMs. And we offer local news – content that isn’t easily aggregated up into regional or national sites. This makes us very attractive to advertisers.
Another challenge lies in selling cost-effectively. We have a lot of local, smaller advertisers and there’s no way we can sell to them all directly. We need, and would like to roll out, a self-service model similar to the one we have for classifieds. Self-service sales are high-value sales because of the low overhead.
PM: You recently implemented OpenX Enterprise, what prompted that decision?
AD: We started to systematically assess all of the options for ad serving. We weren’t biased in any direction, though initially we were inclined to go with the Google Dart or DFP product just because it’s ubiquitous. But we reviewed most platforms and interviewed many of the vendors.
Support was a big issue for us. We’re a smaller publisher with a streamlined staff and we wanted a vendor that could provide us with technical and strategic advice as we furthered our monetization efforts. We were disappointed with our Google encounter because DixCom isn’t large enough to capture their attention from a corporate level, so they pushed us out to a re-seller who didn’t have a deep understanding of the product or business.
After researching all the options, we narrowed it down to OpenX Enterprise, called the references, and all of your customers gave OpenX support very high ratings.
PM: What do you like best about OpenX Enterprise?
AD: OpenX Market, your real-time bidding (RTB) ad exchange. For us, the OpenX Enterprise ad server is just how we access a world of potential buyers for our non-guaranteed inventory. That’s the real value. All of the sudden we realized that as a smaller publication, we could attract national advertisers to our unsold inventory and immediately generate revenue. It’s been very encouraging!
PM: Do you use the OpenX Market price floor feature?
AD: Yes, currently we have a $2.00 price floor for most of our sites. That’s just the floor, but we always get higher prices, anything from $2.26 to $2.72. Our niche sites get the highest CPMs, but they don’t have as much traffic.
PM: How does that compare to the CPMs you were getting for your non-guaranteed inventory prior to OpenX Market?
AD: Before OpenX, we were lucky to get $1.10.
PM: What advice do you have for other publishers that want to better monetize their inventory?
AD: Real-time bidding is a major opportunity. Real-time bidding through automated exchanges like OpenX Market means there’s very low overhead on your non-guaranteed sales, and I believe will help increase your eCPMs over time. Any publisher should consider real-time bidding.
PM: How would you describe working with OpenX?
AD: OpenX has made life easier for us, especially when it comes to support. We submit a ticket, and we know that it will be addressed very quickly.
Just as important, we like having a team of experts at OpenX to talk to about technology and monetization strategies. They have really taken a collaborative approach in sharing best practices.
We’re taking things one-step at a time. We worked with our OpenX team to implement contextual advertising on our sites. OpenX is helping us plan our future, providing both technical and strategic advice.
