Advertising is obviously a key source of revenue for news sites — including nonprofits (see more below). Hyperlocal news sites are great advertising platforms for local businesses, and many would like to advertise on more than one town site. The problem for the news sites is finding the time and expertise to create a system for doing this. But help is on the way — the Eastern Mass. News Alliance advertising syndicate, which is launching in spring 2024.
One thing we realized early on: contriving a way to distribute display ads to several websites with different platforms and designs is complicated. To simplify things, we came up with the idea of service directories — specifically, just real estate listings to start. Here’s how it’ll work:
- EMNA sells advertising to real estate agents for properties all over eastern Massachusetts. Agents will pay flat fees to start, and they can pay more to have their listings appear more prominently in the “Featured” collection.
- Each participating town’s news website will have a prominent link that takes the reader to a dynamic EMNA page with their town’s real estate listings at the top.
- When the reader clicks on a home that looks interesting, they’ll go to the listing page for that property on the agent’s website.
- If they like, readers can also search for homes in other nearby towns while learning more about life in those towns via links to the other EMNA news websites.
- Each news website will get a portion of the EMNA ad revenue based on their share of the total combined audience. The goal is to financially support local news websites, so they’ll get the lion’s share of the revenue.
- Once we’ve built an audience, we’ll switch to a CPM model where advertisers will pay per impression and per click.
- Over time, we’ll feature ads for home inspectors, contractors, lawyers, etc., and eventually branch out to health care, restaurants, and other types of business.