Integrating corporate sales operations had been a challenge from the beginning.
NYTD was highly motivated to start selling website advertising space to the
newspaper’s traditional customers. But the newspaper sales force wasn’t nearly as
anxious.
First, they didn’t understand the new media as well. Second, they had built
relationships with key customers over years, or even decades, and were hesitant to put
those relationships at risk by letting the “dotcom kids” through the door. Third,
digital sales were expected to be very small compared to newspaper sales, so it seemed
sensible to some newspaper sales reps to use space on the website as a giveaway to
help sell print advertisements. Fourth, most customers were only just beginning to get
comfortable with advertising on the web; it was a more difficult sell than the wellunderstood
print media. Commission compensation naturally encouraged the easier,
higher value sales. Finally, there was inconsistency from one customer to the next.
Some wanted a single sales rep to call on a single buyer to discuss both media, others
preferred separate sales calls.
As of 2001, Mr. Nisenholtz felt most of these hurdles had effectively been overcome.
Still, many newspaper clients were choosing not to advertise online.
Integration was a bit smoother in classified sales. Here, the newspaper team was
under a real threat from new websites, such as Monster.com, that were becoming very
popular alternatives to newspaper help-wanted ads. As a result, there was a clear and
compelling motivation to figure out how to create value by combining traditional
classified advertising with online classifieds.
Editorial and business staff from both Boston.com and the Boston Globe created a
successful integrated offering known as BostonWorks. The new brand included both
job listings and employment market articles, both in print and on the website. At the
New York Times, a classified leadership team was created. Ultimately, full
responsibility for selling both print and online recruitment classifieds was given to the
newspaper organization. NYTD retained separate responsibility for managing online
real estate and automotive classifieds.