NYTimes.com managed its own sales force for selling display ads. In some cases, a
sales representative from NYTimes.com and one from the newspaper would call on
customers together. Most advertisers, however, chose either one medium or the other.
While other Internet companies typically chose online placement, traditional
advertisers remained more comfortable with print.
Classified advertisements, including employment ads, were sold by the newspaper’s
classifieds team. They were encouraged to “upsell” from print-only ads to print plus
digital wherever possible.
NYTimes.com was able to track page-views for any part of the website. As a result,
feedback on which features were being used and which were not was continuously
available. New products were introduced regularly to the website, created by crossfunctional
teams of salespeople, market researchers, software developers, editorial
staff, and general managers.
Although operations at NYTimes.com and Boston.com were quite similar by 2001,
Boston.com had followed a different evolutionary path in many respects. In addition,
Boston.com continued to be first and foremost a portal for local information, with
access to Boston Globe content a secondary part of the value proposition. Where
NYTimes.com aimed to attract an international audience, Boston.com focused strictly
on attracting and retaining a dominant share of the Boston metropolitan area.