News

APN to merge local online and print sales

Three years after unbundling its print and online advertising sales, APN is to return to a joint sell to local advertisers.

Warren Lee, APN Online’s CEO for Australia and New Zealand, told Mumbrella that while specialised digital staff will continue with national sales to agencies, the move is intended to generate more online spending by smaller local advertisers not currently using the medium.  

The publisher’s network of sites feature new ad spots for local advertisers. Rather than following the traditional online cpm model, the spots will mainly be sold for periods of time, in a bid to make the sales process closer to that of the more familiar one to small advertisers of buying print ads.

APN_local_advertiser_positions mumbrellaLee said that the strategy of separate sales teams had been the right one at the time: “Online needed time and space to grow and build critical mass. It’s successfully done that and can now form part of an integrated business.”

He added: “Local advertisers are clearly interested in using the online medium and we want to use our all our existing expertise and assets to make that easy for them.”

The move means that APN sales staff who previously sold print only – amounting to a few hundred people – will also be selling online. APN has a portfolio of 14 daily papers along with 75 community publications. As well as an online network of sister sites to its publications, it also owns local site finda.com.au.

APN is not ruling out an integrated sale with its outdoor and radio assets in the future – however those are concentrated on metro audiences while its online and print presence is mainly concentrated on regional audiences.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.