Out With A Bang

The efforts of the Brighton Evening Argus’ KempTown correspondent to lead us all into a new media age have long won support in this neck of the woods.

There has been more than a whiff of revolution in his nostrils for a little while now…

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=245

But more than that, he’s now walking the walk as well as talking the talk… which is rather more than one or two other prominent media commentators do.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/communitypages/kemp_town/4395529.Kemp_Town_newsagent_defies_trend_to_expand_into_the_marina/

For me, that page is fascinating.

First, further credit to the Greenslades. Because if I’m not mistaken it was Mrs G – aka Noreen Taylor – with her point-and-shoot mobile phone that took the picture; ensuring that KempTown is something of a family affair.

‘Danielle Wright serves Roy Greenslade with a well-known local paper Picture: Noreen Taylor …

It also ensured that the Argus didn’t have to send one of their over-worked staff snappers to said go-ahead newsagents; a mobile phone had empowered the Greenslades to bring their own picture desk.

So far, so hyper-local good.

Now, we go our different ways.

Because while Roy walked out of that shop with a hyper-local story, what he forgot to do was to walk out with a hyper-local ad…

For a newsagents?

Why not? Particularly, when the whole point of the story is that this business is expanding; think ahead; being all 2009…

‘He also introduced new services and ensured that his core customers were serviced properly through a more efficient home delivery system across Kemp Town. His routes stretch from Roedean and Marine Gate in the east to Church Place on the west.

‘Computer-billing, a method of online payment and email communication have dragged the business into the 21st century. There is also a website.

‘It was the success of that business that emboldened Guy to venture into the marina… blah, blah, blah… ‘

The line that screams out at me there is not the fact that he’s moving into the marina – as interesting as that might be to The Kiosk’s loyal customers.

The line that should have smacked Roy in the face is the fact that he now has a website….

‘There is also a website.

Bingo.

That’s when Roy’s ‘other half’ needs to kick in; that’s when he needs to switch from story-teller to salesman. And it is a trick that we’re all going to have to learn. We haven’t the luxury any more of thinking someone else can do that dirty bit; we have to be a jack of all these trades…

I suspect Roy is doing this out of the goodness of his journalistic heart, but if we can now re-arm and re-tool him with the means to be the ad department as well as the picture desk, why not start to put a bit of pocket money into his back pocket? Or divvie it up with the Argus? Work a hyper-local ad commission deal?

And, for me, it’s not that hard. He’s known the bloke for 37 years; he will give him an ad for just that reason; he’ll do his mate a favour; might come off after six weeks but he’ll do it.. ‘Go on then, Roy, I’ll give it a go…’

You’ve just got to start ‘pitching’ – and thinking with the cash side of your brain as well as your story-getting one. It’s exactly the same process that Richard’s kids on the streets of Oakland are going to have to get into as they wander round with www.addiply.com up their sleeves in the search for 50 bucks for www.OaklandNorth.net

‘You’ve got a website, that’s great…

‘Yeh, really pleased with it. Part of a network, but think it’s important that we try and reach our customers online…

‘Exactly. So what are you doing to promote and market your website?

‘Well, I hadn’t really thought about it, to be honest…

‘Why don’t you advertise on my KempTown page?

‘Makes sense, after that’s where my customers are – no point in advertising in Withdean is there? Not for a newsagent…

‘No, no, exactly…. You want to be where the hyper-local eyeballs are. Tell you what, how about a fiver for a week… you place a little text ad on my KempTown page… It’s easy, just place your ad here… ‘

Yes, of course, I’m biased. I’ve got a product to ’sell’. But I’ve walked that walk for the last three years; selling advertising for the day job on www.myfootballwriter.com/norwichcity My ‘learning curve’ has come from dire, financial necessity…

But if we’re ever going to find a way forward in this sorry mess of ours, we need to find a way to empower an army of part-time Roys to fill such hyper-local holes as the one he’s found on his door-step; give Roy and 000s of Roys the ‘kit’ that they need to make this happen.

As it is I look at that Argus community page and see sponsored links from You-Know-Who; none of whom – as far as I can immediately tell – have any obvious relevance to either KempTown or The Kiosk.

In fact, when I look at that sponsored links box – and it could well be different for everyone else out there; particularly for someone that is ’spotted’ as living within that area – I see a link through to Brighton Hotels.

If that appears when I actually live in Brighton, my chances of clicking on it are pretty nil.

Now, clearly, without setting up my lap-top outside The Kiosk, I can’t tell you what ads might be running through that site were I sat in BN2… nor do I know whether NewsQuest are running those on a CPM basis or a Pay-Per-Click.

Or, of course, how much they have ever earned, advertising-wise, off their KempTown community page with its celebrity ‘beat’ reporter; a very big cherry pounding the streets of that EveryBlock.

But if Roy had been empowered to walk out of that door with not only his first hyper-local news story in the bag and a picture on his Mrs’ mobile, but also his first hyper-local advertiser sorted for a fiver a week, then I think we all might be slightly richer for the experience.

And, yes, it might only have been a tiny step in the right direction.

But it would still be one, tiny step towards our ultimate goal of delivering a sustainable hyper-local news platform for the people of this country.

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