"If I were Susy’s dress shop in Princeton, and I realized shoppers

were watching less TV and consuming less print media, I would add

the Internet to my marketing objectives.

"I can make the case that a brilliant banner alone can work,"

says Levitan. He cites an America Online study showing that ad banners

are as effective as television commercials in terms of day-after recall.

"We have some advertisers who have been extremely successful with

a two-page website. We preach simplicity."

he says, by too much attention to the bottom line. "They didn’t

have the incentive to take people off the profitable side of the business,

for instance, making TV commercials, to use them on the less profitable

side, the Web side," says Levitan. "Some of their lunch has

been eaten by the dedicated agencies. Some of the agencies in the

state need to figure this out fast."

Because some of these agencies are not making proactive moves to take

their clients to cyberspace, clients are doing it on their own. For

a major daily, at least 85 percent of the advertisers supply "camera

ready" copy from an ad agency, says Levitan. In contrast, fewer

than 70 percent present "web ready" ads to New Jersey Online.

in the right people. "That is a very big investment. Agencies

are paying a lot of money to a very small population of people who

do understand how to buy and create digital media," he says, quoting

a salary figure of $75,000 for someone with two years experience who

knows how to create Web ads and buy Web space, and that someone is

probably 28 years old. "There is a great demand for very few people

with that skill set."

logo that assumes someone will click on that logo to learn more. Even

if you only add the words "Click here" that improves the click

through rate, and "active banners," those with motion, also

receive higher click-through rates.

speed is critical," says Levitan, "because we have to do certain

things graphically, but we do have page size parameters." On his

site, news pages will load faster than feature areas targeting to

leisure surfers and college students, such as the area on Bruce Springsteen.

And the site always has a live cam somewhere. Look for beach scenes

next summer.

None of this wisdom was as obvious three years ago. And three years

ago the value of databases was also not generally known. "In ’96

I didn’t know the value of the database applications," Levitan

admits.

Seven reporters (one-fourth of the company’s staff) are responsible

for updating the now popular databases for such areas as movies, yellow

pages, maps with directions, events, and school reports. What with

the databases and special breaking news stories these reporters generate

20 percent of the information put on the Web. The rest comes from

the newspapers and the chat rooms.

Levitan notes that chat rooms are not profit centers: "They are

more sponsorship oriented. The fact is, if you are chatting, you are

not inclined to want to leave to go visit Susy’s Dress Shop."

"In 1999 we are going to position ourselves as the single best

place for people to save money in the state," says Levitan, "with

coupons and efficient delivery of deals to the consumer." Need

a lawnmower? Go to his site and type in the words "lawnmower"

to see if someone has a lawnmower deal. Print out the dollars-off

coupon and take it to the store. Or tell the website to E-mail you

when there is a lawnmower sale. "Our goal is to help bricks and

mortar retailers to grow their business," says Levitan, "to

drive people to their front door."

Levitan’s coupon-printing strategy will be in place by early summer.

Yes, he admits, there are national coupon sites. "The problem

is they are national. The reality is, these kinds of decisions are

local. You want to shop within 20 minutes of your house."

The $64 million question is whether the Newhouse newspapers are finding

their ad revenues siphoned off by cyber ads. Levitan hedges on this

question, noting that the company does not release internal profit

figures, but he answers it as president of a national new media federation

with 1,000 online newspapers in its membership.

"We have not seen across America an erosion of advertising dollars

because of advertising spent on the Internet," says Levitan. "Will

that change? As more people spend money on the internet, the money

has to come from somewhere. That’s why smart newspapers have robust

online businesses."

Another medium that desperately needs a robust Internet presence is

television, says Levitan, and he uses Princeton as a harbinger of

what will come. Television viewership in Princeton is way below the

national average, and Internet usership is far above average. Levitan

thinks this trend will spread: "People have a certain amount of

screen time."

— Barbara Fox

Corrections or additions?

— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.