20130819-NEWS--18-NAT-CCI-CL_--
18
8/16/2013
1:41 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
Media: TV has big advantage in video continued from PAGE 1
“Our bread and butter is video and the digital platforms are becoming more and more video-centric,” said Greg Easterly, general manager of WJW-TV, Channel 8. “That plays to our advantage if we do our job well.” Jill Manuel, news director at WEWS-TV, Channel 5, said her station’s owner has invested heavily in building digital platforms, including mobile apps for news, weather and traffic. WEWS is owned by E.W. Scripps Co., which has a long history owning both newspapers, including the former Cleveland Press, and television stations. In addition to broadcast reporters and videographers who contribute online, the station has six staffers focused solely on digital platforms; that team includes a social media producer. “Broadcast channels are still the primary source of revenue for television stations,” Ms. Manuel said. “But digital is a growing piece of the revenue picture. We know you’ve got to create products for people wherever they are.”
Big self-promoters Another advantage for television stations in the digital realm is their use of video, which is more extensive
and sophisticated than a website such cleveland.com that is grounded in text and still photography. WEWS, for example, also streams video live across its digital platforms. Ms. Manuel said the live stream of the sentencing of kidnapper Ariel Castro had more than 500,000 views. Television stations also can cross-promote their content better than newspapers. Not only do they have larger audiences than newspapers, they can use their broadcasts to tout their websites to viewers, especially those multitaskers who watch television news and surf the web at the same time. “That’s the strength of what we do,” Mr. Easterly said. “We’re trying to be available when and where consumers need us, and that’s a great opportunity for businesses who want to advertise.” WJW also has added a 4 p.m. newscast to its broadcast schedule to beef up its news offerings. The combined news operation that serves television stations WOIO and WUAB — Channels 19 and 43, respectively — has been running spots reminding viewers of the changes at The PD and inviting them to do choose 19actionnews.com over cleveland.com. More substantively, it has added at least five online news producers
over the last six months in anticipation of the growing battle with The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com for online readers, said Bill Applegate, vice president and general manager of the two stations. “We will compete just as when they were hard print,” said Mr. Applegate, who started his media career as a newspaper reporter in Ft. Wayne, Ind. “It just shifts to different platforms, online and mobile.”
Fit to print Other daily newspapers are advancing into PD territory by adding coverage and subscribers where their traditional territories meet. Suburban dailies are competing online as well, but they also compete more directly in print because, unlike The PD, they still will deliver a newspaper to subscribers’ homes seven days a week. On Aug. 5, The PD stopped home delivery on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those days, the paper is available only at news boxes and retailers. Jeff Sudbrook, president and publisher of The Morning Journal in Lorain and The News-Herald in Lake County, said both papers have picked up a modest number of subscribers in Cuyahoga County in recent weeks. In April, he told Crain’s the newspapers were bolstering news coverage
Jacobs Real Estate Services LLC, as owner’s representative, is pleased to announce the transfer of
31 additional acres at
Avon Crossing East to the
For information on additional land available, call
Joe Stewart or Scott Fatzinger at 440-871-4800 www.JRESgroup.com JRES is a fully integrated third-party commercial real estate firm providing: property management • leasing • development and planning • brokerage services • construction management
AUGUST 19 - 25, 2013
in Cuyahoga County communities such as Bay Village, Euclid and Westlake that border the traditional coverage areas of his two newspapers. Mr. Sudbrook said last week the papers have been running in-paper promotions that say, “Yes, we’re still home delivered seven days a week” and has received calls asking about home delivery. However, he couldn’t say how many of the net increase of 150 subscribers at each newspaper in just the first week of August were conversions of PD readers. The two newspapers also are improving their websites with more video and additional reporting, Mr. Sudbrook said. “We’re trying to give (readers) new reasons to come to our websites,” he said. “We’re all trying to drive more traffic and more unique visitors.” The Akron Beacon Journal also is moving onto the PD’s turf. In July, it said it would begin seven-day home delivery to Brecksville, Broadview Heights, Brunswick, Hinckley, North Royalton and Strongsville. Editor Bruce Winges referred a reporter to publisher Andrea Mathewson, who did not return three telephone calls by Crain’s deadline last week.
News in the public space Even the area’s public broadcasters are getting in on the competition. Although station executives said the timing was coincidental, both WKSU-FM, 88.7, in Kent and ideastream in Cleveland have bulked up their news and public affairs offerings. Changes in the way radio is broadcast allow both WKSU and
WCPN-FM, 90.3, which is part of ideastream, to operate multiple over-the-air channels. So, they can broadcast separate channels for music and educational programming, leaving more time available on their prime channels for news and public affairs. Ideastream recently merged with Civic Commons, a regional online public affairs forum. Civic Commons’ move to ideastream’s home at the Idea Center in downtown Cleveland will expand the broadcaster’s online news and public affairs footprint. Jerry Wareham, president and CEO of ideastream, said the move to combine with Civic Commons was not related to the changes at The PD, but he recognizes his organization must adapt to compete for the attention of public affairs consumers.“What we’re trying to do here is aggregate programs that apply technology to education and public service in a way they can share resources and do a better job for the community,” Mr. Wareham said. At WKSU, classical music was removed from the weekday schedule in favor of several new hours of news and talk programming. “There is a strong demand for news in the public radio space and we wanted to respond to that,” said Dan Skinner, the station’s executive director, who described his news operation’s use of text, audio and video online as a convergence. “We’re not just a radio station in terms of the way we distribute our product,” Mr. Skinner said. “We’re shipping it out in all the ways it makes sense.” ■
Great: Biz keeps growing continued from PAGE 3
“We are thrilled to have them coming to town,” said David Schroedel, director of economic development for Broadview Heights. Great Day plans to shrink the parking lot, plant trees and grass, and better align the entrance and exit with the traffic light leading into a shopping plaza across the street, Mr. Schroedel said. This is just the latest expansion for Great Day, which has been buying up Ohio manufacturers since February 2010, starting with aluminum extruder Central Aluminum Co. in Columbus. Mr. White said the original plan was to buy distressed companies to turn around through its parent company, GDIC Group LLC. After the second deal, though, a different plan fell into place. Great Day bought Patio Enclosures in January 2011, setting its sights on becoming a home improvement company and changing its name from GDIC Management Services LLC to Great Day Improvements. The purchase of SoftWall Finishing Systems, a producer of interior finishing, followed in fall 2011, with the acquisition of the Stanek Windows product line coming last January. The manufacturing lines, aside from the aluminum business, were consolidated in Macedonia, and many of the Stanek and Patio Enclosures employees were retained.In the past two years, Great Day has more than doubled the number of company-owned stores to 23 from 10 by acquiring some franchisees and reopening stores that had been closed by the previous companies, Mr. White said. The new Broadview Heights store will be Great Day’s largest yet, and will serve as a model for future stores in other markets, Mr. White said. He said sales for sunrooms have
risen 32% this year from 2012 levels, and overall store sales are up about 25%. While Mr. White declined to share the company’s revenue, he said Great Day as of June 10 of this year already had matched 2012 revenue.
The hard sell The company has about 500 employees, with about 60 at Central Aluminum, 135 in the Cleveland area and the rest at the 23 company-owned stores from Detroit to Baltimore. Mr. White expects Great Day to continue to grow. He said the company always is looking to acquire more businesses, especially those with products in home improvement that can be made in the 150,000square-foot plant in Macedonia. Bill Goddard, the company’s vice president of sales, said Great Day has a focus on “quality and value, rather than price.” Products are custom-made at the plant in Macedonia per customers’ specifications. Mr. White said while Great Day offers Stanek, Patio Enclosures and SoftWall products, it also contracts with other companies to offer complementary services, such as concrete work. Those arrangements allow the company to be a one-stop shop for home improvements, he said. Mr. Goddard said the individual brands come first for Great Day in its marketing. A local marketing presence is important, and Mr. Goddard said local branch managers have control over the advertising in their regions. Mr. White said the approach of giving local managers more autonomy over advertising has been an evolution over time, but there’s a big push for it this year at the company. There are even incentives for any employee who brings in a sale, regardless of their job title. “It doesn’t matter what your job is: you’re a salesman in our company,” Mr. Goddard said. ■