ROI--Return on investment.
For any publication to be successful it must realize more money coming in than going out. How? Maximize the return on any investment. There may be no activity the newspaper engages in that provides a larger ROI than uploading news photos. Since a photographer would be sent to cover the story even with no uploading and the gallery cost nothing to setup; there are no real costs up to this point. So if a staff member that makes $20.00 per hour spends the 3.5 seconds needed to drag a folder of photographs onto the uploader and that results in one average sale of $34.00 the paper realizes approximately a 95,000% return.
That's an ROI even Microsoft would envy.
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Of course the upload process takes more than 3.5 seconds because, for one, we don't just upload every single photo we take, we delete those photos that are so bad we don't want anyone to see them. Deleting the 100 worst of a batch of 300 football photos takes more time than the normal editing process of choosing the two or three best for publication. Secondly, the upload software hangs up and crashes, forcing you to restart the process again while taking you away from your usual work. Lastly, what is the ROI if NO ONE buys a photo because the shipping costs, which the newspaper has no control over, are too high? It's not exactly 95,000%.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delay in the reply. I overlooked the comment field.
ReplyDeleteEven though hard to hear, thanks for taking the time to comment. Let's work together to get to the bottom of the uploading difficulty. (We are beta testing a web based uploader right now that will help papers using the new Mac Snow Leopard and others) Our software engineer has tools that may help us see what specific issue is leading to uploading troubles at the ID.
Keep in mind the shipping cost is a flat rate. This works to reward those who place larger orders. The average order is over $33 in part due to this flat rate shipping.
It may seem counter intuitive but the 10 papers with the most sales all charge well over the minimum prices. If you feel price is keeping your readers from ordering please contact me (Allen@mynewsphotos.com) or your MNP Region Manager, Jack Ratzsch, (Jack@MyNewsPhotos.com)and wee can work out a special offer like BOGO etc to run for a few weeks to perk up interest and sales.
Let's get these items turned around and make the Island Dispatch a success story.
An update: I spoke with the editor, Larry, earlier this week and he reported that you all had successfully uploaded a massive album (over 225 pictures at over 2.5 Mb per picture!) with no problems. Now let's train readers to visit the gallery with every edition by rewarding them with fresh photos and sales will follow. (For 2010 only 3 albums have been uploaded within 5 days of the event.)
ReplyDeleteLarry and I also discussed offering a promotional price in the next few weeks. Let's keep this ball rolling.