College newspapers face a paradigm shift where the online edition must contribute more to the overall revenues of the organization.  In the past, the print edition has been very easy to sell for new sales reps as the demand has always been relatively steady and the rate card did not require a special set of background knowledge.

Combined with high turnover and learning curve on selling online advertising, it has become clear that CMN newspapers could use a hand in fully monetizing their online inventory.

On CP5, CMN is able to use the Atlas system to automatically place ads in the local ad spots if they go unsold.  CMN has contracted several agencies to sell into the remnant inventory with the local ad positions.  This means that after any newspaper originating advertising campaigns are satisfied, ads will serve from CMN and the newspaper will receive 70% of the revenue.

However, newspapers must sell any existing local campaigns by a CPM basis to take advantage of this opportunity.  By assigning each campaign with a set number of impressions, the newspaper creates the possibility of left over page views that could be filled.  Likewise, if a newspaper wishes to abstain from this revenue sharing program, they need only not set impression caps for their campaigns.

This is a pilot program for the fall semester 2009.  As semesters progress, CMN will look for ways to optimize this relationship to increase revenues for all parties.