Sports Illustrated has begun using online auctions to sell some of its print, digital and event-marketing inventory.It's one of the most striking attempts yet to harness new media for a traditional publisher's gain, particularly among magazines where publishers have feared undermining their sales teams. Executives at the Time Inc. title, the first one to try an online auction, said the move was partly to recruit those advertisers that aren't in close touch with the sales force anyway. The magazine also hopes the online marketplace can help gather advertisers quickly for time-sensitive products such as commemorative issues. "We used to send e-mails out to the sales reps in the Boston area saying, 'Look we're having a commemorative and you've got two days to sell into that,'" Mr. Ford said. "That's not an efficient use of their time. Now, through e-mail blasts, we can say, 'Here's a great offering.'" And then of course there is unsold ad space to contend with. Sports Illustrated would rather move that inventory with its automated auctions, which use eBay technology, than by distracting a sales team trying to concentrate on bigger integrated packages.http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-yahoo-folds-programming-duties-for-college-prep-sports-under-rivalscom/
http://si.com/simediamarketplace
1 comment:
I think this is the perfect indication of where eBay wants to go. In the old days, it was the average Joe selling his old garage sale items to make an extra buck and eBay grew and exploded from that. Today, the major corporations have figured out how to use eBay to benefit and I think the future and face of eBay is laid out in this landscape.
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