Westborough, MA, September 9, 2019 – Gatehouse Media confirmed that they added more than $1 million in new revenue in 2018 publishing obituary special sections using iPublish Media’s Adportal Tributes software.
Gatehouse wanted to monetize the obituary franchise with a print publication that would bring value to both the communities they serve, and their funeral home partners. They could not overcome operational issues, so they turned to long-time SaaS partner iPublish Media to automate the process. iPublish Media Solutions is the industry leader in self-service advertising.
“I looked at how much traffic obituaries were getting on the website. I was absolutely fascinated,” said Bob Birkentall, Director of Online Verticals at Gatehouse Media. “Obituaries are in the top five traffic producing sections in 80% of our newspapers. We had all these ideas going around the room about how we increased revenues,” he said.
Today, there are seven Gatehouse Media newspapers in the program, averaging two to three publications per year for a total of 21 special sections. Aside from some minor resistance to the price increase, “we had a lot of feedback and all of it has been positive,” Birkentall said. “It is a highly profitable section, and we have had very good response from the community. Of all our product improvements, AdPortal Obits is the most popular with Funeral homes and AdPortal Tributes is the most popular with consumers.”
“This is a win-win for the community, families of loved ones, funeral homes and newspapers. It’s just a no-brainer for 2020,” said Malcolm McGrory, SVP of Sales for iPublish Media Solutions. “Gatehouse pioneered this amazing idea, then shared it with their fellow publishers. Today, more than 50 newspapers publish Tributes special sections, in metros large and small, east and west. The feedback remains consistently positive, and the revenue is substantial.”
About Gatehouse Media, LLC
Gatehouse Media, headquartered in Pittsford, New York, is a wholly owned subsidiary of New Media Investment Group Inc., which is focused primarily on investing in a high quality, diversified portfolio of local media assets and on growing existing advertising and digital marketing and business services. Gatehouse Media is one of the largest publishers of locally based print and online media in the United States, as measured by its 156 daily publications. As of May 2, 2019, the company operates in over 615 markets across 39 states, reaching over 22 million people on a weekly basis and serves over 200,000 business customers. For more information regarding Gatehouse Media, please visit www.gatehousemedia.com.
About iPublish Media Solutions
iPublish Media is the industry leader in self-serve advertising. In fact, we currently work with hundreds of publishers every day to process thousands of jobs. Finally, a self-serve newspaper advertising platform that is easy to use and provides the performance and versatility to create and sell any print, digital or social advertising campaign, for any product or platform, 24/7/365.
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