“Facebook is free and will always be free” is that company’s mantra. I think the statement is ill- conceived. “Always” is a long time.
“The Kyiv Post is generally free, but it will cost in the future.” I think that’s spot on.
But before a few of the 500 million Facebook users (50 percent log in at least one a day) and the more than 20,000 readers of the Kyiv Post pummel me with rotten tomatoes, hear me out, then feel free to toss away.
Facebook went public with an initial share price of $38 per share, but as of this writing the price had fallen to about $28, a significant drop for the largest initial public offering in history. People are blaming banker Morgan Stanley for overpricing it, or Facebook for not being totally truthful in the offering.
I don’t know beans from bananas about what Facebook did or did not do. I do know that, worldwide, people spend a cumulative 700 billion minutes a day on the site. That’s a lot of consumers and a lot of spent – some would say wasted – time.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t worry about Facebook. It took in $3.8 billion last year, and a blip in its profit and loss statement this last quarter is probably just that, a seasonal ill wind. But I don’t think that Facebook’s advertising catches as much attention as does, say, the Kyiv Post’s ads (albeit on a much smaller scale).
General Motors previously spent $10 million a year on Facebook to advertise its cars. It recently announced it would cancel its spending on the site, saying the advertising wasn’t putting bums in seats. They said they would continue to use Facebook’s free pages to promote its cars. GM spends $1.8 billion on advertising, so it wasn’t a huge decision, but it could presage a trend.
The Kyiv Post is generally free, but it will cost in the future.
I am one of those time spenders (or time wasters) on Facebook.
I have never clicked on a Facebook ad. I may not be a typical user, but I check the site several times a day for perhaps a combined total of 45 minutes. I post status reports maybe twice a day – some as erudite as I can get, or as silly as lines from the movie “Dumb and Dumber.”
However, I also use it for business: About half the messages I receive regarding the Kyiv Post or my company, Willard, are delivered via Facebook messages. I offer, accept or decline invitations through Facebook. I use it as a public relations tool for the Kyiv Post, as do others.
I use Facebook in an attempt to move the agenda on an issue in which I am interested. The page is called “East European Companies Against Buying Press,” meaning purchased stories that appear legitimate but are really unmarked ads. It is a common phenomenon in Ukraine.
In fact, I have a personal page “The Headlong Leap,” a business page for my company, a page for Willard Marketing Monthly (which hasn’t been issued for a while), a page for Willard Leadership Training, a page for my latest book, “The Optimistic Alien”, and, of course, we have a page for the Kyiv Post.
All that is worth something to me and it should be worth something to Facebook. I’m willing to pony up a marginal annual fee. I don’t want to spend your money for you – and I certainly don’t think any of us should spend a fortune- but I think you should be willing to do so as well.
This, of course, gets me back to the Kyiv Post, which will not always be free. Our stalking horse in this campaign is corporate subscriptions, which we sell for about Hr 5,000 a year. That gets the subscriber 100 newspapers a week (the price is a little less to receive fewer papers).
We have about 35 corporate subscribers, and the list is growing. We also sell through kiosks for under Hr 10 a copy and more and more pay racks will appear throughout Kyiv.
Because we have a general-interest newspaper and a 17-year history of telling it like it is, the Kyiv Post has an avid readership. The newspaper is not thumbed through, but generally read thoroughly. Through our business philosophy and a more aggressive sales staff, the newspaper is in much better financial situation than it was just six months ago. We still have a way to go, but we can see a better future.
Soon we are launching a revamped online site. It will be easier to navigate and, we believe, more attractive and exciting to use. In about 45 days, it will have a pay wall, and we will charge a small fee for this subscription service. We know we will lose some readers, but hopefully not many.
To slightly paraphrase a line from Kris Kristofferson’s “Bobby McGee”: “Nothing ain’t worth nothing (if) it’s free.”
Kyiv Post CEO Michael Willard can be reached at [email protected]
