A year and a half ago, Jason Oberfest, who was then the head of Product Strategy and Business Development at the LA Times, told an audience at PSFK Conference Los Angeles about the major changes that the paper was making to address changes in publishing in order to become a leader in the new media space. It looks like those changes have taken effect: the editor of the Los Angeles Times, Russ Stanton, has announced that the paper’s online advertising revenue is now sufficient to cover the cost of the LA Times’s editorial team – for both print and online. [...]

The NY Times has managed to break its own story, noting that today – Monday, January 5th – marks the first time that the paper will sell significant advertising space on its front page.  The horizontal color ad, consuming 2 1/2 inches of space at the bottom of the page, has been purchased by CBS and marks a growing trend among print newspapers struggling with lower readership and advertising dollars to find new ways to generate revenue in tough economic times.
Most major American papers sell front-page display ads, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times, [...]

Jason Oberfest, head of Product Strategy and Business Development at the Los Angeles Times reveals how they are working on building a content business in a digital era.

Click to play

Key Points:
- The LA Times, a paper with a weekly circulation of 3.6 million and 5-11 million unique monthly visitors to its website, still faces the issue of establishing itself as a dynamic online go-to source, as almost all papers do: “Newspapers are in an interesting time trying to reinvent themselves online – and there is a lot to be done. The fundamental issue is that engagement on the site [...]