Newspapers don’t make much money off the Web because none of them really try.

Part of the problem — or the majority of the problem — lies with the ad and business staffs. What is their incentive to innovate? What is their incentive to make money off the Web?

For ad staffs, there is little incentive. Most are paid heavily on commission. Print ads sell for more and are easier to secure. Which ads do you think they are going to target?

How come ads are not targeted on newspaper Web sites? I was reading an education blog the other day and the main ad was for the Ford F-150. Why not an education-related ad? I guarantee that a targeted ad would get a much higher CPM.

Journalists love journalism. Do you the think same is true for the other staffs? It’s not. Ad reps could get jobs in other industries doing a similar job. The same goes for business staff members. There is no incentive for them to innovate.

And editorial cannot do this alone.

A couple of questions in your post caught my eye:

“But how does Kennedy plan on growing revenue? How does Kennedy plan on monetizing the Web better?”

How is anyone doing this? I’m not an expert in advertising, not by a long shot. But the practical side of me knows that advertising pays my bills. I want our trade to survive without deep cuts in staff. How do we monetize the Web? Is anyone succeeding at this (and what is “success”)?