Old SuperPages SiteTo recap Blog II of III, I was working with Yellow Pages (phone book) directories selling ONLY print ads in physical phone books, well before Google existed. YPG actually launched the first online directory, SuperPages.com, which grew in popularity after a heavy marketing push to grow users. The old "catch-22" - you needed consumers to use the product to make it compelling for businesses to buy into it. However, you also needed businesses to list on it to be worthwhile for consumers to value it. Sound familiar (VeVe / DC NFT fans)? The directory though, was easy, and few at the time knew what was coming...
SOMETIMES, YOU JUST NEED A LITTLE TECHNOLOGY TO GET GOING...
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In a recent NFTPirates YouTube Interview, I mention how I've seen so many great ideas stall, simply as they're technologically restrained. For example, phone books were a proven way to find business info for almost 100 years. Digital was new, threatening, and limited in scale, whereas early "Internet Dial-Up Service" was anything but efficient.
Yet buyers (seeking sellers) were slowly becoming more mobile, with the launch of Blackberries & Flip Phones, making the need for 'on-the-go-info' a necessity. So what did YPG do? THE GO PAGES. Small, condensed books for your glovebox, with maps, listing businesses anyone "outside of home or work" may find handy. You know...towing companies, locksmiths, restaurants...LAWYERS. This product lasted a whopping 2 years.
Apple iPhones suddenly appeared - mobile phone tech caught up & physical directories were doomed. Then Google comes along, gobbling all hope of Superpage digital dominance. Google was SO easy & fast, and everyone was thrilled it arrived.
SOMETIMES, YOUR PAST ENDS UP ENABLING YOUR FUTURE
The Newspaper Carrier...RETURNSSo, 20-odd years after tossing newspapers at front doors, I decided to move into a role as a Territory Manager with Canada's largest newspaper chain. And this my friends, was eye-opening.
This was 2005. The Internet was now a real thing everyone used, for everything. EXCEPT NEWSPAPERS. You see, the problem at the time was perplexing. If a newspaper launched a news website, that might cannibalize the print business that had floated their boat for over 100 years. Roughly 1/3 of their revenues were derived from subscriptions alone. Yes, even in the early 2000s, people still had newspapers delivered to their homes, although billing finally became electronic (obviously, they tired of kids failing to collect cash from strangers back in the day!).
5-ALARM PANIC BELLS
5 Alarm Fire in NewspaperVilleTechnology once again caught up to demand. Home Internet speeds were accelerating, and content consumption online had exploded. YouTube was enormous and so on. The writing was on the wall - it was impossible to ignore printed news cannibalization wasn't happening as a result of NOT going online, it was happening IN SPITE of it!
Consumers gravitated to the new Facebook News Feed or simply Googled specific news events where many publishers, particularly TV News Stations had moved. Newspapers though, decided to BATTLE FACEBOOK to try and stop this...even claiming government hardship at lost earnings...even trying to BLOCK consumers from accessing news anywhere but Newspapers, and that flame still rages today. Does anyone remember how well it turned out for artists & managers trying to stop MUSIC from going online? Sure Napster took the brunt, but the technology inevitably led to the Spotify we know today.
Where the sawmill green-chain gig taught me lessons on what I WANTED to do, the newspaper gig taught me what I HAD to do.
To put things in perspective, a meeting of the brass was held one day where a sales manager from a smaller paper in the company asked a very simple, yet incredibly important question - "How do we protect ourselves from Craigslist?"
Well, it was inconceivable at the time some "small DIGITAL garage sale site" could ever take down THE Newspaper Classifieds. After all, this accounted for roughly 1/3 of total revenue, employing thousands of people. If you needed something sold in a place of trust, the newspaper classifieds were your best bet.
"But..I had a customer call and ask why they had to pay $40 to run an ad to sell a pair of $10 used hockey sticks...why would they do that, when Craigslist is free?," she said politely. PIN DROP.
Newspaper easy-money was now bleeding profusely, with subscriptions tanking and classified revenues along with it. Trust was no longer the issue - speed, ease, and low cost-to-free options took over the trust aspect.
So it was Decided: The Web Arena, They Shall Enter.
What a ride this became. I worked with a team of over 50 sales reps. These were incredibly nice, enjoyable people who for the most part, had all worked their entire careers in this one organization. And why not - it had been a gravy train with awesome clients, fairly easy work, and absolutely outstanding perks. Leaving meant retiring. That was it.
So you can imagine, with my digital tech experience (the UBC Internet course, web directory sales, installer of those Internet Kiosk things...even my own beer league hockey site ran with a few friends...you know, hardcore web experience HA!), I was quickly identified as one of a short few who could HELP those 50 reps start selling online products. And Fast.
The Pressure GrowsFast, however, was not going to be Easy. Routine questions included WHAT DOES PAPER CLICK MEAN (yes, that spelling is on purpose), WHAT TIME DOES THE INTERNET TURN OFF, HOW DO YOU FIND OUR WEBSITE, and thousands more like these. To make matters worse, the company decided PAYWALLS were ideal to keep those subscription fees flowing in; after 10 pages of content, you were asked to pay to read more.
Meanwhile, dozens of journalists and reporters whose expertise actually produced compelling content consumers wanted to read (that would bring readers in), were being laid off in favour of using "nationally farmed" news content that eroded any 'local flare' the publications once enjoyed.
So, you had decreasing quality of product, decreasing trust in mainstream media, decreasing abilities to sell, decreasing gross revenue sales (digital products were generally less costly than their old-fashioned print counterparts), and a surging new technology an entire industry had slept on, all hitting the wall at the exact same time.
Web 2.0 Hit the Newspaper Industry...Hard
Google "Newspaper Revenue Losses" in your market. With the exception of a small few, the numbers are typically in the Multi-Millions of dollars for most dailies. Hell, Postmedia in Canada just posted a new loss of $15,900,000 in 2023 - UP from their posted $4.4M loss during the same period last year. Yet those stories appear year over year over year over year...
You know what I find even more comical? That link above is from one of their own publications!
Hopefully, you see how critical it is for a business to keep a macro focus on its surroundings while managing micro issues requiring daily-level support. If you don't see a bus coming as you failed to look both ways, is the bus really at fault if hit?
It was time for me to go, without retirement. This didn't sit well with them, but I knew then as now, the decision was right.
THE DIGITAL FRONTIER...
Modern MarketingI started a company with a dear friend who had faced the challenges of running a magazine business. Advertisers were jumping ship fast, desiring more digital solutions - print was having a hard-go everywhere! We thus built a proprietary technology in online data management, one of the first and only available in Canada at the time, where our clientele became ad agencies looking for better media performance for their clients.
It was terrifying & incredibly hard starting a new business. It was far riskier and busier than the newspaper gig. It was challenging to find clients and partners, build revenue, take a significant hit to my income, build our brand and find staff to help us grow and accept those challenges too...but, we were bound & determined to survive our new careers.
AND WE LOVED IT.
It was our pet, our project, our second family. We relied on each other, learned from each other, grew the business with each other. We stayed focused, accepted failures, had frustrations with missed deadlines and sleepless nights learning new technologies, and trying to stay ahead of the curve. We reached out to connections relentlessly and tirelessly worked on improving our game, our strategy, and our niche in a rapidly advancing marketplace.
And then clients started coming. The work started changing. The revenues started flowing. The staff numbers began growing, and the business started...THRIVING.
So well so in fact, that a larger firm in California ended up acquiring our Canadian operation in 2019 where I now enjoy an absolutely incredible, incredible, incredible career. We adore what we do. We admire our teammates. This is no longer a job, a gig, a hustle...this is a way of life we can't wait to show up for every single day and create opportunity.
TO SUM IT ALL UP
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The story I tell is one of consistency, hard work, experience and above all, PATIENCE.
I grew up in an era with Z.E.R.O. Internet, and I am now fully immersed in it. I've seen both sides and watched SO MANY things come and go. NETSCAPE, YAHOO, MySPACE, PETS.COM...PAY PHONES, WEB KIOSKS...SPACE SHUTTLES...NEWSPAPERS. Incredible things, really.
I've watched the underlying technologies become so user-friendly and easy we take everything for granted. We don't have long-distance charges for phone calls anymore - we Zoom / Video call as seamlessly as pouring a glass of water. Even our freaking cars are beginning to drive themselves!
Sesame Street Cookie Monster Digital Asset on VeVeI grew up watching SESAME STREET, which supercharged my young education. Today, I own several of the 1st Cookie Monster Digital Assets ever minted on the blockchain I can play with in A/R with my niece from the VeVe app.
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I grew up watching many HUGE movies like Star Wars, Indiana Jones & BACK TO THE FUTURE. I've now progressed from owning movie posters & plastic toys as a kid to owning FULLY INTERACTIVE, drivable (in A/R) VeVe Deloreans.
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I've watched federal governments try to BAN BITCOIN, FUD CRYPTO & MOCK NFTS. Today, I now own FULLY LICENSED, significantly historical stamps, blockchain-minted from THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE (an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U.S. - see Wikipedia Page for Full Description).
This didn't all happen overnight, or in a few months, or even a few years. My story is now 52 years in the making. I know many of you would look at this as an old guy spouting WHATEVERS to many a younger audience. From this experience though, I see EASY comparisons to Web3 / Blockchain development as unmistakably as I watched Craigslist CANCEL the newspaper classifieds. I see Web2 moving into Web3 as seamlessly as we see cable TV become (streaming) Connected-TV.
And I absolutely see the world of digital assets & ownership verification through NFTs becoming as mainstream as fax machines once spurted out our world of contracts. This is just the development of our existing underlying technology - the term "NFT" is but a momentary term in time that too, will simply become the 'contracts' we know today.
Look around, you'll see examples EVERYWHERE & why after all these years, I remain incredibly excited to see what lies ahead.
Thank You for Sharing this Journey! Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
