In launching the Xtra ValuePak last year about 14,000 orders were received in the first weekend from on-line communication before a letter was sent or ad advertisement placed. We ve actually been putting on more advertising and sponsorship sales staff recently. Advertising for us is incremental revenue whereas newspapers have tremendous problems with cannibalisation. There s been an extraordinary torrent of companies folding or selling themselves to someone else in face-saving ways to avoid winding up. Mr Aimer admits his business unit is not making money from its web presence yet and wonders if any content sites are.
Investment continues apace as it moves from being a flat file site to using a database structure.
Despite its strong synergies with other parts of TVNZ nzoom is still treated as a cost centre and continues to look at new projects and services that might turn a dollar. In fact the whole business case is being reviewed including forecasts and expectations to see how things might become profitable. The evidence is it supports both brands, he says. For example banner ads can take you direct to the clients site and provide some form of feedback to the advertisers about the users and where they went. He warns advertising is the first casualty if times get tough and on-line is the first place to get a knock back.