Data Driven Digital Growth Strategy August 17, 2019

Our Industry’s Challenge Platforms Mobile platforms – creating content and monetizing Multiple vendors – no common standard Social media relationship Digital Subscriptions & Revenue Monetizing the digital audience Balancing audience initiatives with advertising revenue Acquiring new digital subscriptions Low CPM’s Improve CPM’s with 1st and 3rd party data Engagement Metrics Defining metrics Relevant KPI’s - beyond page views Sharing and applying data results, internally

Dispatch Media Group – Situation Analysis Challenge Siloed data Incomplete customer data Generating and acquiring subscriptions Paywall settings Goal Increase digital subscription revenue Grow new starts via the paywall Targeted marketing to prospects

Setting The Vision

Identifying The Right Tools To Achieve Your Vision

Identifying Unique Entities To Facilitate 1:1 Interactions More than 6M records went through an entity resolution process 1.7M entities tagged as “golden customer records.” Average 80% match rate (across all data sources) Overview slide Digital-only subscribers are extremely engaged with our content on the websites (compared to a print-and-digital subscriber) 70% more page views on average and 30% more visits

Some Recent Successes & Specific Applications To Share Audience Segmentation Audience Engagement Aggressive Digital Growth First Party Data – Advertiser Case Study

AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION

Everyone Talks About Engagement but There is No Universal Standard Metric

Sample Audience Tranches: Known vs. Anonymous Semi-regular visitor; may not always log in; some email click- through Highly loyal user; multiple devices; heavy click- through; commenter Known Flybys Highly loyal user; proactively anonymous; may use ad blockers Semi-regular visitor; aware of products but not yet convinced Anonymous Flybys Low Medium High Engagement Level

Average Audience Share (benchmark as percentage of total) Known <1% of users <1% of page views <1% of users <1% of page views <1% of users 5% of page views 74% of users 34% of page views 23% of users 39% of page views 1% of users 22% of page views Anonymous Low Medium High Engagement Level

Sample Audience Tactics: Take Action per Tranche Publish content for these users; Enroll in elite membership program; First party ad targeting; Targeted emails; Retain/engage Targeted emails based on preference; Subscription offers; segments for ad targeting Heavy email marketing to engage; Minimal subscription offers; Heavy ad targeting Known Register and convert to grow known Audience; Forced monetization – remove ad blocker or pay for content Engage and grow through social media, commenting Newsletter signup; Registration; Segments for ad targeting Anonymous Low Medium High Engagement Level

Audience Segmentation Introduction Two methods and two audience types: Known vs. anonymous Engagement buckets vs. statistical clustering Engagement buckets use multiple engagement metrics per user and index them to identify engagement levels Statistical clustering is still in development though is expected to yield more precise user segments based on behavior rather than indexing

Engagement Buckets: All Users All metrics are for the last 30 days per user Key metrics used to index engagement are: Page views, article page views, time per visit, breadth, unique days

Getting Closer to Single Customer View Contact information - Joe Smith - joesmoth@gmail.com - 9278 Hightower Trail, Miami Beach FL, 33140 Subscription(s) $.99 / 1mo trial started in Nov 2014, converted to $6.95/mo then to $9.95/mo. Cancelled due to declined/expired credit card No previous print relationship Web Usage 97% of traffic from mobile device (Android ) 645 page views (30 days), 30 unique days on site 1 hour spent on site each day Checks in frequently (6-7am, 11am-1pm, 4pm then 7pm) Top content – Latest News – Miami-Dade Top author David Neal Demographics 07 – Money & Brains – Urban Living, hh income $88,813, Shop at Nordstrom, drive Porsche Carrera, college graduate, eat at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, read New York Magazine Other Data Home value - $278,140 (condo), 1,070sqft, 2 beds 2 baths, built 1998. Likes movies, actors, television according to Facebook Advertising Value Ad revenue value is very high Generated $20 in ad revenue in 30 days ($240 annualized) Recommendation Great ad revenue potential, local customer, high demo’s. Allow more page views before presenting paywall, digital offer $2.99/mo or $29.95/year.

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

Lead Nurturing Campaign USER LOGS IN LISTENER CAPTURES DATA EMAIL 1 E-NEWS PROMO EMAIL 2* SUBSCRIBE *Email 2 is only sent is Email 1 is opened

Lead Nurturing Results - To Date Topic Subject Line Open Rate Click Thru Rate Art Newsletter Stay connected to local happenings. 37.00% 3.50% CBJ Newsletter Sign up for the BlueJacketsXtra.com email newsletter. 39.51% 8.49% General News Nobody delivers news like we do. 38.63% 5.99% Ohio State Newsletter Have the latest OSU headlines delivered to your inbox. 36.74% 15.43% Politics Newsletter Get the latest political news from Ohio and around the country. 27.62% 6.08% Sports Other Newsletter No one covers your favorite teams like our team. 31.08% 2.34% Lead Nurture Newsletter Averages   35.10% 6.97% Initial response rates for email 1 indicates the more specific the topic, the higher the click thru rate and engagement is. The more relevant the content/communication, the more likely to engage.

Email #2 – Lead Nurturing Campaign Results Topic Subject Line Open Rate Art Subscription Offer Limited-Time offer — Just $3.69/week! 80.00% CBJ Subscription Offer Score unlimited access to BlueJacketsXtra.com. 23.08% General News Subscription Offer Nobody delivers news like we do. 61.76% Ohio State Subscription Offer Experience the best Buckeye coverage in town. 39.13% Politics Subscription Offer Get the latest political news from Ohio and around the country. 70.18% Sports Subscription offer Get the best OSU and CBJ coverage in town. 67.45% Lead Nurture Newsletter Averages   56.93% 2015 “All Other” Acquisition Email Averages 15.00% The first offer emails went out early October. Open rates are trending significantly higher than the average acquisition email at 56% vs. 15%. While it is too early to share significant results, The click thru rates indicate either the user is saving the email to come back to later or there is room to improve on the offer. We do not have conversion data available yet. Arts Newsletter: 57 Arts Offer: 5   CBJ Newsletter 108 Offer: 13 News Newsletter: 781 Offer: 319 Buckeye Newsletter: 233 Offer 23 Politics newsletter 173 Offer: 57 Sports newsletter: 1247 Offer: 426

Listener Engagement Data To Drive Customer/Subscriber Journey’s New Subscriber Welcome Journey

Winning Back Former Subscribers

Data Capture, Paywall, Digital Subscriptions Listener™ Print Subscriber Non -Subscriber Registered User Unknown Visitor Newsletter Opt-In, Google Surveys & Promotion offer for data collection App download, E-edition trials Ad Optimization Incentivize All-Access model Paywall messaging RON messaging through DFP

AGGRESSIVE DIGITAL GROWTH TACTICS

Accelerate Digital Subscription Growth Through Email Marketing Email 1 - Sent Friday (Ends Wednesday) Email 2 -  Sent Tuesday (Ends tomorrow) Email 3 -  Sent Wednesday (last chance) Email 4 - Sent Thursday (sale extended) Through 6 Iterations  220+ subscriptions Repeat every 3 weeks

Aggressive Metering Around Key Passion Topics – OSU Football October Metrics Almost 700 new digital only subscriptions Over 6,200 email sign-ups Almost 2,000 subscribers authenticated

Sample Messages

Digital Subscriptions Growth & Impact on Digital Users

The Numbers Start Adding Up 10,000 digital-only subscriber by Dec 31 (100% growth since Jan 2017) Almost 30,000 new emails collected for marketing purposes Almost 10,000 authenticated subscribers

Columbus Blue Jackets - Advertiser Case Study

Objectives Identify overlapping audiences between Columbus Dispatch and Columbus Blue Jackets Build profiles of audiences based on demographics, digital engagement, product choice, ticket choice Find “lookalikes” in Columbus Dispatch database and online to grow potential overlapped audience Take action on current and prospective audiences across multiple channels

The Columbus Dispatch and Columbus Blue Jackets 9% of entities matched from current and former Dispatch subscribers 16% of entities matched from all Blue Jackets ticket buyers 99% of entities have a home address About 75% of entities have a phone number or email address Nearly all matched entities have all three points of contact Matched 21,416 The Columbus Dispatch 221,247 Columbus Blue Jackets 116,402 137,818 242,663

Contacts Match Overview Most entities have phone number, email, and home address though 100K entities have one or two methods of contact 103 0% 2,350 1% 19,066 5%

269,501 entities are within the Columbus DMA (74%) – 156 zip codes

Most matched entities fall within the DMA (97% of matches within the DMA)

Zip Code Analysis The top 25 zip codes within the DMA account for 3/4th of audience overlap The top 25 zip codes in the DMA account for over 55% of total entities Almost 75% of all matches within the DMA are from the top 25 zip codes On average, the top 25 zip codes average over 10% of matched entities 78,505 ticket holders (57%) show an address outside of the DMA and account for only 550 matches

Product and Tenure Analysis 62% of matches are currently active subscribers, mostly on the FD, SD, and WD product codes 55% of matched former subscribers stopped service within the last 12 months

Mosaic Groups Power Elite, Flourishing Families, Promising Families, and Young City Solos show a high match index 4,570 3,202 1,028 720 50%

A A01 A02 A03 A04 A05 A06 Power Elite The wealthiest households in the US, living in the most exclusive neighborhoods, and enjoying all that life has to offer Richard & Mary 5.34% 7.24% A Who We Are Property type Age 51-65 Single family 86.7% 108 36.7% 126 Household income Household size $250,000+ 30.5% 1280 Home ownership 5+ persons 18.3% 229 Age of children Key Features Technology Adoption Wealthy Highly educated Politically conservative Well invested Supporters of the arts Active and fit Homeowner 85.7% 132 13-18 26.3% 213 Apprentices Mosaic USA © 2015 Experian Ltd

Ticket Holder Analysis Within the ticket files, the presence of a ticket holder in the ETW Master List shows a low match index but accounts for the largest volume Non-renewed plan holders, playoff ticket holders, and ticket forwards, and all-star game buyers show a high match index

Per User 30-day Average (Matched) Per User 30-day Average (Overall) Engagement 2,453 matches (11%) are actively engaged in dispatch.com though only 106 users reveal Blue Jackets content to be within their top 3 areas of interest 288 matches reveal any type of sports content to be within their top 3 areas of interest Though 2,453 users are engaged online, only 827 matches are engaged enough to determine a preferred content type Metric Per User 30-day Average (Matched) Per User 30-day Average (Overall) Difference Page Views 16.4 2.5 +13.9 Article Page Views 8.7 1.6 +7.1 Visits 8.3 1.4 +6.9

Subscriber Ticket Purchase Probability Statistical analysis completed on subscribers in the local DMA 210,238 subscriber entities given a ticket score Excludes those outside of the local DMA Excludes ticket buyers Columbus Dispatch current & previous subscribers ranked from 0 to 100 on probability of buying Blue Jackets tickets

Web Visitor Ticket Purchase Probability Statistical analysis completed on users in the local DMA 625,986 entities given a ticket score Excludes those outside of the local DMA Excludes ticket buyers Columbus Dispatch anonymous web visitors ranked from 0 to 100 on probability of buying Blue Jackets tickets Page Views  2M  569K  37K

Future Considerations

Future Considerations Deploying Piano authentication & user segmentation layer with Mather Listener segments Using digital marketing triggers (SEM, retargeting, geo-fencing, etc.) Content partnerships/membership programs around passion topics (e.g. CBJ, Crew SC , etc.) Content licensing agreements with large institutions (e.g. OSU) Dynamic pricing of digital only subscribers (based on engagement) Focus on stop-save efforts with call center reps and Mather pricing Continue to promote and place our content in front of audiences in central Ohio reinforcing the value we bring to the table

QUESTIONS Nikhil Hunshikatti VP, Marketing Dispatch Media Group nhunshikatti@dispatch.com @nikhilbh