These top recommendations for 2012 in large part came from seminars and conversations at American Press Institute's December 2012 media seminar. They flow from two basic revenue generators: Traffic and direct sales, and include several of the key "to do" take ways from media executives who attended. Referred vendors are included. more

NewOrleans.com shifted its business model in 2011 to a purely tourist-oriented site and a transactional business model. This case study looks at the history of the site and current strategy, with resources and lessons learned. more

There are still opportunities for local media sites to own travel-based revenue streams, especially given their key advantage: Unique local content. The biggest key is choosing the right third party technology partner and strategy for your market. LMI interviewed a number of sites with travel products business models and available partners for this summary. more

 The early results are in: Half of print subscribers have already bought online subscriptions at eight small newspapers owned by Dow Jones and free registrations to non-subscribers now exceed print circulation. This case study focuses on key upgrades to the registration interface, results for online registrations and subscriptions, and impact on advertising and total audience. more

Here's how Brent Low, CEO of MediaOne of Utah, replaced declining real estate classifieds with an in-house real estate brokerage company that will top $1.6 million in direct sales revenues this year. Included is the business plan, staffing, logistics and lessons learned after a year and a half in business. more

Halfoffdeals and HalfOffdepot are both nationally branded companies that offer merchants advertising trade in return for gift certificates sold in an online store. Now two stores, MercPerks, created by The Portland Mercury (owned by The Stranger) and Kostizi, owned by Salt Lake City Weekly are alternative weekly-owned certificate stores that offer white label platforms to affiliates. Included are case studies on first year revenues, how the programs work, and how they compare to each other. more

Credit card declines will affect many of the new business models that rely on reoccurring charges for small ads, directories and subscriptions. Involuntary cancellations from card expiration or replacements now result in a losses of 30% of reoccurring orders. Find out how to stop the churn. more

For the 2010 PNA conference, we updated a number of revenue opportunities mentioned previously on this site. Find out how many press releases PRLink, a software created by Creative Circle Advertising Solutions, is selling on TampaBay.com and how EBay responded to BooCoo Auctions undercutting its pricing. more

The St. Petersburg Times is launching a new, paid, press release site today that has a lot of potential. Businesses already pay to submit releases to PRWire, and a local service makes even more sense, because of the SEO value. Here's how it works, with images, vendor contacts. more

User-generated revenues may become the annuity that classifieds used to be. Director of Interactive at the PostGazette.com, Pat Scanlon, is leading the charge: “We’ve neglected this category for 15 years." Here are his top four initiatives that promise to yield at least six figures each, plus five more, with vendors suggested. Understanding this source of new revenues is one key to creating a successful local media business model. more