The Orlando daily and its paid business news site

Julie Anderson is vice president of digital publishing at the Orlando Sentinel, which last month launched a new business news site called GrowthSpotter.com. Anderson is the publisher of the site.

Anderson has led Internet ventures for 20 years, ranging from a start-up to serving as general manager of OrlandoSentinel.com. In her corporate role as senior vice president of content services for Tribune Publishing and Chicago Tribune, Anderson helped Tribune’s East Coast newspapers evolve their newsrooms and sites to meet the 24/7, multi-platform needs of consumers.

A Florida native, Anderson grew up in Orlando and attended the University of Central Florida. After reporting and editing stints at the Daytona Beach News-Journal and Orlando Business Journal, she joined the Orlando Sentinel in 1990 as copy editor, leaving briefly to lead a Tribune-Knight Ridder start up, Destination Florida LLC.

She returned in 1997 to head Internet business development and became general manager for Orlando Sentinel Interactive in 1999, a position she held for eight years.

GrowthSpotter is a subscriber-only digital publication (one month is $20, and one year is $156) that offers “insider” intelligence for Central Florida’s business community.

GrowthSpotter’s reporting staff includes Bob Moser, who has covered business-to-business reporting for several publications, most recently working from Brazil; Teresa Burney, who has worked for Builder magazine and the Tampa Bay Times; and Karen Talley, who has worked for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. It is now hiring another reporter.

Anderson spoke Monday with Talking Biz News about GrowthSpotter. What follows is an edited transcript.

How did the idea for GrowthSpotter came about?

It was an observation that I had as I was tracking all of the various development projects that were being announced almost every week in Orlando. I pride myself in knowing what is going on in Orlando, but I was having trouble keeping track.

So I started keeping a spreadsheet and discovered that there were more than $8 billion of projects underway. That’s unprecedented. So we thought there was an opportunity to cover this in a much deeper way, doing it in a way that goes to the business community, a segment of the business community involved in it. I always thought there was an opportunity to charge for that.

We had been, at Tribune Publishing, more attuned and more focused on developing our digital subscriptions. This seemed the way to test the theory that business news, in particular, might be able to command a subscription.

How long was it in development?

I quietly did the research with a few others in Orlando all last fall. We kind of looked at other models. We were very interested in the AllNovaScotia model that has been written about. We really didn’t gear up until January, and that’s when we pulled in experts from a lot of areas of the Sentinel, from marketing and subscriptions, and involved Tribune Digital. We just kind of tapped in various areas of the company, but we knew we wanted to do it very quickly.

We consider this to be a start-up within a big company. We started in earnest in January and launched on May 4. The reporters were here the month before we launched.

How did you decide to charge for the site?

We knew that business news, in particular, if it’s written with depth and authority and really hits a niche audience that we can charge for it. What we didn’t know his how much we can charge for it. So we turned to Burt Ortiz, who is our circulation manager. We looked at what was being charged in the area and other B-to-B sites. We’re trying hard not to discount except for annual subscriptions. We wanted to make sure we were charging enough.

What is GrowthSpotter primarily covering?

It’s real estate and development. What we’re trying to do and where we see the opportunity is in early stage development. It starts with the land sale and what are you doing with the land and the rezoning and the opportunities around the land. We want to be a resource for people in that business, so people can use that information early on. We found that in many cases, those stories were being reported in a way that the process was already far along so that the opportunities were already taken.

So if we can get the word out early enough and help people make connections, more people can benefit. But you have to be a subscriber.

We also let people know when buildings are being let, or bids are being taken. Rather than stop there, we say these are the kinds of contractors they’re looking for and here are the contacts you can call. It’s pretty important information.

How does GrowthSpotter’s coverage differ from the Sentinel’s coverage?

We’re writing for two different audiences. The Sentinel’s business section is writing for all types of interest and all types of knowledge. For a general audience, you can’t go as in depth. The Sentinel would never put in a story the specifics about the contractors that are needed. That’s just not appropriate, and most people would not even be interested. What the Sentinel does great is a lot of context and paint the picture of what it means to the whole community.

We go more granular. We’re assuming that our audience knows that. Our challenge is to tell them something that they don’t know. Sometimes we’ll cover the same project, but with different angles.

Is there any overlap in coverage where a GrowthSpotter story will appear in the Sentinel?

Not as much as you might think. Today was one of the first examples. We both covered a sale of some industrial warehouses. The real estate broker interviewed with the Sentinel. And our reporter interviewed the buyer. So it was same story, but a different story. It’s been a lot less overlap than I would have imagined.

How have page views and unique visitors been so far?

Our No. 1 thing we’re looking at is not traffic. What we’re looking at is activations and subscriptions. The Orlando chamber bought six months worth of subscriptions for its members. Our job was to get them to activate their membership. In order for them to get into the site, they have to take that final step to activate the membership, to match their email address.

And we also look at how many were signing up independent of the chamber. That is our most important measure — how many subscribers we’re getting.

Can you tell me how many subscribers you have so far?

I don’t want to tell you yet. It’s competitive information.

What are you doing to promote the site to attract more readers?

We have a launch promotional campaign. The elements of the campaign are digital, print, radio and direct mail. Along with direct mail, it’s also direct email. So that it is a six-week campaign that we will follow up in September.

The main thing we are doing is getting out in the community and speaking to different groups. Our reporters are getting out and speaking. I am. We have our circulation department getting involved, starting a group sales initiative. They’re also calling on larger businesses. Our publisher is also very involved. We feel like the best way is to get out in front of the groups that are receptive to explain how this is different from our regular business coverage.

Do you see the potential for more paid niche sites, like maybe one that covers the Orlando Magic?

I think there are other opportunities. Wherever there are people that are passionate about information that they can’t get everywhere else, that’s where there is an opportunity. It’s just easy with business news. That’s where there is an ROI. One sale can pay for a subscription and you can expense it for a business expense. It’s not as easy to do that if you are a Magic fan.

What I like about this is that it is all about the content. If the content is meeting the needs, then it will be successful. As long as we can get the word out and execute on the content, I think we will be successful.

The site has become known. The reporters are getting out and talking to CEOs and the tops of organizations.

But we have a lot of work to do. The thing I want to do next is call in the people who have been subscribing and get their feedback on what we’re doing good and where we can be better. We need feedback on a more formal way.