Media General is building its digital strategy with an array of products, including apps, said Marshall N. Morton, the company's president and chief executive officer, at the company's annual shareholders meeting Thursday.
The company's first application developed for Apple's iPad — called RVA Mix — will be unveiled by the Richmond Times-Dispatch in May.
"There's no doubt we are in an industry in transition, particularly as to the ways we package and deliver our products," Morton told shareholders during the meeting at The Times-Dispatch's Hanover County printing plant. "At the same time, the transformation largely permits growth at lower cost and in ways that allow us to develop new revenue streams and new customer bases."
The iPad application will feature content tailored for the Richmond-area audience, drawn from The Times-Dispatch and Richmond.com, the chief executive said. It eventually will be offered as a paid app in Apple's App Store.
"Our future plan is to develop similar apps for other key local markets," Morton said.
Earlier this year, Media General announced that The Times-Dispatch will start using a new service developed by Google Inc. that enables consumers to buy content from multiple publishers using a single account.
Morton told shareholders that the newspaper will begin using the service, called Google One Pass, in June.
Google One Pass is part of Media General's effort to generate new revenue as it looks for ways to sell its digital content, he said. The service allows publishers to sell online content by setting their own prices and terms.
Media General has been testing a pay-for-content model at its newspaper in Hickory, N.C. "After more than three months, results indicate that heavy users are willing to pay a reasonable fee for premium local content," Morton said.
Morton said the company's broadcast operations performed well in 2010, and as of April 15, broadcast revenue was pacing 2 percent ahead of last year. The newspaper business remains soft, so Morton said the company's print operations continue to push for new ways to generate revenue and attract customers and advertisers.
The company's total digital media revenue reached $43 million in 2010, with local website revenue growing 14 percent, Morton said.
Media General shareholders re-elected 10 members of the board of directors. One director, Walter E. Williams, retired from the board after serving as a director since 2001.
Media General owns three metropolitan newspapers, 18 television stations, 20 community newspapers and 200 other publications, mainly in the Southeast. It also owns websites associated with its media properties and three interactive advertising services companies.
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