With a well-chosen name and a marketing plan, a newspaper is ready to promote its
voice information services to the public.
In voice services, it has deliberately entered what Craig Allsopp, assistant director of Dow Jones
Voice Information Services, referred to as "calculated conflicts," catering to ad supported, pay-per-call and subscription markets to position the company for whichever market takes off.
Directory publishers, on the other hand, have struggled to make a business out of front-of-the-book (FOB)
voice information services, or back-of-the-book (BOB) audiotex sections supplied and updated by the advertisers themselves.
"Despite the economy and its horrible impact on advertising revenues, despite the uncertainty about the role the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) will play in
voice information services, the number of newspapers offering
voice information services is increasing dramatically, to the point there are today 1,200 papers," said John F.
In 1991, many newspapers either began their foray into audiotex or chose to enhance their already existing
voice information services by offering voice personals to their respective communities.
The winners in
voice information services will be those newspaper companies which determine their objectives, understand the marketplace, and develop a strategy based on that knowledge.
The products use
voice information services directly tied to print media - talking ads, conventional audiotext information, polls and surveys and local information lines.
While newspapers are adding
voice information services at a remarkable pace, there is no clear-cut formula for success.