September 12, 2011 NSCMA

We’re not dying… we’re evolving Charles Darwin Print isn’t going away as long as we choose not to shoot ourselves in the foot. Hyper local content, intriguing headlines, great photo’s, in-depth & accurate coverage, exemplary customer service…combined with a working partnership of technology, print will not only survive but thrive.

4 things to ponder How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire? Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle? The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth. Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive any faster?

New media personnel to IT staff to editorial, advertising and production folks, don’t leave anyone out of the loop. Ask for their input! Recognize successes. We brought back penny boards, balloon boards and offered time off with management working their shift when certain goals were obtained.

We switched to a 8 ½ x 11 customized bill that we use as a marketing piece as well as an invoice. Now that ABC is changing the rules, remember you will have to have rates displayed in equal prominence on all material and in your rate box in your print edition.

One of the worst things we have done in our industry is we sometimes assume we know what our readers want. Occasionally we are right and other times we’re not. Be careful to reach these type of conclusions without a validation process.

This is a great example of what I was just referring to This is a great example of what I was just referring to. Ask what the readers like/dislike about any of your products.

DIRECT MAIL PIECE This was a direct mail piece that was a tri- folded and measured 5 ½ inches wide and 4 ½ inches in length. In the next few slides, you will see the inside panels.

When you open up the tri-fold piece, all three panels are displayed. We offered a drawing of a gift card from a local retailer to get readers to “try us”. Working with our IT team, we were able to assign user names and passwords for anyone who had yet to access the E-edition. The direct mail piece Included this information and the drawing was the carrot to entice them to sign on. Once they signed on, they could easily change either or both.

I spoke early on about partnership I spoke early on about partnership. This particular slide/campaign had little to do with our conversion program but I simply wanted to Include it as one example of how the two products can work together. We gave away a laptop, one a month for three months. It was also paid for by our new media department as a way to grow site traffic.

Just referencing to take advantage of all of your resources Just referencing to take advantage of all of your resources. With I-Services, we process approximately 2,000 transactions on any given month. That free’s up the time of our csr’s to devote to retention and marketing.

Circulation building ideas and promotions KEYS TO SUCCESS 1. Have the full support from top management, set up spreadsheets to insure accountability for goal attainment by getting results back from each property as frequently as possible. 2. Make the promotion offer easy and fun but competitive and give feedback on results to individuals or teams each week. 3. Commit to a percentage of revenue or cash generated to serve as rewards and incentives to winning teams and individuals. These may seem like basic sales tools but they aren't always fully utilized. In summary, setting goals, establishing accountability for attainment of goals, support from top management, investing for growth through incentives, and keeping it fun and competitive, are the key factors for success

VP Circulation GateHouse Media Thank You Fred Foutz VP Circulation GateHouse Media ffoutz@pjstar.com 309-686-3149