By Michelle FinklerASSOCIATE EDITOR

In spring 2008, gas prices in many parts

of the country were hovering around the

$3.75 a gallon mark and would reach the $4

a gallon mark during the summer months.

Many Americans were feeling pain at the

pump and opted to avoid

summer travel that in-

cluded long, out-of-state

road trips and instead

looked for fun things to do in their own neck

of the woods. This trend gave one newspa-

per manager an idea.

�I had seen other papers do some variety

of this in some way,� said Kathy Lafferty-

Hutchinson, regional advertising sales man-

ager for a group of Kansas weekly papers

owned by The World Company. The news-

papers are in communities surrounding

Lawrence, Kan.�in Tonganoxie, Baldwin,

Basehor, Bonner Springs, Eudora, De Soto

and Shawnee.

�The idea came up this time last year

when the economy was starting to take a

hit,� Lafferty-Hutchinson said. �Gas prices

were out of sight. People were looking to

stay local. You have to see what�s in your

own backyard. We miss a lot of things that

are nearby. The gas prices are the thing that

made us say, �We have to do this now.��

In May 2008, Road Trips; Driveable Des-

tinations was released, and it was a big hit,

Lafferty-Hutchinson said. The regional

product was at team effort on behalf of all

of the seven weekly newspapers, she said.

The tabloid publication was 16 pages long

and was printed on a heavier stock of news-

print than the newspapers usually use. Road

Trips also featured pages with full-color ads

and photos.

Appealing for advertisers

Road Trips was also a money-maker. The

publication attracted advertising clients

who had not advertised in the newspapers

before. Lafferty-Hutchinson said 45 per-

cent of the advertising was new to the com-

pany, not necessarily to The World Com-

pany, but to her chain of weekly papers.

The publication attracted advertisers all the

way from Missouri to Dodge City, on the

opposite side of Kansas. Lafferty-Hutchin-

son said advertisers were able to track the

success of the ads they placed and see a

return on their investments soon after pub-

lication.

�When we sold it, we told [advertisers]

you�d be grouped by region,� she said.

�For example, if your company was in

Bonner Springs, your ad would be near

other Bonner Springs ads. That was ap-

pealing to advertisers.�

With the success of the first issue, plans

for a 2009 edition, which will come out in

early May, are already under way. This

year�s publication will be larger than the

16-page 2008 edition, as more advertisers

are excited about the product and get on

board.

The 2009 edition will be called A Day

Away, which is the name of a show that airs

on a TV station owned by the company.

Lafferty-Hutchinson said the TV show had

�the same kind of feeling� as Road Trips,

and it made sense for the two to come to-

gether. This union has also given advertisers

the opportunity to appear on the �A Day

Away� show, she said.

�If you have the budget, you can be on

the TV show and the print product,� Laffer-

ty-Hutchinson said. �The majority of our

advertisers�probably 90 percent�are just

going to be in the print product.�

Get connected

Lafferty-Hutchinson said it�s not neces-

sary for a newspaper to own a TV station or

have a network of area papers for a publica-

tion like Road Trips to be successful.

�I don�t want to imply that this can�t be

done at just one paper,� she said. �It�s not

successful because we have seven newspa-

pers. It could be applied anywhere.�

She suggests newspapers get in contact

with area chambers of commerce or eco-

nomic development entities, as well as res-

taurants and businesses to get ideas on con-

tent, such as festivals and events to cover

on the editorial side.

Lafferty-Hutchinson also worked closely

with the editorial department. Stories for the

publication were assigned like any other

story, and most of the content was derived

from the communities that the newspapers

are in. There were also general travel stories,

such as a story outlining tips for summer

travel planning. Lafferty-Hutchinson said

this year�s A Day Away will feature a story

giving pointers on traveling with children.

On the second page of the tabloid, there is

a list of festivals. Existing resources at the

newspapers provided all of the content, in-

cluding stories and photos. The publication

also has an online component, which Laf-

ferty-Hutchinson said will be updated year-

round this year.

When it came time for the publication�s

release, 60,000 copies were distributed in-

side each of the seven weeklies� papers.

Lafferty-Hutchinson said they also over-

printed Road Trips to use as a future sales

piece. Also, the chamber of commerce in

each city was given an overrun to distribute

to tourists. Overruns were also given to ad-

vertisers, and the newspaper offices kept

some copies available for people to pick up

throughout the year.

Room to grow

Lafferty-Hutchinson sees a lot of potential

in the publication as she and staff members

move forward with A Day Away.

�I�m thinking about following up with a

campaign that would just feature one city,

like A Day Away in the Eudora area or the

Baldwin City area,� she said. �We would

just feature a specific city on a page in the

paper. I want to go back to advertisers and

pitch it.�

The next step, Lafferty-Hutchinson said,

would be to introduce spring and fall edi-

tions, because there are many festivals and

events hosted by the newspapers� communi-

ties during those times, such as leaf tours

and holiday parades.

�It really has room to grow,� she said.

�It�s one of these projects that could grow

so big.�

Contact: Kathy Lafferty-Hutchinson,

klafferty@lansingcurrent.com

P AGE 10 The Inland er | w w w .inland p ress.org | AP RIL 2 0 0 9

Ideas

Pap er help s read ers looking to save money on travel

The 2 0 0 8 ed ition of Road Trip s w as created in resp onse to high gas p rices and the economy, w hich w as

just starting to take a hit. This year’s ed ition w ill b e called A Day Aw ay. PHOTO SUPPLIED

S p ec ial S ec t io n S u c c ess S t o r y

“ I don’t want to imply th at th is

can’t b e done at ju st one paper. It’s

not su ccessfu l b ecau se we h ave

seven newspapers. It cou ld b e

applied any wh ere.”

Kathy Lafferty-Hutchinson

M o re o n lin e

TO V IEW ROAD TRIP S IN ITS EN TIRETY AS A P DF,

P LEASE V ISIT N BDN -IN LAN D.ORG .

By Michelle FinklerASSOCIATE EDITOR

An Iowa paper is leaping beyond

newspapers with its creation of a

niche product that has become a

local favorite, lasting for many

months and reaching a young audi-

ence.

T h e F o r t

Dodge Com-

munity School

Calendar is put together by The

Messenger, a 17,000-circulation

daily newspaper that serves Fort

Dodge, Iowa.

The full-color calendar, with a

glossy front and high-quality news-

print pages, begins in August and

ends in August of the following

school year, said David Jakeman,

advertising director for The Mes-

senger.

The idea originated at a sister

publication, Jakeman said, where it

was shown to local school officials.

�We said, �Wouldn�t it be nice to

do something in full color, that has

that durability to last all year?��

Content

Although most of the calendar is

made up of the month grids and the

opposite photo pages, the first three

pages contain school information.

In addition to a phone directory of

school employees, the calendar in-

cludes school buildings and ad-

dresses, school procedures, lunch

program information, student fees,

vacation days, tardiness policy in-

formation, bus transportation infor-

mation and legal notices.

The school district supplies that

information along with all of the

scheduling information that is in-

cluded on the month grids, such as

when a sporting event, board meet-

ing or dance takes place, Jakeman

said. The schools also provided

some of the classroom photos fea-

tured on the photo pages, he said.

�The athletic photos we took at

different events,� Jakeman said.

The Messenger has �a photo site

that we could pull the photos off of.

The calendar was a good way to

promote the site, too. Beneath the

photos it says, �For more pictures,

visit cu.messengernews.net,� which

is our photo site.�

The 2007-08 school year was the

first to get the upgraded calendar,

which was laid out by the paper�s

creative designer.

Before the 2007-08 school year

edition, the newspaper had been put-

ting together a school calendar for

the district, but it was with �a differ-

ent kind of paper, all black and

white�a no-thrill type of thing,� he

said. The upgraded calendar was at-

tainable through advertising revenue,

so it wasn�t something the district

had to pay for. All of the advertising

revenue that didn�t go toward print-

ing costs went to The Messenger.

Advertising

�We start calling [advertisers] in

the end of May and into June,�

Jakeman said. Because the news-

paper has published 2007-08 and

2008-09 calendars, �it�s a lot easi-

er because we start with the same

people. We say, �We will hold your

spot if you let us know early.� Start-

ing from scratch, it�s harder. Now,

they see the value. They see how

much it�s used. It�s an easier

sell.�

Jakeman said no more than two

inside sales reps at the paper sell

the advertising. The calendar fea-

tures ad spots on the front and back

inside cover and on the back cover.

These ads are larger than ads on the

calendar pages, are on the glossy

cover stock and are available to

advertisers at a premium rate, Jake-

man said. Ads on the inside news-

print calendar pages are available

on the photo page that appears op-

posite of the calendar grid. These

ads are positioned on a strip over

the photo. Half- and full-strip sizes

are available.

�You have to really strategically

price your stuff,� Jakeman said.

�Since you have a limited amount

of space, you have to carefully gauge

how much you have to charge to

make it worth your while.�

Jakeman said ad rates have in-

creased each year by about 5 or 10

percent. When determining the rates

of the different ads, Jakeman said

papers should consider the costs of

printing, insertion, commission, etc.

�Obviously you need to cover

those costs and a healthy profit mar-

gin,� Jakeman said. �I would advise

each paper to price the ads according

to their individual market. Then give

the sections annual increases from

there. Remember that this calendar

is referred to year around as well, so

the covers should be at a premium

rate, especially if they are glossy.�

Because the school calendar has

only 13 months, ad space is limited,

which is a key selling point reps use

when recruiting for advertising, he

said. Also, certain months are more

desirable to certain businesses.

�Some [advertisers] didn�t care

which spot they were on; some did,�

he said. �It was on a first-come-first-

served basis, which was a good sell-

ing point. If you�re a tanning salon,

and prom�s in May, you�re gonna

want an ad in April. First come, first

served is a key selling point.

�Once you got to the end and all

the key selling spots were taken, we

went to bigger places that just want-

ed to be in it. They didn�t care what

month they were on, but they just

wanted to be in it and show they

were supporting the schools.�

The Fort Dodge Community

School Calendar was able to attract

businesses that aren�t regular ad-

vertisers of The Messenger�s print

product, Jakeman said. The product

was pitched to businesses that

wanted their ads in front of stu-

dents, parents and faculty members,

he said.

�We really target people who

would benefit from connecting with

school kids,� Jakeman said. �Tan

World and florists for prom, pho-

tographers for senior photos, a per-

forming arts school, pizza places.

We have a National Guard ad. It�s

a wide range. We really target busi-

nesses with a niche that want to hit

the kids or parents.�

New edition

Jakeman said The Messenger�s

sales reps will be offering an added

incentive for advertisers with the

2009-10 calendar by packaging ev-

erything with the Web site. Messen-

gernews.net, the newspaper�s Web

site, will offer a Web version of the

calendar, which will feature a rotat-

ing banner ad that will run across

the top of the calendar. The Web site

has recently launched a 2008-09

version of the calendar so sales reps

can show the 2009-10 calendar�s

potential advertisers what the fea-

ture will look like, Jakeman said. He

also said pricing for the 2009-10

calendar will increase because of the

newspaper�s initiative to bundle the

ads with the online calendar.

�Now with papers integrating

more Web, it�s smart to bundle it,�

he said.

Web users can access the calen-

dar from the bottom portion of the

site�s main page, where a calendar

section is located. Web users can

click on events in the calendar, and

the links will lead them to a page

with more details about the event.

Distribution

Jakeman said 8,000 copies of

the 2008-09 calendar were printed

last year. The copies were distrib-

uted at the schools and in town at

different locations where people

could pick them up for free. He

said full distribution of the calen-

dar wasn�t necessary because it

would only be of use to students,

faculty and parents, not everyone

living in The Messenger�s circula-

tion area.

�I was just talking to the school

superintendent not too long ago,�

Jakeman said. �She said every em-

ployee receives one of these cal-

endars. Every family of a student

gets the calendar when they sign

up. Throughout the year, parents

will ask her for multiple copies of

the calendar. They ask for it early,

before it�s ready.

�It�s something that benefits our

community. It benefits the school

as a whole and the community as

a whole. There�s a lot of satisfac-

tion in having a product everyone

is happy with and uses all year.�

Contact: David Jakeman,

djakeman@messengernews.net

MAY 2 0 0 9 | www.inlandp ress.o rg | The Inlander P AG E 15

Ideas

2009

-10 calendar by packaging ev

-

last year. The copies were d

istrib-

H o w a p ap er tu rned a scho o l calendar into so mething sp ecial

S p ec ial S ec t io n S u c c ess S t o r y

PAGE 12 The Inlander | Inlandpress.org | JULY 2009

Ideas

EnJoY! : ConTInUEd on pagE 14

By Michelle FinklerassoCIaTE EdITor

Consolidating a few special sec-tions into one publication can low-er costs and result in a better over-all product.

Such was the case with “Enjoy!,” a quarterly life-style magazine created by The Repub l i c , a

21,500-circulation daily newspaper located in Columbus, Ind.

Sharon Shumate, the advertising director for The Republic, said com-bining two quarterly publications with one annual special section re-sulted in “one robust publication.”

“There was ‘Your Home, Inside & Outside’; there was a health and fitness magazine called ‘Smart Living’—these were both quarter-ly,” Shumate said. “Then there was ‘Summer Scene,’ an annual publi-cation that told you about fun things to do during the summer. We took those three and combined them into one.”

Publisher Chuck Wells, who was the advertising director during the time of the change, said the three previous publications had lost their “newness” with advertisers and, consequently, began losing ad rev-enue.

The publications “were also very narrow in focus, which limited our audience and potential advertiser base,” Wells said. “It also allowed the reps to focus on one publication rather than three, which improved sales pressure and focus.

“The publication is producing more revenue than the others com-bined, and production, editorial and sales costs are a third of what they were before we made the change,” he said.

Shumate said Enjoy!, which launched in March 2007, has been one of the more successful special sections for the newspaper. To keep ad costs attractive and at a reason-able rate for businesses in The Re-public’s market, Shumate said the newspaper opted to print the inside pages of the magazine on premium high bright stock, instead of glossy. The inside portion of the publica-tion is printed at a sister newspa-per’s facility, and the glossy covers are outsourced to a vendor, Shumate said. Typically, the magazine is

between 44 and 60 pages long. Enjoy! is distributed four times

a year—March, June, September and December—as an insert inside the Thursday newspaper, which is one of The Republic’s higher cir-culation days, Shumate said.

Choosing to distribute the maga-zine as an insert also saved on post-age, Wells said. For Internet users, Enjoy! is also available as a virtual magazine on The Republic’s Web site, TheRepublic.com.

Inside

Enjoy! features a wide variety of content, including home, garden, health, fitness, travel, recreation and finance stories. Doug Showalter, special publications editor for The Republic, said the magazine hasn’t

made many changes since its incep-tion but tries to feature the same types of stories in each edition.

“We still try to touch on certain things in every issue,” he said. “We have an outstanding-home feature, home and garden content, health and fitness stories and travel—things you can go to within a day’s drive. There’s finance- and recre-ation-type stuff—those kinds of areas. No profiles; more lifestyle content.”

Past features have included cook-

ing with tofu, visiting Nashville, Ind., and making holiday cards. Be-cause the magazine is quarterly with spring, summer, fall and winter is-sues, Showalter said many of the stories are seasonal.

For the featured home article that runs in every issue, Showalter said finding houses to write about can be difficult. One way Showalter gets story ideas is from reader feed-back.

“Occasionally, we get sugges-tions like, ‘You should do this house,’” he said. “For the [home] we’re doing now, I asked the local interior decorator. He had just fin-ished decorating this house, and it turned out nice. We have a couple homes that are visible and are on busy streets and everyone says, ‘I’d like to see what’s inside that place.’ I also will just ask people if they know of any.”

Showalter said that although most of the homes featured in the maga-zine are large and upscale, newspa-per staff tries to present the content in a way that is appealing to a gen-eral audience since Enjoy! is dis-tributed inside the newspaper.

For the most part, local stringers and freelancers write the editorial content, Showalter said, adding that The Republic’s Special Publications Department is responsible for edit-ing, layout and design.

“Our Special Publications De-partment is very small,” he said. “I might write a story here or there. I have a pool of maybe six or seven [stringers] I use regularly. I try to assign stories to writers to play to their strengths.”

For photos, Showalter said he submits requests to The Republic’s photo editor, and he gives the as-signments to either staff photogra-phers or freelancers. Showalter said stock art is also used in the maga-zine.

Advertisers

Enjoy! attracts many different types of advertisers, Shumate said. She said companies that specialize in home improvement—kitchen countertops and cabinetry busi-nesses or home improvement stores—see results by advertising in the magazine. Shumate said a furniture store always advertises on the back cover, and restaurants,

Ind. paper decides less is more when it comes to special sections

The summer 2009 edition of Enjoy!, a quarterly lifestyle magazine put together by The (Columbus, Ind.) republic, was released June 11. The magazine features content on home and garden, health and fitness, and travel and finance. Image supplIed

Special Section Success Story

More onlineTo see full copies of Enjoy! in PDF format, visit nbdn-inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

The Inland Press Foundation can show you how to do both.

You need to

savemoney

quality trainingYour staff needs

For more, see page 19 or visit

Inlandpress.org/training

Inland Webinars are a cost-effective way to train your staff. Inland’s Web-based seminars run under 90 minutes and cost $75 for members and $125 for non-members. There are no travel costs — all you need is a phone and a computer with an Internet connection.

Participants simply call a toll-free number to listen to the instructions and log on to a Web site to see the presentation.

Webinars are topical and timely. Because they can be produced quickly and deliver information to a large audience, Webinars can address urgent issues in the newspaper industry.

Online registration is safe, secure and easy to use. Access instructions will be e-mailed to paid registrants prior to the Webinar.

InlandWorks for You

PAGE 14 The Inlander | Inlandpress.org | JULY 2009

Ideas

banks and Realtors have also run advertise-ments in the magazine.

Advertisers are “trying to reach people in a higher income bracket, people in the 35 to 55 age group,” Shumate said. “It’s for men and women both; I’d say it’s about 50/50. For ex-ample, in the last issue, we had a story about making your own home brew. We try to not just appeal to women.”

Advertisers can connect with these readers through quarter-, half- and full-page ads, Shumate said. An advertising package is available that offers businesses the opportu-nity to advertise throughout the year in each of the four issues.

“We do try to secure an annual contract, a four-times-a-year contract,” Shumate said. “So a lot of the advertisers appear in every issue. We have two different rates—a con-tract rate and an open rate. Color is included in all of the ad rates.”

About 35 percent of the advertisers in Enjoy! are using the annual-contract option, she said. With the annual package, Shumate said the newspaper is flexible in offering advertisers different ad-size combinations depending on which seasons they want more or less exposure. She said the spring and summer issues tend to be larger with more gardening and outdoors-related ad-vertisers wanting to get their ads in front of readers.

“We had one person who did a one-time, half-page ad—a landscaping company—and they said after the ad ran, they booked 13 jobs,” she said.

However, advertising in Enjoy! has fallen off a little with the sluggish economy. Advertising in Enjoy! is viewed as more of a branding-type message, which Shumate said advertisers are scaling back from and instead doing more call-to-action-type advertising.

“The first issues were strong and successful, and then it started waning a little bit,” she said. “After the elections, there were some local lay-offs in the area. We’ve probably seen about a 20 to 25 percent drop since the earliest issues that were the most successful.”

As a way to attract advertisers in the tough economy, Shumate said the newspaper has of-fered companies specials, such as getting the annual contract rate without signing a contract. “Of course, we don’t want to do that, but we have,” she said.

Ultimately, Shumate said Enjoy! will make it through the tough times and bounce back to its previous advertising revenues.

“The way it’s positioned in the market, it will sustain itself,” she said. “We’re not that far from our goal as far as advertising revenue is con-cerned, so that says a lot given this economy.”

Contact: Sharon Shumate, sshumate@therepublic.com;

Chuck Wells, cwells@therepublic.com; Doug Showalter, dshowalter@therepublic.com

Enjoy!: Many options for advertisers

The Fall 2007 issue of Enjoy! snagged a second-place 2008 Newspaper Business Development

Contest award in the Shelter category. Image supplIed

CoNTINUED From pagE 12

PAGE 12 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | AUGUST 2009

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerASSocIATe edITor

Newspapers are in the pub-lishing business. Military bases are not.

So when Dan Collin, a former employee of the Bellevue, Neb.-

based Sub-urban News-papers Inc., saw that Of-

futt Air Force Base in Nebraska published a newcomer’s guide and telephone book for new per-sonnel, he had an idea.

Collin’s idea was simple: have the newspaper put together the guide and phone book for the base, said Lowell Miller, retail advertis-ing local sales manager for Subur-ban Newspapers Inc.

Suburban Newspapers owns the Ashland Gazette, Bellevue Leader, Gretna Breeze, La Vista Sun, Papil-lion Times, Ralston Recorder, Wa-hoo Newspaper and Waverly News. The Omaha World-Herald is the parent company of Suburban News-papers.

“We said we would be able to do it for them with the understanding that we would be able to sell the advertising, and they agreed,” Mill-er said. “It was roughly $55,000 in total revenue we brought in.”

Projects like the Offutt Air Force Base Newcomer’s Guide and Tele-phone Directory show how Subur-ban Newspapers is finding new revenue by going beyond its news-papers and special sections to offer its publishing and production ser-vices to new clients.

“We also have a paper that’s dis-tributed on the base called the Base 68113,” Miller said. “It’s a free rack publication. We do 8,000 cop-ies of that. It’s a weekly on Thurs-days.”

Base 68113 has news, features, sports and recreation content per-taining to the base and the Omaha area. The Newcomer’s Guide and Telephone Directory also serve this military community’s roughly 9,100 personnel, Miller said. The guide is a helpful resource for those who are new and are not familiar with Offutt or the surrounding ar-eas, Miller said. The Telephone Directory is a tool used by person-nel at the base to look up phone numbers and addresses for offices

at the base, as well as businesses in the area.

The first editions of the Offutt Air Force Base Newcomer’s Guide and Telephone Directory put to-gether by Suburban Newspapers came out in 2007, and Miller said the 2009 editions will be available Oct. 30. The base requested that the publications be produced every two years based on the amount of new personnel coming in and how fast it takes to run out of books. In 2007, 2,000 copies of the Newcomer’s Guide and 4,000 copies of the Tele-phone Directory were printed

through an outside printer. Although the Offutt Air Force

Base had previously produced the publications, Suburban Newspapers started from scratch when they took over in 2007, Miller said.

“The first one is always the toughest,” he said. “This time, we’ll do a lot more updating. There are obviously a lot of changes with people coming and going from the Air Force base. The workload from the phone number standpoint is pretty much the same. We have the template down, though.”

For the 2007 editions, Suburban Newspapers worked closely with the Air Force base in completing the project.

“We had to get all of the phone numbers from them,” Miller said. “With the Newcomer’s Guide, we had to make sure all that informa-tion was accurate. We were work-ing with all the different depart-

ments and verifying that informa-tion.

“For this next edition, we’re working with the Public Relations Department at the base and using them as a conduit to gather the in-formation. The last time we did this, it was difficult gathering all the information from all the differ-ent departments. This time, we will be able to have someone assist us in getting everything.”

Inside

Planning for the Newcomer’s Guide and Telephone Directory begins about eight months before publication, Miller said. The Offutt Newcomer’s Guide is a four-color, glossy publication of about 80 pages. It is the size of a magazine and is stitched and trimmed. Miller said the guide doesn’t feature sto-ries per se, but rather general infor-mation meant to help incoming

personnel get acquainted with the base and the surrounding area.

“It’s more of a resource guide,” he said. “A lot of the people have served at another Air Force base, but they don’t know a lot about Omaha or the base. The guide shows them where everything is—buildings, maps, departments, com-munity information regarding Bel-levue or the other surrounding ar-eas.”

The content comes to Suburban Newspapers from the various de-partments at the base. Miller said all of the content is provided, ed-ited and whittled down to fit space constraints by a team at Suburban Newspapers. A freelancer is also brought in on the Newcomer’s Guide and Telephone Book project for layout and design.

Miller said the Telephone Direc-tory is about the same size as the

Neb. publisher pursues, finds new revenue in commercial printing

Special Section Success Story

Suburban Newspapers Inc. puts together the Newcomer’s Guide and Telephone directory for the nearby offutt, Neb., Air Force Base. The 2009 editions will be available oct. 30. Images supplIed

More onlineTo see excerpts of the Of-futt Air Force Base New-comer’s Guide and tele-phone directory in PDF form, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

oFFUTT: coNTINUed oN PAGe 16

AUGUST 2009 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 13

IdeasFour more NBDN ideas to generate revenue with Special Sections

Well-executed Special Sections can produce several thousands of dollars in new revenue. For this “bonus” section, The Inlander offers four additional ideas for

special sections that have delivered proven results for newspa-pers (revenue figures are included at the end of each summary).

Next month, we begin looking at the most recent revenue-generating ideas that have emerged from our recently judged NBDN contest (details on contest winners on page 5).

Calgary HeraldAlberta, CanadaContact: Barb LivingstoneE-mail: blivingstone@theherald.canwest.com Theme: The Calgary Herald has been putting together “4-H On Pa-rade” for the past three years. 4-H On Parade is not a parade, but rather a three-day event that takes place in May where 4-H clubs from around the province come to show their animals in competi-tion and participate in other events not commonly associated with 4-H, such as public speaking. The 4-H On Parade section was designed not only to highlight the range of work 4-H encompasses, but to bring rural life to an urban audience. The 12-page tabloid is family-friendly and distributed to rural subscribers and nonsubscrib-ers in areas surrounding Calgary, as well as copies in the newspaper for readers in the city of Calgary. The tabloid was also distributed at the 4-H On Parade event, and the content was posted on CalgaryHer-ald.com.Sales Strategy: The biggest sup-porter of 4-H On Parade is the Cal-gary Stampede, the Herald’s partner for the publication. Other partners have included businesses that want to reach urban and rural audiences of kids and families.

Copy: Stories and photos in 4-H On Parade are geared toward chil-dren. The special section features profiles on prominent Calgarians who have gone through the 4-H system and gave credit to the or-ganization for their business suc-cess. The newspaper has a pool of about 20 freelancers that it uses for special sections to write stories and shoot photos. For 4-H On Parade, the Calgary Herald assigned the stories and photos to freelancers who enjoy writing for a family au-dience and who also might have some rural experience. All design and coordination for the section is done in-house. Because the publi-cation is printed on upgraded news-print, the newspaper uses an outside commercial printer.

Results: Revenue of $31,500

Arts/Entertainment

The RecordStockton, Calif. Contact: Karen BakhteganE-mail: kbakhtegan@recordnet.comTheme: For Veterans Day in 2007, The Record decided to put

together “A Soldier’s Story,” a 20-page special section that was inserted

into the Sunday paper. The publi-cation included first-hand accounts of local war veterans who served in conflicts from World War II to the Iraq war.Sales Strategy: The Record set strict guidelines for the special section to ensure that all of the advertising would be tasteful in this tribute to veterans. Tribute and

“thank you” ads were accepted with minimal “advertising” included, and no sales pitches or product photos were al-lowed. A wide variety of busi-nesses and organizations par-ticipated in the section includ-ing a kitchen and bath center, a car dealership and military recruitment offices, to name

a few.Copy: The Record solicited for submissions from veterans and their families through an ad in the newspaper. Soon after the ad ran, the newspaper began to receive hundreds of photos, written ac-counts, old letters, service awards and newspaper clippings. Most of the articles that appeared in A Sol-dier’s Story were written and sub-mitted by veterans. The other sto-ries were pieced together using photos, letters, journals, biogra-phies and interviews provided by veterans and family members. Content from the section is also posted online on the newspaper’s Web site, RecordNet.com. Results: Revenue of $10,094

Health, Family & Youth

The Daily ItemSunbury, Pa. Contact: Laura Smith E-mail: lsmith@dailyitem.comTheme: The Daily Item’s “Game Night” runs for 12 consecutive weeks in the pa-per’s Friday morning edition during foot-ball season, which lasts from the end of August to the end of November. The sec-tion includes player profiles, game pre-views, statistics, photos and articles on that evening’s high school games and

Saturday’s college matchups. The publication features content pertaining to different school districts and colleges in the area, and it is dis-tributed with the newspaper.Sales Strategy: Game Night appeals to a variety of advertisers, such as a photographer, cable news stations, auto body shops, restaurants and pizza parlors, as well as a jewelry store selling class rings and school-related jewelry. Advertis-ers can have their ad placed on the page that features the school district in which their busi-ness is located. The newspaper also uses Game Night for its own promotions, such as a Fan of the Week Photo where a picture of an unidenti-fied fan is put in the sports publication, and if

the person in the photo calls in and identifies himself, he’ll win a prize.Sales Incentives: Advertisers are asked to com-mit to a 12-week run, which translates into new revenue for the newspaper without requiring weekly callbacks. Advertisers who don’t commit to the 12-week run are charged a premium rate. Advertisers are also charged a premium rate for the front-page banner ad and for ads on the back page.Copy: The stories and photos were produced in-house, as were design, layout and printing.Results: $23,901 total revenue for all 12 weeks

— Compiled by Michelle Finkler

Sports

The Daily HeraldArlington Heights, Ill.Contact: Amy Seng

E-mail: aseng@daily-herald.comTheme: The Daily Herald worked with the Northwest Suburban Bar Association to create the “Attorney Guide,” which featured stories, photos and a listing directory. The Daily Herald and another local paper distributed the guide through home deliv-ery and newsstands. More than 77,000 copies were distributed in Chicago’s Northwest suburbs. Sales Strategy: The NWSBA gave the news-paper a list of members to call on their behalf to

solicit for advertising to cover the cost of the section. Advertisers could choose from four ad sizes and paid listings. Sales Incentives: The bar association used the special section to boost mem-bership for their referral service pro-gram. Members of the service were offered a free listing in the Attorney Guide, but non-members would have to pay $125 for the listing. Joining the referral service program cost $150, prompting many non-members to be-come members. Copy: The NWSBA offered its mem-bers an opportunity to write stories for the publication. The Daily Herald took photographs and wrote a feature story about the association’s board mem-bers. Results: Revenue of $31,320

Glossy

PAGE 16 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | AUGUST 2009

Training

Automated Compensator Preset-ting. What is it? Think of it as an-other newspaper gold mine waiting to be tapped.

One of the generally untapped methods of increasing press produc-tivity today includes the use of au-tomated presetting of page compen-sators (includes unit-to-unit and ribbon compensators). Unit-to-unit compensators effect color image register; movement of ribbon com-pensators do not. On all presses, compensators are either motorized or manually controlled devices that allow the operator to align the head and tail of each page with all of the other pages and webs within a given printed product, prior to their en-trance into the folder.

But here’s the problem: Today, most press operators are manually setting page compensators.

Setting page compensators can be accomplished through either manu-al adjustment or motorized adjust-ment of roller arrangements that effectively increase or decrease the length of printed web between the impression point and the folder. This allows the operator to properly align each page on top of the companion newspaper pages.

Years ago, larger production sites ran one, two, maybe three jobs in a given shift. Today, it is not uncom-mon to see up to eight jobs being run in a given shift.

The fact is, in certain shops across the U.S. that specialize in short runs, eight runs a day are common. And the number of these “short-run” shops is growing every year.

Automated presetting of compen-sators eliminates the need to use your operator’s experience to “guess” where the pages will line up before the press run—and then, once the press has started up, work hard to finalize those settings while the press is running startup waste.

Instead, repeat job settings are stored within the press’s computer.

Each time the job is run after that, the job is “called up” on a system computer. Using software and con-trols, the compensator motors are energized and moved to the position that will produce properly compen-sated pages from the beginning of the run.

This is very similar to the manner

in which ink key presetting is ac-complished. The result is decreased startup time, reduced startup waste, lower startup costs, and, most im-portantly, more time spent printing good copy.

Providers of closed loop register systems sometimes provide auto-mated compensator presetting kits. CC1 in Portsmouth, N.H., for ex-ample, is one such company. When you work with a company that pro-vides “auto registration,” you will find that one system can also support the other. In other words, if you al-ready have one system or the other, it is not much more of any invest-ment to add to the existing system and end up with both compensator presetting and color registration.

By intelligently examining the printing production process and add-ing automation that makes both prac-tical and “ROI” sense, newspapers and commercial printers can enjoy the benefits of modern technology.

The technology that drives auto-mated compensator presetting is not necessarily “rocket science,” but it certainly seems to be a cost-effective way to spend more time printing good copies—rather than printed waste.

John Nicoli is vice president of Britton Services, Inc., a supplier of Web reduction services, press

equipment and machinery installation and other services. He can be reached at (630) 833-7366.

Here’s a way to increase printing productivityWeb Press

Update

John F. NicoliElmhurst, Ill.

Newcomer’s Guide with 80 pages of content, though the phone book is a perfectly bound product. There is a white pages section for AFB office listings and a yellow pages section for area businesses, which is where Suburban Newspapers sells ads.

Miller said advertiser recruit-ment efforts begin about three months before publication. Both of the AFB publications are great opportunities for local businesses to get their products and services in front of incoming base personnel, Miller said. To help entice advertisers, Subur-ban Newspapers offers a dis-count for businesses that choose to run ads in the Newcomer’s Guide and Telephone Directo-ry.

“Advertisers get a discount on the lower-priced ad if they run in both the guide and phone book,” Miller said. “Every busi-ness that runs an ad in the guide or phone book gets a free direc-tory listing in the phone book. Businesses either had to run an ad in either the directory or phone book or purchase a listing

in order to be listed in the yellow pages.”

Beyond the newspaper

The Newcomer’s Guide and Telephone Directory are proj-ects that go beyond traditional newspapering. It’s a way for the newspaper company to offer its publishing expertise to the com-munity and generate revenue.

“We produce six area cham-ber of commerce and business association directories each year,” Miller said. “We also pro-duce fall/spring sports programs and posters, graduation pro-grams and play programs for area high schools.”

With the Newcomer’s Guide and Telephone Directory, Mill-er said, “we were able to take what they were doing—their recourses were somewhat limit-ed—and dress it up and make it better for them. They’re not a publisher, so their resources were lacking somewhat. We were able to help them.”

Contact: Lowell Miller, lowell.miller@papilliontimes.com

Offutt: Guide, phone book appealing to advertisersCoNTINUed FroM PAGe 12

On Feb. 8, 1996, I wrote a col-umn introducing myself to the com-munity of Kenosha, Wis. It was typical new-guy-in-charge fare, pulsing with a sense of mission and determination.

As the new editor on the block, I was eager to establish my creden-tials and develop a rapport with Kenosha News readers.

Reviewing that column now, at a remove of more than 13 years, I find myself thinking of the many re-sponses it generated. I recall being surprised by the sincere interest so many readers had in the future of their daily newspaper and their will-ingness to help shape that future.

Times change, and the newspaper industry itself—long an economic stronghold—has seen its fortunes fade, but reader interest in the News

(and now its Web site) remains as intense as ever. Residents respond-ed 13 years ago when I invited them to “drop me a line or give me a call,” and they never stopped responding. We’ve enjoyed and benefited from a remarkable dialogue with readers young and old, liberal and conserva-tive, friend and foe.

I will miss those conversations.

Friday, June 26, will be my last day at the Kenosha News. That date falls two days short of my 56th birthday, an age I once considered far too young for retirement, but changing circumstances have a way of disrupting long-range plans.

More than seven years ago — April 8, 2002, to be precise — I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Dis-ease. For awhile, not much changed. Medication kept the illness in check, and for the most part I was able to function normally.

Over the years, however, I have had to devote a steadily increasing amount of time and energy to manag-ing my symptoms as many once-simple tasks became challenging adventures. (Tying a tie ... digging for change ... typing this column ...)

At some point along the way, I

concluded that I no longer was physically up to the stressful de-mands of newsroom management.

It’s hard for me to let go, but it’s also necessary. I need more time to focus on my health and my family, and the newsroom needs re-ener-gized leadership capable of un-swerving attention to our role in a rapidly changing media landscape.

My anxiety about leaving is tem-pered by my faith in those who will carry on.

The newsroom is in good hands. Managing Editor Karl Frederick, a professional’s professional, will be in charge, at least in the near term. He will direct a dedicated staff of outstanding journalists, a staff that is the best I have ever worked with, person for person, top to bottom.

Despite recent newspaper indus-

try turmoil, this staff—indeed, the entire Kenosha News family—re-mains as committed to reader ser-vice and customer care as the day I arrived 13 years ago. But now as then, they need your guidance.

Stay in touch. Share your opin-ions. From Publisher Ken Dowdell’s office on down, you will get a will-ing ear and an appropriate re-sponse.

As for me, I would simply like to say thank you. Thank you to a wonderful employer, a dedicated staff and a great community for making Kenosha the highlight of my career.

Best wishes. It’s been fun.This article was reprinted with per-

mission from the June 21 edition of the Kenosha News. Please send your com-ments to inland@inlandpress.org.

13 years later, Kenosha News editor says goodbye to newspaperCommentary

Craig SwansonKenosha, Wis.

PAGE 8 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | SEPTEMBER 2009

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerASSocIATE EdIToR

Over time, a newspaper’s “tried and true” special section—like a holiday gift guide—can lose its flair with readers and advertisers. But instead of scrapping the gift guide

concept all to-gether, give the old, underper-forming special

section a makeover that will get readers, advertisers and sales reps excited.

“You have to get the reps behind it,” said Cindi Gyger, display ad-

vertising manager for the Telegraph Herald, a 28,000-ciculation news-paper in Dubuque, Iowa. “When they get excited, it sells better. It was new and different; we put more fun into it.”

Previously, the Telegraph Her-ald had been putting together a basic holiday gift guide every year

that was distributed with the Thanksgiving Day newspaper. But the gift guide had lost its appeal and was in need of a jumpstart.

“The previous publication had been spiraling down every year,” Gyger said.

So in 2008, the Telegraph Herald released the Black Friday Survival Guide, a “must-read publication” for Dubuque residents venturing into stores on the day after Thanks-giving.

“The Black Friday Survival Guide talks about what happens on Black Friday—all the crazy things that go on, what’s happening in the

area as far as events,” Gyger said. “We also have content on preparing for Black Friday.

“It’s a little bit edgier than what we were doing before.”

Gyger said the Black Friday Sur-vival Guide is meant to be a light-hearted publication that encourages shoppers to embrace Black Friday for what it is.

“It was more to have fun with it,” she said. “You already know you’re going to get pushed and shoved, but it’s about making the most of it and having fun.”

Content

The 16-page Black Friday Sur-vival Guide is printed in-house on a premium newsprint stock. All content is local content, Gyger said. The Telegraph Herald’s Editorial Department took the initiative in planning the new publication, she said.

“We wanted to mix it up,” she said. “Editorial really wanted to do it. They said, ‘Let’s do stories on events and go out and talk about what’s going on in our community.’”

Gyger said the Editorial and Ad-vertising departments worked closely in putting the publication together. Four employees from the newsroom worked on the guide, and three newsroom staffers actu-ally posed for its cover, which por-trays shoppers in a theatrical brawl. Most of the art included in the guide is file art shot by Telegraph Herald photographers during the previous holiday season.

“They’re a really good set of edi-torial folks,” she said. “They under-stand that a lot of what they do drives the advertising content, and they’re willing to work with us.”

Inside the Survival Guide were tips on how to prepare for Black Friday, where to stop to eat break-fast or grab coffee and what cloth-ing to wear. There was also content from store managers who offered advice to shoppers, such as to use credit and debit cards instead of checks and to buy the more expen-sive items early in the day when there is more opportunity for sav-ings. There was a feature story about giving back and donating to the Salvation Army. There was also a holiday event listing that included happenings in Iowa, as well as Il-linois and Wisconsin.

“There’s also a timeline of what places to go to for early-bird spe-cials and when stores open,” she said. “The timeline almost made it more fun than serious. It was really more like, ‘Here are the things you need to do to get through it.’”

The timeline begins at 2:30 a.m. and includes items like, “Stop No. 1—Kennedy Mall. Key places to stop and shop: Borders, Younkers, Hallmark, Sears, JC Penny.” The timeline also offers tips, such as reminding shoppers to take breaks to recharge and alleviate stress. Gy-ger said the Telegraph Herald tried to feature as many local businesses as possible in the timeline, which stores didn’t have to pay for.

“We made our money off of ad-vertising,” Gyger said.

Advertising

Gyger said a staff of six outside sales reps started selling for the Sur-vival Guide in the beginning of Oc-tober. Advertisers were offered modular sizes, from 1/8 of a page to full-page ad positions. Some adver-tisers opted to feature coupons, such as buy one breakfast sandwich get one free or coffee specials. Gyger said the Black Friday Survival Guide was targeted toward women in the 30- to 50-year-old age group, which was appealing to businesses.

“Our advertisers enjoyed their ads,” she said. “They felt their section got read by a lot of people. We’re looking to grow it this year. We’re hoping to add another four pages.”

The 2008 Black Friday Survival Guide brought in about $7,000, which, Gyger said, was much better than what the previous gift guide had been producing. She attributes the new special section’s success to the sales reps and their excite-ment in selling it.

“Reps got behind it because it was local, local, local,” she said. “It had no canned copy. Some of our other sections will have canned copy every once in a while. This only had things that were pertinent to Dubuque and the surrounding area.”

Gyger said she expects the new Survival Guide to address the slug-gish economy and how to stretch holiday dollars in the local market.

Contact: cindi Gyger, cgyger@wcinet.com

What’s needed for the holiday gift guide: a complete makeoverMore onlineTo view the Black Friday Survival Guide in its entirety as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

Special Section Success Story

PAGE 6 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | OCTOBER 2009

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssOCIATE EdITOR

The Tulsa (Okla.) World makes it easy for investors to find compre-hensive financial information about publicly traded companies in the Tusla area.

Each year, the 110,500-circula-tion daily publishes its Investment Guide, a 24-page, full-color tabloid listing the top 20 publicly traded companies. But unlike other listings of publicly traded companies, the Tulsa World doesn’t base its rank-ings on revenues. Instead, it’s based on the future outlook for the com-pany, according to Amanda Boya-ci, special sales manager for the Tulsa World.

“We go to our financial leaders in our area—the local money ex-perts—and they vote,” Boyaci said. “The top 20 publicly traded com-panies have local ties to the Tulsa area in some way, whether they’re headquartered here or not.”

Last year, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was ranked No. 1 in the Investment Guide. Energy giant ConocoPhil-lips, Dillard’s Inc., the upscale de-partment store chain, and meat maker Tyson Foods Inc. also made the list, among others.

Once the outside financial ex-perts select the top companies, each company is profiled by the paper’s business reporters. Each profile includes basic contact information, the name of the person who heads the company and financial data.

Advertising

The Tulsa World has published an investment guide for about 15 years.

“It’s been a real success every year,” Boyaci said. Investors “save it for future years. It’s been very successful. Special sections usu-ally have a [limited] life span, but this one is long.”

A key element in making the In-vestment Guide so successful is the experts, Boyaci said, though they are not tied to advertising in any way.

“The newsroom prepares a list of companies that will be considered,” she said. “The list is shared with the Advertising Department. We ap-proach them with advertising op-tions.”

When the companies are recruit-

ed to advertise in the Investment Guide, the companies’ rankings and whether or not they are profiled in the guide are not disclosed for ethical reasons, Boyaci said. Re-gardless, companies want to run ads in the guide because of its long shelf life and the audience of busi-ness investors that it reaches, she said.

“Since this is produced by the newsroom—we do this in conjunc-tion with advertising—as far as the editorial content is concerned, we don’t disclose who made the top 20,” said John Stancavage, business editor for the Tulsa World. “I think what the ad staff tells them is, ‘If you’re picked, you should have an ad in the guide. If you’re not picked, there’s even more of a reason to have an ad in it.’”

Boyaci said the Advertising De-partment also recruits for advertis-ers that go beyond the area’s pub-licly traded companies.

“Really, anybody who’s trying to reach a business audience or any-one who is concerned about their investments will want to advertise,” she said. “They could pursue those in luxury goods, like cars or jew-elry. They’re trying to target people who are interested in investing. The guide doesn’t give them advice, it gives them information.”

Planning

Laurie Winslow, a financial re-porter for the World, said the Busi-ness Department starts preparing for the publication in July by con-tacting financial experts in the area and getting their investment picks.

“You give them two or three weeks to fill out their picks,” she said. “I have to follow up with calls. Compiling it, distributing it, writing it—there’s quite a period of time for it.”

Winslow said the newspaper typically sends out more than 30 letters to area professionals solicit-ing their participation in the guide, with about half following through with picks. The experts then vote

for their top picks from a list of more than 60 companies. The ex-perts are listed along with their fi-nancial institution in the front of the guide. Experts also serve as sourc-es for the reporters who write the company profiles.

“All [of the experts] are identi-fied as far as we have this big list; we don’t disclose who they voted for,” Stancavage said. “For the story, we’ll give reporters a list of who picked certain stocks. We’ll give them their names, and the re-porters will call them for com-ments; from that, you can sort of tell who ranked each company high.”

The profiles are distributed among the paper’s six business re-porters, which Winslow said helps give each story a fresh angle.

“Similar companies pop up every year,” Winslow said. “Last year, there were six companies that ranked in 2008 but weren’t in 2007. You have a lot of the same heavy-weights.”

AdditionsThe Investment Guide has

evolved over the years. Stancavage said the idea for the Investment Guide came from looking at what business departments at other news-papers in the area were doing.

“At the time, we were looking at other newspapers’ business sec-tions, and a lot of them were doing economic sections and tax-planning sections,” he said. “We noticed there were other papers doing sec-tions built around local stocks. We wanted to do one.

“The first year, we took the local stocks and looked at the best per-formers over the past 12 months. The second year, we didn’t feel that told people enough about it. I had this idea to turn it into a more for-ward-looking publication, instead of past performance. We changed it to that the second year.”

Which was a good move, accord-ing to Stancavage, because the forward-looking approach is more helpful to investors.

“There’s another paper in our state that does a section like this where the ranking is based on last

year’s stock year,” he said. “That’s great that it just went up 375 points last year, but who really wants to buy a company’s stock that just went up 375 points?”

A newer addition to the Invest-ment Guide is its online component, which is accessible on the Tulsa World’s Web site, TulsaWorld.com, under a “Special Projects” tab. The guide has its own page that features each company profile with photos and charts. The page also has an introduction, outlook and list of pickers.

“Each year we’re trying to add a certain component,” Winslow said. “In addition to having the print product, [for the Web site] we’ve invited our pickers to include gen-eral investment tips and an outlook for stocks in general. It will be in addition to the print product. We invited the investment profession-als to submit photos. Now people can go online and see general tips, too.”

Also new: The 2009 Investment Guide came out Sunday, Sept. 20. In prior years, it was published on Monday.

“This typically has been a Mon-day insert in the paper,” Stancavage said. “When we started this, we wanted to strengthen the appeal of Mondays. With Sunday, the reader-ship will jump with it being on the biggest circulation day.”

The move to Sunday not only means more readers for the Invest-ment Guide, it also enables the pa-per to charge a higher rate for ads in the guide.

“We were able to sell ads for more, and advertisers understand that they’re getting more with Sun-day,” Boyaci said. “We made the decision when we were making our calendar last year and were able to pitch it to advertisers that way.

“Moving it to Sunday is better for the reader and the advertiser,” Boyaci said.

Contacts: Amanda Boyaci, amanda.boyaci@tulsaworld.com;

John stancavage, john.stancavage@tulsaworld.com;

Laurie Winslow, laurie.winslow@tulsaworld.com

Investment Guide helps readers keep tab on local companies

The Tulsa World’s annual Investment Guide ranks the top 20 local publicly traded companies based on investment picks submitted by the area’s financial professionals. Each of the top companies is profiled in the guide. image supplied

More onlineTo view the Investment Guide in its entirety as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

PAGE 8 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | NOVEMBER 2009

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssOcIATE EdITOR

Finding a successful way to dis-tribute a niche product to a target audience can be a big draw for ad-vertisers, but a challenge for news-papers. Growing Up, a publication

that was pur-chased by The Huntsville (Ala.) Times in Janu-

ary 2008, proves it can be done. Ray Johnson, advertising man-

ager for The Huntsville Times, a 55,000-daily circulation newspa-per, said the publication was an attractive buy. “The distribution is

what was so unique and got us to purchase it,” he said. “It’s delivered to elementary schools and is put in teachers’ mailboxes to go in student packets. It’s also available in retail and professional offices.”

He said school teachers often include the publication, along with school-related announcements like a dinner or PTA meeting, in a fold-er students give to parents.

“Advertisers like the unique dis-

tribution,” Johnson said. “They know that the magazine is going to get in the hands of the people they’re trying to reach.”

Growing Up is a full-color, glossy magazine that The Times purchased after its previous owner asked the paper if they wanted to buy it, Johnson said. The previous owner “had aging parents, and she really wanted to focus on other things,” said Sheila Runnels, adver-tising director for The Times. “She built the business herself. She had some folks on the production side.”

Johnson said that Growing Up had been published for about 14

years before it was sold to The Huntsville Times, giving it a “prov-en track record.” He said the mag-azine was purchased to offset the decline in ad revenue in the daily print product. The purchase was part of a strategy to expand into niche publications to bring in more advertising dollars, he said.

“We also publish some things for our local chamber of commerce, Realtors association, homebuilders association, several magazines,” Johnson said. Growing Up “has opened up the door for other adver-tising products.”

Editorial

Growing Up is published six times per school year—August, September, November, January, March and May. It ranges in size from 20 to 32 pages, and the paper turns to an outside vendor for print-ing, Johnson said.

Inside each issue are stories writ-ten by nationally prominent parent-ing experts and local parenthood columnists, Johnson said. None of the stories in Growing Up are writ-ten in-house. Everything is out-sourced to local writers, he said. The most recent September issue included stories about stress-free scheduling, childhood injuries, fes-tive pumpkin snacks and ways kids can volunteer.

“Each issue has a theme,” Johnson said. “For instance this year, we had a camps and tutoring issue, a health focus issue, financial planning was our next issue, then back to school, memories and a holiday issue.”

Advertising

Johnson said businesses that run ads in Growing Up are looking to reach parents of elementary school children. This can include pediatri-cian and dentist offices, day care facilities and camps, he said.

“We actually do a birthday theme page [with ads] of places where kids can host birthday parties,” Johnson said. “There’s a family-friendly din-ing page with discounts and deals.”

Full- to 1/16th-of-a-page ads are available. The majority of Growing Up’s advertisers have one- or two-year contracts, Johnson said, though the newspaper accommodates for businesses that want to place ads on a one-time basis.

“We actually do some one-time

stuff,” he said. “We’re introducing an actual advertorial where you pay to have someone write the story and you get a photo with it. It’s new with the upcoming issue in November. I haven’t got any feedback yet, but it’s just a new idea we’re trying.”

Changes

Besides the regular issues of Growing Up, there’s also a Mater-nity issue and the Family Fingertip Directory, which Runnels said will be discontinued. The Maternity is-sue had come out in June and was geared toward expectant mothers. The Family Fingertip Directory came out in April and was a Read-er’s Digest-sized resource that par-ents keep handy throughout the year to look up contact information.

“I did not put them in the bud-get,” Runnels said. “The more popular thing with Growing Up is the information it provides for the parents. With the Family Fingertip Directory and the Maternity issue, the content is a little more special-ized. Those were tougher sales. The distribution is different. We’d rath-er focus on things that will be more fruitful for us.”

About 10,000 copies of the Mater-nity issue and 20,000 copies of the directory had been printed in the past, while 25,000 copies of Growing Up are printed for each of the six edi-tions, Johnson said. The Family Fin-gertip Directory is distributed simi-larly to the regular issues of Growing Up but with a few more being dis-tributed at drop points throughout the year, Runnels said. The Maternity issue wasn’t distributed through the schools and instead was available at hospital maternity wards and other drop points, she said.

“We were looking to expand our horizons into niche products with the downturn of our print newspa-per,” Johnson said. “It was probably no less profitable than what the prior person had done, and we’ve got far more people on the streets selling ads. It gets our foot in the door of other publications.

“It’s still profitable, though,” Johnson said. “In the past 12 months, it’s generated $125,000 to $130,000 of ad revenue.”

Contact: Ray Johnson, ray.johnson@htimes.com;

sheila Runnels, sheila.runnels@htimes.com

‘Growing up’ is hard to do, so Alabama paper finds a way to helpMore onlineTo view an issue of Growing Up in PDF form, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

Special Section Success Story

DECEMBER 2009 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 7

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssoCIATE EDIToR

The market for bridal publica-tions is competitive in Buffalo, N.Y., home to The Buffalo News, a 179,193-circulation daily newspa-per. In order to help the newspa-

per’s core brid-al product stand out from its five compet i tors ,

The Buffalo News decided to ex-pand its existing product offer-ings.

“With the expansion of our brid-al products, within one year, we grew from $313,000 to close to a half of a million dollars,” said Erica Geraci, The Buffalo News’ special-ty products brand manager.

The revenue increased in 2009 from the year prior, she said. “A good portion of that growth is due to new business and due to the new products that we included for our advertisers.”

Product development included BuffaloBrides.com, a bridal Web site; the Bridal Services Directory, an online directory powered by Buf-falo.com’s marketplace directory called the Ultimate Guide; a Bridal Planner Direct Mail Program; and Buffalo Brides Magazine. These products are in addition to the core product, the Bridal Planner, which the paper’s advertising department has been putting together for 14 years. The yearly planner’s most recent 2009-2010 edition was pub-lished Oct. 26.

The Bridal Planner is a high-quality, glossy, spiral-bound publi-cation with tabs and pockets to help brides and grooms stay organized during the planning process. The Bridal Planner is free but only avail-able by request or by attending one of the two major bridal shows that the paper partners with every year, Geraci said.

The paper had previously featured a product called “Weddings” that was put together by editorial staff. Weddings was a once-a-year news-print tabloid that came with the Sun-day paper and was distributed to The Buffalo News’ general audience, not a targeted audience of brides and grooms that advertisers sought.

The Buffalo News answered ad-vertisers’ requests with Buffalo Brides Magazine, which is directly

mailed to brides and grooms and is also available in free pub boxes and at bridal events. Geraci added that the magazine’s content is more lo-calized, while the planner’s content is more about general wedding planning.

“The magazine actually evolved in December 2008,” Geraci said. “It wasn’t just The Buffalo News in this market; there were five other com-panies in our market and that’s all they do—they weren’t newspapers also. Our advertisers said, ‘You guys give us the best results. We want something that’s new.’

“Our advertisers were looking for something affordable, glossy, something that got in front of new brides and the same brides fre-quently, and that is how Buffalo

Brides Magazine came about. It is a glossy magazine that is managed by our advertising department. It is very affordable with a targeted dis-tribution that publishes four times per year and offers our advertisers frequency contract rates.”

Geraci said the magazine is also meant to capture advertisers from smaller businesses who cannot af-ford to be in the planner, which is larger at 166 pages and more expen-sive to print than the magazine, which is usually about 40 pages. Geraci would not disclose the cost of producing the planner.

But for businesses that can afford to be in the planner, they find it well worth the extra cost, Geraci said. What advertisers find unique about the Bridal Planner are the leads gen-erated from the form brides and grooms fill out when requesting the guide, she said.

Requests can be filled out on Buf-faloBrides.com, by sending in a form that’s on an ad placed in the Sunday edition of The Buffalo News, or by filling out a form on brochures that are produced by the newspaper and given to advertisers to distribute to clients.

“The planner is the core product; that’s where the advertisers get the leads,” Geraci said. “When brides and grooms request the planner, they are asked to check boxes where they need more information, like on DJs or event sites. We also ask for the bride’s and groom’s names, their engagement date, their wed-ding date—things like that.

“Any advertisers who put an ad in the planner can log on to a data-base where this information is stored. They can sort through the leads by signup date, engagement date, only ones who want to book a reception—all kinds of different ways. Then the advertisers have a chance to e-mail them; they can print postcards for them—there are so many components to that. The database is very user-friendly.”

Geraci added that the average engagement in The Buffalo News’ market lasts 14 to 16 months, and after a wedding date passes, the bride and groom are removed from the mailing list.

Geraci said requests to be put on the mailing list for the planner and magazine fluctuate. Last year, the paper received about 5,800 requests.

Through a vendor, the newspaper prints 6,000 Bridal Planners every year and 20,000 copies of each issue of the magazine, Geraci said.

Thanksgiving through the end of February is peak engagement season and is when the newspaper receives 50 percent of its request list, which is why the Bridal Planner comes out in late October, she said. This sched-ule also works well for advertisers.

“The deadline for sales is the sec-ond or third week of August,” Ger-aci said. “It’s because no one wants to get married when it’s snowing. April through August—that’s when our advertisers are collecting their money, that’s when they’re buying their advertising.”

When the newspaper rolls out plans for the next Bridal Planner every April, The Buffalo News puts together a special event for advertis-ing staff.

“We go out of the building, have it catered with cocktails, do a Pow-erPoint about its history, new things for that year and sales incentives, which are tiered depending on how much you sell,” she said. When the Bridal Planner finally comes out, the paper has a special weekend spouse trip, where reps qualify for dinners and activities based on how much they sell.

“It’s open to our retail floor, our non-local sales team, national, real estate and automotive teams,” she said. “Employment is left out, just because that wouldn’t really work for them. We have about 40 sales reps who sell into the product. They’re multimedia sales reps who sell everything we do here—the newspaper, direct mail, commercial printing.”

Geraci said it’s up to the sales reps to get the advertisers excited about the bridal offerings program, which shouldn’t be too hard consid-ering how much the program has expanded to help advertisers con-nect with brides and grooms.

“There are so many competitors in our market that want to do what we do, but they can’t duplicate it,” Geraci said. “We’ve always been very innovative. We’re actually looking to franchise the brand to other newspapers who want to use this sales model.”

Contact: Erica Geraci, egeraci@buffnews.com

Despite recession, advertisers still reaching out to those tying the knot

Special Section Success Story

Buffalo Brides Magazine, left, was created as part of The Buffalo (N.Y.) News’ efforts to expand its bridal product offerings to support its core bridal product, the annual Bridal Planner. Images supplIed

More onlineTo view excerpts of the Bridal Planner and Buffalo Brides Magazine as well as promotional materials and sales booklet for The Buffalo News’ bridal product offerings, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

PAGE 6 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | JANUARY 2010

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssocIATe edIToR

When the owner of a luxury RV resort in Petoskey, Mich., was looking to promote his business, he turned to the local paper for help.

The Petoskey News-Review publishes HomeLife, a direct mail magazine for upper-in-come households, ac-cording to Christy Lyons,

advertising director for the 10,000-circula-tion News-Review. The owner of Hearthside Grove luxury motorcoach resort “came to us and said, ‘We love this magazine. Can you do something similar for us?’” Lyons said.

The News-Review said, “Yes, we can.”They produced Motorcoach Living, a full-

color, glossy, staple-bound magazine in De-cember 2008. The 2010 issue will be distrib-uted the first week of January, Lyons said.

Through the publication, the resort owner “wanted to raise awareness and promote his resort,” Lyons said. “It’s a very targeted group of people who use these resorts. It was mailed nationwide to people who have these types of motor-homes who stay for long pe-riods of time.”

Hearthside Grove isn’t your typical camp-ground. The motor-homes used by people who stay there can cost well over a million dollars, Lyons said. The resort has a lot of perks, too, like a fitness center, free wireless Internet, swimming pools and concierge ser-vice. Motorcoach owners can stay at the re-sort for a short visit or purchase a lot in the resort that can be tailored to fit each owner’s needs, including their own bungalow, patio with landscaping, fire pit, outdoor kitchen and private swimming pool.

“You have to be pretty wealthy,” she said. “I think it’s a little bit older group in that they’re retired and they can travel away from home for long periods of time.”

Lyons said 20,000 copies of Motorcoach Living are printed through a local printer the newspaper uses for its magazines. Of the 20,000 copies, Lyons said about a quarter of them are mailed. Hearthside Grove takes the remaining copies to trade shows to pass out to potential guests and lot owners.

“They used the majority of [the copies] for traveling around from trade show to trade show,” she said. “At a lot of these shows, resorts will have a brochure or a single sheet of information, but people were really im-pressed that they were able to bring a maga-zine that looked like this.”

The News-Review and the owner of Hearth-side Grove worked closely with each other in putting the magazine’s editorial content together, Lyons said.

“He had very specific content ideas,” she

said. “He wanted general information about the area—things to do.”

The 2009 edition included a story about the family that owns the resort, profiles of some of the couples who stay at the resort, an outdoor gourmet grilling feature, a round-up of activities to do in the area and tips for keeping critters out of motor-homes. Lyons added that the stories, photos and layout were done in-house.

Lyons said the News-Review produced the magazine at no cost to Hearthside Grove and did not share ad revenue with the business owner, who was simply interested in gener-ating greater publicity for his park.

The cost to print Motorcoach Living in 2009 totaled about $10,000, but the publica-tion brought in $28,000 in new ad revenue, Lyons said. For the most current new issue, ad revenue declined about 20 percent, which Lyons attributed to the economy and budget cutbacks. With fewer ads, the newspaper trimmed the 2010 edition of Motorcoach Liv-ing to 40 pages, from 44 a year ago.

Despite the revenue drop from 2009, put-ting together promotional publications for local companies such as Hearthside Grove is an area that the News-Review is actually look-ing to expand. The newspaper has showed Motorcoach Living magazine to other local businesses as an example of what the news-paper can do for them. In turn, the News-Review has been able to snag production of additional publications.

“We recently did one for a local log-home company and one for our county that pro-

motes the area,” she said. “We’re looking to expand in this area. Right now we’re working on an entire media kit to show that we can do this product at little to no cost to the busi-ness. I think it’s a great area to get into.”

When venturing into the production of these types of promotional publications for outside companies, Lyons said there are cer-tain things newspapers can do to protect themselves from potential revenue losses.

“You have to feel confident you’d be able to get the production costs back,” she said. “Make sure the company has an established list of advertisers. Have a contract. Make sure it says if we don’t reach this revenue amount, the business would have to cover the extra costs. You can get really caught up in the expenses when producing something that’s at no cost to the outside company.”

For Motorcoach Living magazine, the Hearthside Grove owner gave the newspaper a list of potential advertisers whom he en-couraged to participate in the publication by placing an ad.

“We were able to get a couple of the big motor-home companies that sell these luxu-ry homes to advertise,” Lyons said. “We also got the landscapers and builders who would be hired to work on the bungalows. We got a couple of restaurants in the area, a grocery store that’s close to Hearthside Grove, a fur-niture store. Just knowing it’s going to a se-lect group of people is a big draw.”

The News-Review also hosts a Web site for Motorcoach Living at MISeasons.com/mo-torcoach, which Lyons said is a useful re-source for the resort owner when he wants to direct customers to an online component. The Web site basically mimics the print prod-uct by presenting the same stories and photos in an interactive setting online. Lyons said the site “pretty much stays the same” through-out the year, though it will be updated with the 2010 content.

“We up-sold all of the ads that were in print and reformatted them in to leaderboards or skyscrapers to go online,” she said.

For newspapers that want to expand into creating promotional and marketing publica-tions for local businesses, Lyons suggests seeing what kinds of similar products are already being produced in your area.

“To start, just look around your market to see who is doing publications like this,” she said. “In our market, there was a local real estate company that was putting a publication together at their expense. Now we’re doing it for them. Look at what’s out there and show them what you can do for them.”

Contact: christy Lyons, clyons@petoskeynews.com

Michigan paper helps luxury resort reaching wealthy clientele

Special Section Success Story

The 2009 edition of Motorcoach Living magazine brought in about $28,000 of ad revenue for The Petoskey (Mich.) News-Review, which produced the publication at no cost to the Hearthside Grove resort. Because of the success of the magazine, the News-Review has since expanded its promotional publication production offerings to other local companies. Image supplIed

More onlineTo view the 2009 edition of Motor-coach Living as a PDF, visit NBDN-In-land.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

PAGE 6 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | FEBRUARY 2010

Ideas

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By Michelle FinklerAssocIATE EdIToR

When it comes to hyper-local content, it doesn’t get much more local than news that’s literally about your own backyard.

That’s the idea behind the Florida Times-Union’s Living Newslet-ters, publica-tions created at

no cost to specific housing commu-nities in the Jacksonville area.

“There was a good buzz about them because of the hyper-local content,” said Kevin Clark, spe-cialty publications sales manager for the 109,475-circulation daily. “We knew that if we devoted the resources, it could grow.”

Clark said the idea for the news-letters actually came from another Morris Communications newspa-per, the St. Augustine Record.

“A decade ago or so, the Record was approached by a community in St. Augustine that wanted the news-paper to print their newsletter,” Clark said. “The publisher at the

time said, ‘We could do it at no charge to you if we’re able to sell the advertising.’”

The Times-Union applied the concept to the Jacksonville area with newsletters that came out in October 2007. Since then, the num-ber of newsletters has been on the rise as more communities jump on board. The 10th community to join will have its first newsletter come out in February, and Clark antici-pates an 11th community will come on board in March.

Each newsletter includes the “Living” name with the tagline “Your guide to the good life.” For example, there’s Eagle Harbor Liv-ing; Your guide to the good life.

Clark said communities that are part of the Living Newsletters are chosen because they are well-known or well-supported by local retailers.

“In this market, there are a lot of communities that are gated com-munities, a one-stop shop for living in the suburbs,” Clark said. “They have their own retail, schools, pool complexes, golf courses. They’re

not necessarily gated, but there’s a lot of interest in them. These are communities that are well-known or well-supported by local retailers. They have sort of a brand name to them.”

A community that decides to join the Living Newsletters can some-times save around $35,000 annually

in printing costs, Clark said. Al-though this cost savings is substan-tial, at one point it wasn’t enough to attract some communities.

“My challenge was that a couple of communities had nicer-looking products than the newsprint tab-loids that we were able to produce,” Clark said. “They said, ‘It’s great

that you’re free, but if you get any-thing nicer, give us a call.’

“And that’s when the iGen print-er came in. We got the machine in December 2008. We printed our new Living products for February 2009. Then we had the communities that said ‘no’ in the past come back, and now they wanted to do it.”

The Xerox iGen4 printer is able to print the newsletters on maga-zine-like paper. The newsletters are folded and stapled so that each page is 9 by 12 inches. Color is also available for an additional cost to advertisers.

The amount of pages in each newsletter depends on advertising, but in general, the size of the publi-cations range from 40 pages for larger communities to 12 pages for smaller communities. The two larg-est communities, which have 2,800 and 2,300 homes, are printed through an outside vendor to save time.

“It’s probably not saving us much money in dollars, but the length of time it takes isn’t worth it to print

In Florida, newsletters with hyper-local content take off

LIvIng: conTInUEd on PAgE 7

Special Section Success Story

From left are Magnolia Point Living, cimarrone Living and stonehurst Plantation Living, which are all part of the (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union’s Living newsletters. Images supplIed

FEBRUARY 2010 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 7

Ideas

it here,” said Mike Horne, prepress manager at the Times-Union. “On a big book—30 or 40 pages—it can take five or six hours to run all of them.”

Horne said the printer cost about $640,000. The printer is used for other Times-Union products besides the Living Newsletters, as well as projects for outside businesses, Horne said. The newspaper has also used the printer for posters, mag-nets and business cards, he said. Horne said the iGen’s print quality is “fantastic” and that it’s been a good investment for the paper.

Content

Clark said the Times-Union works closely with a liaison at each housing development in putting together the different newsletters. The liaison is usually someone who lives in the housing community and is a volunteer or has been appoint-ed to a leadership position in the community, he said. The liaison gathers the information that is to be included in the newsletter, such as events, hours for the pool and golf course, photos from residents, a let-ter from the association, etc.

“The newsletters sort of take on their own feel,” Clark said. “Their news judgment is their own; we can give suggestions, but they clearly control content. We read over all the material. We would bring for-ward any ethical issues we saw like plagiarism. We have a responsibil-ity as the Times-Union, and we would notify the liaison. We don’t just arbitrarily change or leave things out.

“In most cases, the liaisons re-ceive electronic proofs of the pages before it prints so they can look over everything and raise any is-sues.”

In the agreement between the Times-Union and the housing de-velopments, Clark said each com-munity can ask for certain specifica-tions such as there can be no ads before a certain page number, limit the number of inserts or prohibit types of businesses from advertising in the newsletter. For example, if a community has its own golf course, it may specify in the agreement that no other golf courses can place ads in the newsletter, he said.

Clark said layout and design for the newsletters is primarily done by one designer, though there are three other designers within the depart-ment who can help with design if needed. While the content of each newsletter obviously varies from community to community, Clark said the design of each newsletter is similar in the use of fonts and standing elements. Each commu-nity also has its own logo for the cover.

Advertising

The Living Newsletters attract a wide range of advertisers, Clark said. Advertising in the newsletters is cheaper than advertising in the core product because the distribu-tion is smaller.

“Smaller advertisers are the ones who find these very appealing, like landscaping, garage door repair, kitchen redecorating, real estate—really anyone who’s outside your front door,” he said. “We get some community groups, like the local youth soccer league might want to run an ad telling people that tryouts are coming up.”

Clark said there are two different rates available, an open rate and a 12-month rate. Businesses that want to run ads in multiple newslet-ters in the same month get a 10 percent discount for every addi-tional ad, he said.

“This is one of the reasons we’ve wanted to grow in specific areas with suburban growth,” he said. “If a business wants to hit every single one of the communities, this is a great way to do it. Advertisers knowing you’re reaching the cream of the crop is another sort of mar-keting strategy we use.”

Clark said the newsletters have more than paid for themselves and that the popularity of the product is still strong.

“We’re getting advertisers who wouldn’t have considered the newspaper,” he said. “We’re get-ting people in the door to try our other products.

“In today’s day and time, if

you’re spending money on some-thing that you don’t think is work-ing, you’ll stop spending money. If these newsletters weren’t working, they wouldn’t be growing.”

Distribution

The Living Newsletters are dis-tributed to residents within the dif-ferent communities using the Times-Union’s existing carriers, Clark said. The publications are placed on resi-dents’ driveways, except in Eagle Harbor, which has a newsletter slot under the mailboxes.

“We had some challenges in the beginning with the smaller newslet-

ters blowing away when they were put on the driveway,” Clark said. “The way we solved that is we have H magazine, which is a monthly health magazine, and we put it in with the Living Newsletter. We got more distribution, and it weighed the bag down. It was a win-win.”

Communities usually make ad-ditional copies of the newsletters available in a public place, like inside a pro shop at its golf course, Clark said. Many of the communities will also make their newsletters available on their Web sites in PDF form.

Clark said feedback on the news-letters has been good and that the

Living Newsletters touch readers’ lives in ways that other products might not.

“Whenever I meet people who find out I’m helping to put togeth-er their community newsletter, they’ll tell me something positive,” he said. “Before, these communi-ties may have had a two-page thing that people would ignore. Having a newsletter like Living raises the stature in the community. It’s a piece of community pride.”

Contact: Kevin Clark, kevin.clark@jacksonville.com; Mike Horne,

michael.horne@jacksonville.com

Living: Staff works closely with communities in creating newslettersConTInUEd FRoM PAgE 6

More onlineTo view PDFs of the Living Newsletters, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

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MARCH 2010 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 7

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssoCIATe edIToR

The Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World is a Web-first operation, said Dennis Anderson, managing editor for the 18,600-circulation daily. So when the idea for a green lifestyle

product came about during the summer of 2008, having it

live online was a natural choice.“Our greatest chance to grow

audience at this point is through the Web,” Anderson said. “We have the greatest number of people look at it, too. We have strong print and TV components. Everything you do in multimedia splinters out to print and TV.”

LJWorld.com/green is the hub for the Journal-World’s environ-mental content. Select content from the site is repurposed for the core print product, the company’s TV station (Sunflower Broadband Channel 6) or the Green Living special section, which has been published twice since the product’s inception in summer 2008, he said.

The idea for the green reporting series came about when gas prices were at a peak, and residents were looking for alternative modes of transportation, said Christine Metz, special projects reporter for the Journal-World. This is also when the local food movement was mak-ing its first push, she said.

“It was going to be something that would live online in the sum-mer and something that could be used in a print product,” she said. “From the very beginning, we knew it was going to have a place online. Then we said, ‘We could do video, and stories, and maps, and then at the end—after we do all this re-search—we can turn it into a spe-cial section.’”

Web site

The Journal-World doesn’t have an environmental reporter, but Metz and other staff members contribute to the Web site. LJWorld.com/green is updated regularly, though there isn’t a set schedule for when new content is added, she said.

“It’s not like there’s one person doing new content all the time, but you’ll find stories that have a green

tie to them, and we’ll put them up there,” she said. “Today, we have a story in there from the AP wire on the Toyota Prius, the recalls with them. There was a story on how [University of Kansas] classes are looking at green efforts. The trans-portation system was looking at hybrid buses. It just naturally gets updated.”

LJWorld.com/green features sto-ries, green blogs submitted by read-ers, a map with eating options that offer locally produced food, links to other green sites and green video, which is produced in-house and oftentimes appears on the TV sta-tion’s newscast.

“All of our reporters are able to do TV work,” Anderson said. “We did a lot of training for that. Some are stronger than others at TV, but everybody’s been trained. We know the best way for people to tell sto-ries is that they need to tell it on different platforms. We have a number of people here who are very good at that. Every reporter has been trained to do about everything in a multimedia setting.”

Metz also contributed to the staff blogs section of LJWorld.com/green with her Eco-challenge blog

that chronicled her efforts to be-come more environmentally friend-ly.

“Usually, I don’t do first-person accounts,” Metz said. “It was defi-nitely the most involved I’d ever been, like when I did the 100-mile diet, restricting what you could eat to within 100 miles. I just wanted to eat coffee and chocolate but couldn’t. Every once in a while, I cheated and blogged about it. But it made you aware of all the local foods you may not be aware of.”

Metz also wrote about how she asked a recycling center owner to go through a week’s worth of her trash to determine what could and couldn’t be recycled. Her experi-ences in trying the green lifestyle helped introduce her to other eco-friendly individuals in the commu-nity whom she was able to feature in her stories.

“I think Lawrence is a pretty green-minded community,” she said. “There are quite a few people involved with the eating-local and buying-local businesses, so you meet people and go from there. When I was doing my blog, some people contacted me. I’ve written on some energy issues, and sources built up over the years. It’s a pretty active green community.”

Green Living

Select content from the Web site was repurposed for Green Living special sections, Metz said. The

first edition of Green Living came out in September 2008, and an-other edition followed in June 2009. The theme for the 2008 edi-tion was “Ideas for an eco-friend-ly lifestyle in Lawrence” and in-cluded content about eating lo-cally grown produce, electric bi-cycles and reducing energy use in the home and office.

“Any time you decide to do a special section, you want to grow your audience and grow revenue,” Anderson said. “With our commu-nity, we knew there would be an audience for this type of prod-uct.”

The success of the first special section was followed by a second special section that came out in June 2009. Its theme was “How to stretch your budget and help save the environment.” It focused on easy ways readers could be green and save money, such as with tax breaks, Metz said.

Green Living came inside the core newspaper and in the compa-ny’s seven weeklies that stretch between Lawrence and Kansas City, Anderson said. The newspa-per also printed an overrun of the section for food stores, he said. Green Living was printed on tab-loid-size newsprint, and Anderson said about 20,000 copies of each edition were printed.

The print products also helped drive traffic to the Web site, Metz said.

Advertising

Tony Berg, advertising director for the Journal-World, said the green print and online products at-tracted a variety of advertisers.

“A lot of advertisers were from companies that have green initia-tives, like banks, gas stations, local honey place, grocery stores, land-scaping,” Berg said. “Mostly, it was people who had green initiatives already in place.”

Berg said there were eight to 12 sales reps selling ads for both the print and online products and that most of the advertisers had ads that appeared on both platforms. For the Web site, standard IAB ad sizes were available along with pre-roll ads that play before video, he said. Berg said most of the pre-roll ads were put together by the company’s TV station or creative imaging de-partment.

Berg said more of the overall revenue for the project came from the special sections, though he couldn’t specify as to what percent of total revenue came from print verses online. He did say that the Web site and special sections have been successful products for the newspaper.

“We’re lining up our special sec-tions for the year right now, and it will definitely be part of the con-versation,” Berg said. “Nothing has been determined yet, but it was a great piece for us.”

“Lawrence is a great communi-ty,” Metz said. “With all the busi-nesses and nonprofits that are in-terested in the environment, it’s a natural fit to produce a product like this.”

Contacts: dennis Anderson, danderson@ljworld.com;

Christine Metz, cmetz@ljworld.com; Tony Berg, tberg@ljworld.com

Kansas paper finds print, online advertisers for green living

More onlineTo view a copy of Green Living as a PDF, visit NBDN-InlandPress.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

Special Section Success Story

The Green Living special sections feature content that was repurposed from LJWorld.com/green, the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World’s site for all of its environmental content. The inaugural edition, left, came out in september 2008 and was followed by a second edition in June 2009. Images supplIed

“Any time you decide to do a special section, you want to grow your audience and grow revenue. With our community, we knew there would be an audience for this type of product.”

dennis Anderson, managing editor

APRIL 2010 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 7

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssocIATe edIToR

The annual Santa Fe (N.M.) Indian Market is the largest Native American arts show in the world, said Inez Russell, the Santa Fe New Mexican’s special sections editor. The free,

two-day market takes place in downtown Santa Fe and attracts an esti-mated 80,000 attendees

from all over the nation and world, she said. “It’s not like your typical arts and crafts

fair,” Russell said. “These are top artisans and artists.” She said there are about 1,100 booths and 1,400 artists at the market, which takes place every August.

The success and popularity of the market carry over to Indian Market magazine, the official guide for the show, sponsored by the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, or SWAIA.

Indian Market magazine is the New Mexi-can’s most successful book and generates roughly a quarter of a million dollars for the newspaper, said David Del Mauro, marketing and design manager for the 24,000-circulation daily. The New Mexican has been putting together Indian Market magazine since the late ’70s, according to Associate Publisher Ginny Sohn.

This year’s Indian Market will be SWAIA’s 89th. “It’s a juried show sponsored by SWA-IA,” Russell said. “You have to apply to have a booth there; you can’t just show up. You have to be a member of a federally recognized tribe. We get artists who are Navajo, Apache; from tribes in Alaska, New York—all over the country.”

Russell said the Indian Market takes place during the weekend, with events leading up to the show the week before.

Previously, Indian Market magazine was inserted inside the newspaper that came out the Wednesday before the market. Now, the week before the show is Indian Arts and Cul-ture Week, which was officially recognized as a state memorial in 2009. Russell said SWAIA and other organizations in the area, such as museums, hold events during the week leading up to the market.

“It used to be that [the magazine] came out the Wednesday before the market started, but we’re going to have it come out Sunday so we can include all of the events that happen that week before,” she said.

Del Mauro said about 40,500 copies of the magazine are printed, and copies that aren’t distributed within the newspaper are available at the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Content

Part of what makes Indian Market maga-zine so successful is extensive planning,

which has an impact on the publication’s editorial content, artwork and overall visual appeal, Russell said.

“We plan a year in advance,” she said. “During market, we try to figure out what stories we want to do next year.”

The magazine contains stories about artists and their families, profiles of the previous year’s winners, pieces on Native American history and culture, map and list of booth locations organized alphabetically by artist and by type of art, Russell said.

SWAIA provides artist and booth informa-tion exclusively to the New Mexican, which is part of the partnership agreement, but the group doesn’t “have any editorial control,” Russell said.

“I value their expertise and judgment. Their director is a really smart guy, and I love picking his brain, but he respects that we’re

the journalists,” she said. The stories are written mostly by freelanc-

ers, though Russell said she writes six or seven stories for each issue. For images, Rus-sell said staff shoots photos during the market and also before the market at artists’ studios that are located in the Santa Fe area. With the help of SWAIA, the New Mexican is also able to take photos of the artwork in advance.

“One of the wonderful things about doing Indian Market magazine is that the art is so beautiful, and we have such a wonderful pho-tography staff that we can make a beautiful magazine,” she said. “We start working with SWAIA early, so we can get pictures of the art with a nice backdrop and lighting, instead of just taking the photos at the event.”

Photos are used in the magazine with sto-ries, and smaller photos are used with the directory of artists, Russell said. Staff also covers the market as a news event for the core print product, she said.

Advertising

The newspaper puts together Indian Mar-ket magazine at no cost to SWAIA and re-

coups the advertising revenue, Del Mauro said. The New Mexican’s task of selling ads for the magazine isn’t too difficult, so there aren’t any discounts or special deals, he added.

“Indian Market has its own momentum,” he said. “It is the pinnacle event in Santa Fe. If we had trouble selling it, we’d prob-ably have more specials popping up.”

Indian Market magazine averages around 200 pages, Del Mauro said. Thirty-two of those pages are glossy advertisements, and the rest are newsprint, he said. The publica-tion is limited to 32 glossy pages because the binder has trouble with more than that, he said. The magazine is staple-bound, and binding and printing are completed in-house, Sohn said.

The glossy ad pages are available at a first-come, first-served basis and are in such high-demand that some advertisers secure their spots a year in advance, Del Mauro said.

“These glossy pages sell out pretty quick-ly,” Del Mauro said. “Indian Market is the most recession-proof magazine that we have. We maxed out last year at 32 glossy pages, and that was a recession year.”

He said part of the attraction for advertis-ers is the long shelf-life of Indian Market. “When you visit homes in Santa Fe, it’s in their coffee table selection. It’s held in high regard,” he said. “I think [advertisers] un-derstand that the readership of this book is very focused. For the newspaper, the aver-age reader may look at an ad for two or three seconds. People who come to town and are so enchanted with this weekend are looking at every ad because the ads are beautiful.”

Del Mauro said the ads are designed in-house by the newspaper’s art/design depart-ment.

Indian Market magazine appeals to a va-riety of advertisers including galleries, shops, boutiques, casinos, furniture stores and restaurants, among others. SWAIA also is given advertising space inside the maga-zine, he said.

All of the New Mexican’s 10 sales reps are able to sell ads for Indian Market mag-azine, and advertising prep work and selling starts four months out, he said.

“We’re very proud to be a part of the In-dian Market weekend,” Del Mauro said. “SWAIA has been very happy with the book. We have a good relationship with them. We’ve been around since 1849. This is the market’s 89th year. It just makes sense for us to partner for this.”

Contacts: Inez Russell, irussell@sfnewmexican.com; Ginny sohn, gsohn@sfnewmexican.com;

david del Mauro, ddelmauro@sfnewmexican.com

Magazine covers the world’s largest Native American arts show

Special Section Success Story

every year, the santa Fe (N.M.) New Mexican puts together Indian Market magazine, the official guide to the southwestern Association for Indian Arts’ annual santa Fe Indian Market. Image supplIed

More onlineTo view Indian Market magazine as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

PAGE 18 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | MAY 2010

Training

By Michelle FinklerAssocIATe edITor

When the Natchez (Miss.) Dem-ocrat realized that its annual high school football special section had lost its momentum with advertisers and readers, the newspaper decided

it needed a new game plan.

“We’ve had a traditional foot-

ball preview section for decades,” said Kevin Cooper, publisher of the 10,000-circulation daily. “A few years ago, we realized the section was getting a bit tired. Advertisers were not all that excited by it any-more. Revenue had slowly declined year after year.”

Cooper said that because the Nat-chez area has a large number of high schools, businesses are regu-larly asked to participate in “all sorts of school programs, year-books, etc. Our football section had sort of become lost in a sea of foot-ball-related things that were pre-sented to them each season.”

Cooper said that revenue brought in from the 2007 section was par-ticularly poor, and that the newspa-per decided it would do something different the next year.

“In 2008, we opted to make the section more of a keepsake piece,” he said. “We made plans to convert it from a tabloid section printed on newsprint to a magazine format printed on coated stock paper.

“Reader and advertiser interest improved significantly, and we more than doubled our revenue in the first year. Obviously, we had higher production costs associated with having to farm out the print-ing, but the revenue growth more than made up for the extra print costs.”

Content

The annual section has always used roughly the same title of “Football” followed by the year, Cooper said. Football 2009 was 40 pages, which Cooper said are di-vided as evenly as possible among the 13 different schools. Coverage in the glossy, staple-bound maga-zine includes varsity teams from public, private and parochial schools, he said.

“These are schools we normally cover; we may not staff each game,

but we’ll get a call-in for each game and cover it that way,” he said.

Each school’s section includes information on the head coach, the previous season’s results, the cur-rent season’s schedule, a team photo and a preview story. Cooper said the magazine’s smaller page size helps keep the preview stories short and to the point. The preview stories include interviews with the

coaches on the outlook of the sea-son, key players and the teams’ strategies for offense, defense and special teams.

Cooper said content for the foot-ball section is put together by the Democrat’s two sports reporters, and most of the photographs are shot by two of the daily’s staff members. Cooper said besides the team photo, the publication in-cludes photos from practice. Edito-rial staff starts putting together the special section in late July or early August, he said.

“There’s a fairly quick turn-around because there are restric-tions for when players can start

practicing,” Cooper said.In the back of the magazine are

photos of the high schools’ bands and cheerleading squads. Cooper said the newspaper had occasion-ally included bands and cheerlead-ing squads in the old newsprint section, but running them consis-tently is something new to the magazine.

“I think we include bands and cheerleading just to add more names and faces,” he said. “It gives a little more flavor to what football season is all about. There are some people who are very involved in the excitement of Friday nights who may not be playing in the game.

They’re important to include.”Cooper said the football section

doesn’t have an online component and that content in the magazine is only available in the print product.

“It’s simply something we chose not to put online,” he said. “I don’t think we did it with any aim of making it ‘exclusively’ in print or to in some way protect the print edi-tion.”

Advertising

The football special section is distributed inside the Democrat on the first day of the football season, which falls on a Friday in August, Cooper said. Copies are printed through a vendor to fulfill the Dem-ocrat’s distribution of 10,000, and a few hundred extra copies are printed for single-copy counter lo-cations, he said. In the past, copies of the football publication had been available at games, but Cooper said that initiative garnered minimal response from game attendees.

“We have done a little bit of that, but most of the time, when people are at the games, they don’t want to stop and read stuff about the game they’re about to watch,” he said.

Cooper said readership of the football magazine extends beyond students and parents and to others in the community.

“It’s across the board,” he said. “Even if you’re not a parent, you still might be interested in what the school’s football team is doing.”

Because of the wide audience, advertising in the magazine appeals to all sorts of businesses in the Democrat’s area, Cooper said. Sell-ing ads for the football section is open to all of the Democrat’s five sales reps, and recruitment for ad-vertisers starts about a month in advance, he said.

Cooper said Football 2009 brought in about the same amount of advertising revenue as the 2008 edition, so the decision to convert to the new magazine format hasn’t lost momentum with advertisers.

“It was a hit,” he said. “Changing up the format a bit—nicer presenta-tion, more concise preview articles, including photographs of cheer-leader squads, bands, etc.—was very popular.”

Contact: Kevin cooper, kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com

Paper doubles revenue with improved Hs football section

Special Section Success Story

In 2008, the Natchez (Miss.) democrat decided to convert its annual high school football special section from a newsprint tabloid to a magazine. The decision has paid off with increased advertising revenue and readership. Image supplIed

More onlineTo view excerpts of Football 2009 as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

PAGE 18 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | JUNE 2010

Training

By Michelle FinklerAssocIATE EdITor

When advertisers in The (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette’s market asked for a publica-tion that focused on women’s health issues, the newspaper listened and delivered with “Empowher; Women’s Health Today.”

“Typically, when we create new sections, we create them based off of conversations we’ve had with advertisers,”

said Ted Borelli, senior advertising manager of sales for the 56,000-circulation daily. “It’s not that we come up with special sections then try to push them on advertisers. We cre-ate sections based on information we get out in the real world.”

After receiving feedback from various area businesses in 2007, The Gazette’s advertising department approached the special sections department with the idea, and Empowher de-buted that October as a newsprint tabloid. But Empowher is more than a vehicle to connect health care providers with women; it’s a way to spread knowledge about health issues that women could face in all stages of life, Special Sections Editor Maggy Dumas said.

“We didn’t want it to be a generic product on women’s health issues—something that could be seen in any national women’s mag-azine on the rack,” Dumas said. “We wanted it to be different and, of course, local—local sources, local writers—and to focus on the various health problems that a female is more vulnerable to depending on what decade of life she is in.”

Dumas said the title “Empowher” was cho-sen from a list of possible names by staff on the advertising and editorial sides of the pa-per. Empowher’s content is organized by decade, with a story for every age group start-ing in the teens and ending in the 80s.

“It’s all about girls and women being aware of the health issues that are most likely to affect them in any given decade of their life and how other real girls and women in their own community handled one of those health problems common to that decade,” Dumas said.

Although content is centered on the various health issues faced by women, she said the stories are generally upbeat and focus on the female’s positive attitude and coping skills.

Editorial content-gathering starts about 10 weeks out, Dumas added. Written by free-lance writers, the stories include local wom-en and medical professionals as sources, she said.

Dumas said The Gazette works with a pool of about 35 freelance writers. For the most recent issue of Empowher, six freelance writ-ers were used.

To shape the editorial content, Dumas said Gazette editors used medical websites to re-search the maladies, complaints and illness-es most common to each decade of a woman’s life. The newspaper then sent an e-mail to freelancers describing the parameters of the publication and giving them a choice of sev-eral health issues they could choose to cover for each of the eight decades, she said. Typ-ically, each writer covers one decade, but Dumas said some chose to cover two decades for the most recent issue.

“The freelance writers come up with their own sources—that is they generally don’t sign up for this publication unless they know of or already have knowledge of someone who can be their key source—a girl or wom-an who has experienced and coped with the [illness or disease] common to that particular decade that I’ve listed for the writers to choose from,” Dumas said. “Since we have

a big pool of some 35 freelance writers, someone always knows someone.”

Dumas said each decade’s story also in-cludes a sidebar listing other health issues that most commonly affect females in that particular decade. The freelance writers are also responsible for providing photos, which Dumas said typically are obtained from the sources or are taken by the writers. Stock art depicting several generations of women is usually used on the cover of the tabloid, she said.

Dumas also contributed to Empowher by writing an intro and editing the stories, she said. Layout was also completed by two of The Gazette’s graphic designers. The tabloid is printed in-house and distributed within the Sunday newspaper, which has a circulation of 70,273, Dumas said.

Currently, Dumas said there is no online component for Empowher, since it’s not con-sidered part of The Gazette’s news offer-ings.

“The special sections I work on are con-sidered ‘content with an agenda,’ content to sell advertising into,” she said. “The way a 12-page section like Empowher would have to be put online would be in PDF form. The

folks that pay attention to those things around here decided about year ago that special sec-tions online in PDF form were getting very little traffic.”

Timing

Dumas said the inaugural issue of Empow-Her came out in October 2007, and the next issue followed in October 2008. She said the original idea was to have EmpowHer come out in October for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but that idea was scrapped for the third issue, which was actually re-leased in January 2010.

“I think we were looking at what is the best time to produce a piece like that,” Borelli said. “January was a time that worked a little better. October was a little close to the holi-days. With it coming out in January, people were thinking about New Year’s resolutions, how they can evolve—it’s a focus of the con-sumer. There’s no right or wrong time for a publication like this, but January worked bet-ter for us.”

Advertising

Advertising in Empowher appeals to a va-riety of health care providers, including hos-pitals, dentists, OB-GYN specialists, chiro-practors, spas and retirement communities, Borelli said, as well as some non-health care businesses. Selling ads into Empowher is open to all of The Gazette’s 15 sales reps, although the publication is more successful with reps who have accounts in the health care field, he said.

However, the most recent issue of Empow-her had fewer advertisers and was smaller than its two predecessors at 12 pages instead of 24, Dumas said.

“I think given the kind of year 2009 was for the economy tells the whole story,” she said. “We are hoping to increase the page count next year.”

Even with fewer advertisers, Borelli said Empowher is still a successful publication for The Gazette, bringing in about $10,000 in advertising revenue this year.

“We got good feedback from sources, ad-vertisers and readers,” Dumas said. “And the freelance writers love to do these stories. As editors too, we are very fond of this project.”

Contacts: Ted Borelli, ted.borelli@gazcomm.com; Maggy dumas, maggy.dumas@gazcomm.com

More onlineTo view the 2010 edition of Empow-her as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

Looking for a worthwhile special section? Ask your advertisers

Special Section Success Story

Empowher was created by The Gazette in cedar rapids, Iowa, after receiving feedback from area health care advertisers looking to connect with women through a health-related special section. Empowher features stories detailing health issues that women are more likely to face in each decade of life from the teens to the 80s. image supplied

“We didn’t want it to be a generic product on women’s health issues—something that could be seen in any national women’s magazine on the rack.”

Maggy dumas, special sections editor

JULY 2010 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 19

Training

By Michelle Finkler AssocIATe edITor

Harley-Davidson riders visiting southeast-

ern Wisconsin for an anniversary celebration turned out to be the perfect audience for a Washington County Daily News special sec-tion.

“It was the most suc-cessful revenue-generat-ing, free-standing special section to date,” said Lois

Evans, advertising director for the 9,200-cir-culation newspaper in West Bend, Wis.

In August 2008, Harley-Davidson cele-brated 105 years and the Harley Owners Group celebrated 25 years with an event in Milwaukee—where the company’s corporate headquarters are located—and chose the Washington County Fair Park as the site of its official campground. For campers and rid-ers in the area for the celebration, the Daily News—in partnership with the fairgrounds—put together The Official Riders Guide to Washington County and Surrounding Ar-eas.

“These were people coming to our county for about a week, and all of them were look-ing for things to do,” Managing Editor Jill Badzinski said. “There were events in Mil-waukee—festival-style events—but they weren’t 24-7. They were looking for things to do off the beaten path. Harley riders like curvy roads; they like talking to local people. They might want to go to towns we don’t cover much—places the news staff wouldn’t get to often.”

Because of this expanded area of interest to the publication’s audience, the Daily News was able to produce a more regional special section and gain advertisers in three counties outside of its normal coverage area of Wash-ington County, though Evans couldn’t spec-ify how many of the guide’s advertisers were new to the company.

“We had a huge selection of first-time ad-vertisers that was above and beyond our readership,” Evans said. “We were trying to hit the visitors with this. I think our sales reps were able to go in and talk to not the typical print advertisers.”

Editorial

Because the guide is regional, the Daily News was able to include editorial content pertaining to areas outside of Washington County.

“We wanted to make it a piece for campers who were going to stay [at the fairgrounds] and attend the events,” Badzinski said. “We really wanted a riders guide that had content that explained the fair park, Washington County in relation to Wisconsin and the Har-ley event. Everything we put in was very

useful to riders not familiar with the area.” Badzinski said the guide included event

information, lists of things to do in the area, directions on how to get places and entertain-ment lineups. The guide also included lots of maps, as well as information on local rides that was complied with the help of area Har-ley groups, she said.

“We wanted to keep it really fun,” Badz-inski said. “It was an interesting challenge.

It was lighter—more attitude than a typical news story. This has really opened our eyes editorially to a different presentation style. It’s edgier. There are breakout boxes, no full-length stories, short go-and-do-items, sched-ules, quick, usable info.”

Badzinski said that planning for the Riders Guide began about a year before the event.

“Once we caught wind that this was hap-pening at the fairgrounds, we started rough-ly planning it—taking ideas and saying, ‘This might be something for the book.’ The plan-ning process was intimidating, but the strain on writing staff was minimal and fun.”

Badzinski said all of the content for the guide was written in-house by four of the Daily News’ staff writers.

“We tried not to make it burdensome on any particular staff member,” she said. “We

didn’t want the newspaper subscribers to suf-fer because staff was working on this section. We ended up with a little more content than we needed, which we used in the daily. We planned it out pretty well—there was no scrambling at the end.”

Layout was completed in-house, though the Daily News did use an outside service to create the section’s various maps, Badzinski said. The guide included artwork that came from Harley-Davidson’s 100th and the Har-ley Owners Group’s 20th anniversary cele-bration, which Badzinski said the newspaper photographed heavily five years earlier.

Advertising

Evans said advertising in the Riders Guide mostly appealed to restaurants and bars, though there were some tourist-type ads, such as boat tours and other attractions of interest to visitors. Local Harley-Davidson dealers also placed ads in the guide, she said.

“Our community got behind this project,” Evans said. “We gave advertisers ‘Welcome Harley Riders’ signs for their windows. They were orange and black. Bars really liked that.”

Evans said parent company Conley Media encouraged sister newspapers the Waukesha Freeman in Waukesha and the Ozaukee County News Graphic in Cedarburg to sell ads for the special section, though she said the Daily News sales team brought in the most revenue. Evans said there were 12 or 13 sales reps selling ads for the section at all three newspapers, with four of those being Daily News staffers. The sales cycle started three months prior to publication, and the number of pages in the section was deter-mined by advertising, she said.

The full-color, staple-bound Riders Guide was 56 pages, with the first and last four pages printed on a glossy stock and the inside pages printed on newsprint, Evans said. Print-ing was done in-house, with 70,000 copies distributed at the fairgrounds and 20,000 dis-tributed elsewhere, such as at hotels and bus stops, she said.

As for future Harley-Davidson celebra-tions, Evans said the Daily News’ participa-tion would depend on Washington County Fair Park’s involvement, but that the news-paper “would love to take on the project again.”

“This was a project that everyone at the paper embraced,” Evans said. “Every depart-ment was embraced by everyone, and we worked together. When there’s that much excitement, it translates to your customers. It was a welcomed new advertising venue for advertisers.”

Contacts: Lois evans, levans@conleynet.com; Jill Badzinski, jbadzinski@conleynet.com

For Wisconsin paper, the road to special section success starts here

Special Section Success Story

The Washington county daily News in West Bend, Wis., published The official riders Guide to Washington county and surrounding Areas for Harley-davidson riders in southeastern Wisconsin for the company’s 105th and the Harley owners Group’s 25th anniversary celebration in August 2008. The newspaper partnered with Washington county Fair Park, the location for the event’s official campground, to put the special section together. Image supplIed

More onlineTo view excerpts of The Official Riders Guide to Washington County and Surrounding Areas as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

Mailed Monday, July 26, from Sterling, Ill.Inform post office if it arrives after Aug. 9.

theInlanderknowledge for newspapersAUGUST 2010 | Vol. 24, No. 8

Inland contest wInnersFind out who the winners are in the 2010 Newspaper Business Development Contest.Page 5

Paywall exPerImentA publisher in Kansas thinks she’s found the right paywall model for her market.Page 9

mobIle mattersAre you prepared to capture your share of search and mobile advertising dollars?Page 11

Additional Inland Webinar training information on pages 15 and 20 or visit InlandPress.org. Select “Event Registration” under the “Training” tab.

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your role in managing your sales team — getting back to being the leaderIn this Inland Webinar, you’ll learn how to set and communicate goals by developing the Big Three: vision, mission, goals. We’ll focus on behavior and how to improve everyone’s performance, return to accountability and keep the pres-sure from overloading your sales staff, balancing pressure with en-thusiasm and rewards. wIth bIll osborne, PresIdent, the PeoPle busIness, arnold, md.

“Inland is the best resource I have found. Always gives me something to implement or improve upon.”

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Vancouver, Wash.

This Chicago Blackhawks team photo (detail shown) was used for the center spread of Shaw Suburban Media’s 36-page Stanley Cup Champions commemorative special section that ran the week of June 13. The Blackhawks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers on June 9 to clinch the Stanley Cup championship. IMAGE SUPPlIED

By Michelle FinklerASSoCiATe ediTor

When Patrick Kane scored the winning goal to clinch the Stanley Cup championship for the Chicago Blackhawks, the big win naturally dominated the front page of local

papers. But only one newspaper could lay claim to sharing the

name of the professional hockey player: the Kane County Chroni-cle.

So naturally the paper had fun with it.

The Kane County (Ill.) Chroni-cle—part of Shaw Suburban Me-dia—published a special “Patrick” Kane County Chronicle edition that hit newsstands on the day of the team’s celebratory parade and rally in Chicago’s Loop.

The “Patrick” Kane County Chronicle edition “was kind of a fun way to tie in the paper with the team’s victory,” said J. Tom Shaw, publisher of the Kane County Chronicle, a 12,538-circulation pa-per in St. Charles, Ill., that’s pub-lished Tuesday through Saturday.

The special edition featured a picture on the cover and the name “Patrick” juxtaposed in front of the newspaper’s flag. The inside of the paper also featured Blackhawks coverage of the team’s June 9 vic-tory against the Philadelphia Flyers and subsequent celebration, he said.

The idea to give a nod to Kane with the special “Patrick” Kane County Chronicle edition came from Chris Krug, longtime hockey fan and general manager and vice president of news and content for

Shaw Suburban Media of Greater Chicago, which owns the Kane County Chronicle and other media properties.

“I remember when I lived in Denver, after the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, I was working for the Denver Post, and our competi-tor, the Rocky Mountain News, changed its name for one day to the Hockey Mountain News,” Krug said. “I thought that was really cool, and it stayed with me a long time. So when the Hawks won the Stan-ley Cup and Patrick Kane scored the winning goal, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun for one day to

call the paper the “Patrick” Kane County Chronicle?’”

Shaw said the page count for the special edition was larger than a typical Friday because of an in-creased amount of advertisers, though the newspaper’s sales reps were focused on selling ads for Shaw Suburban Media’s Stanley Cup Champions commemorative special section.

special section

A 36-page publication commem-orating the Blackhawks was print-ed on a bright-white stock on June 12, just three days after the Hawks’ win and one day after the rally. With the short turnaround time, the publication’s size was limited to 36

All-star game brings Stanley Cup (coverage) home

Special Section Success Story

More insideTo read The Inlander’s annual Special Sections Special Report, see page 13.

STAnley CuP: ConTinued on PAge 12

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For more, see page 8 or visit InlandPress.org.

PAGE 12 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | AUGUST 2010

teresting to see how quickly the advertisers wanted to get involved and participate,” McKiernan said. “After the win, it was nuts. People absolutely wanted to be in it. When there’s such urgency behind it, you don’t feel compelled to discount anything. In this day and age, that’s a unique position.”

Stanley Cup Champions attract-ed new businesses to the company, with about 20 percent that had never advertised in a Shaw Subur-ban Media product, McKiernan said. Shaw Suburban Media’s Blackhawks product offerings also included several spadeas with play-er posters on the back that came out during the playoffs, he said.

“This was a really incredible wave, and we wanted to catch it for as long as we could,” McKiernan said. “More importantly, our advis-ers felt like they got good value out of it. They were happy to partici-pate in it, and when we roll out

things like this in the future, they’re going to trust us even more.”

Offering readers comprehensive sports coverage that includes local prep sports and professional sports is something that’s important, Krug said. But the company still has to stay on budget and make choices about what to cover with the re-sources it has, he said.

“It comes down to the commit-ment to make it happen,” Krug said. “Our resources have changed in the past few years like many newspa-pers, but our commitment hasn’t. We wanted to be involved with the Blackhawks, so we were.

“We really are passionate about sports—especially prep sports—but when we have the Bulls, Black-hawks or Bears go all the way, it becomes local news,” he said. “It doesn’t trump local news, but for a few days in this past year, every-body was excited about the Black-hawks.”

Contacts: J. Tom Shaw, jtshaw@shawsuburban.com; Chris Krug,

ckrug@shawsuburban.com; Kara Hansen, khansen@shawsuburban.com;

Mike McKiernan, mmckiernan@shawsuburban.com

Ideas

pages to help ensure its success, according to Mike McKiernan, advertising director for Shaw Suburban Media.

“If edi tor ia l knows that they have to do 20 pages of editorial and advertis-ing knows that it has to fill 16 pages of ads, there’s a better under-standing,” McKiernan said. “When you’re trying to turn this thing around, you’re not asking people to adjust the system to open yourself up to mistakes. We wanted to make sure it went seamlessly. Everyone un-derstood that there was not a lot of fluff time to miss deadlines. Limiting its size helped in its suc-cess.”

It also circulated on different days, appearing in the Northwest Herald, a 34,763-circulation Shaw Suburban Media paper in Crystal Lake, Ill., on June 13 and in the Kane County Chronicle on June 15, said Kara Hansen, circulation direc-tor for the company.

When Shaw Suburban Media takes on a project like a special commemorative publication, Krug said respective newspapers within the group are given the choice to run the special section or opt out, depending on what is best for their audiences. For the Northwest Her-ald and Kane County Chronicle, running the special section made sense.

“For a local community paper that’s trying hard to distinguish it-self as your source for everything local, you still don’t want to lose sight of the bigger things that are of importance to the local community,” Krug said. “It became local news for us; it was culturally relevant.”

Putting together a large special section to commemorate a sports team’s championship in a limited timeframe is a challenge because you don’t know if or when the local team will actually win.

“We did a lot of it in advance,” Krug said. “You have to be an op-timist with this sort of thing, have good planning and be organiza-tionally solid. It was just a matter of when they were going to win,

Stanley Cup: Fans, local papers share in excitement over championshipConTInUed froM PAGe 1

T-shirts

Shaw Suburban Media’s Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill., created commemo-rative Chicago Blackhawks T-shirts featuring the cover of its June 10 newspaper, said Chris Krug, general manager

and vice president of news and con-tent for the company. The front page

featured a photo of Blackhawks player Patrick Kane hoisting

the Stanley Cup above his head with the head-line “The cup returns

to Chicago” in bold type. The Blackhawks

clinched the Stanley Cup championship on June 9.

Shirts are available in red and black and cost $12.99. A few hundred T-shirts were ordered, and the first batch was printed through a local company, Krug said. The paper will keep offering the shirts if there’s a continued interest for them, he said.

not if.”The Northwest Herald regularly

covers Chicago’s professional sports teams using freelancers and staff, he said. The paper had its own reporters at Stanley Cup and playoff games and dispatched staff to cover the June 11 Blackhawks rally in downtown Chicago, he said.

“When it came time to do a re-cap, it was easy for us to access the information required, and we un-derstood the subject,” Krug said. “There are a lot of papers in the suburbs that don’t regularly cover major professional sports. Our con-nection with these teams allows us to go back in the season and pick the memorable moments.”

Putting together a commemora-tive section “is one thing you can’t fake,” Krug said. “Newspapers aren’t in the business of faking any-thing, but appearing to know more than you actually know isn’t going to go over well with fans. [Sports Editor] Eric Olson is a true hockey nut, which made [choosing content for the section] natural.”

Krug said a challenge of a sports section like this is that the content has to be accessible to hardcore fans, occasional fans and fans who recently jumped on the bandwagon. For content inside Stanley Cup Champions as well as coverage over the course of the season, Krug

said Olson and Sports Reporter Tom Musick achieved a balance that made content accessible to all types of fans. Krug also wishes to acknowledge Editor Dan McCaleb, Night News Editor Dave Lemery and said “everyone worked hard to put the publication together on time.”

Most of the content inside Stan-ley Cup Champions was staff-gen-erated, but a few wire stories and photos were included, too, Krug said. Player profiles including memorable moments and quotes, accompanied breakdowns of the regular season leading up to the playoffs and Stanley Cup Finals. A team photo with roster appeared on the center spread. (You can see the entire special section in PDF format online. Visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.)

Results

All told, the special section gen-erated about $18,000 in ad revenue for the company, according to McKiernan. About a third of the advertising in Stanley Cup Cham-pions was pre-sold by the time the Blackhawks made it into the finals, he said. As the Blackhawks won more games, excitement from ad-vertisers grew, he said.

“Because the timeframes were so tight between deadlines, it was in-

More onlineTo view Stanley Cup Champions as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

Stanley Cup Champions is a 36-page commemorative newsprint tabloid created by staff at Shaw Suburban Media. The special section, which commemorates the Chicago Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup championship and 2009-2010 season, ran in the northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill., and the Kane County Chronicle in St. Charles, Ill. image supplied

AUGUST 2010 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 13

IdeasWell-executed Special Sections can generate thousands in revenue

Whether the theme is sports, health, arts and entertainment, business profiles, or the opening of a police section, special sections continue to provide newspapers with solid revenue in a fragmented media landscape.

That’s why each month, The Inlander focuses on at least one revenue-generating idea that has emerged from the Newspaper Business Development Contest (see page 5 for the results from our latest contest).

Health/Family/Youth

Edmonton JournalEdmonton, AlbertaProject: Celebrate Health Care AidesContact: Sandra Marocco E-mail: smarocco@thejournal.canwest.comTheme: To address a shortage of health care aides in Alberta and give the profession rec-ognition for its service and positive contribu-tions to the health care field, the Edmonton Journal created Celebrate Health Care Aides, a 12-page newsprint tabloid. The special section was published in November 2008 as a one-time feature in the Edmonton Journal. Copies were printed in-house to fulfill its daily circulation, which at the time was about 121,000. An overrun of 156,000 copies were printed through an external printer for distribution in five other newspa-pers in Canada. An additional 2,000 copies of Celebrate Health Care Aides were given to the Alberta Continuing Care Association (ACCA), most of which were distributed at continuing care facilities. Sales Strategy: The Journal was able to secure advertising from educational institu-tions and health care facilities that had a need for these health care aides. Also, advertis-ers who wanted to connect with those receiv-ing continuing care were prime supporters. Copy: The special section featured content explaining the profession of health care aide, education, required training and possible places of employment. The special section focused on real people doing real work, and stressed the importance and social impact of the profession. All of the stories were cre-ated in-house with the assistance of the ACCA. Some of the artwork for the section was created in-house, but most of the photos were supplied by the association.Results: $78,000

Arts/EntertainmentDaily HeraldArlington Heights, Ill.Project: Theater PreviewContact: Brenda KoreckyE-mail: bkorecky@dailyherald.com Theme: Every year, the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago puts together Theater Pre-view to connect theaters in downtown Chi-cago with suburban theatergoers. Participa-tion in the newsprint tabloid is high and has managed to draw advertisers not only from the city but from local, suburban theaters and theater groups. Theaters are drawn to the special section because it gives them a chance to tout their upcoming season’s schedule of shows through an advertorial. The special section is published the Sunday after Labor Day, which is the start of theater season, and includes content that covers the span the whole season, which wraps up at the beginning of the following summer. The-ater Preview 2009-2010 was 28 pages. Sales strategy: Content in Theater Preview is completely made up of ads and advertori-als. The size of the advertorial matches the size of the ad that is purchased. Theater Preview strictly showcases only theater-related advertisers. An entertainment sales rep on staff sells about 50 percent of the advertising included in Theater Preview, with the other half sold by local Daily Her-ald sales reps assigned by territory. Copy: Daily Herald staff can create the advertorial for the advertiser, or the theater can submit their own. Advertorials include a headline, photo, breakout box with web-site and contact info and a schedule of per-formances. Theater Preview’s advertisers are placed randomly throughout the publica-tion, mixing downtown and local theaters to move readers through the special section. Premium placement positions are available for purchase. Results: $30,000 annually

Business/IndustryThe Villages Daily SunThe Villages, Fla.Project: Salute to BusinessContact: John NelsonE-mail: john.nelson@thevillagesmedia.comTheme: The Villages Daily Sun’s Salute to Business is an annual broadsheet publica-tion that the newspaper has been putting together for about five years. The special section gives advertisers the chance to tell their story to the community. The Daily Sun publishes three versions of Salute to Busi-ness, the first of which is in color and comes out in April. Advertisers then have the op-tion of reappearing in the other two ver-sions, which are printed in black and white and published in May and June, for half-price. The color edition is the largest at 20 pages; the May and June versions are small-er at 14 and 8 pages, respectively. Sales strategy: To ensure that every busi-ness is presented fairly, participants are listed alphabetically and the design of the special section is uniform, with each page following a specific formula including the business name, headline describing what the business does, a photo and body copy. Each page is divided into sixths with one business in each section, and the layout for each business is presented like a story, not an ad. Copy: Each advertiser fills out a question-naire, which is returned to the Daily Sun’s newsroom. Reporters then follow up with businesses to get quotes, which are used in the advertorials. Businesses are able to re-view their articles before publication. To prevent the newsroom from being inun-dated with Salute to Business stories right before publication, the advertising depart-ment has two deadlines. Reps are given a spiff for hitting the first deadline. Results: $75,000 total for all three ver-sions

Vendor SupportThe News-TimesDanbury, Conn.Project: Danbury Police Station Grand OpeningContact: Suzanne GallagherE-mail: sgallagher@newstimes.comTheme: In February 2009, The News-Times contacted the city of Danbury with the idea to create a newsprint tabloid for the upcom-ing grand opening of the new Danbury Police Station that spring. The city liked the idea, and a 20-page newsprint tabloid was pub-lished for the April 2009 event. Sales strategy: The Danbury Police Station Grand Opening tabloid was supported sole-ly by advertising. The police department was able to promote the grand opening, and rev-enue generated from the special section went to the newspaper. The mayor’s office pro-vided the newspaper with a list of vendors that worked on the project and could par-ticipate in the tabloid by placing ads. The list included companies that were involved with the actual construction of the new po-lice station, such as the architect, builder, general contractor, roofer, mason and win-dow supplier. The mayor’s office provided the newspaper with a letter that was sent to vendors endorsing the upcoming tabloid and asking them to participate. The newspaper also sold advertising to police department vendors that weren’t involved with the new facility’s construction, such as bail bonds-men and the Danbury Police Union. With the exception of two regular News-Times advertisers, all of the businesses that placed ads in the special section were non-tradition-al and new to the company.Copy: The city provided the editorial con-tent for the tabloid, which included a letter from the mayor and content from the chief of police. The section included historic in-formation and photos, as well as photos of the new facility. The cover of the tabloid featured an artist rendering of the new police station that was used with the permission of the architect. Results: $14,000

— Compiled by Associate Editor Michelle Finkler

Mailed Aug. 30, from Sterling, Ill.Inform post office if it arrives after Sept. 14.

theInlanderknowledge for newspapersSEPTEMBER 2010 | Vol. 24, No. 9

Human ResouRcesAsk the right questions when interviewing sales reps.

Page 9

IndePendent contRactoRsMinimize your risk of legal trouble with contractors.

Page 14

engagIng ReadeRsA Tennessee paper’s contests build reader loyalty.

Page 18

Additional training information on page 21 or visit InlandPress.org. Select “Event Registration” under the “Training” tab.

Inland training

Sept. 1 | Webinar

sales sheets for outbound Prospecting: How to create them, and the Right Way to use themTo re-grow classifieds, newspapers need to outbound prospect as though the phone might never ring on its own ever again. Getting prospects interested in advance of the sales call boosts the suc-cess of outbound efforts tremen-dously. The right benefit sales sheets sent in advance of the call are a great tool for creating this interest. In this Inland Webinar, you will learn the basic principals behind creating simple sales sheets that grab more attention from prospects, and the right way to use them.WItH RIcHaRd claRk, PResIdent, classIfIed develoPment, JoHnson cIty, tenn.

“We continue to take advantage of and enjoy Inland Press conferences. Beth Grant, our retail manager, recently attended the Ad Executives Conference and came away very impressed — lots of useful and usable ideas. You folks are doing a great job with conferences, and we really benefit from them. Thank you!”

— Mike Kearney, sales and marketing director,Bangor (Maine) Daily News

Group Executives Special Edition

Sept. 15-17

group executives conferenceExclusive annual gathering for newspaper group executives and publishers for updates on business strategies and operational tactics for those managing multiple properties.HIlton st. louIs at tHe BallPaRk, st. louIs

To register, visit InlandPress.org and click on “Event Registra-tion” under the “Training” tab.

last cHance to RegIsteR

By Michelle FinklerAssociAte editor

When the 2010 spring primaries approached in Columbus, Ind., the advertising department at The Republic, sought a creative way to appeal to local political candidates. To speak their lan-guage, the newspaper employed a tool that can-

didates could easily under-stand: the ballot.

“Political people are very familiar with ballots,” said Kathy Burnett, advertising

operations manager for the 20,000-circulation newspaper. “We wanted to make this pamphlet as basic as possible. We can give this to our can-didates and say, ‘This is our advertising. This is how much it costs and why it costs that much.’”

In general, television gets the lion’s share of political advertising, so newspapers have to be creative to compete. But even in markets with little competition, newspapers like The Repub-lic realize that with political ad dollars, nothing is a foregone conclusion.

“It’s helpful to make sure that the candidates have the information that the newspaper works and delivers the votes,” Burnett said. “I don’t think we promote our paper enough.”

The amount of political ad spending is great-est in hotly contested races, so the newspaper’s

results were mixed, she said. But one message it continues to send candidates is clear: There’s a direct correlation between advertising in news-papers and winning elections.

Background

The idea for putting together a ballot-style pamphlet came from a February training Webi-nar on political advertising, Burnett said. The Republic began working on the brochure after the Webinar, and Newspapers Deliver Voters was completed by mid-March for candidates running in the May 1 election, Burnett said.

Newspapers Deliver Voters was designed in-house to look like a ballot and used red, white and blue, giving it patriotic flair. About 100

ind. paper gets its share of political ad spendingRelated contentPhotos from Inland’s 2010 New Business Development Conference are on page 13.

New Business Development Success Story

PoliticAl Ads: continued on PAge 12

By Adolfo Mendezeditor

You may not be getting the most

from your website if you don’t stay current on ways to keep it search-engine friendly and people-friend-ly, according to Bill Ostendorf, founder and president of Creative Circle Media Consulting in Provi-dence, R.I.

“It’s not brain surgery, believe me,” Ostendorf said during a recent Inland Webinar. “If I can learn any-thing about this, you can, too.”

Often the reality is that learning about search engine optimization, or SEO, can take a back seat to other, more pressing needs of run-ning the business, he said.

“There are so many things that editors and publishers and owners have to know now, it can feel just overwhelming,” Ostendorf said. “And, really, when you drill down,

most of it isn’t complicated. But who has time to drill down?”

Implemented properly, however, SEO can draw traffic to your web-site. “You should know that SEO is a moving target. What I tell you this year will be different next year. And it’s something you con-stantly have to adjust for,” Osten-

dorf said.As a result, some media compa-

nies hired SEO experts whose job entails staying abreast of the ever-changing standards search engines use to rank pages. Google, for in-stance, uses more than 200 factors and a proprietary algorithm soft-ware it calls “PageRank” to deter-

mine the importance of web pag-es.

For the uninitiated, SEO experts who attempt to sell a service that can significantly increase your web traffic with a results guarantee or promised search rankings should

How to tell if your website is search-engine friendly

search engines use “different custom parameters,” to rank pages, said Bill ostendorf, founder and president of creative circle Media consulting in Providence, r.i. “You will rank differently in Bing than you do google—they all have proprietary logarithms that they use to sort content.” IMAgE SuPPlIEd

WeBsite: continued on PAge 11

PAGE 12 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | SEPTEMBER 2010

Ideas

brochures were printed on standard letter-size paper using The Repub-lic’s color copier, Burnett said. The paper was folded lengthwise to rep-licate the shape of a ballot, and text at the bottom of the brochure’s cover says “Continue information next page,” like an actual ballot would, she said.

“The reasons to advertise are on the front, rate information is in middle and on the back we talk about services and how to submit,” Burnett said. “The center has a por-tion of our rate card, including sizes, color, mechanicals and dead-lines. At the bottom, we show how we obtain our rates and how you get your costs.”

The front of the brochure cites statistics on voters and newspaper readers, such as: “Three out of four undecided voters are newspaper readers” and “Voters find newspa-per ads more believable than TV, radio or direct mail in all demo-graphic groups.” The brochure cites Moore Information, NAA, Stennis Institute, Costas, Panagopoulos and Yale University for the information and statistics, which Burnett said she gathered from the Webinar.

Besides rate card information, the brochure also features informa-tion about candidates’ involvement with the newspaper, such as in an-nouncing their candidacy and find-ing out about local events they need to attend. The inside of the pam-phlet includes information and sta-tistics on voters and newspaper websites. The option of placing political ads on the newspaper’s website, TheRepublic.com, is also available to candidates, though Burnett said only a few candidates have taken advantage of the site’s offerings.

The Newspapers Deliver Voters brochures were mailed to candi-dates, and it was also available electronically as a PDF, she said.

Advertising

Burnett said political advertise-ments are mostly sold by The Re-public’s designated political adver-tising sales rep, Lisa McDonald. There are a few outside sales reps who also handle political advertis-ing for the major government of-fices, such as sheriff, but that most

of it is McDonald’s responsibility. “Our outside sales reps are out-

side the office selling ads,” Burnett said. “For the most part, candidates just walk in or call in wanting to place an ad. Having a designated rep in the office makes that easier. Lisa McDonald handles the adver-tising for the auditor, treasurer—smaller local government.”

Advertising rates listed inside Newspapers Deliver Voters are the same rates available to all of The Republic’s advertisers, Burnett said. All political accounts are pre-paid, and no deadline extensions or late ads are accepted, she said. Also, The Republic tries to be as fair as possible when it comes to ad placement, and candidates are not allowed to request placement posi-tions, Burnett said.

“We try to keep competitors’ ads separated, and we spread them out as evenly as possible,” she said. “No one gets better placement than anyone else. For people who run consistently, we try to place their ads in different parts of the paper. We try to make it as fair as possi-ble.”

Candidates’ competitive spirit is occasionally evident in the ads they place, Burnett said. The newspaper encourages candidates to be posi-tive in their advertisements, but ultimately they are free to do what they want with their ad space.

“A lot of times, they’ll see their competitor in the newspaper, and then they want to run an ad,” she said. “We have some candidates that run uncontested, and we get some of them to advertise anyway because they want to get their name out there and have money to spend.”

The Republic also offers ad de-sign services, which Burnett said 90 percent of the paper’s political advertisers use.

Results

It’s difficult to determine how much business the Newspapers De-

liver Voters pamphlet drummed up for The Republic, since participa-tion in political advertising varies depending on which offices are up for election that year and how com-petitive the races are. However, Burnett said the creation of the bro-chure did make for a smoother pri-mary election season at the news-paper.

“I don’t know about selling more ads, but it was a lot smoother and we had fewer questions from can-didates,” she said.

For the most recent primaries in May, Burnett said The Republic ran political ads from about 20 different candidates. There were 78 total candidates running in the primaries, ranging from local advisory board members to state senators, she said. Of those 78 candidates, 75 percent ran unopposed, she said.

Burnett said the 2010 primaries didn’t prove to be a great election season for political ads since there weren’t any hotly contested local races, but the newspaper did man-age to bring in more than $9,200 in political advertising revenue.

The newspaper has also received positive feedback from candidates who placed ads with The Republic, she said.

“We generally have candidates come in and thank Lisa,” she said. “I think the ones who do advertise always come back the next time they run for office. They come in with the ads that they ran previ-ously and had clipped out of the newspaper.”

When asked if many of the can-didates who placed ads in the paper went on to win the election, Burnett said, “I think so, I really do. In this community, the more they advertise in the newspaper the more they win.”

Contact: Kathy Burnett, kburnett@therepublic.com

Political ads: Creating a brochure for candidates simplifies the processConTInuEd fRoM PagE 1

newspapers deliver Voters was created by the advertising department at The Republic in Columbus, Ind., and distributed to local candidates. The ballot-style brochure is tailored to the needs of these unique advertisers and explains the benefits of placing ads in the newspaper and rate information. image supplied

More onlineTo view the Newspapers Deliver Voters political ad-vertising brochure as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

“I think the [candidates] who do advertise always come back the next time they run for office. They come in with the ads that they ran previously and had clipped out of the newspaper.”

Kathy Burnett, The Republic

JANUARY 2011 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 7

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssocIATe edIToR

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has held job fairs in the past. So has the Allegheny County Department of Veterans Affairs. But when the two joined forces to host a job fair for

America’s ser-vicemen and women in 2010, the event yield-ed the largest

turnout the VA had ever seen and $46,000 in new revenue for the newspaper.

Tim Wirth, classified operations manager for the 188,243-circula-tion daily, said the veterans and job fair exhibitors were happy with the event.

“I talked to about a half dozen employers as they were packing up after the fair, and I got very good feedback,” he said. “A few job-seekers stopped in said they had been to other job fairs and liked how we ran the event.”

About 400 job-seekers and 29 exhibitors attended the Operation Troop Employment job fair, which was open to the public but mar-keted toward veterans and their families, Wirth said. The event was held May 11, 2010, at the county-run Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum at no cost to the newspaper through its partnership with the VA, he said. Another Op-eration Troop Employment job fair is planned for 2011, but if the event increases in popularity, Wirth said the organizations would need to find a larger facility.

Operation Troop Employment also had an official guide that ran as a special section in the Post-Gazette on the Sunday before the job fair.

Planning

The Post-Gazette initially con-tacted the VA with the idea in No-vember 2009, Wirth said. The VA had hosted job fairs previously through partnerships with other or-ganizations, but Wirth said working with the newspaper meant greater marketing impact for the event, and the VA was quickly on board. Ad-ditionally, the partnership included five booths for the VA to give to service organizations, such as the VA hospital, he said.

Operation Troop Employment is the first job fair that the Post-Ga-zette organized without the help of an outside job fair vendor, such as Minneapolis-based Personnel Strat-egies Inc., which Wirth said the newspaper had worked with before. The newspaper was able to mini-mize expenses by utilizing its mar-keting department to handle the logistics for the fair, such as ar-rangements with the hall for booth space, he said.

“Early on, the partnership [with the VA] was working out the details and sharing contacts,” Wirth said. “We told them they wouldn’t have to do a whole lot for us—it was turn-key. They assisted us in run-ning the event. For the registration desk, they had some volunteer vet-erans who helped register everyone. But after the initial setup, we ran things.”

Wirth said the VA also helped with promotion by spreading word about the fair to its database of vet-erans.

Sponsorships

To find companies to participate in the job fair, Wirth said the Post-

Gazette tapped its database of re-cruitment advertisers. The VA also shared with the newspaper a list of companies it had worked with dur-ing previous job fairs, he said.

Part of Wirth’s strategy was to reach out to companies with a “predisposition to hiring veterans” through the use of fliers, newspa-per promotions and phone calls. The paper used its database for an e-mail marketing campaign target-ing recruitment advertisers, such as banks and auto dealers, he said.

“I had been the recruitment manager in the ’90s, and when we had done job fairs in the past, ads in the paper had been good at get-ting people in the door but not at attracting vendors,” Wirth said. “I was surprised that ads for Opera-tion Troop Employment did so well at attracting vendors. I sus-pect a number of the vendors were very interested in helping veter-ans—maybe they were former veterans themselves or they were just very much in support of vet-erans.”

Vendors were able to choose from three different sponsorship

packages, which included a booth at the job fair, an ad in the guide, a classified ad on Post-Gazette.com/Monster and inclusion in pro-motional materials, he said. Plati-num, Gold and Silver packages varied in value and price, with Silver being the most popular, Wirth said. The Post-Gazette based the pricing structure off of other job fairs and from the news-paper’s annual home show, which also is an event with booth space, he said.

“Essentially, we tried to figure out where our price points needed to be to have an expectable mar-gin,” Wirth said. “It was a little difficult. We didn’t want to get too expensive and be the most expen-sive job fair. I’m not sure we hit exactly the right price points. We’ll probably revisit that a little bit this year. I think we’re going to have an entry point that’s a little lower. We had some resistance from compa-nies. They wanted to be involved with veterans, but we need to find a better spread for them—a little lower entry point.”

According to the 2010 Operation Troop Employment rate sheet, the packages started at $1,195 and went up to $2,595 for the Platinum spon-sorship opportunity.

“The real key to this was an over-riding sponsorship concept, and that came from a local bank,” Wirth said. “The sponsorship came in at a high enough level that it pretty much covered our inside costs. Dol-lar Bank had some job openings, but that wasn’t necessarily their main focus. They wanted to talk about VA loans and other types of services.”

Because of the sluggish econo-my and many companies’ inabil-ity to hire, Wirth said getting busi-nesses on board with a sponsorship was a tougher sell for reps.

“We wanted to make certain that there were enough direct-hiring companies and a variety of com-panies,” he said. “We didn’t want

just schools; we wanted companies looking to hire people.”

Companies that participated in-cluded a social services organiza-tion, a hotel, a research and devel-opment laboratory and banks, to name a few. Wirth said selling sponsorships for Operation Troop Employment was open to inside sales staff, the dedicated recruit-ment advertising rep and the retail sales department.

“This was an all-hands-on-board effort,” Wirth said. “Whoever had a contact that was viable, we en-couraged them to go after it.”

Special section

The Operation Troop Employ-ment guide ran as a tabloid in the Post-Gazette on May 9, 2010. The newspaper printed 300,000 copies of the 12-page special section to accommodate its Sunday circula-tion and an additional 1,000 copies for attendees to pick up at the job fair, Wirth said. The guide was also available on Post-Gazette.com, he added.

The advertorial content for the section was written by one of the Post-Gazette’s stringers and cov-ered topics such as resources avail-able to veterans, helping veterans with service-related disabilities re-enter the work force and education benefits available through the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

“We decided early on that the advertorial content would be fo-cused on veterans, not advertis-ers,” Wirth said. “Essentially, we wanted the section to look as edi-torial as possible without upsetting the editorial department.”

Wirth said newspapers wanting to host a job fair for veterans in their markets should start the plan-ning process at least three or four months ahead of time.

“The big key is advanced plan-ning,” he said. “Get out there in advance. Make sure you have a good combined effort between de-partments at your newspaper. Re-ally, without the three depart-ments—classified, retail and marketing—I don’t think Opera-tion Troop Employment would have been the success that it was.”

Contact: Tim Wirth, twirth@post-gazette.com

Pennsylvania paper forms partnership to help veterans find jobs

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and local department of Veterans Affairs teamed up in May 2010 to host operation Troop employment, a job fair for America’s veterans and their families. The job fair also had a companion 12-page special section that was distributed through the newspaper and at the event. Image supplIed

More onlineTo view the 2010 Operation Troop Employment special section as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

New Business Development Success Story

FEBRUARY 2011 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 7

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssocIATE EdIToR

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette created Sync, a free alternative weekly that features what’s happen-ing in the central Arkansas market, to connect with hip working profes-

sionals who are not newspaper readers. Sync and its compan-ion website de-

buted in May 2007, and its popular-ity has grown since then.

“Sync happened at a time when the newspaper industry was chang-ing, and newspapers were looking for new ways to reach a new audi-ence,” said Kelly Ford, promotions director for the 177,251-circulation daily based out of Little Rock, Ark. “It came out of a brainstorming ses-sion. We asked, ‘What reader do we want? What reader do we need?’”

More than half (51 percent) of Sync’s readership does not read the daily Democrat-Gazette, according to Scarborough 2010 Release 2 re-search in the four-county Little Rock metro area. In addition, 33 percent do not read the Sunday edi-tion of the paper and 32 percent don’t read the print product on any day.

“Sync readers are not your typi-cal newspaper reader,” Ford said. “Our readers are more established than your typical 20-something, and they tend to be a little bit older. Most of them have a steady job. They have some disposable income. They’re active and involved in the community.”

According to the same Scarbor-ough Research data, the median age of Sync readers is 41 and the me-dian annual income is $80,660. Sixty-seven percent of readers are homeowners, 32 percent have chil-dren and 55 percent have attended college.

“The hope is that you get people reading Sync when they’re young-er and keep these people reading some type of print product as they get older and that they’ll graduate to a daily subscription,” she said.

Each week, 35,000 to 40,000 copies of Sync are printed in-house and are available for free every Wednesday at about 700 rack loca-tions in central Arkansas’ four-county metropolitan area, Ford

said. The locations include restau-rants, stores, bars, libraries and col-leges, all of which receive a lot of foot traffic, she said. Free home delivery of the tabloid also is avail-able, though Ford said fewer than 50 subscribers are currently taking advantage of it.

In addition, copies of Sync are passed out at events that the publi-cation participates in through its sponsorship marketing efforts, she said. Past events have included Craws for a Cause, a local crawfish fundraiser for charity, and the World Cheese Dip Championship, a non-profit event that benefits charity, she said.

“Sync will be the sponsor, and we’ll hand out the magazine at the event,” Ford said. “We want to be at places where we think our read-er will be.”

Sync also is promoted through the daily newspaper with a house ad that runs every Wednesday en-couraging readers to pick up a copy of the new issue, she said. The pub-lication and website are also pro-moted through staff participation on local radio and TV shows. Ford said Sync staff will go on shows and talk about what’s going on in the area that weekend, she said. Sync also has a presence on Twitter (@Syn-cWeekly) and Facebook (search “Sync magazine”). As of press time, Sync had 1,160 Twitter followers and 1,239 Facebook fans.

Entertainment content

Sync features content regarding what’s happening in the Little Rock area and covers special events, mu-sic, art, theater, comedy, sports, restaurants, movies and more.

“The staff meets on a weekly basis, brainstorms and brings ideas to the table,” she said. “They’re all pretty much Sync’s demographic and are plugged in to the commu-nity and what’s going on.”

Ford said Sync is put together by the equivalent of six full-time em-ployees. Freelancers also work on Sync, and its photographer splits his time between Sync and another Democrat-Gazette special section, she said.

“One of the pages I love in the magazine is as soon as you open it, there are photos of all of our staff members and they’re asked to an-swer a question,” she said. One example that ran after the first of the year asked Sync staffers to choose a celebrity and decide what their New Year’s resolution should be. “I love that because you get a sense of who’s working on the magazine. When you look at the photos, those people are the demo-graphic of our readers. Sync is cre-ated for this demographic, by this demographic.”

Sync also features a detailed events calendar, and toward the back of the print product is a Sync Classifieds section, which is affili-ated with the Democrat-Gazette’s classifieds. Ford said one of Sync’s most popular draws is a spread of party pictures taken by a staff mem-ber at events and hotspots around

town. Select photos are chosen to run in the publication, and the com-plete photo gallery is available on SyncWeekly.com, which she said is a big draw to the site.

SyncWeekly.com

Sync’s website includes all of the stories featured in the print product, along with blogs, photo galleries, videos, restaurant reviews, an in-teractive events calendar and The Hub, which is a survey and com-ments section of the site. A digital edition of the current issue of Sync also is available.

Conan Gallaty, online director for the Democrat-Gazette, said traffic to SyncWeekly.com has been in-creasing and averaged 80,000 page views per month in 2010, which is a 38 percent increase from 2009.

“It’s right on our target demo-graphic,” he said. “In the scheme of things, it’s not a lot, but it’s a fairly concentrated demographic.”

Sync also has an e-mail blast that is sent to about 100,000 subscribers every Thursday morning showcas-ing content from the new issue, Gallaty said. The e-blast has an open rate of about 20 percent, he added.

Revenue sources

Ford said about 50 percent of the businesses that advertise in Sync

are regular Democrat-Gazette ad-vertisers. Since Sync has full color on every page, she said the publica-tion attracts advertisers who may not be able to afford color in the daily product. Advertising in Sync is popular with health care offices, churches, radio stations, colleges, event promoters, restaurants and theaters, she said.

One sales rep is devoted to sell-ing ads for the special section, though it is open to all of the pa-per’s sales reps, she said. The num-ber of pages in Sync varies depend-ing on advertising, with fall being the publication’s busiest time of year, she said. The Jan. 12 issue was 32 pages.

For newspapers looking to launch a similar publication and website in their markets, Ford said compa-nies should set clear goals and ex-pectations for what they want to accomplish.

“Have a clear mission,” she said. “Be very clear about what your goals are. Are you trying to reach a new reader? Are you trying to offer alternative content? Is it all about revenue? Are you trying to steal ad dollars from your competitor? Set clear goals and go from there.”

Contact: Kelly Ford, kford@arkansasonline.com; and conan

Gallaty, cgallaty@arkansasonline.com

Weekly appeals to ‘hip adults’ who are non-newspaper readers

New Business Development Success Story

sync is a newsprint tabloid created by the Arkansas democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, Ark. The free publication is geared toward a younger demographic than typical newspaper readers and covers what’s happening in central Arkansas, including music, art, theater and dining. Images supplIed

More onlineTo view an issue of Sync as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

“The hope is that you get people reading Sync when they’re younger and keep these people reading some type of print product as they get older and that they’ll graduate to a daily subscription.”

Kelly Ford, promotions director, Arkansas democrat-Gazette

Mailed Monday, Feb. 21, from Sterling, Ill.Inform post office if it arrives after March 7.

theInlanderknowledge for newspapersMARCH 2011 | Vol. 25, No. 3

There’s no app for ThaTShaw Media forgoes an app for the iPad and creates tablet-friendly websites instead.page 12

The fuTure of mobileThe CEO of Forkfly explains why newspapers are in a strong position to leverage mobile.page 13

The VerY soCiable WeeKlYHow a weekly newspaper editor in Bay City, Texas, leverages Facebook and Twitter.page 14

Additional training information on page 17 or visit InlandPress.org. Select “Event Registration” under the “Training” tab.

Inland training

March 3 | Webinar

for editorial Departments: narrative WritingThis Inland Webinar will help your newsroom tell superior long, me-dium or short narrative stories. Ideal for both new and veteran journalists, you’ll learn techniques that are the foundation of good writing. Among the highlights of this presentation will be the sev-eral examples of writing that we will closely examine with the ulti-mate goal of becoming better sto-rytellers and producing products that truly engage your readers’ in-terests. WiTh Kim sTrong, DireCTor of business DeVelopmenT anD WriTing CoaCh, The paTrioT-neWs, harrisburg, pa.

March 10 | Webinar

Creating effective sales scriptsEvery sales presentation should be scripted, but they should never sound scripted. This old adage is true whether your reps are out-bound prospecting for new busi-ness, upselling voluntary advertis-ers or soliciting renewals. Some of these “conversational scripts” should be followed as closely as possible, while others should be “points to cover” in the sales pre-sentation. This Inland Webinar will provide a few sample scripts that you can modify for use at your publication, as well as learn the “dos and don’ts” of effective sales script order, phrasing and timing.WiTh riCharD ClarK, presiDenT, ClassifieD DeVelopmenT, Johnson CiTY, Tenn.

“The Inland Webinar information was well presented, and the techonology worked well. Even though the presenter was from a newspaper much larger than ours, I took away information that I will use. It is easily worth the time and money.”— Curt Jacobs, general manger,

The Madison (Ind.) Courier

By Inland Staff

Tom Slaughter, a former execu-tive with The Associated Press, was named Inland executive director on Jan. 27 in a unanimous decision by the Inland board of directors. As part of the transition at Inland, Patty Slusher will now play an ex-panded role at the 126-year-old trade association as the director of Membership and Programming.

Slaughter, former vice president

of U.S. Newspaper Markets for AP, created AP Digital before heading the company’s new media business unit. “I’m honored that Inland has

chosen me as its next chief execu-tive,” he said. “I believe in the mis-sion and goals of the organization and its members and will do all I can to help them thrive in this chal-lenging environment.”

Tom Shaw, CEO of Shaw Media in Dixon, Ill., and head of Inland’s search committee, said the choice of Slaughter was undertaken with due diligence. “Inland is such a great organization, very special to those of us it serves,” Shaw said.

“We have been so fortunate to have enjoyed Ray Carlsen at the helm for more than two decades; but, times are different and the challenges are greater for our industry and our as-sociation, which will require excep-tional leadership from our chief executive. Speaking for myself and the entire search committee, with-out hesitation or reservation, we could not be more pleased that Tom

tom Slaughter named Inland’s executive directorPatty Slusher named Inland’s director of Membership and Programming

By Michelle finkleraSSocIate edItor

While many newspapers are jumping on the bandwagon and partnering with daily deal sites such as Groupon or Liv-ingSocial, the Record-Journal in Meri-den, Conn., has created its own model for offering consumers discounts on goods and services from local busi-nesses.

For the past two and a half years, the Record-Journal has put together Aunt Clara’s Online Store, which sells local businesses’ gift cards to consumers at 30 percent off their face value. The busi-nesses receive the full face value of the cards through advertising dollars at the newspaper.

“We actually got the idea from The Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northamp-ton, [Mass.],” said Carolyn Wallach, assistant managing editor-online/weeklies for the 18,000-circulation daily. “They had an online store that sells gift certificates, and we took that idea and launched our own in October

Who needs Groupon when you’ve got aunt clara?

Slaughter Slusher

aunt clara: contInued on paGe 5

Inland: contInued on paGe 4

twice a year, the record-Journal in Meriden, conn., puts together aunt clara’s online Store, which sells local businesses’ gift cards to consumers at a discounted price. although the store is only open for one week, it is preceded by a month-long Sneak peek pre-Store, which helps create buzz and advertiser interest. IMAgE SuPPlIEd

MARCH 2011 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 5

Inland News

2008. We have since run it four more times.”

On average, Wallach said Aunt Clara’s Online Store attracts be-tween 130 and 150 local business-es and brings in $70,000 in revenue for the newspaper each time the store is open, which happens for one week twice a year, in the spring and fall. For the most recent fall 2010 store, 790 orders were placed and 4,360 gift cards were sold, she said.

How Aunt Clara’s is different

Wallach said Aunt Clara’s On-line Store is different from sites like Chicago-based Groupon and Wash-ington, D.C.-based LivingSocial in structure, since Aunt Clara’s gath-ers local merchants in one place, rather than the one-at-a-time ap-proach of daily deal programs. Aunt Clara’s sells gift certificates, while Groupon and LivingSocial offer coupons. Also, sites like Groupon require a minimum num-ber of purchases or the deal is can-celed; Wallach said there is no “tip-ping point” for the gift card deals available on Aunt Clara’s Online Store.

“We sell gift certificates, not coupons,” Wallach said. “The gift certificates are accepted as cash, and they do not expire. The cou-pons offered by daily deal programs are usually more restrictive and do expire. Also, businesses that par-ticipate in Aunt Clara’s receive advertising trade equal to 100 per-cent of the gift certificate face value. This is generally higher than the revenue share offered by daily deal programs.”

Wallach said the Record-Journal doesn’t see these other sites as com-petitors to Aunt Clara’s Online Store, though it does plan to try out a daily deal program in the spring through a partnership with Bounti-ful, Utah-based MatchBin, the ven-dor the newspaper used for its on-line business directory.

“It will not run at the same time as the store,” she said. “Our plan is to implement the program for a month’s worth of daily deals and see how it goes. We look at it as a potential revenue stream that is separate from Aunt Clara’s Online Store.”

Aunt Clara’s Online Store also has a Sneak Peek Pre-Store that opens one month prior to the regu-lar store’s open, and a special sec-tion runs in the Record-Journal promoting the store.

Who is Aunt Clara?

Aunt Clara is a fictional charac-ter originally created by the news-paper for Aunt Clara’s Closet, which was a free classifieds section featuring items for sale under $100, Wallach said.

“We already had an association with Aunt Clara for savings and repurposed her for the new media age,” she said. “We had stopped running the section in classifieds a couple years ago and brought her back for the online store.”

Better-than-expected results

For the first Aunt Clara’s Online Store in October 2008, the newspa-per built the online and shopping cart components for the site in-house, Wallach said. But the de-mand for the gift cards was a bit more than the website or staff could handle, she said.

“The rush on the store was im-pressive,” she said. “It happened so quickly; we can’t process that many orders at once with everyone trying to put gift cards in their cart all at the same time. The first time we did the store, we processed 800 orders with 4,000 gift cards in-house. That was a tremendous task for our staff to handle, and we quickly realized that this wasn’t the best use of our resources.”

After the first store, Wallach said the newspaper brought on a local fulfillment company to manage the pulling and shipping of orders and provide the live inventory count on the website, AuntClarasOnline-Store.com.

Creating a buzz

The Sneak Peek Pre-Store was an initiative launched with the spring 2010 store, Wallach said.

“At the time, we had had three successful stores and we were look-ing for ways to create more buzz around the store,” she said.

The pre-store launches about a month prior to the opening of Aunt Clara’s Online Store and includes the list of participating businesses with gift certificate pricing infor-

mation, such as the full value and discounted purchase price, and a link to the company’s website, she said. Businesses also can become a “featured business” on the pre-store for about $100. Featured businesses receive a bolder listing and tile ad on the Sneak Peek Pre-Store site. For the fall 2010 store, Wallach said 25 businesses par-ticipated in the pre-store as fea-tured businesses.

Customers can’t purchase any-thing from the pre-store, so as a way to bring traffic to the site, Wal-lach said the newspaper created a contest to win a $500 shopping spree. The winner got to choose 10 $50 gift cards from the featured businesses. Internet users could register to win once per day, and the fall 2010 contest had 1,477 en-tries representing 667 different people, she said.

Opening day excitement

Aunt Clara’s Online Store opens at 9 a.m. on a Monday, which Wal-lach said the newspaper has found is a good time for customers to sit at the computer and buy gift cards. During the week, there are an aver-age of 33,000 page views and 3,400 visits to AuntClarasOnlineStore.com, she said.

Customers without Internet ac-cess can call a 1-800 number that the fulfillment company has, though the reps are using the same website as the general public to input the orders, she said. With the last store, Wallach said the company received about 140 calls. The fulfillment company charges a fee per order and per phone call, she said.

After the high demand experi-enced with the first store, the news-paper also decided to limit the num-ber of gift cards purchased from one business to three per order, she said.

“You could still go back in, cre-ate another order and purchase more, but we wanted to give more people more of an opportunity to buy the cards,” she said. “A lot of items sell out in the first 20 min-utes.”

Gift card performance

Selling gift card spots for Aunt Clara’s Online Store is open to all of the Record-Journal’s 11 sales reps, Wallach said. Businesses must

Aunt Clara: Businesses earn advertising dollars through the paperConTInued fRoM PAge 1

To promote the opening of Aunt Clara’s Online Store, which sells lo-cal businesses’ discounted gift cards to consumers, the Record-Journal in Meriden, Conn., publish-es a special section that runs in the newspaper.

“We promote [the store] very heavily in our print products,” said Carolyn Wallach, assistant manag-ing editor-online/weeklies for the daily. “The week before the store, we print a catalog with display ads for each advertiser.”

For the fall 2010 store, the special section came out Nov. 4, four days prior to the store’s opening, she said. The newsprint tabloid was 24 pages and featured ads for each participating business, including gift card pricing information, Wallach said. All of the ads are the same size, but ads from featured businesses in the Sneak Peek Pre-Store ran in color.

Copies of the special section were printed to meet the Re-cord-Journal’s daily circulation of 18,000, she said. The store also was promoted in five of the company’s weekly newspapers by featuring participating businesses in those areas on one or two pages, she said.

More onlineTo view the fall 2010 Aunt Clara’s Online Store promotional

special section as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab. When Aunt Clara’s Online Store or Sneak Peek Pre-Store is open, they can be viewed at AuntClarasOnlineStore.com.

Promotional special section

offer at least $1,000 worth of cards to participate, and the required minimum value on each certificate is $25, she said.

Advertising dollars acquired from participation in the store can be used in print or online, with about 90 percent of the dollars go-ing toward print, she said. Also, these acquired advertising dollars must be used during the paper’s “slower periods.” For example, businesses that participated in last year’s fall store, which took place in November, must spend those dollars during January and Febru-ary of 2011.

On average, 77 percent of the gift card inventory is sold, with 52 per-cent sold in the store’s first 20 min-utes and 70 percent sold in the first three and a half hours, Wallach said. The Record-Journal’s graph-ics department prints the gift cards, or businesses can submit their own. Gift cards that are not sold are re-turned to businesses, so they don’t earn those advertising dollars, she said.

“It’s sometimes hit or miss,” she said. “Sometimes businesses that

aren’t well-known in the commu-nity have cards that don’t perform well. Or if certain gift cards are go-ing quickly, people will jump on board just because it’s a popular item. A lot of times, if it’s not sold in the first day, it’s probably not going to sell.”

Wallach said gift certificates to restaurants are popular, as are cards for grocery and liquor stores. An-other popular card is from an oil company offering 30 percent off heating oil. Gift cards that tend to be hit or miss include ones for car dealerships and auto services, she said. Gift cards for hypnosis also haven’t performed well in the past, she said.

Although exact dates for the next store haven’t been determined yet, Wallach said it will be in May with the pre-store launching three to four weeks earlier in April. Planning for the spring store began in February to allow time for the newspaper to make changes or implement new initiatives, she said.

Contact: Carolyn Wallach, cwallach@record-journal.com

PAGE 6 The Inlander | InlandPress.org | MAY 2011

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssocIATe edITor

When searching for your media company’s next great special sec-tion, consider asking your state’s auditor office for ideas—or at least be open to ideas from unlikely

sources.Such was the

case with the idea for South-

west Washington Family (SWW Family), a monthly magazine for teachers, parents and elementary school children.

The publication is a product of Centralia, Wash.-based Lafrom-boise Communications, though the idea came from Chantel Wilson, now editor and creative director of SWW Family and specialty publi-cations manager for The Chronicle, a 13,000-circulation paper in Cen-tralia. But Wilson wasn’t always in the media business.

“I was an auditor for the state auditor office,” she said. “I hadn’t started a family yet, but I wanted kids. I grew up in the area, went to college and came back. I felt like a small town should have a good community feeling and have a pub-lication for families. I pitched it to the publisher, and he liked the idea.”

Wilson, who had advertising ex-perience from interning at The Chronicle in high school, said work began on SWW Family in March 2006, and the first issue debuted the following September. During the school year, the publication is dis-tributed through the majority of Centralia-area public and private elementary schools, she said.

“For the first few issues, we weren’t in schools,” Wilson said. “With the issues that had already come out, we were able to show that the magazine had educational content. It was really just going in and talking to superintendents, principals and some school boards, showing them the magazine and letting them know about it.”

During summer months when school is out, the 32-page publica-tion is inserted into The Chronicle, Wilson said. SWW Family is also available year-round at more than 60 rack locations, such as libraries, coffee shops and health care facili-

ties, as well as unpublicized places, like preschools.

Of the 9,000 copies that are print-ed in-house every month during the school year, half go to schools and half go to racks, Wilson said. For the July, August and September is-sues, 16,000 copies are printed to accommodate The Chronicle’s cir-culation. SWW Family is stitched and trimmed to flexi and printed on Norbrite paper, she added.

A conversational approach

Wilson believes not having a background in journalism gives her an advantage in her approach to the magazine, which she described as more conversational and fun, with some content written in first-per-son.

“We definitely aren’t as struc-tured as the newspaper,” she said. “We don’t follow all the rules of journalism. I don’t want to say we dumb it down; kids are smart, but we keep it to a tone that kids will want to read.”

The content inside SWW Family is targeted toward elementary school children, though it occasion-ally covers topics for older students, such as teen driving, Wilson said. She tries to make content both edu-cational and fun, and appealing to parents and kids alike. Some teach-ers use the magazine during instruc-tion while some just send the pub-lication home with students in their backpacks, she said.

“I try to find creative ways for kids to learn without realizing they’re learning,” she said. “We also have stories for moms, dads and grandparents. We want to have activities for kids and for kids to do with parents. It’s family-related, but we want it to be educational, too.”

For content ideas, Wilson works with an advisory committee of par-ents from throughout the commu-nity. She also works with local experts, such as health care per-

sonnel, librarians and teachers. The story for each issue’s center-spread is written by one of three freelancers who work on a rotating basis. A third-grader freelances for the publication once per quarter, and other kids contribute to the content through contests, Wilson said.

“We did Healthy Hometown He-roes, where kids learn a little bit more about journalism and write a story about a healthy person in the community,” she said. “We also have coloring contests. We try to do interactive things to get the kids involved.”

There’s also a Teacher Feature where kids write in and tell the magazine why their teacher is great. The sponsor logo has the sponsor-ing business’s name in its center with “SWW Family Teacher Fea-ture & NIE Sponsor” around the outside. The magazine is one of the products the company offers the Newspapers in Education program, Wilson added.

There also are business-spon-sored birthday pages where parents can submit their child’s age and birth date along with a photo. Wil-son said she receives 30 to 35 birth-day submissions every month.

“I feel absolutely blessed with the contributions that we get,” she said. “The love we feel from the public is great. It’s hard sometimes to get readers to submit photos in the newspaper, but we’ve had great, great success with this.”

SSW Family also includes an events calendar, product reviews, hands-on projects, recipes, games and a “scrapbook” page for pic-tures. Additionally, the publication runs syndicated content, such as puzzles and clipart. For the cover art, the magazine has a partnership with a local photographer, who pro-vides photos of kids or parents and their kids, she said.

SWW Family also has its own website, SWWFamily.com, where online users can access issues as PDFs.

“For the lack of a better term, it was a static page for a while, where we would just list the rack loca-tions,” Wilson said. “But in Decem-ber, we did a re-launch of the site, so it now includes a blog and other online features.”

Connecting with moms

Although Wilson wouldn’t dis-close revenue figures for the pub-lication, she said SWW Family has been profitable for quite some time. Part of SWW Family’s success is its ability to connect businesses with moms, she said.

“Advertisers and marketers re-alize that moms are making a lot of the buying decisions,” she said. “We’ve had a great response [from businesses]. It’s a real niche pub-lication with a target audience. It’s especially great for businesses that sell things for babies and kids.”

Some of the magazine’s top ad-vertisers have included private schools, grocery stores, health-re-lated businesses and photographers, she said.

“We have very minimal if any swap dollars for this publication and the paper, but we do have crossover businesses,” she said. “I would say about 60 to 70 percent of businesses cross-promote and understand that they are different audiences.”

Ads for SWW Family are sold by The Chronicle’s three reps, though Wilson helps out with sales by getting new clients in the door, she said.

“The reps have a lot of responsi-bilities, so it’s always a balancing act,” she said. “I try to be a part of as many groups and associations as I can to help support the money side and to keep it going.”

To market the magazine and its brand, SWW Family hosts and sponsors community events, such as a farmers market, Christmas tree-lighting ceremony and Kidsig-ment, a semiannual event in which parents can sell their kids’ clothing, toys and other child-related items. The “kidsigners” earn the majority of the 70/30 revenue split with the company, Wilson said.

Contact: chantel Wilson, cwilson@swwfamily.com

How a niche publication captures that small-town feeling

southwest Washington Family is a product of centralia, Wash.-based Lafromboise communications. The 32-page magazine features content for teachers, parents and elementary school students. sWW Family is distributed through the majority of centralia-area schools, as well as various rack locations. Image supplIed

More onlineTo view an issue of Southwest Washington Family as a PDF, visit NBDN-Inland.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

Special Section Success Story

JUNE 2011 | InlandPress.org | The Inlander PAGE 7

Ideas

By Michelle FinklerAssocIATE EdITor

A special report on the local economy and future outlook is an important part of newspaper cover-age, but keeping it fresh and attrac-tive to advertisers and readers can

be a challenge. Marnie Mead

Oberle, special projects man-

ager for the 50,000-daily-circula-tion Erie (Pa.) Times-News, should know. She’s been working on the annual progress edition for about 15 years.

“It seems like there’s a cycle of three years where you have to rein-vent it to make it more appealing for readers and advertisers,” said Ober-le, a fourth generation member of the paper’s founding Mead family, which still owns the paper today.

After each issue, Oberle evalu-ates the publication with the adver-tising department. “I ask, ‘What did you hear back from advertisers? What did we hear back from the community? What can we do dif-ferently?’ If we see a decline in revenue, we try to figure out what we can change.”

For example, ad revenue for the Erie 2009 progress edition declined from the year prior. Oberle attri-butes the low revenues to an eco-nomic decline in the local manu-facturing industry.

As a result, manufacturers, like other local businesses, have been forced to reevaluate their ad spend-ing, she said. “Some major manu-facturers use the progress edition as an opportunity to thank employ-ees and the community for being supportive, but some of them have had to be more thoughtful with marketing dollars,” she said.

To make up for lost advertisers, the sales staff pitched to traditional newspaper advertisers. “We’ve had to go back to traditional newspaper advertisers a bit, but you don’t want to switch ad dollars with the news-paper. We still get a fair amount of non-traditional advertisers” in the publication, she said.

For the 2010 edition, the Times-News made changes to make the section more appealing to advertis-ers, Oberle said. Based on advertis-ers’ feedback, the paper changed the layout to mix advertiser pro-

files—advertorial pieces written about businesses that place a quar-ter-page ad in the section—with editorial content, she said.

Previously, editorial stories and advertiser profiles had been sepa-rated with editorial content in the front and advertiser profiles in the back of the section, or by creating two separate publications for each, Oberle said. Now, the progress edi-tion has a column’s width of space on the outside edge of pages for advertiser profiles with editorial content running inside. Editorial and advertorial stories are labeled with headers, so readers can distin-guish between the two, she said.

“It’s a real collaboration for the ad department and the newsroom,” Oberle said. “It has purely news-room-driven content about the economy in addition to profiles on advertisers. That’s the model we’re working with right now. If you’re reading it, you can see messages from advertisers alongside the edi-torial stories.”

The new layout was a hit with advertisers in 2010, and the Times-News doubled its revenue from 2009, Oberle said. The same format was used with Erie 2011, which was published March 13 and brought in a 2.2 percent increase over Erie 2010, she said. The prog-ress edition also garners an 86 per-cent profit margin, Oberle said.

“It’s printed on newsprint, so the overhead is relatively low,” she said. “We typically don’t encounter any overtime. We try to minimize vaca-tion during that time. There are no special shifts, so it gets run at a time when we don’t have to have a bunch of people come in. We’re all very conscious of overtime. If you start the conversation earlier rather than later, everyone can plan around it.”

Preparation for the next year’s progress edition begins the summer before the publication comes out, which happens in March or April, she said. Advertising and editorial efforts begin in November and De-cember. While early-bird discount

deadlines for advertising are in De-cember, the real push for ad dollars begins in January and February, Oberle said.

Shaping the content

The progress edition, which is the newspaper’s biggest project of the year, is a joint effort between the editorial and advertising depart-ments, Oberle said. The niche pub-lications team, which is part of the newsroom, handles much of the project with the help of a few staff reporters, longtime freelancers and a graphic designer who creates the section’s many graphics, she said.

However, the new format of mix-ing advertiser profiles with edito-rial content was a bit challenging for the different departments, Ober-le said.

“The newsroom doesn’t want their message influenced by adver-tisers,” she said. “The message can’t be that everything is yippy-skippy because we would lose credibility. On the flipside, the advertisers want

a true message, but they don’t want doom and gloom because nobody’s going to buy anything.”

The progress edition’s content is divided into two sections. The first section is an overall look at the lo-cal economy, and the second is a look at how various local industries are faring, such as manufacturing, shipping and agriculture. The spe-cial publication also breaks down housing and employment numbers, Oberle said.

Content in advertiser profiles includes products and services of-fered, location, date founded, web-site, email address, number of em-ployees, top management, high-lights from the past year and goals for the coming year. The profiles are compiled from a questionnaire that is filled out by each advertiser, Oberle said.

“For the advertiser profiles, it’s saying, ‘Here’s what’s new with us,’ instead of, ‘Here’s why you should buy our car,’” she said. “It’s a capsule about their business.”

Advertiser profiles and busi-nesses’ corresponding ads are run on different pages, and the Times-News tries to keep competitors’ content and ads separate, she said. Selling ads for the progress edition is open to all of the ad department’s 20 sales reps, she added.

Oberle said about 75,000 copies are printed to accommodate the paper’s Sunday circulation of 70,000, as well as extras for in-house purposes. The progress edi-tion is a 26-page broadsheet publi-cation, and its content is available online at GoErie.com/profiles.

For now, the Times-News has found a model that is working for advertisers and bringing in revenue for the paper, Oberle said.

“Reinventing the publication ev-ery year is too tiring,” she said. “You have to train ad staff to send the new message to advertisers, and advertisers might not understand the change. This model is working for us right now.”

Contact: Marnie Mead oberle, marnie.oberle@timesnews.com

How a Pa. paper keeps yearly look at the economy, local market fresh

Special Section Success Story

More onlineTo view Erie 2011 as a PDF, visit SpecialSections.org and select the “Ideas” tab.

The Erie (Pa.) Times-News publishes an annual report (cover at left) that takes a look at the area’s economic state and future outlook. To make the special report more appealing to advertisers, the newspaper included a column’s width of space on pages (seen at right) to accommodate advertiser profiles with editorial content running inside. Images supplIed