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SAPAToday
Advancing the free paper industry by providing resources for success and venues for sharing ideas.
THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FOR THE FREE PAPER INDUSTRY
Board of Directors
The leadership of SAPA is
in good hands. The board
of directors, director, and
assistant are listed with
contact information.
Page 3
How’s Your
Peripheral Vision?
John Foust gives two great
examples of how we often
try to “cut corners” with
our customers.
Page 3
Conference Schedule
We just had an amazing
conference in Birmingham,
Alabama. Now, prepare
to join us in New Orleans,
LA September 2012.
Page 8
OCTOBER 2011
Graphics Series
Ellen Hanrahan shows
how Vertical Type can add
some fun and excitement
to an ad, without a lot of
work.
Page 5
Setting Priorities
Correctly
Richard Clark guides the
classified ad department
and its supervisors on how
to set correct priorities.
Page 9
USPS Update
If you don’t know what
an Exigent Rate Remand
Case means then read this
article to understand this
complex subject.
Page 6
Southeastern
Publishers
Advertising
Association
How To Get Ready For
Holiday Advertising
by Bob Berting, Berting Communications
How should your advertising salespeople approach their customers to
discuss holiday advertising and to
maximize their role as a marketing
consultant? More speciﬁcally, how do
they create a major role for their publication in the customer’s media mix
campaign?
Too many times management and their
advertising salespeople are caught up
in one time promotions in the fall such
as Harvest of Values, Building and
Home Improvement sections. Football
sponsor pages, and a host of other one
time promotions. They are all wonderful promotions but in many cases, they
interfere with preparing the customer
for the big holiday season. Suddenly
it’s early November and time to get the
creative juices going for holiday advertising campaigns—but it’s too late.
EVALUATING RELATIONSHIPS
With so much emphasis on regular
advertisers, we sometimes forget our
inactives—the people who once advertised with you, but dropped out.
What better way to get them advertising again than to show them how you
Many retailers spend 25% of their can creatively design an effective holiyearly budgets on holiday advertising. day advertising campaign for them.
Hopefully many will have an advertis- Another group are your prospects who
ing plan which will lock in a majority aren’t sold on your publication so your
of their budget with your publication. holiday ad campaign plan can be the
Let’s take a look at a plan which will reason for their start with you.
help you to prepare for this important
season.
continued on page 2
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
(931) 490-0488 fax
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THE FARMER THEORY
The key issue for your regulars, prospects, and inactives is that you plant
the seed of thought before the start of
the season. That means right now—
in early October. Talk about holiday
advertising with every contact you
make. The irrigation and cultivation
are the spec layouts you bring to them
and the ﬁnal close to convince them
your publication is the key medium
for their holiday program. This farmer
approach is a consistent, ongoing relationship while the opposite is the
hunter approach which is a one time,
quick kill event or one time ad. Which
will be the predominant group you
develop—farmers or hunters?
CREATIVE STRATEGY PLAN
First of all, what are the customer’s
goals for the holiday season? How
can you help fulﬁll those goals? These
goals can be transformed into beneﬁts
for the consumer and they also can
be converted into the headings for
the ads in the holiday campaign. The
overall plan is based on the fact you
have spent the early part of October
preparing all your customers and get-
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ting commitments for the program.
Although you can try to start people
on the program yet in October, it may
be prudent to push for a November
start. November could have 3 moderate size ads, each with a separate
idea, followed with a large dominant
ad which can summarize the content
of the 3 previous ads. December can
have a pre-print insert as the kick off,
followed by 3 moderate size ads. The
use of color is really important and
should be part of the package, at a reduced rate. Be sure and tell your advertisers about this reduced color rate.
vertising Sales and Image Power” can be
ordered on his website www.bobberting.
com or by sending your e-mail address
and phone number with 21.95 check to
Bob Berting who will send it to you as a
download. Bob also conducts tele-seminars and webinars for advertising salespeople, print media management, merchant groups, and trade associations.
FINAL THOUGHT
Any plan has to be sold with enthusiasm. It’s up to you to now move forward on your holiday advertising effort. Remember to sell with emotion
and justify with logic.
The way to get started is to
quit talking and begin doing.
Walt Disney
Contact Bob at 800-536-5408 and bob@
bobberting.com. He is located at 6330
Woburn Drive, Indianapolis, In 46250.
The difference between a
successful person and others is
not a lack of strenth, not a lack
of knowledge, but rather a lack
of will.
Vince Lombardi
Bob Berting is a professional speaker,
newspaper sales trainer, and publisher
marketing consultant who has conducted
over 1500 seminars for newspaper sales
staffs, their customers, print media associations and trade associations in the US
The price of greatness is
and Canada.
Berting’s new E-Booklet “Dynamic Ad-
Organizational Software
responsibility.
Winston Churchill
David C. Zeh
Print Sales Consultant
Tools you need to be more efﬁcient.
HNF#;(+'.&4+8'TT1:MJJ
Monroe, GA 30655
toll free: 800.354.0235
local: 770.267.2596
fax: 770.267.9463
Lead Developer & Founder
407-656-2777
chris@MaxProPublishing.com
www.MaxProPublishing.com
Software Developed by:
Little Fish Big Ocean, Inc.
Partners in Printing Since 1900
mobile: 770.722.0076
email: dzeh@waltonpress.com
www.waltonpress.com
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
(931) 490-0488 fax
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SAPA
Leadership
President
Russell
Quattlebaum
Southeast Sun
Enterprise, AL
334-393-2969
US
Vice President
Tony Onellion
Bargains Plus
Slidell, LA
985-649-9515
Integrity is the
most valuable
and respected
quality of
leadership.
Always keep
your word.
Brian Tracy
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Treasurer
Alan Lingerfelt
The Piedmont
Shopper
Danville, VA
434-822-1800
Secretary
Caroline
Quattlebaum
Southeast Sun
Enterprise, AL
334-393-2969
Board Member
Will Thomas
Exchange, Inc.
Fayetteville, TN
931-433-9737
Board Member
Bill Derby
Johnson City News &
Neighbor
Johnson City, TN
423-979-1300
Past President
Greg Ledford
Shelby Shopper &
Info
Shelby, NC
704-484-1047
Past President
Gary Benton
Peddler
ADvantage
Paris, TN
731-644-9595
Executive
Director
Douglas Fry
SAPA Headquarters
Columbia, TN
931-490-0400
Administrative
Assistant
Vickie Belden
SAPA Headquarters
Columbia, TN
931-490-0400
Touch All
The Bases
“A minute or so into her spiel, she
asked if I wanted to hear the ad copy
they had prepared for my listing. That
really took me by surprise, because
By John Foust, Raleigh, NC
I had never talked to anyone at that
Burt is a real estate agent who told company before. To be honest, I had
me about a call he received from a never heard of them.
telemarketer. “It was a company that
was selling advertising in some kind “As far as I remember, the copy went
of print and online directory,” he said. something like this: ‘In today’s everchanging real estate market, you want a
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
representative who will keep your best
interests at heart. Burt understands the
intricacies of buying and selling. From
his first day in the real estate business,
he has been focused on customer
service. And over the years, he has
developed a strong network of contacts
in the banking, construction, and
relocation industries. Whether you’re
interested in buying or selling, Burt is
the right person to help with your real
estate needs. Customer service is his
number one goal.’
“Ridiculous, isn’t it?” he said with a
laugh. “Now, I’m not blaming the lady
continued on page 4
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who called me, because she was just
doing her job. But it was obvious that
her company uses generic ego copy to
try to close sales in short phone calls.
They probably have one template for
real estate, one for dentists, one for
attorneys, and so on.
an old baseball story. Jake Beckley, who
played for the Cincinnati Reds in the
early 1900s, was running from second
to third when he noticed that the home
plate umpire’s back was turned. Not
one to miss an opportunity, Beckley
skipped third base altogether – missing
“How in the world can anybody create the bag by fifteen feet – and sprinted
effective advertising without learning to home plate. He was emphatically
something about the advertiser?” Burt called out, and when he complained,
asked. “It was obvious that they were the ump replied, “You got here too
quick.”
skipping a step in the process.”
That telemarketing call reminds me of Like Jake Beckley, Burt’s telemarketer
Tight Economy? Revenue Down?
You need More Than Just Content!
The Nation’s Fun Family Newspaper
Award Winning Editorial Educational Worksheets
CVC Audits Website Online Edition Truman, the dragon
Burt wants his marketing to stand out,
not blend in. And I think it’s safe to say
that the advertisers in your hometown
want the same thing.
(c) Copyright 2011 by John Foust. All
rights reserved.
Find out why the Kidsville News! educational resource and children's
newspaper is the fastest growing publication in the nation.*
“Kidsville News! is a unique publication that is not only
well read in the classroom, but CVC research shows the
editions are brought home and shared with parents and
siblings. Each month nearly 60% of Kidsville News!
editions are still in the hands of child & adult readers
when the new issue is distributed. This high retention
rate allows sponsors a unique opportunity for their
message to have an impact in communities.”
— TIm Bingaman, CVC
Spec advertising can play a valuable
role in the sales process, as long as
it is based on relevant information
about the advertiser. “I have bought
spec ads before,” Burt explained. “One
thing that set those ads apart was that
the people who created them learned
something about my business before
they presented ideas. They studied my
previous advertising, and they asked
questions to learn what sets me apart
from my competitors. That put them
in position to create ads that weren’t
generic, boilerplate ramblings like I
heard from that telemarketer.”
It all starts with knowledge. That’s one
step that is too important to skip.
New revenue sources, higher proﬁts,
solutions & opportunities
“ReadKiddoRead is about getting the very best books into kids’ hands, the ones
that will create life-long readers. Kidsville News! understands how important this
is — they have a solid, entertaining paper that gets kids and parents reading
together. What a great place to showcase a taste of what’s going on
at ReadKiddoRead.”
— James Patterson, Author
tried to skip a step – and was called out
at the plate.
2009 Kidsville
News! Circulation
1.1 million
nationwide!
John Foust has trained thousands of
newspaper advertising professionals.
Many ad departments are using his
training videos to save time and get quick
results from in-house training. E-mail for
information: jfoust@mindspring.com
2007:
806,125
2005:
80,000
FOR INFORMATION
ABOUT BRINGING
KIDSVILLE NEWS TO
YOUR COMMUNITY CALL
Bill Bowman, President
bbowman@kidsvillenews.com
910.222.6200 or 910.391.3859
Kidsville News! is NOT a franchise,
insert or special section.
www.KidsvilleNews.com
In reading the lives of great men,
I found that the first victory they
won was over themselves... self
discipline with all of them came
first.
President, Harry S. Truman
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
(931) 490-0488 fax
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TOP TO BOTTOM… A GREAT WAY OF MAKING A LIST,
BUT NOT SO GOOD FOR READINGAT LEAST IN THIS
CULTURE. AND ONCE I SEE AN EXAMPLE, I START TO
SEE IT EVERYWHERE. SO TRY TO AVOID…
I’ll see something, in this case, the
use of vertical type on a flyer or a building, and
then pretty soon, I am seeing examples almost
everywhere. I don’t know, maybe it just runs in
streaks but that’s just the way it seems.
Anyway, it started when I saw the name
Mineshaft on one side of their building (this is
a very popular restaurant in the Hartford area).
I guess I had never really paid much attention to
it before because their logo and all other print
media never uses the vertical format. I started
to look for sources that talked about vertical
type or “stacked” type, but it wasn’t easy—and
I pretty much came up with nothing! Especially
when almost all the software programs offer this
feature (remember, just because you can do it,
doesn’t make it the right thing to do).
V V M M Readability is negligible as you
e E i I have to look at each individual
can’t just read the
r R n N letter—you
word as a group. All letters are
t T e E centered to avoid even more
i I s S confusion and even making
c C h H the letters all caps doesn’t help
much. The problem is that
a A a A very
our alphabet contains a variety
l L f F of character sizes—skinny, wide
t T and everything in between!
And use of a serif typeface?
That adds even more distractions and problems.
However, sometimes a small word, like the
word “Sale” could be made to work. We deal
with a lot of “Sales” in our ads, and never enough
space so sometimes it may be a solution—not
best, but a solution. You must make
S S the
it easier to read and turn it into a fixeda A width face. Capital letters are easier to
l L read because the x-height is somewhat
e E similar, so we will start there. SALE in all
caps has letters that are almost the same.
I increased the type size so it is easier to read
and created a box around each letter to create
the illusion of a fixed-width
area. The background is
now uniform and creates a
defined space for each letter uniting the group.
A strong, simple typeface
works the best for readability. Go as bold as you can
and as large as you can.
I also think white type on a darker background
(in the 3rd example the screens are 70% and
100%) also adds a bit more unity by creating a
more cohesive element and enabling the group
to be read as a “whole.” This is where the idea of
“negative space” is critical.
SSS
AAA
L L L
E E E
The aforementioned process would probably
not work with longer words, ( S A L E can still
be read as a group) because readability should
be easy, not contrived, not cute, not an impediment… you want the message to be remembered. So when in doubt–don’t!
Another option…
OK… let’s use the Mineshaft as an example. The
customer wants the name of their business to
be as big as possible and they want to place it in
a one column ad. Fortunately, they only want a
few words. What to do?
Sorry, not my best
but this ad is for
demo and I do have
to use vertical type!
See how difficult
it is to read the
name and it seems
to be a jumble of
boxes and text.
The name is set
in Helvetica
Neue Black, 28
point on 21 point
leading with -5
letter spacing.
The following
may offer a
better solution!
Rotate! To keep
unity, I placed
“Restaurant
and Bar” under
the name and
moved the
general text
over just a bit.
The name is
easier to read
but still may not
be the best.
Same typeface,
but it’s 34 point.
Leading does not
matter because the
other line is smaller
with -20 letter
spacing, in reverse.
M
I
N
E
S
H
A
F
T
The best place for
fun, food, family
and friends.
See our great
menu offerings
for breakfast,
lunch, and
dinner.
Located in
downtown
Hartford
Address & Phone
on two lines
Restaurant and Bar
MINESHAFT
R E S TA U R A N T A N D BA R
Vertical Type
This is just a little weird… last month I wrote an article about glyphs and
their usage. The strange thing… after I wrote that article, Before and
After—one of my favorite web sites— had an article on “Fun with Glyphs.”
Talk about great minds, well the stuff by John McWade is always better,
but still who knew! If you want to learn more about the glyphs and a demo,
go to the October issue of the Independent Publisher at www.ifpa.com and
select TIP Online.
If you have problems or would just rather have your own copy, you can
always e-mail me at the address below.
The best place for
fun, food, family
and friends.
See our
great menu offerings for breakfast,
lunch, and
dinner.
Located in
downtown
Hartford
Address & Phone
on two lines
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
The direction to rotate is up to you, but generally,
it will look better if the baseline is facing the edge
of your interface, in other words where headline
and text interact. I also did a little changing of
the general text area and narrowed the entire ad
to create more dimension. “MINESHAFT” is now
easier to read… granted a little head tilt is necessary, but it will be easier to remember the name.
But wait, there’s more…
Take a close look at the word itself… it can be
“stacked” with the syllables, in this case “mine”
and “shaft” (we got lucky!)
Keeping a similar look from the last ad, we
keep the same point size for the name, but modify the “Restaurant and Bar” portion… a little
smaller, less letterspacing and still placed on two
lines.
The general text has remained the same in all
three ads, just positioned a little differently. The
size of the ads is the same, except where noted,
but as you can
see, there’s a bit
of difference in
the looks.
So which ad is
the most effecRESTAURANT
AND BAR
tive?
MINE
SHAFT
Back to
Helvetica
Neue Black,
28 point on 21
point leading
with -5
letter spacing.
The
Bottom
Line
The best place for
fun, food, family
and friends.
See our great menu
offerings for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner.
Located in
downtown Hartford
Address & Phone
on two lines
Vertical type is a beast to work with. The best
scenario is not ever to use it! That being said, you
may be forced to at some point in your career.
So go bold and see if you can add some unity
by developing a visual fixed-width element.
One of my favorite phrases is ”impedes readability,” when confronted with issues that actually impede readability! Feel free to use this phrase
if the issue of vertical type arises!
I welcome your input and suggestions. I entered the
publishing business after nine years as a high school
art teacher and taught software programs at technical school. I also write for The Independent Publisher,
and I’m still learning. E-mail: hanrahan.ln@att.net
Ellen Hanrahan ©2011
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USPS Update:
Taking It To The Top
sumers to their own sites. More lead
time would allow mailers to present
the bar code to existing or potential
advertising customers and use the
program as a way to stimulate creative advertising or opportunities for
unique customer promotions.
by Donna Hanbery
The saturation volume incentives of
the past two years were helpful, but
they did not help enough. Albert explained that growing new programs
or adding frequency required 24-36
months to “ramp up.” A one-year
promotion ends just as advertiser
contracts are coming to an end. This
makes the mailer vulnerable to competition from newspapers and private
delivery carriers at the worst possible
time. Reblin and Mastervich both
commented that they heard more lead
time and a longer promotion period
for adding circulation and frequency
might be important.
In August 2011, the Co-Chair of the
Saturation Mailers Coalition Albert
Braunﬁsch of MailSouth, and Executive Director Donna Hanbery, attended meetings with Postal Service
ofﬁcials to discuss ways the Postal
Service could grow and maintain the
business of saturation program mailers like free papers, shared mailers,
and coupon magazine and envelope
products. Gary Reblin, Vice President
of Domestic Products for the United
States Postal Service, and David Mastervich, Product Manager of Saturation Mail, took time to discuss current
products and promotions, the competitive landscape, and what is – and
is not – working with incentives. The
meeting also presented an opportunity for Donna Hanbery to share the
results of an SMC-member survey
where mailers were asked to discuss
what the Postal Service was doing
right, wrong, and the percentage of
revenues that mailers were spending
on postal distribution with the USPS.
ﬂats have a cost mark-up of approximately 250% one of the highest markups in the system. Co-Chair Albert
Braunﬁsch repeatedly made the point
that mailers could do more business
with the Postal Service, and could add
circulation or increase frequency in
under-served markets, if postal rates
were lower.
Gary and David were both interested in
the market response to Postal Service
incentives. Gary Reblin commented
that the Postal Service was looking for
more leverage to increase frequency
and wanted to spark growth. Reblin
was encouraged about the recent bar
code promotion. “We want to show
there are ways to make the mail more
valuable.” Reblin pointed out that the
bar code promotion made it possible
for the mail to be used to complete
a transaction. With a quick response
code, a shopper could interact with
the mail and use a smart phone to do
impulse shopping while looking at a
mail piece.
The SMC representatives and postal
ofﬁcials both agreed that some of the
incentive programs were too complex
and required many hours of time to
determine if a mailer qualiﬁed and
to compute threshold numbers and
rebates. One of the Postal Service ofﬁcials that has been working on the
saturation/high density incentive program commented that his ofﬁce spent
many hours performing calculations
that only produced a $70 rebate for
one mailer. This equation of staff time
for new business does not make sense
for the Postal Service.
SMC’s representatives made these
Albert and Donna were mindful that comments about Postal Service prothe Postal Service has been post- motions:
ing losses and will be seeking a rate Our members universally like and are
adjustment in the fall. Forefront on using the bar code promotion. Any
their minds was making the point time a mailer has an opportunity to The SMC representatives commented
that the rates for saturation program save 3%, it will jump at it. Most mail- that the adoption of simpliﬁed admail are already too high. Saturation ers are using the bar code to send concontinued on page 7
Your new art & ad destination.
CreativeOutlet.com
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USPS Update:
Taking It To The Top
dressing for city routes had produced
some savings for mailers that helped
hold the line on prices.
Much of the meeting was spent discussing the competitive environment
that mailers and the Postal Service
are facing. It appeared that the Postal
Service believed that declines in circulation for traditional newspapers
and print media would send more
retailers and advertisers to the mail
and bring business to SMC programs.
Albert Braunﬁsch made it clear that
the Postal Service and mailers could
not assume they will be able to capture traditional print business or FSIs
leaving daily newspapers. Albert explained that advertisers were working
with various agencies to seek alternatives to traditional daily newspapers.
Although the mail had an opportunity to compete for this business, there
were other networks and agencies
that were bundling retail and grocery
circulars to seek the lowest cost option. Albert stressed that the Postal
Service and mailers faced a number
of competitive problems when vying
for FSI business against private carriers. The number one problem was
the additional postal rate charges required for weight. Private carriers can
continued from page 6
offer advertisers a ﬁxed price based
upon frequency. Many retailers are
doing heavier pieces, or even multiple pieces, in the 4th quarter. They
want a ﬁxed price for their advertising all year. A mailer needs to charge
more for heavier pieces because of
the pound rate charges. The mail
cannot currently compete with daily
newspapers or private delivery when
it came to heavier-piece promotions.
Although mailers need to match competitive conditions and give retailers
more favorable rates for frequency,
mailers get no price break with the
Postal Service.
We also discussed the desire of many
retailers to have a sale that breaks on
Saturday or Sunday. The Postal Service is already at a competitive disadvantage with the absence of Sunday
delivery. Discussions of moving to
5-day, and the potential loss of Saturday for advertisers, is another action
the Postal Service is pursuing that will
help private carrier delivery, PCD,
companies compete against the mail.
It was clear to SMC representatives
that the Postal Service was not aware
of the growth of PCD companies and
the opportunities for advertisers to
choose another print distribution me-
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
dia besides mail or daily newspapers.
Gary Reblin and David Mastervich
both commented that the Postal Service might be able to work with the
industry on weight. They commented
that the Postal Service currently collects approximately $200M a year in
revenue on pieces weighing 3.3 - 3.5
oz. It would be difﬁcult for the Postal Service to raise the breakpoint, or
lower the pound rate, without ﬁnding another way to get this revenue.
Donna commented that our members
are already paying too much for mail
distribution. Pointing to the survey
results she delivered to the Postal
Service, SMC members already pay
the USPS anywhere from 25-50% of
every dollar collected from advertising customers in postage. The Postal
Service might make more money, and
increase its volumes and revenues,
with a pricing policy that does a better job of rewarding its loyal, regular
customers.
Other topics covered at the meeting included the Postal Service announcement of a structural change
that would allow it to charge two
separate rates for the detached address label (DAL). The Postal Service
commented that there was an automation processing cost associated in
handing DALs and that it appeared
some mailers were able to use the
DAL like a separate postcard piece.
They commented: “We don’t want to
hurt mailers that need to use the DAL
(931) 490-0488 fax
continued on page 10
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Conference Schedules
SAPA Annual Conference: New
Orleans, LA, September 2012:
SAPA and IFPA joined together to have
one of the best joint conferences ever
in Nashville in 2010. We are joining
forces again in 2012. This time we’ll get
to visit one of the most dynamic and
interesting cities in the South—New
Olreans, Louisiana. The theme of the
conference is “Rolling On The River.”
You can expect great speakers, local
cuisine, and enjoyable activities to
make this a conference to remember.
Watch this space for more information
as plans progress. Call Douglas Fry at
1-800-334-0649 for more info.
IFPA Annual Conference, Reno,
NV September 30 - October 1,
2011: Valuable seminars, open forums,
a vendor showcase, awards banquet,
design contests, luxurious settings,
and plenty of entertainment. Seminar
topics include: sales, new revenue
ideas, how to make money online,
classified ad program development, ad
layout & design, and how to compete
with broadcast media. Call Gary Rudy
at 609-408-8000 for more information.
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Display & Classified Ad Sales & Billing
Circulation z Direct Mail z Payroll z Accounting
M ERRIMAC S OFTWARE A SSOCIATES INC .
TAMWORTH, NH 603 323 8811
W W W. M E R R S O F T . C O M
in·san·i·ty
[in-san’-i-te]
“Doing the same thing over and over again and
Albert Einstein
expecting different results.”
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Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
(931) 490-0488 fax
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W W W. S A P A T O D AY . C O M
Setting Priorities
Correctly
by Richard Clark
Clearly the toughest challenge faced
by most Classiﬁed Supervisors is setting priorities correctly. Most classiﬁed
supervisors get little or no training in
time management. They take the reins
of the new position and are bombarded with “zillions” of things that must
be done right away. Most of these issues involve human resources, computer systems, accounting, production, or other processes that have little
or nothing to do with getting someone
to purchase an ad.
New supervisors are anxious to make
a good impression, so they try to get
all of those things done. Somehow, the
business of creating ways to grow revenue gets lost in the act of managing
all the processes. The problem is that
classiﬁed supervisors get most of their
day-to-day feedback based on how
well all the processes are managed,
rather than how much advertising is
sold. Managers get into the poor habit
of focusing primarily on the processes.
All too often, the concept of using ingenuity to maximize revenues either
takes a back seat or is lost completely.
Ok, classiﬁed supervisors and managers, here’s the deal: “Your number
one priority is to grow revenue!” Ev-
It just doesn’t make sense to take away
from sales time for clerical and production tasks. Keep your sales staff selling.
If you have someone in your department that just can’t seem to grasp the
concept that their job is sales, give that
person all the non-sales duties so the
salespeople can spend time selling
erything and anything else that isn’t more ads.
directly focused on growing revenue
Just to be clear, as a Classiﬁed Supervihurts your sales performance.
sor, you must accomplish your primaThe other departments you work with ry goal of maximizing revenue generaare primarily interested on accom- tion every day, or else you have failed.
plishing their individual primary ob- This is true no matter what else you
jectives. They will siphon off as much may have accomplished that day.
of your valuable sales time as you alThis means that Ad-visors always eflow them to take. Their objectives are
ﬁciently make the most out of every
met, which makes them look good.
inbound call. Ad-visors make their reYour sales don’t grow, and may even
newal callbacks every day; even things
dip, and upper management wonders
are really busy. Clear plans, objectives
if you have the right stuff. You simply
and schedules for maximizing outcannot let these objectives from other
bound calling for special pages, prodepartments keep you from achievmotions and directories must be iming your department’s primary goal of
plemented.
growing sales revenues.
In addition to outbound calling for
Does this mean that classiﬁed doesn’t
special items, the department must
have to do those “other” tasks? For
spend time staying in touch with existmost, of course you still have to do
ing advertisers that haven’t run recentthem. Be willing to work with those
ly. It doesn’t do much good to add new
other departments, just not under
customers if there is a steady stream of
them. The question is the priority. If
them falling away. The same is true of
something is missed because you are
advertisers that you ﬁnd in other meshort on time, it has to be one of these
dia that should be advertising in your
“other” activities, and never any of
classiﬁed products.
your department’s sales activity.
There are many priorities in the classiThere is a steady supply of people that
ﬁed department, but any that get ahead
will do clerical and production duties
of selling more advertising are simply
for less money than most salespeople
out of order. I once saw a sign above
make. Good salespeople are the hardcontinued on page 10
est employees for any business to ﬁnd.
JB Multimedia, Inc. P.O. Box 704 N. Bellmore, NY 11710 888.592.3212 phone/fax www.jbmultimedia.net
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Justin Gerena, President, Director of Sales
p: 888.592.3212 x710
e: justin@jbmultimedia.net
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
CONNIE GIBBS
Connie@theBOOKcreators.biz
563-451-7854
JOEL KLAASSEN
Joel@theBOOKcreators.biz
620-947-1923
(931) 490-0488 fax
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W W W. S A P A T O D AY . C O M
Setting Priorities
Correctly
continued from page 9
a business manager’s desk that read,
“A lack of planning on your part does
not constitute an emergency on my
part.” This is pretty sound advice. Another department’s top priority doesn’t
change your department’s top priority.
If you will make this your philosophy,
you can be sure you’ll be rewarded for
meeting your primary goal.
shucks” and “do it or die” delivery of
classiﬁed advertising advice has brought
success to well over 300 classiﬁed departments across America. His “Classiﬁed Development” program includes
rate structuring, sales training and management coaching. To learn more about
improving your classiﬁed numbers call
423-929-2243, or e-mail classiﬁeddevelRichard Clark’s unique blend of “aw opment@yahoo.com.
USPS Update:
Taking It To The Top
continued from page 7
for addressing, but we’d like a way of
getting more money from a DAL if the
mailer is able to sell it like a separate This sentiment was echoed by several
SMC members that publish mailed
piece.”
free papers or offer shared mail proThe SMC survey revealed that the DAL
grams.
was still important to many mailers
both for addressing and for revenue. Albert urged the Postal Service to
One free paper publisher wrote that look at the DAL in a holistic manner.
his company had drastically reduced It gives shared mailers and free papers
circulation in recent years due to high another product to offer customers. It
postage costs and the economy. He can be a gateway product that helps
mailers persuade advertisers to test
said:
the mail. If the advertiser is pleased
We have competitors that are distribwith the response, it is likely to graduting in mail tubes attached under the
uate into a shared mail program or do
mailbox. Their costs are half of our
an insert or ROP ad with a free paper.
postage. Without the DAL we could
not compete and remain in the mail. Last but not least, we discussed ideas
It is a proven vehicle for customers be- for the Postal Service and mailers to
cause it works. It covers a substantial reach under-served market areas.
portion of our postage. Any change in MailSouth has expertise in mail marthe DAL surcharge would be the straw kets that serve more rural areas where
a monthly shared mail program is ofthat forces us out of the mail.
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
fered. Albert explained that there are
areas of the country where there are
no shared mail programs or newspapers offering a total market coverage
option. Many advertisers would like
to reach consumers in these areas, or
to have a more frequent (weekly) advertising vehicle. Certainly the Postal
Service has capacity in many areas
where its carriers must still serve a
route with few pieces. We encouraged the Postal Service to develop an
approach to pricing that would stimulate and encourage mail volume in
these under-utilized markets.
As the meeting came to a close, Donna and Albert stressed the efforts of
SMC and its members to improve the
postal partnership. Albert challenged
the Postal Service ofﬁcials to think
about ways to grow incremental revenue and appreciate the challenges
that mailers face with stiff competition from newspapers and private delivery in the areas of pricing and their
ability to control delivery dates. Albert stressed that our members were
serving as the Postal Service’s sales
force and need ways to bring retailers, large and small, to our programs
and the mail. Albert commented that
our members spent a lot of time nurturing small business and creating
mail advertising that would work for
them. He said, “We found Chinese
restaurants to be a fast-growing category. Even if your language is Mandarin, you understand math.” If the
Postal Service can help get the price
right, and give us the delivery windows we need, we can grow our businesses and bring more advertisers
and consumers together in the mail.
Donna E. Hanbery,
Executive Director
Saturation Mailers Coalition
33 South Sixth Street, Suite 4160
Minneapolis, MN 55402
(612) 340-9350 Direct Line
(612) 340-9446 Fax
Hanbery@hnclaw.com
(931) 490-0488 fax
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W W W. S A P A T O D AY . C O M
HERE IS WHAT PAPERCHAIN
STANDS FOR
P
Report
TWO POWERFUL
STATEMENTS ABOUT
1
SRDS
Greg Birkett wanted to share a personal success story regarding SRDS.
“We just received (2) 1/4 page ads at
$528.00 for a pharmaceutical company and the order came from Pennsylvania. An agency we have never dealt
with before so I emailed them to ask
how they found us...they used SRDS.
I know that we have not had funding
to do much lately, but I truly feel our
SRDS partnership has been a positive
thing for PaperChain, and a reason we
all need to ask our boards to continue
funding this important member beneﬁt.”
2
Jack Guza responded to Greg’s
email with this story. “Speaking of
SRDS…I received a Request For Information last Friday, August 26 from a
Media Planner at The Integer Group.
She noted that she found our association via SRDS Newspaper Advertising
Source!”
FYI - Jack
Jack Guza - Executive Director – Community Papers of Michigan
is for pride. Free paper publishers
have pride in their products, their staff
and the community they serve.
A
is for audits. Audits are the ﬁrst
step in gaining the much needed recognition of media buyers.
P
is for perception. The perception
of community papers is not the reality
of the papers.
E
is for enthusiasm. The free paper industry is extremely enthusiastic
about PaperChain.
You cannot control what happens
to you, but you can control your
attitude toward what happens
is for results. Advertiser across
to you, and in that, you will be
the country have been using commumastering change rather than
nity papers for years because they get
allowing it to master you.
results.
R
Brian Tracy
The most important thing about
a quote is to hear what it says.
Anon
C
H
is for customers. We serve both
customers as readers and clients.
is for help. Community paper
people are always willing to help each
other.
A
is for action. We are always willing to take action to help our customers, offering suggestions, encouraging
customers in how to increase their bottom line.
I
is for integrity. The integrity of the
community papers is proven time and
again with the audits.
N
is for never giving up. Community papers are persistent in striving
for excellence.
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
(931) 490-0488 fax
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W W W. S A P A T O D AY . C O M
Will the Internet kill your free community paper?
Did instant potatoes kill potatoes?
New technologies change many things. But
not everything. You may tweet, blog, surf,
shop, or search online but you continue to
read your free community paper. You just
proved it.
Readership of free community papers is now
higher than paid daily papers and continues
to grow. Rather than being replaced by
“instant” media, your local free community
paper has become an important part of our
neighborhood.
The reason, which sometimes is not heard
because of all the noise about the Internet, is
pretty obvious: your free community paper
does what the Internet doesn’t. We promote
connections at a local level. Free papers join
readers and advertisers in ways digital media
doesn’t.
In fact, the local content and power of your
free paper makes advertising even more
effective. We are the number one medium for
driving purchases. That’s important in every
product category.
Including potatoes.
Free Papers
Working For You
Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400
(931) 490-0488 fax
12