Suggestion for August 30, 2008

August 30 is International Day of the Disappeared, which Wikipedia describes as "an annual commemoration day created to draw attention to the fate of individuals imprisoned at places and under poor conditions unknown to their relatives and/or legal representatives." The day is dedicated to drawing attention to situations in countries in which political dissidents or protesters among others have disappeared and been imprisoned in or gone missing to a secret location where their family and legal counsel cannot reach them. Supporting organizations include Amnesty International and International Committee of the Red Cross. The organizations have worked with the United Nations to compile a list of nearly 50,000 people worldwide affected by this human rights violation, which they estimate is practiced in approximately 30 countries.

Suggestions for August 29, 2008

Two big events in history may be of use for advertising directors preparing for August 29. The first is for automotive managers, who may be interested to know that the first motorcycle was patented by Gottlieb Daimler and William Maybach on August 29, 1885, in what is now Stuttgart, Germany. It was the first vehicle to be powered by petroleum and was known as the "Reitwagen." Automotive managers may want to run a special section on the history of motorcycles or simply promote the new bikes coming out at area dealerships.

The other event of interest for American markets is the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's arrival on the Gulf coast. While many things have happened since, cities along the Gulf coast are still cleaning and rebuilding from the remnants of previous lives.
It has been billed as the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history and the largest single cause of population migration since the Great Depression and the Civil War. Regardless of the location of your market, it may be worth examining how local organizations are still working to rebuild the affected areas and how some of those people are still affected by this event three years later.

5 Fun Recruitment Links

One nearly impossible task in the constantly proliferating Web world is to stay on top of the blog chatter and news postings about all that is going on in the worlds of the respective verticals. With a little effort, I endeavored to bring to you a handful of links of particular interest to recruitment managers from various blogs around the Web:

"The Social Media Resume: Making Your Mark in a Web 2.0 World" talks about trends toward online resume Web sites in which individual job seekers create a URL destination to promote their professional endeavors.

"If Content is King, Newspapers Win" talks about the growth of newspaper-backed recruitment Web sites.

"10 Ways Generation Y Will Change the Workplace" is an interesting account from a member of Generation Y explaining how he foresees his generation changing the workplace in the years to come.

"The Invasion of Recruiters on Social Networking Sites" examines the trend of recruiters checking social networking sites to preview candidates and how those recruiters should take what they see with a grain of salt, keeping that information in perspective given the medium.

"Tip of the week: Text Messaging" quickly reviews the basics of what many people have realized about the value of mobile alerts and the ability to text recruitment information to job seekers.

Powerful Wording

I recently ordered a pewter token to carry in my pocket to replace one I had lost this month. This token has probably been replaced two or three times since I first came across it, but I am fascinated by the Celtic cross on one side and the powerful wording on the back in the form of an Irish prayer. However, I digress as this is not an entry about religion but about customer service.

Each time I've had to reorder this token, I've utilized Google with a variety of search words until I eventually drill down to the first couple sites I can find with the token in stock. Then I compare prices and order. On this occasion, I found a company out of Dayton, Ohio, that would allow me to order the token by the dozen and save myself on hassle the next time the token mysteriously escapes my pocket. Since I didn't want to pay shipping for just one token, I went for the deal on the dozen. Just under a week later (with a three day weekend, no less), the tokens arrived as promised.

The satisfactory performance there wasn't the impressive part for me, though. When ordering on the Internet, sometimes a personal touch of talking to a sales professional can be lost. This company overcomes that by including a sheet with the sales receipt that includes contact information for a specific "Internet Customer Service Specialist" as well as assurance that the package's contents have been carefully subjected to the company's quality control program. To emphasize the point, the sheet is initialed by the preparer, picker, checker, biller and packager. After all of these personal touches, the letter includes in large letters the following sentence:

"WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CORRECT OUR MISTAKES!"

This is followed by the instructions on what to do should the package not meet the customer's expectations for whatever reason, a veritable FAQ of returns information.

How often do we add this touch at the newspaper? What is the likelihood that someone placing an ad on the Internet will get a call back to ensure that the ad is satisfactory and what do we do should they find it to be unsatisfactory? How do our call centers handle this in terms of callbacks and proofing? Does your newspaper reserve the right to correct its mistakes or does it let its advertisers leave to find someone who will?

From the many newspaper executives I've met, even when times are hard, this is the ultimate customer service goal - get the job done right the first time, connect with the advertiser on a personal level and let him know what to do should he have any problem whatsoever. I'm proud to know that I serve an industry in which advertiser satisfaction is priority number one ... yours for thought and comments.

Suggestion for August 28, 2008

On this day 45 years ago, more than 250,000 people marched in Washington, D.C., for a Civil Rights rally at which Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a keynote speaker. The day went down in history as one of the three key days in the civil rights movement as King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech for those gathered. The speech is regarded as one of the best — if not the best — speeches in modern history. After the speech, King earned TIME's Man of the Year for 1963 and a Nobel Peace Prize the following year. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which had been proposed by President Kennedy two months earlier, gained traction later that year due to increasing support from citizens and resulted in the Act being passed in July of 1964. The bill prohibited discrimination in public places, interstate businesses, voting centers, public schools and federally-funded agencies. It was also the source of today's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which oversees fair hiring practices in addition to state agencies dedicated to the same task.

What will you do to commemorate King's speech anniversary? What are the dreams of residents in your market? Were any readers present at the speech or can any of them recall hearing the speech for the first time? How can you promote those stories?

Suggestion for August 27, 2008

On August 27, 1655, in Acoma, Va., the stage was set for the future of American theater with the performance of Ye Bare and Ye Cubb. While the play itself has been lost to history, the uproar over the performance by the resident Puritans remains. The play was performed for its second time in history during the trial to determine whether or not the play was indecent or blasphemous. Thanks to a judge with a good sense of art appreciation, the play was allowed to continue, as he found it more entertaining than blasphemous. Virginia was one of few colonies at the time that did not have laws prohibiting public performances.

How do you work with your market's school or professional theatrical departments to promote upcoming shows and performances? Do you utilize a special section or calendar of events to promote these organizations' contributions to the local arts scene?

Suggestion for August 26, 2008

August 26 is National Women's Equality Day. The date was chosen due to the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which granted women the right to vote. The day became National Women's Equality Day by presidential proclamation in 1973.

Suffragists had previously worked to include women in the Fifteenth Amendment, which grants voting rights regardless "of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Failing in that effort, the suffragists continued fighting, finally seeing success 50 years later. That suffrage came about largely due to diligent suffragettes in Washington, D.C. While President Woodrow Wilson announced he was in favor of the amendment in 1918 after public favor turned toward the suffragists, the nation had to elect more pro-suffrage Senators before the Amendment was able to make it through Congress and be presented for ratification. With this amendment, many felt the Constitution finally reflected the Declaration of Independence's proclamation that "All men are created equal."

This election year, how will you celebrate suffrage and the hard roads that have been taken to fight for the right to vote?

Suggestion for August 25, 2008

On August 25, 1916, the National Park Service (NPS) came into existence when Congress passed the National Park Service Organic Act. The NPS manages nearly 400 park units across the nation, including parks in every state but Delaware. Its jurisdiction includes parks, national monuments, trails, shores, military parks and more. Its creation was designed to streamline the management of the various national parks, monuments and memorials into a consistent management process under a single organization, thus clearing up the patchwork of jurisdictions at the time.

What areas does the NPS manage near your market? Are there ways you can promote travel and tourism while promoting the work the NPS does in or near your community? A map of the properties managed by NPS can be found at http://www.nps.gov.

Suggestion for August 24, 2008

August 24, 1456, was a landmark day in the history of the printing press. It was on that day that the printing of the first Gutenberg Bible was completed in Mainz, Germany. While not the first book to be printed using movable type, it was Johannes Gutenberg's greatest work and the most widely recognized artifact from the beginning of the printing press revolution. The Bible along with the movable type and printing press processes set the stage for mass production of literature and written publications for generations to come.

Suggestion For August 23, 2008

August 23 is the birthday of poet Edgar Lee Masters, who wrote one of the most popular books of English-language poetry, Spoon River Anthology. The poems are epitaphs of the deceased in the fictional town of Spoon River, each in the voice of the dead themselves. The content of the poems sometimes intertwines, creating a portrait of the town — although not necessarily one of a utopia.

What I find striking about Spoon River Anthology is how a wide variety of people gives voice to their passions, their follies, their petty squabbles and more. And because the people are dead, none of them have reason to lie or be fearful about what they say — their voices are all honest.

Consider creating an outlet in which your community can profile itself — perhaps a tab in which people can say anything they want about their lives, nothing being too mundane or controversial for print. The publication can serve as your community's own version of Spoon River Anthology, albeit a true account of what it meant to be alive in your community at that particular moment in time. Heck, perhaps it even can be placed in a time capsule to be opened several years later.

Yes, your letters to the editor somewhat serve the same purpose, but those are usually based on issues your community faces. Make this one only about the people and their views about their own lives.

Janet DeGeorge speaks out on closing call centers, Part II

Janet DeGeorge of ClassifiedExecutiveTraining.com posted the following message to the Newspaper Association of America Classified E-Forum. It is reposted here with her permission.

* * * *

To add one more thing to my message. Your classified call center talks to more people in your community than anyone else at your newspaper. They are the voice of your newspaper. Remove that local voice, and you take great risk of losing what is probably the strongest one on one connection you have with not only local advertisers, but advertisers who also are the newspaper subscribers.

It's one thing to use an alternative source to take overflow, it's another thing to have local Realtors and Employers who have built strong relationships with the inside reps at your newspaper, transferred to a call center in another state.

Your newsrooms are killing themselves in their quest to build stronger local relationships with the community in so many news ways, both online and in print. Meanwhile, Classified is taking the opposite approach, choosing to take the very strong local relationship built in a classified setting and ship them out to another state.

If you have never worked in your call center, you may not realize that a relationship between an inside sales rep and customer like a Realtor or Employer is just as intimate as the relationship of the auto rep with the auto dealer. How long would you keep your auto dealers in your paper if they had to work with an outsource center in another state?

The value of personal service is the one thing that differentiates newspaper classifieds from Internet competitors. Take that away, and not only will you lose customer base, you will be working against the very thing your editorial staff is killing themselves to rebuild, strong community relationship with your newspaper.

It's time Editorial and Advertising get on the same page.

Sincerely,
Janet DeGeorge
www.ClassifiedExecutiveTraining.com

Suggestion For August 22, 2008

August 22, 2008, is Be An Angel Day. How many pages do you and your colleagues devote to philanthropic organizations? How often are the volunteers in your community acknowledged and honored? Perhaps this is a good day to do so.

Many newspaper Web sites have links to shops and merchants in the area but few have something devoted to philanthropic organizations. Why not create an online directory of groups that are dedicated to making the world around them better — and yes I know this is awfully vague terminology, but it opens up the possibilities. The listings can include:

• Location
• Mission statement
• Hours of operation
• Short history
• Contact info
• Photos

For smaller papers whose communities may not have many philanthropic organizations, the directory could include groups from the entire area rather than only the town.

And now that you've got your Web directory lined up, why not publish the information in your printed pages? You could make a liner-ad directory or expand it to a tab or special section. Include editorial articles on the organizations and whammo! — you've got a keepsake publication that does what newspapers do best: inform people.

Finally, why not run a Volunteer of the Year program? Many newspapers do something similar with hospitals in order to find the Doctor of the Year or Nurse of the Year. Can running a Volunteer of the Year program be much different? Contact area organizations (just as you would do with hospitals) to find candidates, or solicit nominations in your print product (just as you would for a Medical Professional of the Year program). Run profiles of the candidates and ask your readers to vote for their favorite. Tally the votes, hold an awards / recognition banquet and voila! — instant recognition of the newspaper as being a community expert.

Newspaperclassified.com -- Patrick MacDonald's thoughts on the concept

I just received a call from Joel Cardwell, CAM at The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla.

"Isn't it time for newspaperclassified.com?” he queried. "We have the technology, we have the competition and we have nothing to lose.”

It is likely that publishers will be more open to the notion today than 10 ago when aggregators were as numerous and as pesky as houseflies and Craigslist was a mere amoeba.

Industry Movement

Kim B. Bergman is the classified advertising manager at The Blade in Toledo, Ohio. Previously, he had been director of advertising at The Repository in Canton, Ohio.

Chelle Davila is director of classified advertising at Lee Enterprises. She had previously been recruitment advertising director at the Los Angeles (Calif.) Times.

Barbari Griesse has joined the Classified Intelligence division of the AIM Group.

Sandra J. Smith has joined the Classified Intelligence division of the AIM Group. She had previously been Freedom Interactive’s senior director of classified advertising.

Richard Whippen is vice president of advertising at Washington Suburban Press Network in Reston, Va.

Myrtle Beach, S.C., Ends Its Monday, Tuesday Classified Section

Classified ads will no longer be published in the Monday or Tuesday editions of The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. There will be a separate classifieds section on Wednesdays through Saturdays, and readers are encouraged to go online — www.myrtlebeachonline.com — for classified ads.

Janet DeGeorge speaks out on closing call centers

Janet DeGeorge of Classified Executive Training wrote the following message to the Newspaper Association of America's Classified e-forum. It is posted here with her permission.

* * * * *

There is a disturbing trend I am hearing about, cutting back the call centers or getting rid of them completely. I can tell you that those who have done this have lost hundreds of thousands a month as well as vital relationships with key advertisers in employment and real estate.

When the NY Times cut their call center, it was not across the board. They already had vital inside sales teams for real estate, employment and auto.

Peter Zollman from Classified Intelligence is quoted in his report: "This is an absolute recipe for disaster — even worse than the year-over-year declines that so many newspapers are showing in classifieds," said Classified Intelligence founding principal Peter M. Zollman. "Just when newspapers need more sales reps to sell classifieds, both print and online, they're reducing staff to save money. They may permanently cripple their classified advertising sales and make the current decline in classifieds accelerate." You can get their full report at www.classifiedintelligence.com.

Please don’t think for a moment that outsourcing your non-private party calls to a third party vendor is going to increase your bottom line with savings of sales staff. The relationship your inside reps have with regular advertisers is a key element in keeping that revenue alive. Give up your inside staff for employment and you might as well hand it all over to choose one (Careerbuilder, Hotjobs or Monster). Outsource your local Realtors to a call center in another state, and your local competitors will tear you to shreds with your disloyalty to local service and commitment.

If you are considering this move, please consider the dire consequences I am hearing from newspapers who did this, and now wonder what the heck happened.

Sincerely,
Janet DeGeorge
www.ClassifiedExecutiveTraining.com

Suggestion For August 21, 2008

August 21, 2008, is Poets Day. Celebrate by publishing poems written by people in your community. Your newspaper can create either a publication that prints all poems, regardless of content, or hold a contest to determine which poems to put into the publication.

If you decide to hold a contest, consider creating a page on your Web site where people can submit their poems, vote for their favorite poems, talk about what they've written and what they've read, make suggestions for further reading and more. It could be a temporary community-wide social networking site. Be sure to read Gannett Digital's suggestions for social networking sites below.

And once the publication comes out, honor the people whose poems were published by holding a reading. All writers read their poems out loud — hearing language is an entirely different experience than reading language, just ask any student in a Shakespeare class — people can bring their publications to be signed, there can be refreshments and the announcement of the community's favorite poem.

People want to be recognized and appreciated. For those who write, celebrating Poets Day is one way for newspapers to assist them.

Patrick MacDonald's thoughts on free ads

For decades newspapers have devoted countless hours debating if and or where "free" should appear on the rate card. The most ubiquitous being "free" found ads. The most debatable being "items under (name your price) free merchandise ads."

The onset of Craigslist moved newspaper executives to higher ground (in retreat racing to find advantages in a pricing counterattack). Reaching higher ground has taken too much time and has proven to be perilously distracting. The higher ground I am talking about metaphorically may not exist and therefore may have already proven to be an exercise in futility.

Let's be honest, while Craig Newmark was busy building networks to connect people over the Web, newspaper publishers were busy chasing margins. Let's call it a phenomenal mismatch of effort, capital and purpose.

To be fair, 20 years ago the notion of renting three lines of copy for a few days in a daily newspaper represented a value proposition that was pretty easy for the typical consumer to understand. The consumer wants to sell a camera. The newspaper prints information about the item for sale and distributes the information to the community that lives around this particular consumer. If anyone (most likely several people) is interested in the camera they would know to be checking the classified columns each day until the camera they desired appeared for sale. The two consumers communicate, settle on a price and — voila! — another testimonial to the power of a three-line classified ad. Let's say the ad cost three dollars and let's say the camera cost $300. Pretty difficult to dispute the value of the ad. Where in this scenario do you see the need to introduce the word "free”? And no wonder publishers were comfortable raising private party rates to keep up with inflation. After all, ad count was rising giving little or no indication the classified franchise (as defined by private party advertisers) was in peril.

What's so different today? You can still place an ad for a camera in a daily newspaper pretty much anywhere in the world. The price might now be anywhere from $50 to free. But in my mind, that is not so important. What is important is that most consumers don't expect to see cameras for sale in the classified section. This is a problem.

What led to this? To be sure millions of consumers scour the inserts from the likes of Best Buy and other big box retailers today to shop for their digital camera. But the expectation of being able to exchange camera equipment through the merchandise for sale category of the classified section has gone the way of the drive-in theatre.

So if we start to suddenly give away free camera ads to consumers will the expectation be reversed? Not unless "free" is connected to "me" through a Web portal that I know and trust. In other words, as a consumer, I would beg the newspaper in this way: "Don't try to ‘free’ me into a transaction, rather draw me to the place where people have stuff to trade and sell. Or put another way, connecting me to buyers and sellers in the categories of interest to me is more important than the price you exact for this service.”

The business of classified has never had a core value of price. The core value (now greatly diminished in print and growing online) has and always will be about connecting people. Craig had at least part of his model right from the beginning. It's time for the fourth estate to wake up!

Suggestion For August 20, 2008

August is National Immunization Awareness Month. Newspapers can directly influence their communities not only by promoting this declaration with a themed page or special section sponsored by doctors and nurses, free clinics, hospitals, local government officials and offices and many more but also by creating a month-long event to help its readers and community receive immunizations they need.

Your newspaper and other local media can promote an immunization center at a central location in your community, or several locations can be created if your market is large enough. Solicit volunteers from among the medical professionals in your area. If 31 of them can volunteer for one hour, they'll be able to keep the center open at least part-time throughout the month.

The Stuff That Really Drives Readership

"The stuff that really drives readership is ... the stuff that (readers) send to us."

This quote from Richard Clark at Inland Press in Chicago this past week struck me as key to the classified and newspaper industry, to the point where it resonated with me throughout the weekend as a focal point for how I reviewed the Daily Herald from Arlington Heights that I received during my stay. One of the features they run that stuck with me the most was the "Reader comments at dailyherald.com" feature. Prominently displayed in the top right corner of page 3, this quick clip featured a trio of comments written on the newspaper Web site forum in reply to a recent article.

In light of Richard Clark's presentation and the things I've learned about the interaction between print and online, I love that this quick feature works on so many levels, including:
• Increases percentage of print space filled with user-generated content
• Encourages print users to interact with content on the newspaper Web site
• Rewards participation in online comment forums
• Increases reader-editorial interaction
• Encourages those who comment online to keep an eye on the print product
• Demonstrates to advertisers that readers are actively engaged with the content near their advertising, whether online or in print

10 Tips To Consider For Your Social Networking Site

The following information came from Gannett Digital after the Newspaper Association of America Marketing Conference session about social networking. The contact at Gannett Digital is Sarah Eppler, “Moms” product manager. She can be reached at seppler@gannett.com.

Roadmap to a Successful Social Networking Site
Treat It Like a Business Because It Is.

1. Recognize that your social networking site probably has a shelf life. The chances of your site being able to compete with a Facebook or MySpace are slim. And the fact of the matter is those sites probably won’t be around forever either and that’s okay! Plan accordingly to maximize your opportunity from the start.

2. Develop a strategy. Recognize that a successful networking site is more than just a message board; they won’t run themselves. Approach your social networking site just as it was any other line of business.

3. Find your niche. Do your research. Figure out what is unique about your audience and what it is your audience wants.

4. Determine what is unique about your social networking site. What is it that will make someone choose to frequent your site versus someone else’s?

5. Think about what kind of experience you can offer your audience, not what kind of content they need. Remember, your audience is coming to your site for the experience and connections they make, not to read the news.

6. Allocate staffing resources. Having someone dedicated to the management of the site is critical. Adjustments will need to be made along the way and having a resource dedicated to monitoring site trends will allow your site to grow and evolve.

7. Invest and execute a marketing plan. The fact is you need the page views so you’ll need to develop a game plan for how to promote your site. Very few businesses succeed without a commitment to marketing; this business won’t be any different.

8. Content. With connections and experiences being the primary reason for most of the visits to your site, think through how content is introduced. Watch what it is your visitors want and let them set the agenda.

9. Balance user experience with monetization. Develop an advertising strategy and be selective about which ads as well as how many ads are running on your site. Remember, you are delivering a targeted audience to your advertisers so make sure they are paying a premium for those positions. Not having a site overrun with ads will provide a much more enjoyable experience for your visitors.

10. Re-evaluate the strategy. As with any business, constantly evaluating what is and is not working will reap the biggest rewards.

Suggestion for August 19, 2008

August is Black Business Month. This is the month in which newspapers should especially look to promote businesses owned by black people, regardless of the category, regardless of whether they advertise in the newspaper. Many newspapers honor businesswomen; if you already have a particular page or publication that does that, why not adapt it to work for Black Business Month? It can be used to serve what may be considered an underrepresented or underpromoted niche of businesses in your market.

Perhaps your Web site can host a page devoted to promoting a business owned by a black businessperson each day. There could be a personal profile, a company profile, links to the business' Web site and even coupons.

Perhaps your sales team and production department can create a special section or tabloid that honors black businesspeople. It can be an advertorial product filled with ads, or it can be something that has no advertising in it at all, save for a sponsorship by the Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau.

Newspapers give back to the community, inform the community and provide a forum for people to learn more about the citizens with whom they share similar ZIP codes. You and your colleagues will doing all of this by promoting Black Business Month in August.

Suggestion For August 18, 2008

August 18, 2008, is Bad Poetry Day. Admit it. You've written some bad poetry. Anyone who's ever been an adolescent has written bad poetry. Horrific poetry. Poetry that turns your teeth yellow because it's so rancid and horrible.

Celebrate that horrible poetry by holding a staff contest. Whoever writes the worst poem among the supervisors, reps and managers wins a prize -- perhaps even a book of comic poems by my personal favorite, Ogden Nash.

Why do this? Sometimes it's fun to laugh and smile at work, especially in a job that requires interaction with the public. Have your team write intentionally bad poems, submit them to you via e-mail and then choose the top prize winners. Of course, all entries must be read out loud at an appointed time when everyone can get together to laugh. Also, consider printing all the poems so that anyone who wants a keepsake of the veritably vapid and vacuous verse will have one.

Suggestion For August 17, 2008

National Aviation Week runs August 17-24, 2008. Its goal is to increase people's appreciation and knowledge of aviation.

Why not play off the theme of this week by offering incentives to your sales staff that are based on airplane travel? If pilots earn their wings, consider doing the same for your sales staff: When they reach a certain level of revenue in sales in their career, they earn a pin to wear in the office. The more revenue they gain through sales, the more elaborate the pin. Maybe the first $1,000,000 earns the salesperson a copper pin. They earn a brass pin at $2,500,000. They next earn a silver pin at $5,000,000. And a gold pin follows at $10,000 in sales. And a diamond pin comes when a salesperson reaches $20,000,000 in sales.

Why do this? The pin will help reps remember where they've been and what they've achieved over the long term. They will also look forward to the next level of achievement, especially if their colleagues are breaking that particular barrier. Finally, for your outside salespeople the pin may make for an icebreaker with a prospect. And when your salespeople — inside and outside – put on the pin, it's a physical reminder that it's time to sell and focus on that.

Inland Press Conference Quick Updates

Monday, May 19 - 7:30 a.m.

Finally back in the office! Just as a recap, here are some of the highlights from Friday's conference sessions:
The day began with an "Ask the Experts" panel featuring Richard Clark of Classified Development, Bev Crandon of Classified Intelligence and Patrick MacDonald of MacDonald answering questions from attendees who wanted opinions and advice on the goings-on at their own newspapers. The session was followed by two sessions from Richard Clark, who walked through how to find success in inbound and outbound sales situations. My lunch group spent a good portion of its time debating the merits of family-owned newspapers versus corporate ownership and the difficulties entailed with reporting to Wall Street. In the afternoon, Bill Joyner of The Times in Huntsville, Ala., gave a presentation entitled "Finding Hidden Dollars in Your Automotive and Real Estate Accounts" and Gina Wilcox of The Palm Beach Post presented on mobile advertising and new media.

Thursday, May 15, 8:30 p.m. Central time

This afternoon, Shannon Kinney filled in the Inland group on the goings-on of the Internet realm and what is hot and up-and-coming in online advertising. She was followed by Al Bonner, who walked through Lawrence's Marketplace (www.lawrencemarketplace.com). That session was followed by an ideas session, in which a number of great ideas were shared, and a dinner at RAM nearby. Tomorrow brings even more great ideas to exchange, starting with the Ask the Experts session led by Patrick MacDonald ...


12:20 p.m. Central time

Just wrapped up lunch with everyone's friend Terry Alvarez and a couple new acquaintances and stopped real quick to post the morning's events for our blog. This will be updated as the conference continues. This morning we heard from Tony Marsella of Ranger Data and Bev Crandon of Classified Intelligence. Tony gave a number of examples of areas in which newspapers need to adjust their thinking in order to get with the times and break from the "old" thinking. He said the keys to success were finding one corporate goal on which every single employee can focus, maintaining a compelling real-time scoreboard for accountability, changing behaviors when changing goals and having everyone accountable to everyone else. More on this later.

Bev talked about what is going on with online classifieds and the transition from our time to real time, from publishers choosing content to the public choosing it, from controling consumers to trusting them and from using old pricing structures to regularly updating rates based on the market and the market value of the advertising. Again, more on this later in our print issue. Keep an eye on our blog for brief blogged updates throughout the conference!

Suggestion For August 16, 2008

On August 16, 1896, gold was discovered in Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River. According to Tagish First Nations People's oral tradition, it was discovered by George Carmack, Dawson Charlie and Skookum Jim; the discovery set off the Klondike Gold Rush. The discovery is celebrated in the Yukon each Monday closest to the historic date as Discovery Day.

Why not celebrate the actual date of the discovery by publishing a themed page for jewelers? Their ability to fashion gold into bracelets, rings, chains and more can be promoted to your readers. There could be historical information about the discovery of gold in the Yukon on the page, as well as other facts about the metal and the men who discovered it in the Yukon.

Consider expanding the page into a three-day series, beginning on August 16 and running through August 18, when Discovery Day is held in 2008.

Other events on August 16: Joe Miller's Joke Day, National Homeless Animals Day And Candlelight Vigils, Elvis Presley's Death Anniverary (1977)

Suggestion For August 15, 2008

August 15, 2008, is National Relaxation Day. It's a day for people to improve their lifestyles by relaxing and reducing stress levels.

The need to relax is universal, but individual differences make any number of activities to be considered "relaxing." Because of this, the variety is endless:

1. Antiquing
2. Watching movies
3. Sleeping
4. Cooking
5. Hiking
6. Gardening
7. Traveling
8. Being pampered
9. Dancing
10. Sailing
11. Volunteering
12. Painting/sculpting/photographing
    

Many newspapers create a tab publication during the holiday season that shows two or three people visiting area stores, with each photo accompanied by an ad and, sometimes, editorial about the business. Why not use the same concept for National Relaxation Day? Invite two or three readers to visit targeted businesses with your department's photographer, ask the business owners to write copy — with help from your sales team — for the tab, and put everything together and publish it on Monday, August 11, so that readers can make appointments ahead of time, if need be.

Be sure to include activities that span the whole spectrum of cost: Some people can afford to take a full-day retreat at a spa and be pampered, some can't. Perhaps some people can afford only free treats like a lunchtime brown bag concert or a walk in the park. Be open to the possibilities and don't limit your readers' options.

Other events for Friday, August 15: 39th Anniversary of Woodstock, Best Friends Day, National Men's Grooming Day

Suggestion For August 14, 2008

On August 14-15, 1976, two softball teams competed in what remains the longest recorded game on record: a 365-inning affair that lasted from 10 a.m. on 8/14 until 4 p.m. on 8/15. Gager's Diner beat the Bend'n Elbow Tavern 491-467 in a game that raised $4,000 for a new softball field and for the Monticello (N.Y.) Community General Hospital. Seventy players — including 20 women — participated.

Although you may not want to replicate all 365 innings, consider whether your newspaper can create and organize a community-wide softball game in which the profits are donated to an organization or event that needs funds. Perhaps it's a game scheduled between your colleagues and the local radio station or television station, or maybe it's a friendly game between two local schools. However it's formatted, a newspaper that organizes and publicizes an event that benefits a charitable cause will be seen as a community leader that actively aids the population.

Other historic events and proclamations of note for 8/14: Assistance Dog Day, Navajo Code Talkers Day, V-J Day, Creamsicle Day

Suggestion For August 13, 2008

August 13 is Women's Day in Tunisia to celebrate their independence. Why not opt in to this celebration by focusing on women in your community — not just mothers, not just businesswomen, not just politicians — by creating a publication or page that looks at a cross-section of the populace: rich, poor, old, young, etc.

You'll have to bring your editorial colleagues on board for this in order to find and interview the women to include in this project. And with women's purchasing power, wouldn't it make sense for businesses and organizations to sponsor this particular initiative, perhaps placing ads with coupons to encourage readers to come to their stores?

CCI Sourcing shuts down

CCI Sourcing, an ad production outsourcing firm, has shut down its operations. It was created in 2007 by Stibo, which publishes The Hindu newspaper in India and owns CCI Europe. According to reports, it has several European clients and signed its first American newspaper only a month ago.

Suggestion For August 12, 2008

The first personal computer was released on August 12, 1981. Since then the technology has sped forward not only in terms of the programming languages available but also the software and networking abilities. It's moved so fast that we're now looking at what Web 2.0 means to users and advertisers — I guess Web 1.0 has been pushed aside. This all started a mere 27 years ago with a personal computer released by IBM.

With the speed of technology seemingly increasing every day — doesn't it seem like the computer you buy tomorrow is obsolete by the beginning of the next week — it makes sense to promote those local merchants who sell the hardware, software, gadgets, paraphernalia and doodads that make computers so much a part of our everyday lives.

Doesn't it make sense, therefore, to create a space on your Web site that includes product reviews of the latest technology — perhaps written by your Web site visitors — that your targeted business can sponsor?

Why not create an interactive search directory in which your Web site visitors can visit different area stores, learn about their inventory and store hours, sign up for RSS feeds of store events and even find coupons?

Finally, how about creating a print directory that publishes the links to all key organizations and businesses in your market — government agencies, schools, police and fire departments, hospitals and other care facilities? You can categorize the businesses and organizations by type and provide a nice, glossy magazine to your readers. Perhaps it's as extensive as your local Yellow Pages, perhaps not, but at least it's another method by which your readers and community businesses can connect.

Suggestion For August 11, 2008

Author Alex Haley was born August 11, 1921, and is one of the best-selling authors in American history, having written The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Roots. He was also a top magazine journalist, conducting interviews and writing articles about Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jim Brown, Johnny Carson, Cassius Clay, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Quincy Jones.

Celebrate Haley's birthday by hosting a community-wide reading of one or both of these books. You can partner with a bookstore — a national chain or an independent — to promote the books and the discussion. Invite civic leaders and educators to serve as panelists for the discussion. Involve your Newspapers In Education colleagues by creating study guides for both books, distributing them to public libraries; perhaps the students can write summaries or reviews of the books, which you can publish in your pages or online. Yes, many schools will be out for the summer in August, so this may need some planning and input from teachers.

If your newspaper is going to implement this idea, it would probably be a good idea to have your community reading the books at least two weeks before the discussion.

Suggestion for August 10, 2008

National Resurrect Romance Week runs August 10-16, 2008. It's a time when couples are encouraged to creatively express their romantic feelings. Newspapers can help them do so in a variety of ways both in print and multimedia.

First, there's the classic themed page where people send in their private party love messages to be printed amongst a variety of others. Why not add a twist by partnering with a florist, jeweler or chocolatier and offering a coupon to all people who submit an ad? They will have a present to give to their loved one and your partners will see firsthand the power of print advertising when the coupons come pouring into their stores.

Another option to celebrate National Resurrect Romance Week is to hold an online vote in which Web site visitors select the most romantic movies. Voting can take place online the first five days of the week (8/10 through 8/14), the winner can be announced on 8/15 and the winning movie can be shown at a movie theater in the market on 8/16. I'd suggest you go to your readers and Web site visitors to solicit movie titles for the voting. This falls under event marketing and social networking, so please include your marketing & IT colleagues on this one.

Finally, consider creating an online photo album where your Web site visitors can show pictures of themselves and their loved ones. The photos could be humorous or romantic, and each entrant can write a paragraph or two about themselves and the situation in which the picture was taken. Again, with online voting your Web site visitors can choose which entry they like the most; the winner gets a prize of donated items from local businesses -- the sponsors of the contest. Again, this lies under the umbrella of social networking. Get the appropriate colleagues involved.

Suggestion For August 9, 2008

National Garage Sale Day is the second Saturday in August; it falls on August 9 this year. I don't expect that I need to offer many suggestions, as newspapers have long been the source for people to find information of all sorts about garage sales. But here are a few anyway:

• Place a garage sale page on your Web site with search capabilities so your visitors can go online to find pertinent information about sales including: neighborhood, hours, types of items offered, price range and more. Make this information available to mobile devices as well.
• If your market is too small to have a garage sale map in your print product, consider creating a checklist that includes every sale on that day. Organize the sales the list alphabetically.
• Provide all area garage sales free yard signs so people know which ones appear in your pages. Code the signs so that a driver can text message the code into their mobile device and get information described in the first bullet point.
• Sell sponsorships to the garage sales yard signs. The top part of the sign can have your newspaper brand, the middle of the sign can have the code and the bottom of the sign can have your sponsor's logo.
• Give your employees $5.00 and have them scour the garage sales listed in your print product and online. Have them purchase whatever item they think is the most colorful, interesting or unique at the garage sale they've been assigned. Have them bring the item to the office the next day and work with your art department to create promotional ads for the next big garage sale event. Isn't this like a testimonial? "Here's what we found on August 9. And next week promises to be just a full of great treasures" -- or similar copy.

You and other newspapers own the garage sale category; keep your strength by innovating via mobile, online and much more. Happy National Garage Sale Day!

Suggestion For August 8, 2008

The Games of the XXIX Olympiad begin Friday, August 8, 2008, in Beijing, China, and last through August 24. The Summer Olympics have long been considered the pinnacle of athletic competition, so why not create contests during this time frame in which your sales representatives — outside and inside — can compete?

Versatility can be the centerpiece of your Olympics-like contests. If you are looking to boost a quantitative metric, perhaps the number of business calls made during the day or the amount of dollars sold into a special section, you and your supervisors can measure that with a tally sheet and announce a winner after a particular time period. Be careful in what you ask your reps for — do you want activity or results? — because that is what you'll get.

If you wish to have a qualitative contest — how well does the sales rep communicate with the prospect, does the rep follow departmental guidelines in suggesting upsells and cross-promotions, what is the overall quality of the communication and sales transaction — you can build a scorecard and sit in on your reps' communications two or three times. Or perhaps you and your colleagues review one or two of the same calls together, judging which rep was the most consistent during those calls. Whichever rep has the highest score wins.

Finally, if you're looking for all-around performance — qualitative and quantitative — over a longer period of time remember that there's Olympic precedent here: The decathlon asks athletes to take part in 10 different events that test speed, stamina, strength, agility and endurance. You, too, can set up your own decathlon by judging a different metric or trait each day for a week. At the end of each day, reps will be ranked on that day's metric or trait. The top rep gets fewest points (ranking of 1; see example), the lowest-rated rep gets the most (ranking of 3; see example). Start them afresh the next day and again rank them highest to lowest for that day's results only, independent of the previous day's results. By the end of the week, reps should have a set of five different rankings. When you add them up, you'll have an overall winner for your sales rep decathlon.

Example:

Name: Steve
Day 1, Upsell Rank: 1
Day 2, Dollars Rank: 1
Day 3, Quality Rank: 3
Day 4, Linage Rank: 3
Day 5, Outbound Rank: 3
Total: 11

Name: Patrick
Day 1, Upsell Rank: 3
Day 2, Dollars Rank: 2
Day 3, Quality Rank: 1
Day 4, Linage Rank: 2
Day 5, Outbound Rank: 1
Total: 9

Name: Andrew
Day 1, Upsell Rank: 2
Day 2, Dollars Rank: 3
Day 3, Quality Rank: 2
Day 4, Linage Rank: 1
Day 5, Outbound Rank: 2
Total: 10

Name: Ouch
Day 1, Upsell Rank: 4
Day 2, Dollars Rank: 4
Day 3, Quality Rank: 4
Day 4, Linage Rank: 4
Day 5, Outbound Rank: 4
Total: 20

Patrick, with the fewest points, is your gold medalist. Andrew wins the silver and Steve earns the bronze. "Ouch" comes in last. Here's the thing, though: These numbers rank only the order, not the quality, of the results. It doesn't necessarily mean "Ouch" is doing a bad job, only that Patrick, Andrew and Steve are doing better.

If you choose to run an Olympics-like contest for your inside and/or outside reps, be certain to celebrate and have fun with it. Hand out medals each day, have Chinese-themed decorations, light an Olympic torch (candle) at the beginning of each day, have a finish line ... get out and have a blast with whatever sort of contest you run to inspire and uplift your sales reps and boost your sales numbers.

Patrick's thoughts on the three biggest challenges facing CAMs today

If I were asked what the three biggest challenges facing CAMs today are, I would answer the pressure to produce more with less, the race to stay on top of the latest technology and the ability to isolate and manage the key issues impacting the operation, both secular and cyclical.

But I am not a CAM.

Here are the three biggest challenges facing one of your peers:
1. Inspiring the staff to go beyond the normal “classified stuff.”
2. Hiring creative people.
3. Creating an atmosphere of change, making the way for moving forward.

For CAM Deb Lemen of the Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette, the task of staying ahead in today’s media world is threefold. First today’s CAM must be able to help the sales team move beyond traditional practices and behaviors. Second, as the pace of change accelerates it is more important than ever to have people on the staff who can take a creative approach to the fast approaching and quickly vanishing opportunities. And finally, Deb feels that today’s CAM has to be a champion of change, constantly instilling the notion throughout the newspaper that there is hope and opportunity around the corner despite the many challenges in front of us today!

When Deb and I were talking recently about challenges and change facing CAMs today, we realized that trying to reduce the list to three might well be an academic exercise in futility. Still it may not be a worthless exercise for you to write down the three biggest challenges in your world. This will, in a sense, be the inventory of issues getting the lion's share of your energy. Your three most certainly will be, if not unique, at least articulated with different words.

I have never been big on surveys, but I would be greatly appreciative if you would be kind enough to drop me an e-mail — patrick@gomacdonald.com — with your three biggest challenges. I trust this request for a list does not show up on the list you send me!

MediaNews Group outsources to the Philippines

Some of MediaNews Group's California dailies will have their customer service calls outsourced to the Philippines. Phone calls to the San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek will be answered by APAC Customer Services call centers in Muntinlupa City and Quezon City. APAC representatives will answer calls about delivery and billing.

Suggestion For August 7, 2008

Thursday, August 7, 2008, is Professional Speakers Day. According to the Web site www.nationalspeakersday.com, there are more than 3,500 members of the National Speakers Association. More than a few have a background in advertising and sales consulting.

Schedule time for a professional speaker to talk with your classified salespeople and supervisors that day. Or encourage them to develop their own speaking abilities and networking by joining a speakers organization like Toastmasters International.

Being able to speak clearly and confidently will aid both your inside and outside salespeople and supervisors as they are able to organize their thoughts in a logical manner and answer questions with poise.

Suggestion For August 6, 2008

The annual peace festival at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan, will be held Wednesday, August 6, 2008, in memory of the people who died from the atomic bomb explosion in 1945. It is an annual event.

Promote peace by creating a forum in which supporters can express their opinions and views. It may be a page filled with signature ads from private parties and businesses or organizations. Perhaps you can create a special section or tab created in tandem with the editorial department that looks at citizens in your community who are working to create and sustain peace. Or, finally, why not co-sponsor a community festival?

Richmond Times-Dispatch changes classifieds

The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch is changing the name of its classified section to "Find" and focusing on a different category each day.

Monday: services
Tuesday: pets
Wednesday: jobs
Thursday: deals
Friday: cars
Saturday: homes

Yahoo-Microsoft-Google Tie-Ups

As mentioned in Inside Recruitment, I've been tracking the news coming out of the Microsoft and Yahoo camps regarding Microsoft's bid to purchase Yahoo. After Microsoft's deadline for a Yahoo response passed without response, Microsoft appeared to opt out of taking its attempt hostile as it had previously promised. Once Microsoft said it wasn't raising its bid for Yahoo, Yahoo's shares dropped and started a debate about what will happen to Chief Executive Jerry Yang if Yahoo should fail to demonstrate improvement over the course of the next quarter. Yahoo's latest endeavors include trying to continue its initial success with its test-run of Google's text-based search ads, provided there are no legal complications for the partnership.

Suggestion For August 5, 2008

Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in gomacdonald.blogspot.com, one in which readers will learn about products or processes to consider implementing at their newspapers. Some ideas will be seasonal, so posts will be written for dates three months down the road.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008, is the 25th anniversary of National Night Out, an event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch. According to www.nationaltownwatch.org/nno/about.html, the annual event — held the first Tuesday in August each year — strengthens partnerships between communities and police departments, grows neighborhood spirit, supports creating and participating in anti-crime programs, heightens awareness of drug and crime prevention and lets criminals know neighborhoods are organizing and fighting back against them. Learn more about the event and the organization by visiting its Web site or calling National Association of Town Watch at 800-NITE-OUT / 610-649-7055.

Your newspaper can benefit readers by publishing suggestions from your local police departments on starting anti-crime programs. Publish a sponsored page showing photos of police officers in your community, with civic-minded businesses and organizations sponsoring photos, on August 5. Host a community forum where civic leaders answer questions about crime prevention and safety.