INI intends to become a “world class” company in the field of hometown newspapers and hometown websites. Our websites, newspapers and printing operations will be complementary products that enable us to pursue our mission of journalistic service. Our “high-tech, high-touch and values-driven” approaches will provide a sustainable profit stream that will enable us to thrive in the 21st Century and beyond, expand our reach to additional communities, and evolve as needed to preserve our independence and long-term viability.
With the impact of Google, craigslist, profit squeezes, budget cuts, concerns about Gen Y and new competition online and in print, it is clear that our industry is undergoing seismic shifts. Therefore, we can’t just keep doing things the same way we’ve done them in the past. Our challenge is to change in ways that keep us economically viable so we can continue to pursue our journalistic mission.
Newspapers have traditionally devoted most of their limited resources to routine news coverage and lighter features. However, with the emergence of the Internet, this is no longer our exclusive franchise; anybody can “publish” information.
On the Internet, people are drowning in information but sometimes starving for context. If we reinvent ourselves correctly, our vital role (online and in print) will be to organize the local information, give it context, and help people find what they want.
Our strategy is two-pronged: to develop newszap.com AND reinvent the newspapers so that they will be complementary products.
We anticipate that the newspapers will remain our primary sources of revenues and profit for the foreseeable future, while newszap.com steadily becomes an increasingly important contributor. Our vision includes newszap.com emerging as the primary platform for local information (inevitable because space and interactivity are unlimited there). Our local newspapers will still be vital because they will provide a “delicious sampler” of the much broader depth of information available online at newszap.com, and because they will be the “mass medium” connecting and rallying the local community (which also makes them a great value for advertisers who want to target the local community).
We will use INI’s culture to achieve this transformation, and to position the company to serve and thrive in the future.
In pursuit of our vision, we will:
1. Maintain the financial strength to sustain our company’s viability and independence regardless of the challenges that might come our way.
2. Use our values and “brilliant simplicity” in our policies, processes and systems to make this a world class company in our field.
3. Invest sensibly in leading-edge technologies to give us a competitive edge in terms of service, value and efficiency.
4. Run great operations that serve our customers well, make our investments pay off, create competitive advantages, and produce the revenues and profits that will allow the company to thrive.
5. Use our products and services in complementary ways, such as using our “new generation” technologies to improve our print products and create competitive advantages for the printing plants; and using the newspapers to promote and complement newszap.com, and vice versa.
6. Create internal and external excitement by being “cool” and “edgy”, as well as values-driven and trustworthy.
7. Develop hometown websites that are more local and comprehensive than any traditional newspaper could hope to be --- and that connect us more directly, more intimately and more efficiently with our communities.
8. Turn our print products into “delicious samplers” of the much broader content that’s available at newszap.com --- plus the added “treat” of our own enterprise coverage.
9. Use the websites to improve the print products and to streamline production.
10. Use the local websites --- and the Internet in general --- to connect and market more directly with our advertisers and prospective advertisers.
11. Use the local websites to enhance our value to advertisers and therefore continue to build our print product revenues.
12. Use the local websites to build online revenues and profits.
These initiatives should in turn help us achieve several time-tested “secrets” of success, including:
a) Being a high-value provider to our customers.
b) Being an efficiency leader (and therefore low-cost producer) in our field.
c) Being the first to “win” the hometown website/hometown newspaper “positioning” in our target markets.
d) Being a great place to work for people who share our values and mission and have a passion for doing the right things and for doing things right --- as well as the self-management and team skills to be innovative and/or productive.
I'd love to hear from you at JoeSmyth@newszap.com. Do you agree or disagree with the thinking outlined above? Do you feel your company is taking the right approaches to prepare for a prosperous future? Do you have other ideas you think we should consider? What can you personally do to help?
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek Independent
It's a Monday morning in the city of Chandler.
The Arizona sun is shining through the windows as employees of the Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek Independent trickle into work.
Throughout the office papers are being proofed, copy is being edited, interviews are taking place and ads are being sold.
Each week, 15 employees come together to produce 68,000 newspapers that serve three east valley communities.
This year has been busy for this office as it welcomed a new newspaper, several new employees as well as a new web site into the mix.
Recently, the office celebrated the one-year birthday of its youngest paper, the Queen Creek Independent.
With a circulation of 14,000 the Queen Creek Independent serves as the only weekly paper in the town of Queen Creek and its readership is growing almost as fast as the town.
"This paper is really the best thing we could have done," said advertising manager Ann Deal. "People really like it."
As with any paper, the news services team along with editor Angela Dewelles, work hard to make the inside content of the paper local and interesting.
Dewelles joined INI in October after moving from northern Arizona. She brings with her several years of reporting experience.
Her time thus far at INI has been spent meeting city officials, attending town council meetings and getting to know this quickly developing community.
The Gilbert Independent is also a crucial aspect to the east valley office.
In its 28-year history the Gilbert paper has been a primary source of news to more than 26,000 readers.
The Gilbert Independent also sponsors an event known to the community as the "Gilbert Days Rodeo." Each November, this event keeps the office busy as they develop feature stories, sell advertising and design a cover for the program, which is read by residents from all over the state.
This year, several employees made it out to the rodeo and were able to participate in the parade.
Chandler editor, Alex Pickett, dressed up as Independent's mascot, "Paige" and attracted many waves and smiles from the crowd.
The Chandler Independent is the east valley office's largest paper. There is never a lack for content in this publication as it reaches 28,000 homes in this large, suburban community.
Each week parents, council members, business owners and teachers flood the office with e-mails and calls in order to make sure their event, story, letter or photograph will make it into the upcoming edition.
The Chandler Independent also serves the retirement community of Sun Lakes, which houses some of the Independent's most passionate and avid readers.
The staff also works hard each year to produce the "Senior Lifestyles" supplement which features several clubs and activities for these readers.
Alex Pickett, a young reporter who joined INI in June heads up this publication and does an excellent job keeping the community informed of local, relevant issues.
Perhaps tying all these papers together is the east valley's advertising staff made up of Kurt Ploudre, Dan Sepulveda, Natalie Wagner, Ann Deal and Vicki Johnston.
Pictured above, Ad services manager, Dan Sepulveda discusses business with ad service representative Natalie Wagner.
Together these five work to meet potential advertisers, develop strategies, design eye-catching ads as well as work hard to complete the special sections and supplements for each community.
Pictured above, Circulation specialist Grace Hodges and her son smile during the recent lunch celebrating the special supplements.
Apart from the constant change of news and community events, the east valley office has seen several other changes throughout the year.
John Wolfe, vice president of news development for INI took on the task of managing editor for several months before a new management strategy was implemented.
Several news editors have come and gone and the east valley news services team welcomed Lindsey Yentes and Josh Garber in September, two recent college graduates eager to learn about the ways of a newsroom.
Pictured above, News services member Josh Garber works diligently at his computer.
With so many changes and growth in this office, the year ahead looks both promising and exciting for this office.
The Arizona sun is shining through the windows as employees of the Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek Independent trickle into work.
Throughout the office papers are being proofed, copy is being edited, interviews are taking place and ads are being sold.
Each week, 15 employees come together to produce 68,000 newspapers that serve three east valley communities.
This year has been busy for this office as it welcomed a new newspaper, several new employees as well as a new web site into the mix.
Recently, the office celebrated the one-year birthday of its youngest paper, the Queen Creek Independent.
With a circulation of 14,000 the Queen Creek Independent serves as the only weekly paper in the town of Queen Creek and its readership is growing almost as fast as the town.
"This paper is really the best thing we could have done," said advertising manager Ann Deal. "People really like it."
As with any paper, the news services team along with editor Angela Dewelles, work hard to make the inside content of the paper local and interesting.
Dewelles joined INI in October after moving from northern Arizona. She brings with her several years of reporting experience.
Her time thus far at INI has been spent meeting city officials, attending town council meetings and getting to know this quickly developing community.
The Gilbert Independent is also a crucial aspect to the east valley office.
In its 28-year history the Gilbert paper has been a primary source of news to more than 26,000 readers.The Gilbert Independent also sponsors an event known to the community as the "Gilbert Days Rodeo." Each November, this event keeps the office busy as they develop feature stories, sell advertising and design a cover for the program, which is read by residents from all over the state.
This year, several employees made it out to the rodeo and were able to participate in the parade.
Chandler editor, Alex Pickett, dressed up as Independent's mascot, "Paige" and attracted many waves and smiles from the crowd.
The Chandler Independent is the east valley office's largest paper. There is never a lack for content in this publication as it reaches 28,000 homes in this large, suburban community.
Each week parents, council members, business owners and teachers flood the office with e-mails and calls in order to make sure their event, story, letter or photograph will make it into the upcoming edition.The Chandler Independent also serves the retirement community of Sun Lakes, which houses some of the Independent's most passionate and avid readers.
The staff also works hard each year to produce the "Senior Lifestyles" supplement which features several clubs and activities for these readers.
Alex Pickett, a young reporter who joined INI in June heads up this publication and does an excellent job keeping the community informed of local, relevant issues.
Perhaps tying all these papers together is the east valley's advertising staff made up of Kurt Ploudre, Dan Sepulveda, Natalie Wagner, Ann Deal and Vicki Johnston.
Pictured above, Ad services manager, Dan Sepulveda discusses business with ad service representative Natalie Wagner.
Together these five work to meet potential advertisers, develop strategies, design eye-catching ads as well as work hard to complete the special sections and supplements for each community.
Pictured above, Circulation specialist Grace Hodges and her son smile during the recent lunch celebrating the special supplements.
Apart from the constant change of news and community events, the east valley office has seen several other changes throughout the year.
John Wolfe, vice president of news development for INI took on the task of managing editor for several months before a new management strategy was implemented.
Several news editors have come and gone and the east valley news services team welcomed Lindsey Yentes and Josh Garber in September, two recent college graduates eager to learn about the ways of a newsroom.
Pictured above, News services member Josh Garber works diligently at his computer.
With so many changes and growth in this office, the year ahead looks both promising and exciting for this office.
Monday, December 19, 2005
New sales materials make big impact
By Heather Cregar
Delmarva’s October rate review prompted a redesign of the media kit of sales material and rate cards. In 2004, the rate card had its first dramatic change to a glossy, full-color design. Graphic Artist Cyndy Paquette remembers that the graphics team had just switched from a MAC platform to PC when she worked on the rate card.
“This platform change resulted in a challenge converting art and fonts,” Cyndy recalled. “Additionally, the rate card was to be full color versus spot color as in past years, and several pages of information were combined on one page.
“I relied a lot on my team members, Jeff Carney and Angi Hicks, for their assistance with this first major project assigned to me since joining INI.”
Last year’s change to a full-color design was part of an on-going process to update the format, in addition to consolidating all of the various rate cards onto one sheet.
“We wanted a more professional look,” said Advertising Services Director Danielle Musser explained. “The national printer Valassis helped us with this effort since they could print on the glossy paper with full color at a very reasonable rate.”
Valassis is known for their coupon package that appears in the State News Sunday on a regular basis.
The most dramatic change to this year’s rate card is the newly designed, full-color distribution map featured on the back page. commented that this new map is helpful with her sales presentations.
“The map has helped me to point out exactly which markets are covered by our various publications,” commented Ad Manager Joyce Ramsey about its usefulness in her sales presentations. “Advertisers have mentioned how much this helps them with their marketing decisions.”
In addition to the changes to the rate card, the individual sales flyers and specialty pieces were redesigned to match the new look of the rate card. Some of the pieces that switched to a glossy, full-color design include an abstract of the Delmarva publications and products, the “Have Your Way With Us” flyer that highlights the various advertising offerings and a smaller coverage map for the front of the media kit folder. Each piece now features a watermark graphic of the front page of each publication.
Graphic artist Brian Dawson did all the design work on this year’s media kit. As was the case with Cyndy Paquette last year, this year’s media kit was Brian’s first big project since joining INI last December.
“I met with Danielle and we discussed the vision for the new kit,” said Brian about how the new designs evolved. “As a company that operates within a visual medium, we wanted the pieces to demonstrate a certain graphic quality while remaining concise and pertinent throughout its subject matter.”
The smaller coverage map is Brian’s favorite piece.
“The previous art was in black and white and was further muted against the framing of the folder,” added Bryan. “Now, the colors have a nice contrast and really pop out against the ivory folder.”
Pictured above, Delmarva Graphic Artists Brian Dawson and Cyndy Paquette display the newly-designed media kits they helped develop.
This year also saw the reappearance of a sheet featuring customer testimonials.
The design of the testimonials sales piece only received minor changes with the addition of thumbnails of each paper and an updated list of the Delmarva publications and products, it still is one of the most effective sales tools used by the advertising team.
Ad Services Specialist Sherry Luff explains,
“This is a great opportunity for our customers to get their name out there, in addition to showing other businesses what a great job we are doing,” said Ad Services Specialist Sherry Luff. “There’s no better way for them to hear this than from one of our customers!”
Sherry’s team mate Jenny Keim asks her customers for testimonials on a regular basis.
“Customers who are committed to our company and have made positive comments are great candidates for a testimonial,” said Jenny.
Ad Services Specialists Cyndi Maki, Nancy Broeg, Linda Mister, Diane Baur and Marty Gillard have all had great success obtaining testimonials from customers. In addition to the sales flyer, these customer comments have been turned into a series of eye-catching house ads.
Brian Dawson’s overview of the media kit redesign project sums it all up: “We updated several of the pieces and felt that by adding color, we could be more expressive in the design and hopefully generate a greater impact through its presentation.”
The Ad Managers unanimously agree.
“I have received lots of positive feedback on the media kits as a whole,” said Laura Nadel. “At most presentations I hear, ‘Thank you for giving such a thorough proposal.’
“I think the sales flyers are important in driving home the points we make during our presentations.”
Jaclyn Fuller feels that the new sales flyers are easier to read and are more engaging now that they are printed on glossy paper with color.
Doris Shenton adds, “The clients that I have presented the new material to seem more interested than in the past. It seems to keep them focused on the presentation.”
Thursday, December 15, 2005
New Opportunities for Help Wanted Advertising
By Heather Cregar
This October brought a new advertising rate structure to Delmarva that translated into additional advertising opportunities for help wanted clients and prospects.
To jump start the sales process, the advertising team leaders
The Advertising Team’s first challenge with help wanted prospects was just getting the appointment. Many of the initial prospects are outside the immediate market area, so all of the communication had to be done by telephone, fax, mail and/or email. In addition, the team discovered Human Resources Managers are not accustomed to discussing their recruitment strategies and goals, so this added to the appointment challenge.
Central Delaware Ad Manager Jaclyn Fuller developed special phone skills to overcome these challenges.
“When I contact each recruitment decision maker by phone, I explain to them that Independent Newspapers has recently created several different options for help wanted advertising and I need to ask a few questions to see if any of them would make sense for their business,” Jaclyn said. “The majority of the customers agreed to discuss their recruitment goals over the phone but many of them just want me to send them the information.
“Since I normally complete profiles at the prospects place of business, I have fine tuned my phone skills to get many of them to share the information I need to put together a customized proposal for them,” Jaclyn explained. “I believe that the customers who ask to have the information sent to them are not accustomed to having an Advertising Manager contact them with a lot of recruitment advertising questions.
"Many of those who agree to the phone interview have later invited me to come to their office to present my proposal,” she added.
Jaclyn believes that the new rate structure allows both current and new customers the opportunity to run larger ads and target new markets for applicants while still staying within their advertising budget. This is immediately proved true with a large
Western Sussex County Ad Manager Joyce Ramsey agrees with Jaclyn’s view of the new structure and adds that the new rates allow clients the flexibility to run ads when they have job openings. Joyce’s proposal to a major
Jaclyn had the same success with a medical account, an environmental agency, and two building contractors. All of these advertisers found the new rate structure key to the success of their recruitment strategy.
Joyce also used ROP as a benefit to “close the deal” with an employment agency.
“This customer liked that she could target potential employers in the retail section of the paper and job applicants in the classified section of the paper (on a contract rate),” Joyce said
Because of their success with recruitment advertising, both Jaclyn and Joyce are expanding their prospects to include new categories of customers.
“Our new rate structure contributes to my success in selling these businesses and will supply them with a steady pool of applicants to draw from,” Jaclyn said. “It has also allowed me to branch out with new options for businesses in the area and use both retail and classified advertising to help them with their business objectives.”
Joyce agrees. “This is a great opportunity to help our customers grow their business by helping them reach the best applicants for their job openings,” she said.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Our Sun City, Sun City West readers love their newspaper
By Charlene Patti Bisson
No matter where you go in Sun City or Sun City West everyone knows the Independent. Its readership is amazing. If a newspaper is late –– we know it! As soon as we walk through the doors Wednesday morning, the phones ring nonstop.
If the newspaper has a pagination or editorial error, our readers are comfortable sharing their concerns and we gladly print corrections.
We pack our inside pages with useful information, fun and funky photos and events –– all submitted by our readers. They appreciate our editorial philosophy and thank us with lots of compliments and even money.
Our recent voluntary pay campaign drive was very successful. Hundreds of readers wrote nice thoughts about our two products.
They include:
No matter where you go in Sun City or Sun City West everyone knows the Independent. Its readership is amazing. If a newspaper is late –– we know it! As soon as we walk through the doors Wednesday morning, the phones ring nonstop.If the newspaper has a pagination or editorial error, our readers are comfortable sharing their concerns and we gladly print corrections.
We pack our inside pages with useful information, fun and funky photos and events –– all submitted by our readers. They appreciate our editorial philosophy and thank us with lots of compliments and even money.
Our recent voluntary pay campaign drive was very successful. Hundreds of readers wrote nice thoughts about our two products.
They include:
“I enjoy reading it every week and especially the classifieds. I have found some great deals.”
“We look forward to it every week. Keep putting the local news and all articles about Sun City clubs and churches.”
“I enjoy getting your paper, especially the column about people in Speak Out.”
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