Encouraging signs that we’re ‘turning the corner’

With the expense control we have been exercising in every office, we ARE achieving the profit turnaround that INI needs.

Profits still aren’t as robust as we’d like, so we must all continue to seize every opportunity to increase sales and reduce expenses. However, it is encouraging that we are beginning to see some encouraging results.

In today’s economic environment, it became clear that Cambridge and Okeechobee are simply too small to support daily publications. Our staffers did a terrific job of planning the transition, and both communities seem to have embraced the new publication schedule. The product improvement is already obvious with staff members concentrating their efforts on fewer issues.

Now, with initiatives like paid obituaries (and other paid announcements to follow soon), i-Services for Classifieds, Yahoo Hot Jobs on Delmarva and Yellow Pages (on Delmarva, with Arizona and Florida to follow later) and greater emphasis on directories and special sections, our newspapers and newszap.com websites are entering a solid rebuilding phase that will accelerate even more once the general economy starts to improve.

Delaware Printing Company continues to build sales to justify our investments there, and Valley Printing in Arizona is poised to do the same with the new press being installed there. An unknown factor is how long newsprint prices will continue to escalate despite soft U.S. demand. We think we’re seeing some early signs of softening now, but we’ll just have to manage as best we can --- comforted by the fact that the efficiency of our new presses gives us a solid advantage over many of our competitors.

We clearly chose a bold path over the past few years by investing heavily in increasing our commercial printing capacity and efficiency in both Arizona and Delaware, improving the efficiency of our publishing operations through installation of new equipment and systems, and creating a repeatable and expandable platform for community-based websites at newszap.com. This strategic transformation is now complete, and we’re now beginning to see a return on those investments.

These new systems, combined with the growing success of newszap.com, give us a solid advantage over many of our competitors. Our newspapers have “weathered the storm” better than many of our competitors, and are nicely positioned to enter a new growth cycle.

Even while operating under a hiring freeze, our newspapers can build sales by adding commission-only sales projects. This approach significantly reduces our risks by keeping our overhead low. The independent sales agents who prove themselves by successfully selling special projects can later be considered for regular sales openings. Using commission-only sales agents for special projects will free existing staffers to concentrate on building sales in our primary products. (Too often in the past, their involvement in special projects has simply resulted in switching dollars between the newspapers and the special projects --- with little real growth.)

Through all of this, we have not lost sight of our purposes and mission. We have managed to steadily upgrade the quality of our local editors, put more emphasis on our coverage of local issues, and develop vibrant local Public Forums at newszap.com. Our print products may be thinner (and less frequent in Cambridge and Okeechobee), but they are more colorful, more relevant, more compelling, and more effectively cross-promoted with the local newszap.com community websites. The e-Editions we have developed for each print product gives us the opportunity to build readership, reach and sales without proportionate increases in distribution and printing costs.

There is no doubt that the past -3 years have been challenging ones for our industry. However, Independent’s people have stepped up, kept the faith, risen to the occasion, made the tough decisions, and positioned the company for a new era of growth. Thanks, everyone!

As always, your reactions and suggestions are most welcome.

(Joe Smyth is the board chair and CEO of Independent Newspapers, Inc. He can be reached by email at JoeSmyth@newszap.com.)

LSR promotes nutrition, exercise, & weight-loss

By Glenn Rolfe
The Leader & State Register

The game of life has its winners and losers.

In the “weighting” game, big losers are actually big winners.

In Sussex County – and throughout Delaware for that matter – the wait to seriously address childhood obesity and related diseases including diabetes is over and the mission to make Delaware’s kids the “healthiest in America” is well under way.

From the publicity angle targeting promotion and awareness, The Leader & State Register has been a team member front and center, providing “success” stories and updates on ongoing efforts of the Sussex Child Health Promotion Coalition, Nemours Health & Prevention Services and Nemours’ healthy lifestyle imitative – 5-2-1 Almost None.

Tentacles of this campaign that promotes the benefits of healthy nutrition and exercise have extended throughout the Sussex County community, which school districts, child care agencies, and civic organizations part of the growing membership that totals several hundred.

Coverage in The Leader & State Register has spanned the gamut – from localized garden plot projects providing fresh produce to neighborhoods and schools to large-scale events, such as “Healthy Kids Day” spectacles at Trap Pond State Park and the Delaware State Fair where thousands of children and parents received the 5-2-1-AN message.

Also showcased were some of the losers who are big winners.

The LSR has featured miraculous weight-loss stories – Dee Tunstall, a principal Phillis Wheatley Middle School in the Woodbridge School District, and a local television cameraman Chuck Regner, or “Chopper Chuck” to thousands of kids and television viewers.

These stories focused on their decisions and efforts to shed more 100 pounds and their commitment to promoting 5-2-1-AN, which advocates eating five fresh fruits and vegetables daily, no more than two hours of idle “recreational” screen or TV time per day, at least one hour of physical activity and virtually elimination of sugar intake through soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened drinks and beverages.

Initial data and feedback indicates this healthy living crusade, launched about two years ago, is making a difference.

And publicity and public awareness efforts of the LSR have not gone un-noticed.

The newspaper was among the Sussex Child Health Promotion Coalition’s first award recipients, acknowledging the Leader & State Register’s ongoing and continuous effort to promote healthy living and programs and initiatives geared to encouraging adoption of cultural and lifestyle change.

Cutting costs now so we can thrive later

There isn’t a newspaper anywhere in the country that isn’t suffering financially these days. Banks are in disarray, the general economy is soft and advertising sales are sluggish --- yet newsprint prices continue to increase.

Like everybody else in the industry, we’ve had to take some extraordinary steps recently to stay financially viable. I thought I should explain two significant ones:

First, we have reduced our frequency of publication in Cambridge (Maryland) from five days per week to two days per week. It has been apparent for some time that Dorchester County was simply too small to support a daily publication. It was something that we could not longer afford to ignore. The new Dorchester Banner (Wednesdays) and Eastern Shore Banner (Fridays) will be much more successful than the old Daily Banner --- and will provide significant profit relief for the overall company. This was tough to do, but necessary.

We have also been scrambling to reduce costs in all other parts of the company. And since people and paper are our two largest expenses, our latest round of cost-cutting has included some personnel terminations. Again, this was tough to do, but necessary.

For years, we have bragged that Independent has never resorted to mass layoffs. This is a boast that we can no longer make. In fact, it may have been one “value” that was misguided. Although we have always believed in making performance-based terminations, our “no layoffs” tradition may have sent the wrong signals. Some people thought that it meant they could get away with poor performance and still not be terminated.

Well, no longer. In today’s competitive situation, nobody can be complacent. Every company and every individual has to hustle to make sure we are adding value. It’s up to each of us to be a “sail” that helps the company make whatever changes are necessary to continue moving forward. Anybody who becomes an “anchor” instead of a “sail” can expected to be cut loose. And any company that tolerates “anchors” simply won’t survive.

We are going to survive, and thrive. This means being more aggressive than we have been in the past about “weeding the garden” of weak performers. If you’re in the top 75% of producers at your location, you have nothing to worry about. If you’re in the bottom 25%, you had better do something to move up --- or face the possibility of being moved out.

This is the way the real world works, and a small company like Independent has no business trying to pretend otherwise. To the extent that we have tolerated poor performance in the past, we have penalized the vast majority of our people who are hard-working and effective. This company will be more successful with this new attitude, and better able to reward our top producers.

We’ll still be fair and compassionate, but we will no longer avoid the tough decisions that must be made. Thanks, everybody, for your understanding and support. Together, we will succeed.

(Joe Smyth is the board chair and CEO of Independent Newspapers, Inc. He can be reached by email at JoeSmyth@newszap.com.)

Delmarva Yellow Pages launched at newszap.com

Need a local plumber, handyman, florist? – you name it.

There was a time you “let your fingers do the walking” in the hefty, big, bound yellow pages.

Not any more. The old-fashioned squinting at small type has been replaced by quickly and easily searching yellow page listings by key word in a brand new local directory available on the Internet.

It is all found at newszap.com’s new Delmarva Yellow Pages.

Newszap.com is the most comprehensive and popular Internet site for and about each of the Delmarva communities served by Independent Newspapers Inc. And, Delmarva Yellow Pages make it a snap to serve up information on any local business with just a few mouse clicks!

Now you can find contact information on business services in communities across Delmarva with listings located in your own town or zip code featured conveniently first at the very top of the page, while all those in nearby areas are accessible in the same search, too!

Local consumers online can visit any newszap.com community homepage to click on the Delmarva Yellow Pages link to discover 65,000 local services sorted by 1,700 searchable categories and subcategories.

Every business in town is offered a free listing which includes name, address, phone number with online map of the business’ location. For a small fee, businesses can add web and email addresses, logos, hours, description of services, photos and even videos!

Better than 70% of Delmarva is online and 92% of web users regularly research products and services online. This has long been simply done on the Internet for national brands and products, but many local businesses have been slow to make their presence felt online.

Delmarva Yellow Pages makes it easy for local enterprises and consumers to quickly and easily find each other.

“The listings are incredibly useful to any Delmarva consumer” said Ed Dulin, Independent Newspapers Inc.’s President. “Every conceivable service is there, available 24/7, and we will add a new listing at no charge from any local business making a request.”

Newszap.com’s new Delmarva Yellow Pages are linked from any Delaware or Maryland community homepage at www.newszap.com.