Kansas publisher launches tri-weekly newspaper with revenue business model centered on subscriptions

By Angela Kurtz
Associate Marketing Manager

Ben Franklin’s Theory of Operation.

For the record, I should state that Benjamin Franklin neither promoted any real theory of operations nor endorsed one, at least not that I am aware.  However, Larry Hiatt, owner and publisher of Columbus News Report in Columbus, Kan., uses this descriptive term to explain the business model under which he set about building and growing his community newspaper.

Located in the southeast corner of the state, less than 30 miles from Joplin, Mo., the Hiatts publish the Columbus News Report three times a week serving a population of just over 3,200 residents with roughly 4,500 in their trade territory.

He and his wife and business partner, Sharon, took an atypical approach to starting their community paper, initially pursuing a subscription-based revenue stream in lieu of advertising dollars to create the financial foundation of Columbus News Report.

So, what’s the link to Benjamin Franklin?

Read more …

Enjoying the Texas Tradeshow

Christopher Maher, left, and Tim Acosta, center, both of the Kingsville Record, stopped by the Interlink booth at the Texas Press Association Midwinter Convention and Tradeshow in Houston in January and visited with Interlink Technical Support Services Supervisor Che’ Eddie. For more photos from the Texas Tradeshow, click here. Also, check out our photos from the Iowa Convention, click here.

Visiting at the Texas Convention

Interlink Senior Sales and Marketing Manager Helen Sosniecki visits with Tim Waltner, left, publisher of the Freeman (S.D.) Courier, and Marc Richard, vice president and operations manager of Fackelman Newspaper Group, publishers of the Ennis Daily News. Waltner, the recipient of the 2012 International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors’ Eugene Cervi Award, was the Hall of Fame speaker at the Texas Midwinter Convention.

Reports that we are dying are greatly exaggerated

By Cheryl Wormley
President, International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors

Back in 1897, James Ross Clemens was ill. Not-so-careful passing on of information resulted in word that Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name of Mark Twain, was dying in London. When an enterprising reporter decided to check on Twain before publishing his demise, the author responded, “The report of my death was greatly exaggerated.”

Morley Safer, during his Jan. 6 “60 Minutes” report about the newspaper industry, glibly stated, “The facts of life are that newspapers are folding all over the country. It’s a dying business.” His example was the New Orleans newspaper, The Times-Picayune, which recently cut back from publishing seven days a week to three days.
Read more …

By William (Bill) Garber

Oh, Really?  Ad Age columnist James Gross got me thinking after I read his opening paragraph.

“In the not-too-distant future, marketers finally will be able to target nearly anyone they want, any time they want, anywhere they want.”

Here is how I replied to his column (  http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/future-timely-content-planned-campaigns/240442/  )

This is a marketer’s nightmare precisely because it is a consumer’s nightmare.  Only Hollywood types want to walk past a thousand cameras flashing at them.

Ambush marketing is a losing game just like Seth Godin predicted.

The future of business is not better targeting, it is the end of targets.  It is the end of war.

Check out business as betterness  www.amazon.com/Betterness-Economics-Humans-Kindle-ebook/dp/B006K5K5GI  … here is the future of marketing as well as society.

Betterness applied to marketing … now that will absolutely exceed in magnitude the historic changes brought about by the automobile and the industrial age.

We don’t need more stuff.  We need a better life experience.

Applied betterness … it is the future of business and its marketing component.

If you don’t want a government drone silently watching your backyard BBQ and hot-tub rejuvenation, you sure don’t want to be associated with a marketing effort that knows someone’s misuse of sunblock, failure to fully cook a hamburger, or whether you recycled your beer bottles properly.

We have too much stuff and not nearly enough of the good life, a result sadly facilitated by … marketing.

I’m not calling for you to change professions, though changing the profession you are in would be most welcomed.  To start with, put the gun down.

But you already knew that … as you your summary infers …

“If you are a brand thinking about the challenges of the age of social media, start by asking yourself, ‘What is different now than in the past and what are the tools that we have at our fingertips?’ If the answers make you feel as if you are treading into territory never documented before, that’s a good thing. As many have noted, the biggest mistake we make in a new medium is mirroring the process of an old one.”

As for community newspaper publishers, betterness is something deep in your bones.  Helping advertisers understand betterness as a business paradigm may well require a change in how we thing about advertising.  If you can help businesses do better by helping them get beyond advertising, your revenue from this new venture should exceed that of advertising.

And just in time.

If you care to share some musings or even a little brag or two in this regard, just email me at bill@ilsw.com

From Max Heath

This year’s National Postal Forum in San Francisco is coming in for quite a bit of negative press.

Just as information, I have attended most forums for about 25 years but am sitting out this one as the dynamic duo of National Newspaper Association CEO Tonda Rush and Bradley Hill, NNA MTAC representative and President of Interlink, represent all of us there.

The forum is actually produced by an independent non-profit group that does work hand-in-glove with USPS and is run by some former postal managers, some former mailers and a few independent folks who specialize in such massive meetings.

USPS does have the cost of travel and lodging for its people. But, I can tell you the number of postal people attending has been cut back severely and continually over the years.

While part of the meeting is pure propaganda by USPS, I can attest that there is value in attendance, and most people there work very hard. It is an exhausting 3-4 days that start early and end late, but with lots of useful options, including a consultation center combining people from Washington, D.C., New York and Memphis that NNA brings problems to with all players available.

Social occasions and consultation areas allow mailers  to bring complaints  and problems and swap business cards with top managers. The trade show is educational. I honestly find it valuable, and it allows access for many people who manage mailrooms for colleges and industry, mail service providers, and a large array of people who do not get the access enjoyed by NNA at MTAC quarterly meetings in D.C. Tonda and Brad are presenters at the meeting as  well.

Ooops Matthew,

The problem is not access.  As you so rightly note, access is at once free and ubiquitous.

The journalism issue is overwhelm.  Meaning has been destroyed in a tsunami of opinion masquerading as reporting.  The ruination of old-school journalism was CNN.  The 24-hr news cycle, not the death of newspapers, is what turned an edifice into a slum.

There is no glory in a slum, no matter its size. Indeed, the bigger it gets, the worse the plight of everyone there.

Trade, not self reliance, is the path to betterment.  Check out Matt Ridley, who famously noted, ‘Self reliance is poverty.’  That is surely the case with journalism, and more to the point, the task of finding the needle of meaning in a haystack of reporting.  Click Here for article.

By Brad Hill

SAN FRANCISCO — New periodical permit numbers assigned by the U.S. Postal Service are now shorter than the traditional 6 digits and will be for some time. I learned this while speaking with Chuck Tricamo, Acting Manager of the USPS Pricing and Classification Center in NY, at the National Postal Forum.

The issue surfaced when a newspaper that was recently granted Periodical status gave us a 3-digit permit number to use on their postage statement. At first I thought there was confusion with a permit for Standard Mail, which are frequently short, but it was confirmed as accurate by Postal staff.

It turns out the Postal Service “reset” their numbering practice for Periodical permits, beginning with number 1. Previously, 6-digit numbers were assigned, typically formated as xxx-xxx.

Interlink Circulation already supported short permit numbers, so if your publication is pending periodical authorization, you can rest easy knowing that everything will work once you’re approved.

By William E. (Bill) Garber

This from the Hollywood Reporter–It looks like money man Eli Broad (of KB Homes fame and a Michigan State University grad who qualified for in-state tuition by reason of birth) and Austin Beutner (not the B in KB homes but an investment banker and former deputy LA mayor) would like to acquire the LA Times and turn it into a nonprofit.  Click Here for article.

I would have expected businessmen to be thinking how to make a profit, but nooooo! Broad and Beutner apparently aren’t interested in a business, only a platform it looks like, and they apparently want to be sure they can deduct every penny they invest, perhaps right from the first one.

Read more …

 Postmaster General Says Technology is Making Mail More Powerful
Urges Mailing Industry to Focus on Innovation in Delivery, Digital Integration and Targeting

From Postal News
Toni DeLancey/toni.g.delancey@usps.gov

SAN FRANCISCO — Technology and changing consumer expectations are helping to transform mail into an even more powerful communications channel, Postmaster General and CEO Patrick R. Donahoe told the nation’s largest annual gathering of mailing industry leaders today.

“As the mailing industry, we must continue to work to drive innovation and leverage data and technology to improve the consumer experience and grow revenue,” Donahoe said in his keynote address at the National Postal Forum. “Our challenge as an industry is to shape those moments when people are experiencing mail, and make them more powerful in the future. That’s part of getting our game on — shaping our future and building excitement about the power of mail and the future of mail.”

Read more …

By Brad Hill

Interlink has made available a free tool on its website that provides quick estimates of the savings possible when applying the new Intelligent Mail barcode to applicable pieces. With a recent 3541 Periodical Mail or 3602 Standard Mail postage statement in hand, publishers can calculate the impact on their annual postage fees in just a few minutes.

Some software vendors either chose not to support the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) or were unable to overcome technical challenges to doing so, and have told their customers IMb isn’t important because most of their newspapers are entered into the post office that delivers them. While this is true for pieces in carrier-route bundles, most community papers mail enough local and out-of-town papers at 5-digit or higher rates that IMb savings over the course of a year can be significant.

Read more …

Q:     How do I add/edit my subscription rates?

A:     Currently, the program supports handling up to 20 different rates each with four separate terms, or lengths of time.

To add a rate:

1.  Select “Configure List…” from the “File” Menu

2.  Go to the “Subscriptions” Tab

3.  Click the “Regular Rates…” button (or Promotional Rates, Autopay Rates, etc.)

4.  Click the “Add” button to add new rates or “Edit” to update current rates