Mom and Pops Rock for the Holidays
May 25th
A framed front page from The Chicago Daily Tribune of April 14, 1874 hangs in my home. There is no particular significance of the page, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
The lead story is a gripping an account of the sinking of the steamer Europe and mid-sea rescue of the survivors. Not a picture or graphic graces the page. There are various reports from Washington D.C., including a story on a Federal fraud investigation, passage of a railroad bill designed to stimulate the economy and several other articles that could be plucked from today’s headlines.
The stories could be plucked from today's headlines and the left hand column is chock full of local advertising.
What’s particularly fascinating, though, is that the entire far left column is devoted to ads for local merchants — two souvenir photo studios, a Realtor, the Merchants Exchange National Bank and two other financial institutions. There’s an ad for “fresh” California Salmon at A. Booth’s, which makes me wonder what salmon must have tasted like in 1874. A stationer, glassware retailer, doctor, dentist, jeweler, grave site marker company and office rentals round out the ads, 20 in all.
It is notable that front page advertising apparently was commonplace in the late 1800s. Every one of the advertisers was local and for the most part they were small businesses. Most of the ad categories represented on this page still exist today. Successor companies to some of the advertisers still operate in Chicago, proof that advertising works!
Somewhere between 1874 and today newspapers lost their way. Classified ads were booming. Every auto dealer, Realtor and major retailer had to run big ads to be competitive. Newspapers turned their backs on selling small space ads to humble merchants on Main Street — stationers and housewares retailers, photographers and grave marker companies. Too much work for too little gain seemed to be the attitude.
“Make sure your holiday sections are 100% geared to local Mom and Pops,” Tom Bradley, Ad Director of the Bartlesville, OK Examiner-Enterprise urged me today. “The big box stores don’t advertise with us.”
What a difference a few years makes. The CTW editorial department is decorated for Christmas right now! The editors are taking Tom’s words to heart, too. They’re building brand new holiday magazines from the ground up, chock full of ideas that highlight retailers on Main Street and appeal to local folks who shop there.
You can help. This year we are asking you to forward your ideas and suggestions to make CTW’s Celebrations holiday magazines and MiniSites™ truly yours, the best money-makers ever. Your idea could even win a new iPad!
Make your holiday selling season merry and bright. Forward your ideas for stories or for successfully marketing holiday to paul@contentthatworks.com. Your ideas will truly guide this year’s packages, plus you could end up winning an iPad — a sort of Christmas present in advance.
Mom and Pops rock. Lets get in touch with the businesses that were the foundation upon which newspapers and other local media were built. Small businesses are your biggest opportunity. Helping them helps you and your community.
The Coupon Queen is a Win-Win-Win-Win-Win
Apr 12th
Valassis and Albertson’s recently sent out letters demanding that newspapers stop selling the Sunday paper after the “specified publication day.”
Aside from sounding very much like restraint of trade, it is a very scary notion that a large coupon insert company and supermarket chain should attempt to dictate to newspapers what they can and cannot do. The free and independent press in this country is fast becoming anything but.
That should frighten the bejeezus out every man, woman and child old enough to read.
Don’t get me wrong. We love coupons and coupon companies. We love Albertson’s that happens to own Jewel, the dominant supermarket chain in Chicago. We understand that making it possible for consumers to acquire and redeem coupons outside the normal distribution window could be disruptive to Albertson’s business.
However, could it be that consumers are simply getting smarter about coupon use by reading columns and viewing videos from such experts as Jill Cataldo, The Coupon Queen? She is teaching newspaper readers how to make the most of the coupons freely distributed in the paper to stimulate grocery store business and sales of brand name products.
It seems that in some markets coupons are working too well! What a shock in this economy.
Jill takes the view that the Sunday paper landing on her driveway is like being handed more than $100 cash due to the coupons. We have heard that in some markets consumers actually go out on Sunday and buy multiple copies of the newspaper just to get additional coupon circulars.
Thing is, this is a win-win-win-win-win. The newspapers win because they sell more papers. Consumers win because they save money. Valassis wins because coupon redemption goes up. The brands win because they sell more products. Albertson’s wins because it gets more people into its stores.
On that last point just think back to the last time you went on a shopping trip to the supermarket. Were you disciplined enough to buy only what was on your list or the items for which you had coupons? Me either. So just how hurtful can the occasional Sunday newspaper sold on a Monday (or horrors, the following Friday) be?
The fact is every newspaper that has coupon inserts should be running The Coupon Queen. She helps consumers learn how to get the most from the coupons in the newspaper — help consumers desperately need in these uncertain times. She also helps newspapers strengthen their bond with their readers. The Coupon Queen reminds readers that the newspaper is valuable!
The Holy Grail in the coupon business is controlling the relationship with the consumer. Valassis itself is a major distributor of online coupons. Limiting coupon use, controlling how newspapers do business and trying to keep consumers in the dark about how to get the most from coupons is bad for everyone. Moreover, it is just another step in the erosion of a free press in America.
Time to Fight Back
Mar 28th
“Do not underestimate your Sunday paper…”
When was the last time you heard a reporter from a major television news network say something like that? Well that’s precisely what happened March 25, 2010 at the end of an ABC Nightline segment on “how much you can get for $50” when reporter John Donvan uttered precisely those words.
It’s kind of refreshing after all of the talk of newspaper dying. Don’t you think?
Here’s what Jill Caltaldo, whom Donovon characterized as the “Dear Abby of coupons” during his Nightline segment, said about newspapers on the show to a national viewing audience:
“I see Sunday morning as somebody throwing $100 bucks at the end of my driveway and I am the first out of my house to go get it . . . ”
How much is that sort of publicity worth to the newspaper industry?
This suburban housewife is single-handedly trying to save newspapers! She’s on a one-woman crusade to make people realize that newspapers are important and have significant value. This after years of hearing a one-note song that the newspaper business is dying.
Here’s the thing: It seems incredible to me that any newspaper that carries coupon inserts would NOT run The Coupon Queen, by Jill Cataldo who was one of the two featured coupon experts on Nightline. Still many don’t and it makes no sense.
No less an authority than the Newspaper Association of America asserted last fall that newspaper inserts and the accompanying coupons are “under siege.” So why wouldn’t every newspaper do everything possible to shore up and protect its coupon franchise?
http://bit.ly/c47f19
It is time for newspapers to fight back. The Coupon Queen, her weekly column and videos, should be in every newspaper that carries Sunday coupon circulars and on the Web sites of those newspapers. The information she provides helps readers get more for their money when those readers desperately need the help. The environment her column and videos create helps your ad staff sell coupon ads they would not get otherwise. The column even helps the circulation department, which benefits from having something in the paper every week underscoring the power of the Sunday paper and the value of the coupons it contains.
Newspapers as we know them are in a heap of trouble. Jill Cataldo is trying to help. Sadly too many newspaper middle managers are asleep at the switch, or worse, they are afraid of their own shadows. Either way if we all don’t do something, and do something fast, we’re going to be vice presidents in charge of looking for a job.
Here’s CTW’s commitment: If you take The Coupon Queen out into your marketplace and make a serious effort to sell ads against the column or the new videos for the your Web site and can’t sell at least one ad that brings in enough to pay for the content, you get the column FREE for one year. We believe that much in providing a reason for your readers to buy your newspaper. How about it?
My wife has a new thang . . .
Mar 3rd
It’s better than the old thang.
She’s also in denial. However, despite her protests to the contrary she has an addiction problem.
I noticed it again this morning when my alarm went off this morning — the telltale blue glow shielded from my side of the bed by a strategically placed pillow.
My wife has fallen into a serious relationship with her iPhone. No, she was not playing some game, though she has a few on her phone. Nor was she using one of the myriad apps she has available like our friend Arlo’s: Jug Band App. That could have been a tad annoying at that hour.
No she was simply, silently reading — probably the New York Times or some other news feed. I dared not ask for fear of breaking the early morning solitude and disturbing the sacred relationship between woman and machine.
My wife’s addition is hardly unique. I see avid readers surreptitiously sneak out their electronic devices to feed their habit in the oddest of settings. Luckily that means there is hope for people who believe in the power of a good story well told.
My wife loves to read. She also loves the fact that her phone now gives her access to great stories worldwide in a moment’s notice on a compact, portable, unobtrusive, easy-to-use device always just an arm’s length away. Its kind of magical, and more than a little addictive.
However, it wouldn’t mean a thing without content worth reading! That represents a huge opportunity for newspapers and other local media outlets: Learning to appeal to digital readers whether they use the iPhone, Google’s Nexus One, Amazon’s Kindle, the coming iPad or any of the other new delivery systems.
It all starts and ends with a story. That story needs to have a reason for being and told by someone who understands how to spin a good yarn with a beginning, middle and end. That’s what we attempt to do every day at Content That Works. It’s also the reason we are bullish on the news and information business for the foreseeable future.
Electronic delivery may be a threat, but it is also a significant, potentially addictive opportunity. Provided, of course, the content delivered is as compelling as the machine it is delivered on.
I sincerely doubt that my wife will have the same relationship with the iPad when it comes out as she has with her phone, no matter how appealing the big bright display and added capabilities. The iPad will glow bigger and brighter, but it won’t have the same easy portability or palm-satisfying convenience.
We will see. In the meantime I have learned to find comfort in the soft blue glow I often see emanating from the other side of the bed. It tells me the future of great content is very bright indeed!
Doing Good and Being Well Rewarded for so Doing
Jan 9th
Undressing the Terrorist Threat in today’s Wall Street Journal http://bit.ly/56vCP0 is one of the most interesting pieces I have read concerning the recent mania about airline safety.
In essence the writer, whose name comes eerily close to my own, argues against cowardice and for bravery. It seems to me the same advice could be given to our industry. As simplistic as it is to prescribe bravery in the face of adversity, acting on such advice is precisely what we need to do to revive our fortunes.
We must believe in what we do. If we believe we actually help readers, site visitors and the local businesses who entrust us with their advertising in print and online, we will succeed. If we fail to believe we continue to flail about wallowing in our own troubles with little hope of digging ourselves out of this mess.
The SFN and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers release a report this week with “the key objective to inspire newspaper executives to invest and innovate their business units and business practices . . .”
http://www.sfnblog.com/industry_trends/2010/01/sfn_report_overall_revenue_suffered_at_g.php
It’s a great objective, of course, but it is the second step in the process. The first step is to reconnect with our core purpose: informing, enlightening, entertaining and leading our communities in the belief that we do good in the process — good for those who support our endeavor, readers and advertisers alike.