25 ways to grow your weekly newspaper's circulation

Top 25 Ways to Grow Circulation for the Community Newspaper

1. Single Copy is still the easiest button to push to get

immediate gains at lowest cost

Single Copy Sales Reach the needed Non-Subscribing/ Occasional Reader

Location… Location… Location…

Inside more Retail Stores

(MORI Research for NAA’s 2006 Single Copy Buyers Study)

Single Copy buying is a habit

The value of newspaper sales to retailers…

Newspaper buyers

(MORI Research for NAA’s 2006 Single Copy Buyers Study)

Create Retail Partnerships

BEST PRACTICES

& SUCCESS STORIES

+434

+237

+109

+184

+107

+133

+138

Single-copy outlet expansion Manager Dale Bowen of

the Chiefland (FL)Citizen purchased 25 used racks

and placed 15 at his 4,027 weekly newspaper

Outlet target •  7 per 1,000 HH

•  1 per every 150 HH

Williston FL Manager Kathy Richardson deployed 10 more

racks. Added to 24 retail outlets, they

now have 6 per 1,000 HH.

George Jacobs, Cynthiana KY publisher, purchased 22 racks for deployment at 4 regional papers and Cynthiana Democrat, 5,652 weekly

Get Inside Wal-Mart

Alan Place, manager of Sumter County Times,

5,323 weekly, got 9 check-out rack locations

inside the Bushnell FL Wal-Mart selling about 130

copies per week

www.thenexxusgroup.com

Ryan Bramlett, New Albany Gazette manager, got the paper out earlier and papers on the street earlier. Single sales were up 754 at this 4,932 twice-weekly

Get on sale earlier

We need to “harvest” more single copy buyers to the subscriber side

2. Run single copy inserts

on regular basis

The Kentucky Standard in historic Bardstown KY

earned 73 starts from this Friday the 13th flyer

CKNJ’s Crystal Anderson drew 57 new and 152 renewals from one issue of the newspaper and two of the shopper for this 6,735 twice-weekly

One-Day Sales

Chiefland Citizen’s One Day Sale brought in 93

new and renewal subscriptions

Galax Gazette One Day ‘After Thanksgiving Sale’ sold 24 new starts for this 8,263 Galax VA tri-weekly

Frequency of inserts…

3. Improve your news product

Williston FL Editor Kathy Richardson’s news

improvements have been accompanied by growth

Editor Julie Satterly has joined a circulation growth team

at The Oldham Era, LaGrange, KY

Brunswick Editor Ben Carlson is promoting news

of interest to summer residents on page 1

of 17,000 NC weekly

Key Steps…

Promote SmartSource and Valassis coupon packages

The Record promotes per-issue coupon value in the page 1 ear

SmartSource Coupons

Casey County News, 5,469 Liberty KY weekly, drew 23 new subs and 9 requested samples from this full-page promotion

based on ½ the value of the coupons in that issue

Creative Ad Campaign

5. Devote more time to growth

Susan Collins, circulation manager and general factotum

at The Spencer Magnet, Taylorsville KY weekly grew 197 in one year

Laura Satterly worked as a part-time circulation sales manager for The Kentucky Standard who gained entry to Wal-Mart inside single sales for this 9,380 tri-weekly

Two of Laura’s promotions…

14 starts came from one-day sale flyer for “National

Pamper Yourself Day”

33 starts from Anniversary Sale in Sun. single copy and Wed. non-subscriber shopper

6. Offer Targeted Premiums

Perry County News, Tell City, IN twice-weekly sold 31new with

this America’s Best Recipes cookbook premium.

7. Boost Web Starts

(Pop-Up Box)

Pop-under box sold 18 month; 10 average in quarter

“Must-haves” to generate more subscription offers from web sites:

Web Site Single Sales Promo Pick up your copy of The Cynthiana Democrat at these racks and dealer locations: CITY LOCATIONS Ken's NewMarket Ken's Discount Tobacco Shop Kentucky Motors MSP Market (Shell Food Mart) Eastside Pharmacy Thrift Food Mart Yellow Rose First Stop Rite-Aid Save-A-Lot Fast Max Sunstar Entertainment Speedway

8. E-mail Alerts

9. Promote in other media

Tom McDonald and Amanda Pacheco teamed up on this radio spot promoting Las Vegas (NM) Optic improvements and subscriptions with additional 10% discount for citing radio ad. 34 new subscribers cited the spot when subscribing.

Judy Underwood, Morgan County News, Wartburg

TN 5,084 weekly, provides news briefs on the radio in return for promotional

copy. Circulation is up 152 copies, 3.3%.

Meghan Murphy, Clear Creek (CO) Courant editor, records weekly radio spots on the local station, listing

single copy outlets

10. Direct Mail non-subscribers

Stephanie Hornback, manager of The Record,

Leitchfield KY, oversaw direct mail to non-subscribing

households, gaining 734 new starts this year

The Pioneer News, Shepherdsville KY, 8,200 twice-weekly

mailed this continuous form outbound/return

envelope and sold 553 new subs at a 4.9%

return on pieces mailed

See www.bwpress.com

Chester SC, News & Reporter, got 65 restarts (16.5% return) from this mailing to 393 former subscribers of the 6,600 twice-weekly

‘We Want You’ Flyer

Improve Direct Mail

11. Sample non-subscribers

The Williamson County Sun, Georgetown TX, sold 280 new for 9.3% return from 3,000 samples and multiple contact options

Letter from publisher with coupon

House Ad

Mail-back card

12. Friday the 13th Specials

New Albany Gazette

The LaRue County Herald News

Roane County News

New Year’s Special

13. Telemarket Past Subscribers Citrus County Chronicle sales +708 in 2004

2,379 orders, 39% prepaid by credit card

14. New Mover Calls & Mailings

Henry County Local County Guide Introductory Offer

15. Bulk Subscriptions

16. Requested Sample Card Program

17. Bill stuffers/calls to retail, classified ad customers

18. Emphasize Retention

19. Stop-Saver Calls

Alison Hash of the Galax Gazette

20. Shopper Ads

21. Kiosk Sales

Susan Rowell, Publisher of The Lancaster (SC) News, authorized funding of a kiosk program that has produced 620 new paid starts in four months

The Sentinel-News Valentine’s Day Kiosk

22. Carrier Sales Promotions

Chris Lopez sold 171 new starts in 11 months

to win Carrier of the Month 4 out of 6 months

Amy Zetina, new receptionist at The

News-Enterprise, sold 70 paid starts in 2 months by asking

customers who called or came into the office

23. Front Office Sales

24. Group Fund-raiser Sales

25. Outreach for Literacy

NIE, adult literacy programs use newspapers to teach

To say goodbye we bring you Newsy, The News-Enterprise mascot, shown here with their NIE logo

Bye-Bye