falcon newsletter - advanced publishing technology, inc. newsletter winter 06.pdf“apt provides...

Falcon Newsletter Winter 2007

Falcon Advertising New Release ...........................................1Benefits of Falcon Circulation ................................................2APT Technology Forum Overview ...........................................3Partner Update and Tips and Tricks .......................................4Falcon Enhanced Online Ads ................................................5Falcon Systems Supports SQL 2005 .......................................6

In this issue

APT 2007 Initiatives

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

Falcon Newsletter • Winter 2007 • Marketing Contact [email protected] http://www.advpubtech.com • Copyright 2007 by APT • All rights reserved

David Kraai, APT President

“APT provides real software and service solutions that you

can use today.”

In 2007 APT will focus on four main initiatives• Serving our target market even better• Developing and enhancing products for our target market• Expanding our on-line products and services• Offering new services and consulting

Serving Our Target MarketOur target customers are community newspapers and other publications.They are:• Seeking new markets or opportunities• Facing increasing advertising and editorial competition• Facing decreasing or static circulation• Producing multiple products and have multiple locations • Required to do more with fewer resources

Our customers need: New markets and better tools to take advantage of opportunities in these new markets.

APT is providing: On-line and other innovative software products that enable our customers to reach new advertisers and new markets

Our customers are: Facing increasing advertising and editorial competition

APT is providing: Additional revenue generating opportunities by providing enhanced advertising features and repurposing of stories and other editorial content by creating a platform neutral environment.

Key New Features

SQL 2005The new release is capable of running on the MicrosoftSQL Server 2005 database engine.

AES Database EncryptionIndustry standard database encryption is now used bydefault for credit card numbers and user passwords.

Default RatesCan now be defined for many different order attributessuch as Publications, Section, Ad Type, and CustomerClass.

Auto-Pick UpsAutomatic pickup publications can now be added toorders.

Package BuysAn extension of the functionality provided bypublication groups, are now available.

Auto Charge Credit CardIs used to automatically charge the customer’s creditcard for the billed portion of an order each time it’sbilled.

Benefits

• Modern supportable

technology

• Secure, safe and automatic

• Automatic upsells

• Ad renewals made simple

APT's Falcon Advertising and OnlineOrder Entry offers versatile cross-media publishing features built-inCRM and business analysis. Learnhow our technology streamlines‘cross-selling’ and see our high-performance classified paginationsystem. Reach today’s consumer andgrow revenue with Falcon’sintegrated, converged mediaapproach.

For information or schedule a privatedemonstration, contactJo Ann Froelich at

[email protected].

Advanced Publishing Technology will present

Falcon Community Advertising at

America East – March 12-15, 2007

Nexpo - April 21-24, 2007

SCAMA Conferences - Feb. 10-14, 2007

Contact [email protected] to schedule a Webex demo

New Falcon Advertising ReleaseOffers ROI

The Community Newspaper’s Solution

Advanced Publishing Technology 1400 W, Burbank Blvd, - Suite 100 Burbank, CA. 91506

www.advpubtech.com www.advpubtech.com

ad v an c e d p u b l i s h i n g t e ch no l og y

Presented by Sid Kendrick and Tom Christian at the APT Technology Forum

Are you taking full advantage of key features in your Falcon Circulation? Find out by asking your circulation team a few questions.

Subscriber Retention

EZ Pay (Direct Payment Service) Do you offer customers the option to pay for the paper by credit card or by bank draft?

Falcon provides the options of both credit card and bank draft payments for subscriptions. The system prepares extract files for delivery to a financial institution for automatic debit of subscriber credit card or bank accounts.

Business Benefits: • EZ Pay works because it removes the renewal decision from the customer. • Each time you send a bill for renewal, the subscriber must decide whether to renew the newspaper. • By automating the process, the subscriber decides only once whether he or she wants to buy the newspaper; after that, no further decisions are required.• Credit card and direct payments also reduce sticker shock for some customers. Rather than facing a bill for a 13-week or longer service, readers see a more modest monthly charge.• Falcon offers over 10 reports to help manage DPS accountsMonitoring Starts and Stops

Do you contact subscribers who are about to stop for non-payment or who have recently stopped for non-payment?

Falcon offers detailed and accurate reporting on customers who are about to stop or who have recently stopped because of non-payment of the renewal notice:• Subscriber Start/Stop Report• Reader Outreach Reports• Subscription Retention Report

Business Benefit: Retention efforts, including telemarketing, can be concentrated on these customers to re-sell them or you can look into the future and manage stops in advance.

Marketing of the Newspaper

What kind of programs do you use for getting new subscribers?

Falcon Circulation manages Single Copy Sales using:• Recommend Draw Processing• Update Global Draw Changes• Single Copy Analysis Report• After Manifest Draw Changes.

Business Benefits: These reports help to maximize single copy sales and manage returns.

Draw Manage Subscriber Acquisition and Retention

Do you use the information in our reports to manage Draw and Subscriber Acquisition and Retention?• Draw Comparison Reports• ABC Report of Distribution by County (Paragraph 3A)• ABC Report of Distribution by Zip Code (Paragraph 3B)• Subscriber Retention Report• DPS Marketing Report• Subscriber Start/Stop Report• Reader Outreach Reporting

Business Benefits: • Help select right mix of sales sources. o Kiosk o Carriers o Door to door crews o Telemarketing o Internet o District Managers o Free standing inserts in single copy papers o New mover programs o Retention conversion• Use payment methods as a retention lever• Communicate with customers with retention as a goal• Enhance verification calls

Total Market/Targeted Market Coverage

Do you distribute and manage total market or targeted market products?• Are you CDS certified in some or all of the zip codes in your market area?• Do you zone inserts in your TMC products?• Do you maintain total subscriber/non-subscriber address data for your market area? • Do you have the ability to update it with current postal route and walk sequence data?

Falcon has the ability to import address lists from CDS disks from the post office and update current and new addresses with postal carrier route and walking sequence information.

Business Benefit: • Lowest possible postal rates are available for mail prepared with carrier route and walking sequence information.• Total address data can also be used to prepare accurate and detailed non-subscriber lists for delivery by the newspapers carrier force in situations where this is more cost efficient than using the post office.• Address maintenance is quick and efficient with CDS import resulting payroll in savings of clerical time and postage expenses.

Harness the Benefits of Falcon Circulation


Is the Newspaper routes grouped by ad zones?

Business Benefit: This allows for zoning of inserts into newspaper defined marketing zones giving the advertiser coverage of desired geographic/demographic areas.

On Line Access

What kind of on line access do customers currently have to our system?• Can Subscribers: o Start the paper on-line? o Request a vacation hold on their paper? o Report a missed or wet paper? o Change their address? o Make a payment?• Can Dealers: o Enter returns? o Make a payment on their account?• Can Carriers: o Pull a route list on-line? o Look up messages?

The new Falcon Circulation internet access gives subscribers, carriers, and single copy locations a secure and monitored window into the Falcon System. Subscribers can start a new subscription, put themselves on vacation, and enter service issues. APT puts information in the hands of those that act on it. Carriers can access their route lists and check service error reports so they can respond immediately. Single Copy outlets can request more papers, enter in their returns and anyone can pay their bill using APT’s Direct Payment Services. Customers and distribution have the flexibility to manage their accounts.

Business Benefit: Using Internet Access lessens the load on the customer service department and the result is better overall service.

Demographics/Mapping

What is our current capability to do demographic mapping and profiling?

Falcon Circulation contains demographic information with interactive maps to pin point the exact location of customers. Users can locate customers using any point of reference, including route, ABC, advertising zone, census, school district, county, or any geo-demographic boundary. Newspapers need to know who and where the customers are to deliver what they want, when they want it on the platform of their choice. Customer profiles, income and education levels, buying patterns, and news interests are key factors for developing circulation-marketing strategies. Circulation manager’s need to control churn and

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Come See What You’ve Been Missingad v an c e d p u b l i s h i n g t e ch no l og y

APT’s 2006 Technology Forum was a big success and the attendees asked APT to set the date for 2007 so they could mark

their calendars. Join them and APT in Burbank, CA for another packed agenda of educational sessions and hear from innovative industry experts on Oct. 11-12, 2007.This is your opportunity to meet with other super users, business managers and system administrators and APT experts to learn what other newspapers have achieved using APT technology. There will be recognized industry speakers on cutting edge topics, and plenty of networking opportunities.

The 2006 Technology Forum attendees received tremen-dous value and took home great ideas they could imple-ment and made friends with people doing the same thing they do every day. The attendees learned and shared in educational sessions for each product; Product Tips and Tricks sessions, prod-uct demonstrations on the latest technology and suggest new functionality for future releases.

Networked with other attendees at the Saddle Ranch Chop House

Shared best business practices and experiences with other APT customers

Explored current trends in new technology with the CEO’s from Clickability and NewsGator

Clickability - The world’s leading service provider of Software-as-a-ServiceUnder John Girard’s leadership Clickability has grown from a garage-based dream of four Stanford graduates, to become the most successful single-source provider of hosted web publishing technologies. The biggest names in publishing, including the Wall Street Journal, CNN Interactive and Popular Mechanics, rely on Clickability’s on-demand content management applications to deliver the news to millions of readers each day.For more information, visit www.clickability.com.

NewsGator is the world’s leading RSS platform company

Headquartered in Denver, CO, News-Gator develops and markets RSS aggregation solu-tions for individual end users, enter-prises and online content providers. Using NewsGator products and solu-tions, businesses and consumers

can subscribe to news, information, podcasts and other relevant content more efficiently and effectively than with traditional channels. For more information, visit www.newsgator.com.

APT appreciated the support and excellent presentations from all the session leaders:

APT Technology Forum 2007 is Oct. 11-12, 2007


Brad Ward with TownNews.com showed us all how to hang

tuff!

CEO J. B. Holston

Technology Forum attendees take a break and

network with other APT users

John Girard, CEO Clickability with APT’s Jo Ann Froelich and David Kraai

Emily Frazee - Colorado Publishing CompanyRon Waite - Dix Communications

Aldo Morales - Dolan Media CompanyJon Winters - Electronic Publishing Support

John Harrison - MerlinOneRande Simpson - MerlinOne

Alisa Greves - Gold Country MediaDiane Duran - Midlands Newspapers, Inc.

Brad Ward - TownNews.comTony Canody - Media General Community Newspapers

Ron Waite with Dix

Communications gets ready to Ride the Bull at the Group

Activity.

http://www.clickability.com

http://www.newsgator.com


Tips and Tricks

Upgrades and New Business

Customer SystemThe Daily Athenaeum Falcon Editorial UpgradeBillings Gazette Communications Falcon Advertising and PaginationThe Herald-Times Falcon Classified UpgradeThe Sentinel Falcon Editorial SystemQuad City Times Merlin TraxHerald & Review Falcon Advertising and PaginationDaily Chronicle Falcon Editorial SystemDuluth News Tribune Falcon Editorial SystemNW Florida Daily News Falcon Editorial UpgradeThe Post-Star Falcon Editorial SystemKilleen Daily Herald Falcon Editorial Upgrade and MerlinOneMadison Newspapers Falcon Editorial SystemThe Times Falcon Advertising Upgrade and PaginationThe Times APT Merlin Library/ArchiveThe Times and Democrat Falcon Editorial SystemPortage Daily Register Falcon Editorial InstallationRapid City Journal Pongrass Classified PaginationPrime Time, Inc. AdMaster Upgrade and SQL 2000 UpgradeWaterloo Courier Falcon Editorial System

increase retention and Falcon Circulation puts this information at your fingertips, by combing location maps with demographic data.

Business Benefit: APT’s software will help you analyze market trends and lifestyle information that enables you to create targeted marketing campaigns that increase revenue and capture market share.

Return on Investment is based on fully implementing the Falcon Circulation system.• Improved subscriber retention• Targeting of subscriber acquisition. A rifle rather than a shotgun approach will result in lower overall promotion expenses.• Increased ad revenue from better targeting of TMC products including demographic mapping.• More information allows you to serve your customers better, hence you retain subscribers.• Reduce employee costs: o Falcon customer service is easy, fast and efficient. o Falcon is windows based so the learning curve is less. New employees can become proficient more quickly.• Manage newsprint costs.

Falcon provides the capability to account for every newspaper.This information can be used to identify and eliminate printing of unnecessary copies. o Report of routes with samples. o Circ Record ABC Format Report• Office Use• Unaccounted for copies

Contact Sid Kendrick our senior circulation consultant with more than 17 years of industry experience to help you implement the technology you already own and start getting all the business benefits from your Falcon Circulation [email protected] ¢

Harness the Business Benefits

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

The Falconer’s Tips for using Falcon Editorial

APT wants to recognize Jenny Porter for sharing her idea to use a Tip of the Day to help the Fargo editorial team learn to use Falcon Editorial more effectively.

The Falconer, Jerome Nistler the Systems Administrator at Forum Communications Co. produces the Tip of the Day and agreed to share a few of his tips with other Falcon users.

If you have a power user tip that you would like to share with other users please send it to [email protected]. In return we will send you an APT t-shirt. ¢

Partner Update


Be known as the local ecommerce destination!

FALCON Enhanced Online Ads is a powerful addition to the FALCON Online Classifieds by adding a motivating new up sell allowing your customers to add full-page, interactive online ads to their classified ad order. By integrating print and online together, your customers will receive the widest possible exposure and maximum value.

What is Falcon Enhanced Online Ads?

• Enhanced Ad Builders: Enhanced Online Ads include advanced ad builders that are integrated with the Falcon Online Classifieds. Each ad builder includes expanded text and content areas, and multiple photo uploads. Included builders are: 4Automobiles 4Real estate 4Rentals 4Employment 4General merchandise• Dynamic Ad Browser: Includes a dynamic, feature rich Classified Ads Browser that enables

Falcon Enhanced Online Ads

Citrix and MS Windows Terminal ServerAPT products integrate into a variety of enhanced service environments such as Citrix and MS windows Terminal Services. This allows the Falcon brand of products to fully support consolidated, centralized customer environments that allow the customer more control over their installations.

The following link will provide information to help you and our clients understand the benefits of Citrix. http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/ps2/index.asp. However, the configuration and support is the customer’s responsibility. If you need support use the link provided above or contact our Technical Support department, this

is not covered by the support agreement and we can help you locate you need.While base support for Citrix and Terminal server environments is the primary responsibility of the customer, our support and engineering staff will work with the their staff to fully integrate the Falcon suite of products in these environments.

For more information about Falcon Integration contact:Scott DavisTechnical Project Manager/APT1-828-398-43221-818-557-3035 x [email protected] ¢



users to view, search, sort, save and print both classified liner ads and enhanced ads.• Enhanced Ad Administration: This enables your ad-takers to preview and edit the online ad content before it is approved.

Why Use Falcon Enhanced Online Ads?

• To position yourself as the local ecom merce destination • Online integration with print strengthens value and exposure for the customer • Increases your revenue per ad • To better compete with the online job, auto, real estate and merchandise boards such as Hot Jobs, Auto Trader, Realestate.com, eBay and Craigslist.

Features: 4 Enhanced Ad Builders • Easily integrates with Falcon Online Classifieds • Includes 5 Enhanced Ad builders • Supports any custom ad builder • XML based data storage supports simple exportation to vertical sites4 Dynamic Ad Browser • View, search, sort, save and print any print or online ad • Photo galleries • Zoom in on photos • Easy customizable templates • User feedback and user ratings • “Make Offer” module • Featured ads • Page counters4 Enhanced Ad Administration • Edit all content and photos before and during scheduled viewing • Easy administration for the ad-takers ¢

http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/ps2/index.asp

http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/ps2/index.asp

3 1 GB of system RAM3 100 GB disk space (3 separate drives)3 Redundant power supply (for system failover)3 CD-ROM drive3 Microsoft Windows XP Server with most recent service pack3 Internet Information Services3 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Professional Edition with SP3 or latest3 Microsoft Analysis Services with Analysis Services SP3 or latest

Server hardware must be on Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx)

Falcon Client Guidelines:3 Pentium 1.4 Ghz processor or faster3 1 GB MB RAM3 60-100 GB free hard drive space3 Microsoft Windows XP with most recent service pack3 Microsoft Analysis Services

Client Hardware must be on the Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx) ¢

Falcon Systems Now Support SQL 2005

This information is to assist our customers when choosing new system hardware for their Falcon System. Hardware changes so quickly that deciding when to upgrade or understanding what it all means or how to get the best performance for the price is always a challenge. We hope this information and embedded links help you in this process but always consult with our technical engineering team before making your final decision.

Processors (CPUs)For processors there are two basic choices to make: brand and speed. A lot of change is happening in the market. Both Intel and AMD are starting to produce dual core processors, but they aren’t required for most people.

Hard DrivesMost hard drives available now will provide you with more than enough storage. Look for 80 GB drive as the minimum. If you feel you need more space or the extra space doesn’t cost more, get the upgrade. As for performance, 7200 rpm drives are the best choice currently. If you really want performance, look for drives with 8MB or 16MB of cache.

Raid DrivesSo what exactly is RAID? The acronym stands

for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. It is a system developed whereby a large number of low cost hard drives could be linked together to form a single large capacity storage device that offered superior performance, storage capacity and reliability. It has been widely used and deployed method for storage in the enterprise and server markets, but over the past 5 years has become much more common in end user systems. There are two actual forms of RAID used for desktop computer systems: RAID 1 and 5.

Advantages of RAID• Redundancy• Increased Performance• Lower Costs

Redundancy is the most important factor in the development of RAID for server environments. This allows for a form of backup of the data in the storage array in the event of a failure. If one of the drives in the array failed, it could either be swapped out for a new drive without turning the systems off (referred to as hot swappable) or the redundant drive could be used. The method of redundancy depends on which version of RAID is used.

Memory (RAM)RAM is important because if you don’t get enough, your system won’t run optimally. The minimum amount of

RAM for today’s systems should be 512MB even for budget systems. 1GB of RAM provides better performance and comes standard is some computers.

How Much Memory is enough? The rule of thumb to use for Falcon computer systems for determining if it has enough memory is to look at all the guidelines of the software you intend to run on the computer. Check the specifications for each of the applications and the OS that you intend to run on the computer and look at both the “minimum” and “recommended” guidelines. Typically you want to have more RAM than the highest minimum and ideally at least as much as the highest listed recommended requirement. The following chart provides a general idea of how a Falcon system will run with various amounts of memory: • Minimum Functional: 512MB • Optimal: 1GB • Smooth Sailing: 2GB The ranges provided are a generalization based upon current installations and customer feedback when using the Falcon System.

Falcon Server and Software Guidelines:3 Pentium, 1.4 Ghz processors (Dual or more) or faster

If new hardware is on your New Years wish list for 2007 here is some guidelines to consider when choosing the right hardware for the task.



Solutions for Designing an Enterprise System

Aldo Morales the Sr. Project Manager and Business Process

Architect at Dolan Media Company shares the challenges and solutions when designing an

enterprise system.Presented at the APT Technology Forum

The Challenges

• Total Cost of Ownership• Late time to market/month end• Business at constant risk because of lack of expertise at every site• Lack of standards make support challenging• No change management expertise• No guarantee of business continuity

Project Goals

• Mitigate risks• Standardize business processes where it made sense• One Call help desk and bullet proof IT Services• Empower Users with a self help training program

Solutions to consider

• Understand the business• Switch to a process based organization where it makes sense• Centralize – Accounting shared services• Centralize – Circulation shared services• Centralize the desktop using APT Lite (standardized setup)• Web Technologies – integration


APT 2007 Initiatives Cont.


Our customers are: Facing decreasing or static circulationAPT is providing: Software and training solutions to improve retention and reduce churn

Our customers have: Multiple products and locationsAPT is providing: Cost effective software that works across enterprise or local networks

Our customers are: Required to do more with fewer resourcesAPT is providing: Effective and efficient software and training that solves real world problems

Product DevelopmentAPT products are feature leaders and we continue to add new functionality that improves productivity to each of our products including a number of new online enhancements. Product Integration

APT products work with other leading products.• Merlin Archiving• AdMaster – Ad Tracking• TownNews on-line services• Major ad aggregators• Credit card and bank draft systems

Professional Services and Consulting

APT offers advanced education and business consulting services that include.

• Advertising rate analysis and restructuring• Advanced advertising sales and up-selling techniques• Circulation churn analysis• Circulation mapping•Editorial work flow ¢

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

with non web-systems using Simple Object Access Protocol• Two data centers• Replication technologies • Transactional for SQL and snapshot replication for all other Clustering technologies

The Business Tools

Business Process Reengineering - Keep it simple and focus on the following areas.

Communication • Industry jargon gets in the way of progress • IT is all about business • Business is all about people • Document the process and keep it user friendly

Project Management Deliver what you promise and promise only what you can deliver

The Technology Falcon Order Entry - Nimble, highly configurable, but if taken to the extreme can be counter productive. Proven solution supports various workflows along with Windows Terminal Server 2003

Keys to Success

Know your company organization and structure then determine what is important: Time to market or resource efficiency.Functional, Matrix or Task Force process driven.Plan according to the company culture. ¢

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