A money back guarantee

Now here is some inventive thinking from up in Maine. The Sun Journal of Lewiston is focusing on saving money for their readers. And the kicker is, the paper is putting its money where its mouth is (so to speak).

For six months the paper plans to print money- saving tips on its front page every day. The idea is that by the end of six months, the tips could save readers up to $1,000.

The editor is sure that readers will save at least double the cost of a subscription ($97). If you don't save the $194, the paper will pay a reader the difference between what they did save and $97.

You can read more about the plan here.

This kind of program reminds me of one of the key experiences the Readership Institute told us about a few years ago: Looking out for my best interests. In these days, what could be looking out for our readers' best interests more than helping them pinch their pennies effectively.

Are you willing to give your readers a guarantee such as the folks in Lewiston, Maine?

Detroit cuts backs -- does it make sense?

You've undoubtedly heard the news by now. The two Detroit, Mich., metro dailies are cutting back on home delivery. One paper will only deliver on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays while the other just on Thursdays and Fridays.

There will be smaller single-copy editions available on the other days of the week, but readers will have to go out and buy them each day.

Some newspapers, including our own The Dispatch in Lexington, have already reduced the number of publication days each week.

This is a new hybrid. Still publishing throughout the week, but not printing as much. Sending people to the Web sites for more on the non-delivery days.

Will this work? From the business perspective, I recommend reading Poynter's The Biz Blog by Rick Edmonds. You can read it by clicking here.

From across The Pond

Saw one of these commercials mentioned on the E&P blog for Fitz & Jen, then went looking through YouTube and found some more.

These are TV commercials produced for The Daily Telegraph. It's interesting to see how papers in merry old England are trying to attract more readers.



Next one's volume is low. Sorry about that.




Enjoy.

Updating plate sales

If you read December's The North Carolina Press newsletter story on the 2008 election and newspapers, you might recall the report from Hickory Daily Record. The paper did not reprint any of its Nov. 5 papers, but did offer plates of that day's front for $10.

Publisher Eric Millsaps gave us an update today. "Final tally is in and we sold 65 to our readers."

That's $650 in revenue Hickory didn't have before or planned on having.

Delivery vs. information

This past week, E&P picked up the story of The News & Observer getting out of the trucking business. Penske Logistics will take over the job of delivering bundles to the nine distribution centers and other sites outside the immediate region.

The independent contracts we know as carriers, still have their contracts to deliver directly to subscribers. People getting the N&O delivered to their homes will still deal with the same people.

Still, 17 full-time jobs and many more part-time jobs will be eliminated from the N&O payroll. (Publisher Orage Quarles believes many of those people will get jobs with Penske.)

Here's another way of looking at this other than just cutting FTEs from a payroll: This move actually follows what some people in the industry have been talking about for a few years, that we are in the information business, not the ink, paper and delivery business.

Through the years, newspapers became good at delivering physical products to physical locations. But other businesses also excel at delivery. What no one else excels at is providing reliable news and information, being a watchdog of government and connecting buyers and sellers. Focusing on those parts of the business that no one else can do makes real sense to this blogger.

Pushing subscriptions

Brinn Clayton, the publisher at The Courier-Times of Roxboro, tells us about his paper's efforts to get more people buying his paper:

The staff is working subscriptions hard. We are selling about 100 (out of 8,800) fewer papers since January. We are trying to do multiple-year subscriptions with big discounts. We are selling 3 years for the price of 2 years. We are offering an early renewal discount.

We are writing letters to customers who have let their subscriptions expire, offering them 2 months free for renewing. We are getting the addresses of all people who submit wedding, engagement, and birth announcements. We are sending them letters giving them a deal if they subscribe.