The need for a free and independent news source is greater than ever

Two days ago marked Friday the 13th. This is a fact that I didn't need to have checked. My wife, quoting a Facebook post a few days before Friday informed me it was Friday the 13th and a full moon. And I believed her! I should have checked the facts.

In fact, the next full moon is coming up this coming Saturday, May 21st. But a snazzy mime and enough social media likes and shares, and presto an error is being treated and repeated as a fact. Welcome to the new world of social media as a news source.

Clearly when the next full moon is not major error, at least in my world. But the propetuation of inaccurate information is happening more and more, and at an alarming rate through social media. People are using things like Facebook as a trusted source of information, which it is not. This unfounded trust of the Internet is causing a dumbing down of society.

I'm not talking about the breaking news posts I get every few weeks mourning the the loss of Joe Cocker. He actually died in December 2014. In the midst of the presidential election in the US currently, both sides are blurring facts and fiction courtesy of social media.

In the past few weeks, there have been reports that Facebook is purposely suppressing stories that favor the Republican Party. Mark Zuckerberg has told the media that they are investigating into those claims.   I'm not here suggesting that they did, or did not. I do believe it is very possible for an unchecked, non-journalistic outlet could start to manipulate content. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

There has been a lot written about this topic. For me, the best take I've read has come from Anurag Harsh through a blog post on LinkedIN titled "Is Facebook biased or are its users?  He writes:

"Social media already allows us to tune out everything we dislike and create an echo chamber for what we love. We don't need help entrenching ourselves in our limited world views. Selection biases abound. If Facebook wants to help create a more educated citizenry, then they shouldn't got down this road."

The best political views are the ones that are challenged by others who offer thoughtful opposing views. Hearing only what you want to hear might seem nice, but in the end will actually weaken your intellect and your political values.

Using comedy to create great advertising messages

For whatever reason, I never watched a Seinfeld episode while the classic NBC comedy was new. I'm sure I've seen every episode now, thanks to syndication and specifically cable network TBS.

Comedy in advertising is always risky, especially on a local level. National commercials have as big a production as a network sitcom, including comedy writers if you choose to go down that path. Locally, not as sophisticated and too many times epic failures.

I helped a local candy shop set up a photo shoot for a Forrest Gump parody. I was nervous about how the audience would receive it. The popularity of the movie was big at the time, and the ad actually won awards.




The Floor Trader billboard is a good comedy example. It works as a standard billboard with a simple message. But the parody is there if you know the episode from Seinfeld.

I'm not sure this parody was as strong as that Gump reference from the 1990's. But I still thought it was funny, even if Seinfeld signed off of first run in 1998. The episode in question, where George's nude photo was actually 20 years ago. And it still makes me laugh....

Find the right sales team and the revenue will follow

Most advertising directors will tell you that their primary job focus is hitting revenue targets.  It’s hard to deny that is a very important element, but I might make a case that it is not the top priority.

Certainly, I’m not diminishing the importance of exceeding goals. The stress I have in my work life is largely centered on how my team and I are performing financially. But you cannot obtain revenue goals without having the right people on your team, and having them do the right thing.

“Of all the decisions an executive makes, none are as important as the decisions about people because they determine the performance capacity of the organization. Such decisions reveal how competent management is, what its values are, and whether it takes its job seriously.” That is a pretty famous quote from business guru Peter Drucker. While he wasn’t talking about media companies when he said that, it is very applicable to the situation we find ourselves in as an industry.

As times have gotten tougher, some people have lost their focus on trying to attract the best talent. Finding the right talent has been replaced by finding a warm body in some instances. That is why recruitment for sales people is such an important aspect of our job. It used to be easy to find high performing people, who were looking for a career at the local newspaper. Today, we have to make it a priority to be on the hunt.  And we need to know exactly what it is we are searching for in a quality sales person.

Developing a pool of sales prospects should be a regular part of every advertising manager’s job performance. Just like sales reps have a sales funnel, ad managers should have a prospect funnel for future ad reps. And just like a sales funnel, not every prospect makes it to the end of the funnel to complete the process, so you must continue to adding prospects into the process.

The Center for Sales Strategy offers in-depth training on finding the best media sales people. I was fortunate enough to get to complete their “Talent Focused Management” training program to help me recognize the necessary skills they have uncovered for high performing media sales people.  CSS developed eight targeted themes based on interviews and business performance analysis after reviewing 15,000 cases.

A part of the process is interviewing the candidates. To ensure a valuable interview, you ,must plan ahead insightful questions to learn the qualities of a prospective sales rep. Ask questions that will help you learn about the eight themes.

The eight primary themes of successful media sales reps are:

1.       Work Intensity

2.       Discipline

3.       Positivity

4.       Interpersonal Skills

5.       Command of Situations

6.       Problem Solver

7.       Enterpriser

8.       Ambition

Richard Branson wanted to be a magazine editor or a journalist. While he didn’t quite get that goal achieved, he’s achieved plenty as a leading entrepreneur. His philosophy on who comes first in an organization is a constant reminder to me on how to manage the team I’ve assembled.  "Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

Spending the necessary time to find talent in your market is a vital part of your job every week. While it is tougher than in the past, there are still talented individuals in your market that can be successful for your organization. It is just harder to find them. Once you’ve found the prospects, determine which of the eight traits they have naturally and which ones you can nurture and teach. Don’t forget to match the prospective sales rep’s talents with the needs of the open position you have.

Finding the right people doing the right thing is the best way to put focus on a customer. The best employees know how to take care of your best customers. 

ESPN's Dan Le Batard places spotlight on the newspaper industry's problem

Newspapers continue to have an image problem. Many of the bad rumors being spread around are false, or as the old saying goes "The rumors of my death are greatly over exaggerated."

But as another old saying goes "Where there's smoke, there's fire." I think the radio in my car was fully engulfed in flames this past Tuesday listening to ESPN's Dan Le Batard.

Le Batard is a nationally syndicated talk show host and Miami Herald columnist who likes to stir the pot, to say the least. A few years ago, it was Le Batard that tried to take out full page ads in the Akron Beacon Journal and Cleveland Plain Dealer bashing LeBron James when James decided to return to Cleveland to play professional basketball. But this past Tuesday, the pointed stick he was jabbing at the newspaper industry pointed to a real issue newspapers face. Today! Now!

Le Batard told the story of a little kid who was visiting a friend at another house and saw the father reading a newspaper. The little kid asked what he was doing. He had never seen this activity before. Puzzled, he asked how it got to their house. Astonished by that answer, the little kid was in total  disbelief that such a thing as a daily newspaper could be produced and  then delivered in the middle of the night to the family's front porch full of the latest news and information.

Clearly the industry has lost out on the child in this story as a future reader. The concern is how many (millions) more are out there that would be just as lost, just as astonished at the basic concepts of an industry that has been around hundreds of years.

Websites continue to expand as the appetite for news continues to grow. But the print newspaper, still the main revenue generator  for many media companies, and still an extremely important franchise in hundreds of cities and towns remains on an unhealthy decline.

Reading programs and NIE projects are not creating awareness or habits to the youth. While there are some good examples of these types of initiatives, most across the country are weak and do nothing more than help provide hollow circulation numbers.

I'm not professing to have the answers to this problem. I wish I did! I also wish Le Batard wasn't laughing about this on his program. The problem is, I can't even call him out on it because he's right.

Creating a culture of learning and fun is key to long term sales success

As hard as I try, I just can’t avoid sports analogies when I talk about business. Since I’m such a big baseball fan, those metaphors tend to be based upon actions on the diamond.

Every spring I head to Florida to catch some sun, a few beers and as many spring training baseball games I can squeeze in over a few days off. This year I also had the opportunity to catch a practice session of my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox.

I watched multi-million dollar players working on their assigned drills. These highly developed, skilled professionals spent hours working on fundamentals. Their time was spent on details of their swing, how to run the bases and throw the baseball properly. High level, detailed strategy is no doubt also discussed but clearly the focus on their training was on the basics.

This is a lesson we can and put in place for our sales teams. It is a good investment to discuss high level marketing strategy with your sales team, but don’t forget to stress the basics. As much as you (and surely your staff) hate to do roll-plays of a sales call, those basics are necessary to your team’s success in the field. I would much prefer that the Red Sox make their mistakes in Florida at spring training than when they are back in Boston and playing games that count during the regular season.

Isn’t that also the case for your sales team? Better to make those mistakes in the sales meeting on Monday than in front of an account that you were hoping to gain $20,000 in new business.

Sales meetings are often overlooked parts of our lives. I’m just as guilty as the next person, but short of field time with your reps this might be the most important part of the work week. If you are walking into the meeting and “winging it” then perhaps it is time to reconsider things.

Have an agenda. I personally never shared the agenda with my team, but I created one for me to follow so that I didn’t forget things. And I didn’t work on it in the minutes leading up to the meeting or the night before. It was a document I kept on my desktop that I added to as the week went along. Some things stayed on the agenda, the additions I added throughout the week helped keep things fresh.  By adding things throughout the week, the items covered were more complete and didn’t really add additional time to prepare for the meeting.

Have a training element. It can be a product introduction if you’re launching something new. But I like the idea of including those role plays to keep people sharp. Make things fun as you’re training. People learn more and retain better if they are also entertained a little too. There are tons of books and countless websites that can help you in this area.

Creating a culture of learning and fun is very important. I’m currently reading a book that addresses this head on, and I highly recommend it for you if you’re working on building your team and culture. "You Win In The Locker Room First: The 7 C's To Build A Winning Team In Business, Sports And Life” is written by former NFL coach Mike Smith and Jon Gordon. They go in-depth on the importance of culture for successful teams.

They suggest that every successful team is built on these seven basic principles:

--Have fun, work hard, and enjoy the journey. 

--Show respect to all associated with your business 

--Put the team first

--Do your job but be prepared for it to change

--Be the same person every day. Do not get too high in victory or too low in defeat.

--Understand that all organizational decisions aim to make the team better

--Have a positive attitude

Developing your team and your culture is one of the keys for long term success. Getting the right people doing the right thing and the right time, and then making them feel good about who they are doing it for will help create a stable, winning sales team for your organization. 

Media companies next move might be as a service provider / consultant

I must confess, the headline grabbed my attention. "We're all in the advertising now" sort of speaks to me since I, well....I'm in the advertising business!

The article went into detail on how many consulting companies are adding marketing and advertising to their portfolio. It is the classic product extension move by companies such as IBM and Deloitte, and totally makes sense. Take an existing relationship and continue to offer more products and services. It isn't rocket science, and it is working.

Why are media companies not doing the same thing? I think any media company has the opportunity to leverage current customers and extend into new and different product lines. Newspapers might actually have a leg up on other media outlets; often deeper relationships plus a distribution network that is still an untapped resource at many newspaper locations.

I actually tweeted a story over a month ago from Ray Chelstowski from mediavillage.com titled "A Possible New Path for Newspapers" which outlined this very concept. The potential product offerings are substantial, and have enough potential to provide solid profits to have a stable business plan and could help supplement the continued tough model of modern journalism.

This new media outlet has at its fingertips all the media sales it does including its legacy product line and the full range of digital offerings. Additional opportunities could include:

--public relations
--native content for websites
--market research
--distribution
--billing
--collections

As is always the case, it will take some initial money invested to get a business model like this going. But it is a viable path for media companies struggling to find their way in this age.

Not all audits are painful. Auditing what rates you charge for advertising can be very revealing

Tax season is upon us, with the April 15^th deadline quickly approaching. One of the tasks at my household over the past few days has been gathering the necessary documentation so that we can visit our tax preparer in the coming days.

                Many people I know do their own taxes. It does save them money, but we pay the fee to obtain peace of mind. Early in our marriage, my wife and I did our own taxes. One year, we awaited a $545 refund check (this was long before the miracle of direct deposit!). When the brown envelop arrived from the IRS, the check was for $45 with an explanation that we had made an adding error and this reflected the proper amount. Devastating! That marked the last time we did our own taxes at my household.

                There are other reasons for having someone else do them. Most notably, we have a trained professional do them to reduce our risk and likelihood of an audit. After all, who likes an audit?

                While audits are generally considered a negative, there are good things that can come from an audit, and something I suggest you consider with your advertising department. When was the last time you audited your advertising rates?

                For me, it is an annual ritual. Right there with gathering up my Goodwill receipts and W-2s. Every year, this practice generates revenue for my operation.

                The old school approach was to draw up a new rate card every year, with anywhere from a 1 to 5% rate increase. While that might still happen in some markets, it is no longer the common practice. Often times, the traditional newspaper rates are steady and a newspaper is working on packages and other incentives combined with print to get additional spending. While I would love to tell you that we can steadily raise rates and enjoy the bountiful harvest, it is just not the reality we live in anymore. And that is OK.

                You can still look at the rates you’re charging and look for opportunities to tweak rates. The audit process will expose those rates, especially the very first time you do such an audit. In an advertising department rate audit, every rate is subject to review. Every rate—the published rate card, various service charges and special deals.

                Just because you do the audit, does not mean you have to raise the rates. But what I have found from past experience is that there are rates that your newspaper is charging now that have not changed in years. Last year in my audit, I found a rate that had been overlooked for over a decade and I adjusted. It was a sizeable increase for 2015 revenue. It was like having a nice medium sized advertiser open up in my market, and all I did was adjust slightly a rate.

                There are a few specific areas that I would review to see if there might be opportunities to change pricing and how you are doing business:

·         Premium positions – For most newspapers, premium positions have been a standard offering since the early 2000’s. But have you changed your pricing during that time?

·         Obituary pricing – It is fairly standard to charge for obituaries at most newspapers. While it is vital content for our newspapers, it is also a strong revenue line. A quick examination of your obit rates, rate structure and what levels are being used is very revealing.

·         Legal notices – I always ask and verify the legal advertising rates at a newspaper. There are state regulated rates for some categories, and it is very important to verify that you are charging those designated rates. Charging more than is allowed is an obvious problem, but charging less than the stated rates is leaving money on the table.

·         Auto / Real Estate deals – Remember that special package you set up with the local auto dealer, if he agreed to increase his spending over prior year spending a few years ago? If it is still in place, make sure they are still holding up their end of the bargain.

·         Post it notes – Some newspapers can add the post it notes to the front of their publication. This is a highly valued marketing opportunity, which has increased in value in recent years. Has the rate changed?

·         Any flat charge or sponsorship program – These programs often are set in place and quickly forgotten. After all, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. These programs are often times good programs with good advertisers, so they never get attention. It is always a good idea to take a look and make sure we are still priced properly.

Thankfully I’ve never been audited by the IRS (knocking on wood as I type this!). That can be a grueling process I’m told. In the case of a rate audit at your newspaper, it shouldn’t be a taxing experience for your or others involved. More often than not, I believe you’ll find additional revenue opportunities.