Confidence in newspapers continues to sink, but opportunities are plentiful for the sales rep that builds strong customer relationships

In the post-Watergate era of the mid 1970's, a Gallup poll of Americans stated that 51% of those surveyed had a lot or a great deal of confidence in newspapers. That survey would have been right around the time the movie "All The President's Men" with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford was entertaining us in the theatre, telling the tale of how two newspaper reporters brought down the Nixon Presidency.  

The movie "Spotlight", which showcased the newspaper industry to a brand new generation this past year did not have the same impact on the confidence of American's in the newspaper industry. Gallup'sannual poll released June 13 reported that same survey dropped to an all time low of only 20% of responses showing a lot or a great confidence in newspapers.

Even more alarming was the record high 36% of responses from people with a low confidence level in the industry. While both stats are very unfavorable, I believe there is still a silver lining. Add in the 42% of U. S. adults saying that they have some confidence, and the majority of the public has at least some respect in the newspaper industry.

It is easy to fall victim to reading our own headlines and stories about our industry. I receive a steady stream of emails from industry experts and publications, and daily I can almost always find a stat that makes me want to crawl into the fetal position. That is why I believe so strongly that we have to do a better job of telling our story as an industry, with the positive research that still shows the importance and value of advertising in a community newspaper.

Unfortunately the daily emails don't offer the positive stats as frequent as the negative ones. I guess the click through rates aren't as good, as even that bad news has better readership than positive news. The best book for positive and yet reliable information on newspaper readership is the Newspaper Association of America's annual plan book.

Planning out sales training for your staff but not sure what do to or what information to give them? The plan book offers all the information you might need in one spot. Have a brand new rep and want to give them good, reliable information to build up their knowledge base of the business? From a top 10 reasons to advertise, to quick research on how / why American's buy products and services, to basic ad design and a whole lot more, the NAA plan book offers quick-bits of information to help seasoned sales reps, and can be a great introduction to the business for new sales reps.

While confidence in the industry might have shown a slight decline, a salesperson can still overcome that mindset if they have built the right type of relationship with the customer. Many things have changed in the sales process over the years, but being a trusted and valued resource still holds a high importance.

Sales reps, especially new ones need to demonstrate that they have interest in their customer, their customer's customer and in marketing. It is the responsibility of the sales rep to do their homework prior to making the sales pitch, insuring that they are bringing something to that relationship with each customer.

The NAA plan book should be a essential part of that homework. 

Telling the audience story correctly for newspapers is critical to future success

It started with a post on Facebook from the parody newspaper The Onion.  The humor was evident in the headline, which read:  Report:  Majority of Newspapers Now Purchased by Kidnappers to Prove Date.

 It was a good natured poke by the newspaper that has made me laugh for years. And newspapers weren’t the only media targeted in the post, stating that magazines still have purpose as “kidnappers still find them useful for making cut-and-paste ransom letters and death threats.”

 A few days after seeing that on Facebook, I was riding along with a sales rep who was struggling to defend the newspaper industry’s audience decline. It didn’t take long to realize that the rep had bought into the negative headlines and didn’t have enough data to help show the power of the printed word. And that power goes well beyond just proving the date for kidnappers! I’m not ignoring some alarming trends. As an industry, we have some work ahead of us as things continue to fragment and decline. Here are some real concerns the media world is facing: 

·                  Youth are consuming less traditional media
·                  Media outlet owners are worried about the move to digital
·                  Online consumption of content has doubled since 2010

 The irony of those three headlines is that they were not for the newspaper industry. In order, those articles were from broadcast TV, cable TV and radio. The concerns we face are shared by other media platforms, but my sense is we are defeated reading our own headlines instead of trying to tell our good story and fight the good fight.

 The best digital content on the web comes from legitimate news organizations. Our newsrooms and our content is our frontline defense for the transition to digital. The online audience we have is the envy of the TV, cable and radio industries.

 During my ride along with the sales rep, we discussed readership of the print product. She commented that our numbers had dropped over the previous six months. I asked her what that number was and she was vague. She knew the distribution number and stated that as readership. But there is a big difference.

 There has been a debate on how many readers a newspaper has per copy. The pass around number has varied during my career from 1.9 readers to as high as 3.2 depending on the study you choose to use. For me, I’ve always used 2.5 readers per copy. An entry on the Media Genius Blog quotes a NAA phone survey from 2013 that put the readership at 2.48 people per copy.  There are some newspapers that are higher, and some lower but using 2.5 is still a reasonable number to quote when talking about total audience. 

The key is to put that math to work in your market. While the audience has changed and declined in print, the total print audience most newspapers delivers is still the biggest and best audience in the market. Your total audience versus the local radio station? Your total audience versus the best rated broadcast or cable channel? The newspaper audience is a slam-dunk winner nearly every time.

 Many newspapers are not telling this great story. And you know what? That story gets even better. Pew Research Center has determined that 56% of a newspaper’s audience consumes it exclusively in print. Thus the large numbers of unique visitors to your website expands your audience even more with unduplicated reach. 

Our concerns for the industry cannot be ignored, and I’m not suggesting we should. But there are still some great stories to be told in all of our markets. Better training of what our audience is locally versus our competitors is a good place to start. 

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.