2018 Publisher Profit Power Plan
It’s January 2018, and many of us are focused on setting up plans for our new year. In many businesses, it’s important to finish out a new year and then start a whole new chapter in the business. However, that isn’t the case with newspapers and other publications. If you are the publisher, this is when you re-evaluate how your staff is doing and how profitable your year was.
One thing the new year does in publishing, like in many other businesses, is give you a chance to plan for the year ahead. Since this is the slowest time of the year, you may find yourself considering walking away because you aren’t making the money you used to or feel you should.
But building a publication is about creating a brand that people trust and love. This can only be done over time. Once you have those, even in this post-“newspapers-are –dead” era (You’re still here, aren’t you???) there are several things you can do to increase your profitability.
Get it right
First of all, to earn that trust, we have to absolutely get the facts right and forget that we may have an opinion (except on the editorial page). When we either publish articles or build ads, they have to be fair and balanced. Only telling one side of a story, or allowing a business to run down another business, will hurt YOUR reputation. My editor had a saying over her desk that said, “If you can tell which side of the story the writer is on, we have failed.” That’s as true for ads as it is for copy.
We work in a unique industry. We don’t just sell a product—we make where we live and work better. Newspapers are the watchdogs of our communities and businesses. We also need to support the efforts of businesses, large and small (even if they don’t advertise with us all the time) because strong businesses have more to offer a community.
Just like newspapers, other publications are responsible for making sure accurate and updated information is included in their articles and advertising. I know a publication that folded because they didn’t always check with their advertisers for updates and often ran outdated ads or ads with expired offers. Instead of contacting the advertiser, they would just change the expiration date and reprint the ad. Over time, the advertisers stopped paying their bills and honoring the coupons.
Our industry is all about building trust. Without it, you might as well be trying to sell shares in African diamond mines.
Two sets of customers
It’s important in publishing to remember that we have two sets of customers, and we need both to succeed.
Our first set of customers is our readers. If they don’t trust the articles that you print or the offers that they see, will they continue to read or even look through your publication? Not likely. In order to get customers for our advertisers, we have to build trust with the community, readers and the cities where we publish.
The second set of customer is our advertisers. We have to have advertisers to exist, and to keep them, we must be able to supply them with enough people viewing and responding to their ads to make it worth their while.
One type of customer without the other will kill your business!
Overcome obstacles and turn a decent profit
Sometimes in publishing, as in other businesses, your greatest asset can be your greatest handicap—the people you have working for you/with you/above you.
I know of a newspaper where a new salesperson had his gung ho attitude severely diminished after he found out the publisher had offended at least half of the possible advertisers he was hoping to sign up.
He soon discovered that many of the other potential advertisers felt this paid subscription newspaper didn’t reach enough people (less than 35% of the homes in their county that they serve).
The salesman is still struggling with these issues and, frankly, is about to walk away, probably leaving the publisher wondering why it’s impossible to find good sales people these days!
So, how DO publishers and sales people overcome obstacles like these?
I’ve got the solution
For the next several weeks, I’m going to share a proven formula that helps publishers and sales managers eliminate problems created by a person (sales person, publisher, editor or staff) who has offended possible advertisers.
The solution is as simple as starting or enhancing a Buy Local program. You might have tried something like this before and maybe even experienced some success, but it’s likely you haven’t realized the full potential of this type of program. I know you can build a program that will not just be somewhat successful but will be VERY profitable—and I can show you how.
In regards to readership: that can only be improved by one of two methods. I will share them in another article in the upcoming weeks. Watch for it!
In the meantime, spend a few minutes with me each week as I give you a step-by-step way to start a program that will effect a positive change in your attitude and profitability. The information I will share will be free to use and normally I charge for this information.
Until next week – Prepare for a Great New Year.
Boyd Petersen – Past Publisher
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