April 2021


Solutions Newsletter
From our Gold Partners: A revenue-generating graduation section, leveraging social media and masterclasses in building subscriptions
NEW! Celebrate the class of 2021 with a revenue-generating special section
Honor the graduating students in your community — and drive new advertising dollars — with an easy, compelling special section. View some great ideas for generating easy revenue with a Virtual Graduation special section and roll out a graduation page that your community will come back to for years to come.

How publishers can leverage Clubhouse, TikTok and other emergent social media
Whether considered a possible threat to national security or the elitist cousin to the billion-dollar podcast industry, newer social media sites like TikTok and Clubhouse continue creating a buzz. Many publishers remain uncertain if the value of these platforms matches the work required to develop content or cultivate digital strategies to integrate them into established social media practices. Here are four ways publishers can leverage emergent social media to their advantage.

Masterclasses in building a subscription business — available for free
When executed well, subscriptions businesses provide the opportunity to build meaningful and ongoing relationships with audiences that result in significant uplift in engagement, loyalty and revenue.

Pugpig has teamed up with a collective of industry experts to share an approach for building a world-class subscription business, brought to life through a series of free video and live masterclasses and exclusive roundtable events.

From our Silver Partners: COVID passports, subscriber pricing strategies and the powerful way obits drive reader engagement
Passport rejected: A new twist in the COVID-19 passport chapter
Similar to mask mandates, COVID-19 passports — a means to prove one’s vaccination status — are becoming a political lightning rod in the United States. Where states like New York have viewed such passports as a viable tool for promoting safe in-person interactions, others, like Florida and Texas, have viewed them as an affront to privacy and individual liberties. For multi-state employers considering a passport solution, these developments command attention.

Benchmarks show importance of news subscriber yield management

Subscription yield management, which includes pricing strategy as well as tactics related to audience revenue growth, is a field of analysis that has very high ROI for publishers. Here’s why.

Digital obituaries: How publishers meet community needs and drive traffic

Publishers recognize obituaries as the powerful, legacy content that continues to draw in digital traffic and maintain reader engagement.

In fact, the obituary section on InForum.com, North Dakota’s largest news site, continually outperformed reporters’ stories, ranking in the Top 10 of viewed pieces of content during 2020.

Plus more from our Solutions Partners
Free analysis of your credit card processing fees could lead to substantial savings

Twice annually, in April and October, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover announce and implement adjustments to their programs that can impact card acceptance requirements and rates.

Like many businesses, the card brands held off implementing adverse changes in 2020. However, this month, both Visa and American Express are rolling out their planned updates.

3 steps that publishers can take to improve their bottom line

PAGE Cooperative, a not-for-profit Cooperative owned by its publishing and commercial printing members, has launched a three-step solution to provide its members with an easier path to access all of their benefits and immediately improve their bottom line.

Interested in a confidential review to see how much you could save by buying through PAGE?

Sell it now: Upcoming appreciation events

Over a year in a pandemic, showing gratitude and support for those who make a difference in our communities and lives has never been more important. Find valuable recognition content and ideas to secure sponsors and advertisers — and strengthen community connections — for upcoming events in May.

The Albuquerque Journal sees success with messaging

Late last spring, The Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico implemented interactive voice response (IVR) messaging on its website. The paper also started deflecting inbound IVR customer service calls made from cell phones to messaging.

Of the callers offered messaging, 10% chose the messaging option for faster service. Containment averages 60%.

Case study highlights media company that went paperless and improved efficiency

Times Review Media Group once relied on a traditional production workflow system that involved paper-based ad tickets and invoices, triplicate forms, job jackets containing scraps of clip art and ad copy, and wire baskets that organized production work. This inefficient approach resulted in poor interdepartmental communication, process bottlenecks and delays, which frustrated the newspaper publisher’s sales team and the art department.

Learn how Times Media went paperless and improved productivity.

5 reasons why buyers choose and use audited media

The past year has been a time of uncertainty and change for many marketing and media professionals. While agencies altered their planning processes and publishers found new ways to reach audiences, the role of audits in providing media assurance has remained constant.

The Alliance for Audited Media recently interviewed top marketers and media buyers to better understand how and why they value audited media today. Here are some highlights from these conversations including tips on how publishers can leverage audits to stand out in a competitive marketplace.

The perfect social media marketing campaign for every target group

ppi Media offers a NEW fully automated solution for scalable social media marketing that allows social media campaigns with small budgets to finally be efficient for a large number of different target groups.

See how it works on YouTube and download the fact sheet.

Plus: ppi Media has created a new spin-off, specializing in digitization services for small and medium-sized enterprises READ MORE
New York attorney expands his business image through Kid Scoop sponsorship

He was known just as the town’s youth soccer manager, but he wanted everyone to know he was an attorney with an historic law firm. So when the publisher of The Ravena News-Herald in Ravena, New York, offered this “secret” attorney an opportunity to sponsor Kid Scoop, Attorney Carlo A. C. deOliveira jumped at the chance.

Here's an excellent example of how publishers can market their podcasts to readers

The Wilson County News in Floresville, Texas, is a long-time customer of Our-Hometown, Inc., and one of the first to take advantage of its brand new Audio Articles Podcast feature to get its new podcast off the ground.

Today, courtesy of Publisher Kristen Weaver, The Wilson County News demonstrates how the paper is marketing its brand new podcast to readers directly in the weekly print edition.

Stacker and LMC announce partnership to provide engaging, research-based stories to LMC members

Stacker and the Local Media Consortium have announced a partnership that will help LMC members around the country gain free access to hundreds of original data-driven stories for their local coverage each month.

As newspapers across the country face smaller budgets, providing readers with relevant feature coverage at both the local and national level has become increasingly difficult. Through this new partnership, Stacker and the LMC hope to provide a cost-effective solution to address these gaps.

Online community panels: An effective way of identifying consumer trends

An increasing number of companies are turning to online community panel survey research to stay current with their customers and identify evolving consumer trends. This is especially the case in these uncertain times.

Learn about the benefits of online panel research.

Graphic Developments Inc. now using ProImage's Cloud system to manage production

Graphic Developments Inc. has subscribed to ProImage’s NewsWayX Cloud workflow. Instead of hosting the software locally, company executives decided to use ProImage’s redundant Cloud system to manage production.

News from our Solutions Partners is also available at newspapers.org
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