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Memories

2008 Winter

Convention

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Lighten Up

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Look beyond the obvious

BY-LINE

By John Foust

Raleigh, NC

Extraordinary customer service requires looking beyond the obvious.

I was talking to Nigel, who has been advertising in his local paper for many years. “I’m crazy about my account rep,” he said. “Even though she has a lot of bigger advertisers on her list, she always makes me feel like I’m her most important client. She does more than the obvious things – like returning calls promptly, and making sure our ads stay on schedule. She is always asking questions about changes in my business, new products, new services, new people who join our staff.”
“Does that ever seem a little nosy to you?” I asked.
“No way,” he said. “She doesn’t ask prying, personal questions. She’s just looking for ideas. She instinctively understands the power of information. The more she knows about our operation, the better the ads will be.”

Talking to Nigel reminded me of a business trip that took me to several cities in Arizona. The night before flying home, I stayed at a Phoenix hotel. It wasn’t fancy, but it was within several miles of Sky Harbor Airport. There was a maintenance man – wearing a blue shirt with his name on the pocket – standing behind the registration desk, chatting with the lady who was checking me in. “Going home?” he asked.
I nodded. “Headed back to North Carolina.”
“Morning flight?”
“Yes.”
“Got a rental car?”
“Yes.”
“Planning to return it tomorrow morning?”
“Yes.”
“Want to save some trouble?”
“Yes.” (I was amazed at the amount of information he was getting with simple, closed-ended questions.)

“Why don’t you return that car tonight? The rental places are jammed in the morning, but they’re not busy at night. Turn in the car, take their shuttle bus to the terminal, call the hotel, and our hotel shuttle will pick you up and bring you back. In the morning, take our shuttle back to the airport. It’ll drop you off right in front of your terminal, and you’ll avoid the zoo at the rental return.”

Wow! In less than a minute, he solved a big problem for me. I thought back to the times I had traveled to Phoenix and gotten tangled up in long delays at the rental return. Going to the airport that night seemed like a minor inconvenience, compared to the possibility of missing my flight the next day because of a logjam at the rental return.

I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels, some with concierge staffs wearing starched and pressed uniforms. They all know how to answer questions. (Where is the museum? What time does the restaurant open? Where is the subway?) But they could learn something from that maintenance man in Phoenix. He knew how to ASK questions to fix problems.

“My account rep is always on the lookout for new solutions to my marketing problems,” Nigel concluded. “That’s what sets her paper apart from all the other advertising options I’ve considered.”

Look beyond the obvious. That’s a good way to find – and solve – problems.

COPYRIGHT LINE

(c) Copyright 2008 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

CREDIT LINE

E-mail John Foust for information about his training videos for ad departments: jfoust@mindspring.com

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Utah Papers vs. CNN? You Can Win!

By Randy Hines

Many newspapers (and their publishers) need a regular reminder that local news coverage is vital for their future. National news is needed, of course, but we can’t compete with the 24/7 news cycle of major media outlets except to a limited extent on our paper’s Web site. As you may know, according to a Newspaper Association of America’s recent study, Web readership and revenue continue to grow for newspapers. Online readers grew by 6 percent overall, while its revenue jumped 21 percent, helping to soften the drop in print advertising income.

USA Today, the Internet, CNN, MSNBC and other similar networks dominate the Web news competition when it comes to national and international events. Despite all the attention surrounding the presidential election and the war in Iraq, Utah readers still need to know what’s happening in your circulation area.

It’s a subject that the press really should master. No offense to our electronic colleagues, but the radio broadcast news staffs in most cities is a skeleton crew at best. When’s the last time you were scooped by a local radio station?

And the regional television stations do their best to present local news, but only if it bleeds or burns, it seems. Much of their coverage, therefore, is footage of what already happened throughout the county, rather than what will happen, a heads-up, advance notice for the audience. Future events can be described in detail in our news columns. We’re not bound by the magical 30 minutes within which all the news has to fit every evening.

My town is 50 miles from the nearest TV station in Harrisburg and 100 miles from the next broadcast outlets. Whether we like it or not, we’re in a no-coverage zone from those stations, as are many other subscribers. Besides, the stations have to fit whatever local news they find between two segments of weather, two segments of sports, international and national tidbits, and statewide news headlines—all within its 30-minute time slot.

Add in the commercials, plugs for other station segments, and friendly banter between all the talking heads, and little time is left for legitimate local news within that block. (The Brits call the news anchors a more appropriate term: news readers, since that seems to be their only function.)

Print journalists, on the other hand, can interview, investigate and inspect issues that affect readers. Reporters know their areas of expertise and need to be encouraged to uncover news and feature stories for the hometown audience. Readers typically reflect a desire to read more about their backyards—special festivals, local entertainment and interesting neighbors. This may result in using less wire copy, but that is a good thing. Associated Press stories, of course, are faster and require less hands-on skill. But they are usually generic articles with little significance for your subscribers.

Another similar area where the Utah newspaper can “focus” on local events is through photography rather than running AP wire shots. Who really cares about the cat six states away that actually climbed down the tree in its own front yard tree all by itself? (And I say that as a devoted cat lover.) With digital cameras so abundant in the newsrooms, it’s easy to produce quality, economical visuals about hometown activities. Just remember to write effective captions that will help draw readers into the accompanying story.

Hometown papers have credibility with their local readership. They need to market their local news dominance and back it up with evidence. The financial future of many publishers is at stake. Quality backyard coverage is keeping the newspaper industry alive. Let’s exploit that advantage.

# # #

Randy Hines teaches at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. He just finished a trade book, “Print Matters: How to Write Great Advertising” (www.racombooks.com) with Bob Lauterborn, the James L. Knight Chair of Advertising at UNC-Chapel Hill. Hines can be reached at randyhinesapr@yahoo.com.

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Save yourself some tabbing time

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The power of questions

BY-LINE

By John Foust
Raleigh, NC

It’s no secret that children are curious. They are like sponges, constantly asking questions, soaking up all the information they can. I recently heard that the typical child asks half a million questions by the age of six. (No doubt, there are many parents who feel their sons or daughters ask that many on a single Saturday.)

Good sales people have an almost-childlike sense of curiosity. This serves them well, because the first step in helping clients make buying decisions is to learn as much as possible about their businesses, their goals, and their products and services. There’s a lot of truth in the old saying, “Knowledge is power.”

The word “question” begins with “quest,” which can be defined as “search.” That’s not a bad description of the questioning process. It’s a search for information. To find the right information, we have to search in the right places - with the right kinds of questions. Here are a few points to keep in mind:

1. Mix closed and open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions call for short answers, while open-ended questions require longer answers. For example, “When did you start your business?” is a closed question. “What is your marketing approach?” is open, and invites a more detailed answer.

The most common closed questions are those which can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” It is easy to see that short answers don’t provide much information. As a result, you may want to use a closed question to introduce a topic (“Is your business open on weekends?”), then follow it with an open question which asks for elaboration (“How has that affected your traffic?”)

2. Rephrase the other person’s statement as a question. Let’s say your client declares, “My last ad didn’t work.” Instead of arguing (which is always a bad tactic), simply probe for more information by rephrasing his or her statement as a question. Ask, “It didn’t work?” and wait for a response.

3. Use non-verbal questions. By raising your eyebrows and tilting your head, you can show that you are particularly interested in something the other person is saying. This may encourage your client to provide more detail, without being asked.

4. Ask for help. As a conversation progresses, it is inevitable that there will be certain points you would like clarified. To add a little variety to the interview, you may want to say, “That sounds interesting. Help me understand what that means in terms of your marketing strategy.” When they explain it to your satisfaction, smile and say, “That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for taking a couple of extra minutes to help me get in step.”

5. Show sincere interest. Don’t be a fake. Your questions should spring from a genuine interest in your clients. Listen carefully as they express their ideas, opinions and marketing goals. Show them that the more you know about their businesses, the better you will be able to serve them.

After all, service is what it’s all about.

COPYRIGHT LINE

(c) Copyright 2008 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

CREDIT LINE

E-mail John Foust for information about his training videos for ad departments: jfoust@mindspring.com

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Weekly papers can be daily ONLINE

By Gary Sosniecki

The phone call from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service came on a Wednesday morning about three hours after our weekly newspaper had gone to press.
A contracted truck driver had been caught red-handed mishandling mail from our local post office the night before. Charges were pending.
My wife and I had been checking into rumors of missing mail for several weeks, even sending some birthday cards – because of possible cash inside, birthday cards were the mail most often reported missing – to ourselves. Some of our cards failed to arrive, too.
The U.S. Postal Service was tight-lipped about its own investigation, but we had pieced together enough facts to go to press with a story.
Three hours later, it was terribly out of date – and our next print edition was seven days away.
Not to worry. My wife wrote a new story, and we posted it immediately on our Web site with the tag: “Updated from our print edition.”
It was one more example of how our Web site was living up to its billing as “Vandalia’s daily newspaper.” Our print edition came out only once a week, but with our Web site, we could deliver news to our community 24/7.
Daily newspapers, especially the metros, already understand the concept of updating their Web sites between print editions. So do some weeklies.
But many weeklies have been slower to catch on, posting stories online when their print edition is published, then ignoring their Web sites for the next seven days.
Unfortunately for them, a once-a-week Web site doesn’t help build traffic, and traffic is what helps you sell advertising, turning your Web site into a revenue stream instead of a revenue drain.
Even small, time-starved weeklies, like our old mom-and-pop weekly in Missouri, can lure readers to their Web sites every day with a minimum investment of time.

Here are some simple tips how:

--Make sure every funeral home in your area faxes or e-mails partial death notices to you, just as they already do to radio stations and the daily newspaper. Post that partial obit as soon as you get it, notifying readers when the visitation and funeral will be. Everybody knows everybody else in many small towns, and readers will check your site daily to keep up with deaths.

--Whenever you cover a sporting event at your school, post a photo when you return to the office. Write a cutline or short story with the final score. Remind readers to see your next print edition for a full report. If you cover a lot of sports during the school year, readers – especially young people and their parents – will check your site frequently for updates.

--Most newspaper Web sites have a dominant photo atop their home page. Change yours once or twice between issues. Even a feature picture will do if it gives your site a fresh look.

--Make sure you’re notified first about boil alerts in your community. Post them immediately.

--Schools closed because of bad weather? Ask your superintendent to call you first so you can post the closing on your Web site before parents see it on TV. Post updates later in the day when you find out whether ballgames will be played or if school will be held the next day. If it’s a snowstorm, include links to state Web sites that update highway conditions.

--Why make your readers listen to the radio or watch TV for local results on election night? Post them online as soon as you get them, even precinct by precinct if the counting is slow. Include a link to your county clerk’s and secretary of state’s Web sites if they post results of regional and statewide races.

--Post other breaking news as it occurs, even if you just have a picture and a cutline. Fires. Ice storms. Tornadoes. Floods. Houston Herald publisher Brad Gentry did a great job of keeping his readers informed of March flooding in his south-central Missouri community (www.houstonherald.com). Buffalo Reflex editor Paul Campbell posted 16 photos and a four-paragraph story within hours after a tornado struck his Missouri Ozarks town on March 31 (www.buffaloreflex.com). Always remind readers that they’ll find a full report in the next print edition.

When you update your Web site only once a week, using the same stories that appear in your newspaper, you compete with your newspaper.
But when you update between issues, your Web site complements your newspaper.
That can turn even the smallest weekly into your town’s “daily” newspaper.

--- Gary Sosniecki is a regional sales manager for Townnews.com specializing in weekly newspapers. He has owned three weekly newspapers and published a small daily in Missouri during a 34-year newspaper career. He may be reached at gsosniecki@townnews.com.

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