Branson Radisson Hotel
Hosted by Tom & Marilyn Brower and Past President John E. Norlin and wife Judy.
There were 27 regular members and 17 associate members and vendors, four hosts and five non-member speakers attending.
Branson Missouri
Thursday, April 16
Golf Scramble
Pre-Conference Vendor Open House
Opening Remarks/Special Bonus Seminar
NAA Circulation Marketing John Murray, Vice President, Circulation Marketing
Prior to joining NAA as vice president of circulation marketing, ten years ago, John was Director of Circulation at Fort Wayne Newspapers for seven years. Under Fort Wayne’s JOA arrangement John managed The News Sentinel, a six-day afternoon newspaper and The Journal Gazette a seven-day morning publication. Although John came to Fort Wayne in a circulation role, he also served as Director of Marketing for five years and had assignments in the advertising division. John started his newspaper career in 1979 Columbus, Ga. and was a participant in Knight Ridder's Circulation Management Development Program. Prior to beginning his career in newspapers John worked in retail management for Sears after graduating from Louisiana State University as a marketing and economics major. At NAA John is a part of the Business Development group and is responsible for areas such as audience metrics, circulation marketing, audience development, and marketing support for circulation executives and publishers. This includes facilitating discussion of key issues facing the industry and collecting and sharing the best thinking on readership and marketing solutions. He also serves as a resource to our advertising customers on questions regarding newspaper circulation and readership.
Cocktails and President's Reception
Titanic theme with character actors entertained the group. Door prizes included tickets for two to the Titanic Museum.
Friday, April 17
Continental Breakfast
Opening of Convention
Welcome from Ross Summers, President of Branson Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce
A native of Branson, Missouri, Ross is a 1974 graduate of the University of Missouri with a degree in broadcast journalism. He began his career as a news reporter at KOLR TV, Channel 10 in Springfield, and entered the cable television business when TeleCable Corporation began operation in Springfield in 1981. He moved to Auburn, Alabama to run a group of cable systems with TeleCable in 1983 and moved back to Springfield to become General Manager of TCI of Springfield in 1995. 1999-2001: General Manager and initial investor, TravelNow.com. Established in 1995 in Springfield, Missouri, TravelNow.com was one of the first Internet travel sites and offered real-time booking of hotel, airline and rental car reservations. TravelNow was sold to hotels.com in 2001. In 2002 Ross joined the Branson Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau as President & CEO. Since that time membership has grown from 800 to almost 1,100 members and the annual marketing budget has grown from $3million to over $7.5million. The Branson Chamber & CVB is directly responsible for promoting business and tourism for the Branson/Lakes Area. Ross is currently president of the Missouri Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Bus Association.
Legally Speaking
L. Michael Zinser, The Zinser Law Firm
The Zinser Law Firm has a heavy concentration of clients in communications media, representing over 250 newspapers. Mike Zinser is an honors graduate of the University of Cincinnati, and he received his law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1975. He is a member of the Antitrust, Labor Law, and Litigation Sections of the American Barr Association. Mike is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers for Labor and Employment Law. Only 3% of AV rated lawyers are listed in the Bar Register. Mike is a member of the ABA’s standing committee on Practice and Procedure under the National Labor Relations Act. He is also a member of the Employee Relations Committee of the Newspaper Association of America. He has focused on labor/employee relations and circulation legal issues. He is General Counsel for nine newspaper circulation and financial sectional associations to include MCMA. In addition, Mike regularly speaks to industry trade associations including the American Press Institute. Mike has acted as company counsel for newspapers in numerous recent cases. He has also served as on-site labor counsel during the newspaper strikes where the company operated and permanent replacements were hired.
VendorRama by Al Zuffrano, MCMA Associate Representative
Both vendors and circulation managers enjoyed the first time ever VendorRama. The session will be repeated at next year's meeting in Oklahoma City.
ABC Update
Chad Jaennette, Manager - Publisher Relations
Chad joined the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) in 2001 as a Field Auditor. He became an Assistant Training Manager whose responsibility is to prepare new auditors for the field. In April 2005, he was promoted to Manager, Publisher Relations. Jaennette earned his bachelor’s degree from Northwest Missouri State University. Chad currently works with the states of Nevada, Utah Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the province of Ontario.
Awards Luncheon & Nomination of Officers
Circulation in the New Age Steve Learn, Circulation Idea Service
Steve Learn recently spent almost 5-years as the Circulation Director of the Times Daily in Florence, Alabama before his position was eliminated in 2008. He started his newspaper career at the now defunct Knoxville Journal in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1983. In the 1990’s Learn was Circulation Director or Manager of some of the fastest growing newspapers in the south at three different newspapers: Maryville, Murfreesboro, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. He also successfully managed circulation departments in Ohio and South Carolina. His career has seen him work for Scripps Howard, McClatchy Newspapers, Waco Media, Horvitz Newspapers, Charles Morris Newspapers, Cox Newspapers and the New York Times Regional Media Group. He is an active member of several newspaper associations including Southern Circulation Managers Association (SCMA) where he’s held the position of State Director, Publicity Chairman and Training and Development Co-Chairman. Learn is a charter member of the Newspaper Circulation Federation of America. He was the first Chairman of the South Carolina Press Association’s circulation conference and former Chairman of the Tennessee Press Association Circulation Committee. Learn is a graduate of Leadership Shoals, Leadership Morgan County in Alabama and Leadership York County in South Carolina.
Visit the Vendors
Customer Relationship Marketing Rick Marcotte, Piedmont, Oklahoma
National Customer Service TrainerTable Rock Ballroom A...3pm to 4pm Automotive industry award winner, and former U.S.A. Oklahoma
Wrestling Head Coach Rick Marcotte presents his A.C.T. mini-seminar, which focuses on Attitude, Communication, and Trade
Professionalism with the goal of inspiring "Over the Top" customer service and creating loyal customers for life! Rick comes out of the Oklahoma City metro area where he's served for 25 years in the customer service industry as a Customer Service Advisor/Consultant and a department manager. He is a recipient of American Honda Motor Co.'s Best of the Best award for outstanding national/regional customer satisfaction scores and salesmanship. Rick has been trained in multiple aspects of customer service, some of which are relationship building / interpersonal skills, phone skills, sales, and negotiating hostile situations.
Leveraging Single Copy Opportunities
Eric Wynn, Assistant Circulation Director- Distribution, The Oklahoman Mr. Wynn is currently the Director of Circulation Sales and Distribution for The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City. In this role he is responsible for the departments of metro and state home delivery and single copy distribution. Prior to his position with The Oklahoman, Mr. Wynn has worked within the newspaper industry for 28 years and has held the position of Circulation Director for The Dallas Morning News and The Bakersfield Californian. Wynn started his career at The Dallas Times Herald where he held the position of district manager for AM and PM delivery, Zone Manager and Circulation Sales and Marketing Manager. Mr. Wynn attended Dallas Baptist University and the SMU Cox School of Business in Dallas, Texas. He is a past member of the Circulation Federation Board of Directors for the Newspaper Association of America and currently is a member of the Advisor Board for The American Press Institute in Reston, Virginia.
Vendor Cocktail Reception
Saturday, April 18
Hot Idea Breakfast & Election of Officers Moderator Kevin Quinn
Kevin Quinn, Circulation Director, The Daily Star Journal, Warrensburg, Missouri. Quinn began with a hot idea of a Bundle Top Alert to make the subscriber aware of the upcoming expiration of their subscription. He has even customized a sticker with the office phone number, plus a last day sticker added to the last newspaper. Leavenworth, Kansas uses an 8 1/2X11 sheet. Other newspapers use a wrap for the last newspaper.
Matt Peterson, Norfolk Daily News, Nebraska, stated using a special subscription rate used at a home show. He handed out a seed pac sample. He stated that the discount sub rate offered 15 months for the prepaid price of 12. They secured 300 new subs and renewals plus classified ad sales. They home show host wants the newspaper position to be in the back of the building as a traffic builder.
Loren Tepper, Harrison Daily Times, Missouri, spoke of a City Wide Yard Sale advertised by a map offering a $50 visa card. In this single copy sales effort ended with 1,300 visits from a community of 13,000. Another promotion was the Free Turkey with a home delivery sub sale. There were 200 turkeys in 2007 and 400 turkeys in 2008. The Three Months for $13.13 on Friday the 13th only brought in 917 people to our office.
Peggy Paul, The Examiner, Independence, Missouri, stated that her newspaper developed their only Home grown Rewards Card Program.Six free offer cards go to new and renewals for a one year prepaid. There were 6,000 cards issued.
Jim Kennedy, Community Publishers, spoke of a Tough Time Subscription. “What Can You Pay’...anything over 50% will result in a newspaper home delivery. David Mapel, Sun News, Gladstone, Missouri, stated that his newspaper promoted a news section of the newspaper by giving store clerks free T-shirts and money awards to promote single copy sales in their stores.
Kurt Welu, Omaha, World-Herald, Nebraska, spoke of yard posters, posters in stores and other exterior signs used to promote single copy sales. He stated that some locations went from 70 to 120 sales a week for a total sale production of 1,500.
Newel Jensen, USA Today, spoke of a theme used on his rack cards “Get the Whole Story”. This was a rack card that featured TV newscasters reading the newspaper.
Kevin Quinn then reminded the managers of a technique of posting the newspaper in their news department showing what “Above the Fold” looks like and the sales totals produced that day. Press times are also important and should be posted.
Peggy Paul stated that her newspaper partnered with school events with sales kickbacks going to the Athletic department. The offer was a free high school logo Hoodie with a prepaid home delivery subscription. The hoodie had a newspaper logo on the front and the school logo on the back.
Miranda Byrd, Salina, Kansas, spoke of a third party sales effort, “Poker Tourney”. A total of $6,000 net for NIE funds after winners are paid for the 275-400 participants during a one-day tourney. Another NIE promotion with students invited to mock up a front page newspaper.
Loren Tepperstated a Proofread Contest offering the readers to find mistakes in the newspaper for a monetary reward. Although he hasn’t actually launched the promotion, his idea was voted the best.
Officers and Directors Elected David Mapel was elected as 2nd Vice President; Vickie Miller was elected 3rd Vice President; John Hales was elected to a two-year term as Secretary; Patrick Dennis was elected NAA Circulation Federation Board Member and Tom Brower was elected as Treasurer. Mike Johns was elevated to 1st Vice President. Missy D. Rech will serve as President for 2009-2010 and Kurt Welu will serve again as Board Chairman. Dwayne Blakley will serve for a two-year term as Associate Representative. Kevin Quinn was elected by state members to serve as Missouri State Director.
Revenue & Expense Reduction Ideas
Fred Foutz, Vice President, Gatehouse Media
Fred Foutz, vice-president of circulation for GateHouse Media, is a 39- year newspaper veteran with most of those spent in top circulation management posts at daily newspapers, as well as several years as editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper. Foutz started his career at the Dayton Daily News as a district manager. His experience includes a 10-year stint with Knight Ridder and two separate terms with Gannett totaling 15 years, where he was awarded the President’s ring twice. He served on the board of directors of NAA, was past president and board chairman of CSCMA, where he was voted the Circulation Executive of the Year in 1984 and won the President’s award in 2004. After six years as circulation manager at the Journal Star in Peoria, IL, he was promoted to his current position. He attended Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and had a brief career in professional baseball before starting in newspapers.
Increasing YOUR Production
Newel Jensen, General Manager, USA Today
Mr. Jensen’s newspaper career began at the Idaho Statesman in 1976, as District Sales Manager. Over the years there, he assisted on several projects to computerize the circulation department. He received pro- motions to Single Copy Manager in 1980 and to City Circulation Manager in 1981. In the fall of 1982 Mr. Jensen was provided the opportunity to be a "loaner" for the launch and roll out of USA TODAY; a role he enjoyed for over 2 years. Since coming to USA TODAY, he has served as a Circulation Director of Utah and Colorado, General Manager of Michigan, and then Director of National Single Copy Sales. In July 1991, Mr. Jensen was promoted into the newly created position of Director of Circulation Systems for USA TODAY. In May of 1995, Newel Jensen was named General Manager of the St. Louis Market, which now includes the Kansas City Market. His Market enjoys daily circulation volumes in excess of 110,000 average daily sales spread across 10 states of the mid- western USA. Mr. Jensen is active in NAA, was a past-president of MCMA and has served on several committees, program chairs, and committee chairs and is certified by The Gallup organization as a personal strengths coach.Final Business & Adjournment
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