Another Switcheroo on Sunday

By: Jennifer Saba Whenever a newspaper makes a change ? whether it's slashing stock tables, dropping comics, or shrinking the TV section ? the move is almost guaranteed to bring readers to the gates, torches in hand. And so it goes for weekend supplements, where the battle for eyeballs grows ever fiercer. But when The Hartford (Conn.) Courant decided to switch from Parade to USA Weekend in February, readers came out in droves to voice their opinions.

Reader Scottie Jackson took the poetic approach when he contacted the paper about his displeasure: "The Courant I once loved the most/ Its greatness now merely a ghost/ They killed my Parade but expect to get paid/And that's why I switched to the Post."

Another reader begged: "I cannot believe that the Courant has discontinued the inclusion of Parade magazine in their Sunday paper. ... Please, please bring back Parade magazine."

Karen Hunter, the Courant's reader representative, covered the swap in her column after receiving a heap of mail and phone calls but tells E&P the reaction was anticipated: "Any time we change something, readers voice their opinions."

Courant President/Publisher Jack Davis says the paper switched to USA Weekend because it wanted something more youth-oriented: "We respect both Parade and USA Weekend. We picked USA Weekend over Parade because it had a slight edge and made for a better Sunday paper." While the financial aspect played a part, he adds, the "determining factor was not economics, but content."

The Courant has carried Parade as far back as 1949, and dropped the supplement briefly in 1982 for Northeast magazine. The paper resumed its partnership with Parade in 1987 until this February.

Parade President/Publisher Randy Siegel says the magazine had been in negotiations with the Courant for about four months prior to the latter's final decision. He would not reveal the details of the Courant's contract, but says papers generally sign long-term deals (at least six years) with the magazine. "[The Courant] made a series of demands that we couldn't agree with," says Siegel. "They involved a number of business issues.

"We were told it was strictly a financial decision. That always puts us in a complicated position," he says, adding it was more Parade's decision to walk away from the table.

Siegel also declines to elaborate on the series of demands the Courant pressed upon Parade. "All our relationships are unique to the particular markets," he says, adding that Parade does not pay insert fees.

"It's sad the way things worked out with the Courant," Siegel adds. "We hope to be back in Hartford someday."

But the switch involved more than just the Courant. USA Weekend, which is owned by Gannett, snagged the paper partly due to its Tribune sister publications, the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Newsday in Melville, N.Y.

"It started with Newsday. They really wanted to bring us on board," says Dave Barber, USA Weekend's senior vice president of newspaper relations. Last summer, the Fort Lauderdale paper was renegotiating its contract with the Sunday magazine. As part of the deal, Newsday, which carried Parade, and Hartford made the decision to switch to USA Weekend, striking a seven-year agreement. Newsday confirmed it replaced Parade with USA Weekend on Jan. 1, but declined further comment.

According to Barber, newspapers that carry USA Weekend pay the magazine a portion of the manufacturing and trucking costs; USA Weekend rebates some of the advertising revenue back to the papers.

Weekend supplements make their money from national advertising. Often they attract the same accounts, like Dell, and such categories as packaged goods. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, which tracks magazine advertising, in 2005 Parade pulled in $626 million in advertising while USA Weekend hooked $431 million. (PBI bases its data on open rates.)

USA Weekend is carried by 600 dailies at a circ of 23.3 million. Parade has a higher circulation (33.9 million), even though it is included in fewer daily papers (370).

In recent years, dozens of papers have switched from one magazine to the other; sometimes they experience buyer's remorse and return to their original home. Life, a new competitor, publishes mostly on Fridays.