By: Joe Nicholson Newspaper Launches $3 Million Promotion Campaign
SAN FRANCISCO -- Even as newspapers across the country are
cutting costs and giving up on short-term efforts to improve
their products and build circulations, the San Francisco
Chronicle has launched a $3-million multimedia promotion
campaign and committed itself to boosting circulation of its
revamped Sunday paper by 50,000 over the next three years.
The Chronicle's efforts are part of a broad-scale campaign
to upgrade its appearance and editorial product at the same time
it improves its circulation and ad revenue. The ambitious program
at the paper flows partly from its purchase by the Hearst Corp.
last year and the termination of its long-term joint operating
agreement with the San Francisco Examiner.
But the Chronicle also is benefiting from the dynamic
leadership of John F. Oppedahl, its publisher, chairman, and CEO,
working in tandem with Steven B. Falk, its associate publisher,
president, and chief operating officer.
The Chronicle's new promotional campaign -- including radio, TV,
outdoor, online, and direct mail -- began shortly before the
recent launch of the redesigned and editorially enhanced Sunday
paper and is expected to last three to six months. The campaign
consists of $2 million in cash purchases and $1 million in ad
trades with various media outlets.
Oppedahl said the Chronicle's May 20 Sunday magazine had
128 pages, a record for the Chronicle, which was founded
in 1865. Moreover, it carried $400,000 in ads, many from new
advertisers.
With the Chronicle now in complete control of the Sunday
edition it long published jointly with the Examiner,
Oppedahl said he expected the current Sunday circulation of about
540,074 to jump, declaring, "I think we ought to get to 600,000
in three years." A Sunday circulation of 600,000 has been an
internal goal, but Oppedahl said it has not been made public
until now.
Oppedahl also noted the paper was preparing to upgrade its
coverage of high-tech and local businesses. By producing a
superior editorial product, he said, "Editors and reporters can
make you money."
Joe Nicholson (jnicholson@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor covering marketing and advertising for E&P.
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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