Daily is Redesigned for Advertisers First -- Then Readers

By: Jennifer Saba Newspaper executives have been shouting a common refrain to anybody that will listen these days: The crisis is about revenue, not readership, they contend.

So when the tiny 16,900- circulation Wilson Daily Times in North Carolina finally green-lighted a redesign, that refrain was top of mind.

The Daily Times was toying with revamping its pages for the past couple of years and commissioned some prototypes from Brass Tacks Design all with the idea of gaining more traction with readership.

But when the daily finally got around to the shelved plans this past January, the goal had changed. Getting advertisers to the paper was the first priority. "We made the decision to go with the redesign," said Gayle J. Smith, sales and marketing director for the Daily Times. "It was going to be all-encompassing. Our publisher called it our economic stimulus package."

The other big decision: Wilson would finally convert to a morning paper.

The paper commissioned a study from Urban & Associates and found that many of the town's small and medium-sized advertisers loved the newspaper and the staff but they weren't sure were getting a return on their investment, recalled Smith.

Brass Tacks' Alan Jacobson decided to move to a front-page advertising model. And not just a demure little ad stuffed at the bottom of Page One but advertising positioned down the side of the front page with the idea of showcasing coupons.

"We changed the ad stacks and redesigned the ads and changed how the ads looks -- all these things together make the difference," Jacobson said.

When the Daily Times went out to the market and showed the prototypes to readers, they were not happy -- to put it mildly. "People loathed it," Jacobson said. "But then I asked them if it went through would they cancel their subscription and they said 'no!' As long as we don't put off readers, what's the difference?"

Indeed, when the paper re-launched with a morning frequency on May 5, starts went up. In March the Daily Times had 154 starts, in April it was a 157 and by the May, with the new look, starts doubled to 300. "We had more starts than stops," Smith said adding she thinks people wanted the paper earlier in the day.

Nestled between Raleigh, N.C. and Greenville, N.C., Wilson has no dominate local radio station or cable TV station. Smith didn't want to hold advertisers over a barrel by charging premiums for the front page. Instead, she focused on 13-week packages. "Our advertisers are small and don't have big budgets," Smith said. "We asked for a commitment but not a huge commitment. Nothing scares them more than a 52-week package because they don't even know if they are going to be around in the summer."

Smith said that she has sold the majority of 13-week flights (for example, an advertiser commits to a 13-week flight running on every Monday during the schedule).

Eighty-five percent of the front-page ad revenue is new revenue, Smith said. She does admit that selling coupon advertising on the front-page has not been as easy as she had hoped.

Surprisingly, the paper saw lift from auto dealers. Yes, auto dealers. "We sold three of them front page ads," Smith said. "To me it is well worth it. We are very much on target."