Going to the dog to retain readers

By: Joe Strupp At the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., some newspaper deliveries have gone to the dogs. Spot News, the mascot mutt, has been roaming the paper's three-county circulation area for more than 11 years, popping up at a subscriber's home every morning with a cash prize.

The Gannett paper publishes a daily notice telling readers in which of 93 municipalities Spot will appear the following day. If a customer catches Spot ? full-time Courier-Post employee Patrick Ahearn ? dropping off the paper, he or she wins $100. If no one sees him, the prize rolls over. The largest winning jackpot has been $3,200. "It is a real reader reward," says Publisher Mark J. Frisby, who credits the paper's reduced churn rate, at least in part, to the promotion. Spot has had some surprises over the years, ranging from a reader jumping out of the bushes to a man meeting the mutt at the door with a shotgun. "He didn't get the money," Market Development Director Carl Lovern says.