Newspaper Infomercials Ring Up Sales

By: Jennifer Saba Move over, Flavor Wave Oven and Torso Tiger. Roy Productions, an offshoot of newspaper research firm Urban & Associates, has whipped up 30-minute infomercials for two Florida newspapers, the Tallahassee Democrat and The Bradenton Herald, to increase subscriptions.

Dan Cotter, the firm's COO, happened upon the idea when trying to figure out new ways to sell papers. Since the do-not-call list went into effect about three years ago, publishers have been scrambling to diversify their sales channels. "If we can't call them, we'll get them to call us," he says. Roy Productions created custom-made programs for both newspapers, at the time both owned by Knight Ridder (the Democrat has since been sold to Gannett).

The format features two hosts, a man and a woman, who reel in would-be subscribers with offers ? a coupon book worth $400 in value! A three-day stay at any Marriott Hotel! ? and pithy bon mots. On the advantages of home delivery, the hostess gushes, "Whoa! 6 a.m. is plenty early."

There are reader testimonials: a thirtysomething business owner who craves information; an older woman who loves the editorials; a teen who fights her mom on Sundays for Parade. Her brother prefers the comics, while her father absconds to the bathroom with the sports section.

The program also features interviews with publishers, editors, and reporters. The hosts offer incentives to current subscribers to get them to convert to EZ Pay.

Cotter says the infomercials are far more informative than simple TV commercials: "A newspaper is such a complex product, it's hard to sum it up in a 30-second spot."

It works, too. Henry Haitz, publisher of the Herald, says it ran programs every weekend for three months starting in July. The paper netted about 300 new orders and got almost 400 conversions to EZ Pay (paid in full, at full price). The paper still relies on telemarketing, where it gets about 50% of its starts, but he's happy with the infomercial's results. "It has given us really good promotional value," says Haitz, adding that he plans to use the program again.

The Democrat, meanwhile, experienced mixed results with its infomercial. "We had to learn as we went along," says John Winn Miller, the former senior vice president of marketing at the Democrat and now publisher of The Olympian. One glitch involved the fulfillment houses contracted by the newspapers. The Democrat hawked two different offers, which meant people at the call centers read from different scripts ? and took more time than anticipated in sorting out the orders. Many callers also didn't understand EZ Pay, which made customers' calls last as long as six minutes on average ? twice as long as expected. In the first weeks of the offer, the paper had a close rate of only 30%.

Miller refined the scripts and offerings and found that the close rate went up as call times were shortened. Out of the 1,288 inquiries fielded during a nine-week run, the paper gained 528 starts.

He discovered that the best time to air the infomercial was at noon on weekends, and Miller believes the majority of callers were older women. Additionally, both his paper and the Herald worked out air time through barter agreements with local TV and cable stations. "It was wonderfully done," Miller says. "Newspapers don't promote themselves as much as they should. This was real in-your-face, real proud."