NEWSPAPERS FIND NEW REVENUE STREAMS

By: Joe Strupp Publishers Add Printing Businesses, New Ads


A San Antonio Current story this spring criticizing the
San Antonio Express-News for going to a cheaper, 50-inch
web width wasn't surprising. After all, the alternative weekly
has been taking swipes at the daily Express-News for
years.

But what might surprise some about the Current's March 22
issue was the identity of its printer -- none other than the very
same Express-News, whose practices were being criticized
inside the very paper that was rolling off its presses.

"It's not that unusual," said Express-News Publisher and
CEO W. Lawrence Walker Jr., who since September has contracted to
print the Current and three other weeklies in an effort to
increase revenue. "When the economy turns, you start looking for
ways to help yourself, and this was a good way."

The deal also saved money for the Current, which
previously had been forced to ship copies nearly 300 miles from a
printer in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"We have been a critic of them editorially, but somebody had to
print my paper," said Current Publisher Simon Mulverhill.
"I think we've actually taken some of our best shots at them
since they started printing us."

The Express-News, which claims about $800,000 in annual
revenue from all of its contract printing, is one of several
dailies that have turned their printing presses into outside
moneymakers to raise new revenue despite the poor advertising
market.

While contract printing by newspapers is not a new concept,
recent economic troubles have forced more of them, such as the
Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram and The
Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain, to expand their printing
operations -- just one of several strategies publishers are
implementing in search of new revenue sources.

"It was a good business decision," said Wesley R. Turner,
publisher of the Star-Telegram, which prints local copies
of a national business daily and recently leased about 1,000
square feet of office space to it. "It's a nice, new revenue
stream."

Chieftain General Manager Marvin Laut has been printing
half a dozen weekly and monthly newspapers for months, and
recently started a retail operation that prints business cards,
invitations, and stationery. "We spent about $125,000 on
equipment to get it going, and it is bringing in about $1 million
in annual revenue," he told E&P. "That is something we can
continue."

But outside printing is not the only new revenue idea publishers
have been developing in recent months to offset the financial
crunch. From reworking classified-ad space to creating new
publications, newspaper executives are leaving no moneymaking
possibilities unexplored.

"We are trying to capitalize on anything we can," said Michael
Jameson, publisher of the La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune,
which has sold reprints of its reporting on major events, such as
last year's presidential election and this spring's Mississippi
River flooding. "We are taking advantage of any opportunity."

The Tribune, owned by Davenport, Iowa-based Lee
Enterprises Inc., is one of several Lee newspapers using a
special ad-sales support team dispatched by the chain to help
muster new business. Jameson said the support crews have been
visiting most of Lee's 23 daily newspapers for two weeks at a
time to assist on sales calls, motivate sellers, and critique
their work. "They do some rallying with staff, have contests and
prizes, and accompany them on calls," he said. "It is a very
intense focus that has worked well."

While Lee is building up its sales staff, other newspapers, such
as the Portland Press-Herald and Maine Sunday
Telegram, are tinkering with the ads themselves to bring in
more money. Publisher and CEO Charles C. Cochrane Jr. recently
expanded the announcement page in the Sunday Telegram to
allow paid ads for more events.

In the past, only obituaries, engagements, weddings, and 25th-
and 50th-anniversaries of marriage were listed in the paper, all
for free. Under the new program, readers are able to pay for
announcements of almost any event, such as baptisms, bar
mitzvahs, birthdays, and domestic-partner ceremonies. "As far as
I'm concerned, someone could pay for an ad announcing they are
happy about a divorce," Cochrane quipped. "We believe it will
increase revenue by several hundred thousand dollars a year."

At The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune, Publisher and
President Reid Ashe recently sought more revenue by increasing
the point size of classified-ad type by 20%, requiring more lines
for each ad and resulting in higher rates. Ashe told E&P,
"We think this is a six- or seven-figure-per-year revenue
increase."



Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for E&P.



Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.