NEWSPAPERS PUT MORE SALESPEOPLE ON THE STREET

By: Lucia Moses Retail Ad Biz Needs a Shot In the Arm





Calling all ad reps. Some big-name newspaper groups are looking for salespeople to help pump up slumping ad revenues.



The continued slowdown of retail ad growth is a major headache for the industry. Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown media analyst Peter Appert predicts third-quarter ad revenue will increase 5%, down from a 7.3% rise in the first half, because of a slowdown in retail and a falloff in national.



Stung by ongoing consolidation and cutbacks in ad spending among retail giants, many newspapers are turning to smaller and nontraditional advertisers. To that end, the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch will relaunch its community news sections in January with an eye toward attracting smaller retailers. The paper plans to contract with independent salespeople to call on businesses that haven't advertised before.



Charles Bowles, a group advertising manager at the Media General Inc. flagship, has no illusions that small businesses will make up for the loss of big retail dollars. On the upside, he said, "The higher our ad count is, the less one specific retailer can hurt us ... so one loss is not as devastating."



Lee Enterprises Inc., after a disappointing retail performance this year, plans to add 100 salespeople - an increase of 12.5% - over the next few months. Lee, with 23 small dailies concentrated in the Midwest, also is increasing selling incentives and staff training.



And No. 2 newspaper publisher Knight Ridder, which had flat retail ad growth this summer, is adding 50 to 100 people to its sales force of about 2,200, with the new staff coming primarily to its major-market papers. "It's a recognition that we think we can further develop retail dollars in some of these markets by having more feet on the street," spokesman Polk Laffoon IV said.



Several of those hires are going to The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, which is deploying them to go after local retail ad dollars, said Maggie Krost, the paper's vice president of advertising. "I think there's that realization for a long time that maybe we've been too dependent on big retailers in the past," she said, speaking generally of the industry.







Lucia Moses (lmoses@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor covering business for E&P.







Copright 2000, Editor & Publisher.