By: Jennifer Saba This spring's FAS-FAX, to be released May 8, is expected to be just a bit easier on the eyes, with circulation starting to show some stability.
One paper has already announced gains in both daily and Sunday copies: The Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minn., one of the 12 Knight Ridder "orphans" put up for sale. Its daily circ grew 2% to 194,105, and Sunday was up 1.6% to 251,565 for the six-month period ending March 2006.
Delve into those numbers and there's even more good news: an increase in paid home-delivered copies. "We got back to the basics," explains circulation sales and marketing director Andrew Mok, "with pre-paid quality orders."
The paper dug into its subscriber churn and found people tended to let bills slip. The key: get subscribers to pay up front ? for 13 weeks to a full year. Mok notes that EZPay didn't turn out to be a successful fit for the paper, so it moved away from automatic renewal; subscribers were often putting a stop on orders once they received their credit card or bank statements. The gains, however, are "something for us to be proud of," he adds.
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