Targeted Before Tailored p.

By: John Consoli

Targeted Before Tailored p.
THE "TARGETED" NEWSPAPER will precede the "tailored" newspaper product by "several years," according to Newspaper Association of America senior vice president for technology George Cashau.
The reason, Cashau said, is that a targeted newspaper is advertiser-driven and customers will not know they are being targeted. It will involve coordination only with the advertiser, and the customer will receive the entire newspaper package.
The tailored newspaper will be subscriber-driven. A subscriber could order daily whatever special sections of the newspaper he or she desires and that order could change from day to day ? a much more complicated process to consummate.
"A good software program could easily handle [the sorting of orders]," he said, but "the mechanical and labeling requirements are much tougher."
Cashau said the announced rollout this week of the Standard Advertising Invoice will be a "large step" toward making it easier for advertisers to use an assortment of newspapers.
He said a task force headed by Charles Brumback, chairman and chief executive officer of the Chicago-based Tribune Co. and head of the NAA technical committee, is working to develop a one-order, one-bill network for advertisers.
"This will address new national business as well as transactions with major retailers that make multiple buys," Cashau said.
NAA is also working on a protocol that will allow the exchange of business transactions electronically.
The first phase of this Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system is nearly complete and the next three phases are expected to be completed by December, Cashau said.
Dillard's of Little Rock, Ark., is "gearing up for electronic business transactions with their newspaper customers and should be in testing before the end of 1993," he said.
The next step will be the transmission of text, graphics and photographs ? full makeup ad transmission.
"Progress is being made on Postscript versions of this transmission and it is expected that this will be possible at acceptable speeds within the next year," Cashau said.
Here is the computer-integrated manufacturing system that Cashau envisions a few years from now:
"An advertiser places a targeted ad with a newspaper either electronically or through a back-office provider.
"The newspaper accepts the ad and receives the targeted market list of customers from the advertiser, elec-tronically. The newspaper, via software, merge-purges this list with its subscriber list and comes up with a targeted circulation number.
"The information on the rate and numbers goes back to the advertiser who approves it and sends preprints or an ROP request to the newspaper with sizing position and frequency.
"When the OK is given, the production system kicks in and the process begins. A central computer activates the programming of the various press, post-press and distribution equipment so that the production is completely automated.
"All preprints or production from the press would be packaged according to the target. Individual labels would be attached to each package and the product would be arranged in throw order. Misses or errors would be corrected on the fly. Missed inserts or packages without the proper distribution would be easily repairable with a fully loaded product. This would ensure that the targeted recipient gets the proper ad.
"The data from all of these requests would be saved and added to the customer profile."
Cashau gave his report at a labor relations and technology seminar during Nexpo in New Orleans.