Publisher Official Monthly Publication of the Kansas Press Association June 12, 2013
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Celebrating Our 150th Year! The Kansas Publisher Official monthly publication of the Kansas Press Association June 12, 2013 Inside Today NNA joins Affordable Mail Alliance he Affordable Mail Alliance, a coalition inflation, a standard that should satisfy any well Page 2 of Postal Service customers, has been re- run organization in today’s economy. Kevin Slimp addresses Adobe’s Testablished to defeat an expected A state from the alliance says “a com- plan to go to leased software Postal Service proposal to raise postage bination of declining revenue and increas- through “the Cloud.” rates by as much as five times the rate ing costs has the Postal Service poised to permissible by law. inflict on its customers an ‘exigent’ rate Page 3 The National Newspaper Association increase designed to subsidize an out- John Foust says advertising is a member of the coalition. dated infrastructure in need of change. salespeople need to know the The Postal Service Board of Gov- “Most private sector companies have right questions to ask. ernors, who must approve the Postal already made major structural and opera- Service’s request, is set to decide on the matter tional changes in recent years in order to survive. Page 4 imminently. “The Alliance believes USPS needs to do the Dena Sattler talks about the The law permits the Postal Service to raise same.” growing importance of digital postage rates annually, consistent with the rate of See ALLIANCE on Page 3 advertising to the newspaper industry. Page 5 KPA is organizing some free webinars for later this summer. Read all about the project here. Page 7 Jobs continue to be available at Kansas newspapers. Check out the latest openings. Page 8 Doug Anstaett talks about the need to push hard next legisla- tive session for reasonable fees for records, opening of probable cause affidavits. Peter Wagner (right, with his wife, Connie) discusses advertising sales ideas with Kansas Press Associa- tion second vice president Dan Thalmann at the recent annual convention. Wagner will be back by popu- KPA Calendar lar demand for the Western Kansas Mini-Convention Friday, Oct. 4 at the Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Dodge City. More information will be coming soon. Sept. 12-15 National Newspaper Associa- Please don’t misuse KPA press credentials tion 127th annual convention, Phoenix. ne of the more popular to outline some guidelines on internal controls and police services the Kansas how they are utilized.” those who have received press Oct. 4 OPress Association The KPA office has received cards,” Anstaett said. Western Kansas Mini-Con- provides its members is the a handful of complaints from For now, the guidelines are vention, Boot Hill Casino and official press card. newspaper editors and from as- voluntary, and we hope to keep Resort, Dodge City. “In the past, we’ve been sociations who request creden- them that way, he said. fairly liberal in providing the tials from working journalists. r KPA press cards are to Dec. 15 cards to our members,” said “Rather than let this prob- be shared only with employees Celebrate the 222nd anniver- Doug Anstaett, executive di- lem grow worse, we want sary of the U.S. Bill of Rights. rector. “But the time has come KPA members to step up their See CARDS on Page 5 Kansas Press Association, 5423 S.W. 7th, Topeka, KS 66606 • www.kspress.com • (855) 572-1863 2 Kansas Press Association, 5423 S.W. 7th, Topeka, KS 66606 • www.kspress.com • (855) 572-1863 2013-14 KPA Board Dena Sattler President Garden City Telegram [email protected] Dan Thalmann First Vice President Washington County News [email protected] Susan Lynn Second Vice President Iola Register [email protected] Sarah Kessinger Treasurer Marysville Advocate [email protected] Ben Marshall Past President Sterling Bulletin [email protected] A.J. Bozarth Central District Director Norwich News, South Haven New Era [email protected] Susan Cantrell Northeast District Director Adobe’s conversion to the cloud Lawrence Journal-World creates ‘storm’ among publishers [email protected] M. Olaf Frandsen hen I was a college student liv- more than three or four. Legislative Director ing in Texas, I got used to hear- Cable seemed like a good idea when I Salina Journal Wing people say, “Boy, howdy.” moved into my place three years ago. I got [email protected] This wasn’t a greeting, as you might 200 channels, HBO, high-speed Internet think. It was more along the lines of and a phone line for $99 per month. It’s Gregg Ireland “You’re not kidding!” hard to argue with that. What I Daily Director It’s struck me as funny that, as haven’t been able to figure out is Topeka Capital-Journal I thought about the best way to how my cable bill went from $99 [email protected] explain the reaction to Adobe’s per month to over $200 without Creative Cloud announcement, my noticing it. And I don’t even Brad Lowell the first words that came to mind get HBO anymore. Northwest District Director were, “Boy, howdy.” And that’s the catch about Concordia Blade-Empire Did Adobe open a huge can of Creative Cloud, isn’t it? Sure, [email protected] worms by moving to the Creative we get InDesign, Photoshop, Il- Travis Mounts Cloud model? Boy, howdy. Did lustrator, Flash, Acrobat InCopy Non-Daily Director they ever. Is the creative and pub- and a couple of dozen other apps. Times-Sentinel Newspapers lishing world up in arms about it? But let’s face it, how many of our [email protected] Boy, howdy. Are they ever. Kevin Slimp people use more than two or three Is there anything we can do Adobe applications? Andy Taylor about Creative Cloud? Probably not. And that price of $30 per month per Southeast District Director For those who have been hiking the Ap- user? That sounds like an OK deal. $360 Montgomery County Chronicle palachian Trail for the past two months and per year for the latest version of Adobe [email protected] aren’t familiar with the changes at Adobe, software. But what about next year. That here’s the short version: You no longer price is only guaranteed for the length of Southwest District Director buy Adobe software. You lease it. Think the one-year agreement. And, unless some- Position Open of your cable company. For a monthly fee, thing changes, the $30 per month goes up you have access to hundreds of channels, even though you probably don’t watch See SLIMP on Page 4 Kansas Press Association, 5423 S.W. 7th, Topeka, KS 66606 • www.kspress.com • (855) 572-1863 3 To get the best answers, ask the right questions s the old saying goes, “Knowledge 2. What do you like best about your cur- Instead of saying, “What do you not like?” is power.” In a sales context, the rent marketing? The purpose of this ques- ask, “What would you do differently?” Amore you know about your pros- tion is to learn what your prospect likes best. 4. How would you describe your ideal pects, the better you will be able to tailor The emphasis is on the positive. Does he customer? This is an area where many your product – in this case, advertising – to like photos? Does he like weekly specials? advertisers – especially the Mom and Pop their needs. What about web links? Or testimonials from businesses – try to cast a net that is too wide. The best way to get information is to ask happy customers? Or big sales events? I once used a shoe store as an example the right questions. Open-ended questions Of course, studying the current advertis- in an ad seminar. When I asked, “What is (which invite longer re- ing will make it easy for you to sharpen the your target audience?” someone suggested, sponses) are better than focus of this question. “People who buy closed-ended questions (“I notice that you use shoes.” Certainly, that (which invite yes/no or a lot of coupons. How One of the key objec- is true. But the focus short answers). Let’s does that work for tives in a sales dialogue needs to be tighter, in take a look at four of you?”) order to bring custom- the most effective sales This information is to help the advertiser ers to the store. questions, listed here in will give you some identify relevant and spe- The purpose of this no particular order. guidelines in preparing cific reasons to buy (I call question is to iden- 1. What do you do spec ads. As long as tify a specific target that your competitors his Want List follows that RTB). audience. If you try to don’t do? Differentia- John Foust principles of effective appeal to everybody, tion is at the heart of advertising, you’ll be you’re appealing to a marketing. What able to include many of his ideas in spec ad nobody. makes your prospect’s business different? presentations. Help your advertisers think in specifics. What makes it stand out? What services or 3. What would you like to do differently You’ll sell more. And their ads will work products can she provide that others can’t? in your marketing? This is where you help better. A clearly defined answer will result in your prospect visualize a desired future targeted messaging. A vague answer will state. John Foust has conducted training result in equally vague advertising – with Along the way, she might voluntarily programs for thousands of newspaper ad- weak response rates. mention some things she would like to vertising professionals.