By Cheryl Spriggs
Advertising Director At the onset of my career in the newspaper
business 20 years ago, I do not believe that anyone ever envisioned that the classified
advertising department would evolve into the powerhouse revenue producer that it is today.
Historically, the retail advertising department has always stood as the number one revenue
producing department at virtually every newspaper, but today at many newspapers that
distinction has been earned by classified as the department continues to challenge and
surpass retail revenue at more and more newspapers.
While attending the Governor’s Travel and Tourism Conference
in Ocean City recently, I had a conversation with Deborah Bennett, national advertising
manager for The Baltimore Sun, about this very topic. Deborah said classified revenue has
become such a crucial part of the entire newspaper revenue picture that classified sales
figures at her paper are updated every hour in order to allow constant monitoring of
progress.
If you are wondering where I am going with this, read on.
On Thursday, Dec. 7, at The Washington Times Conference Center,
MDDC will sponsor the Classified Challenge Workshop, which is shaping up to be our most
dynamic and thought-provoking classified workshop to date. You will be receiving a
brochure from us providing all of the details about this exciting day, but in the
meanwhile, here is an overview of some of the segments planned for participants.
Michelle Beaubien Ball, corporate advertising/advertising
development manager for Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc., will speak on the results of
a survey she is currently conducting with all of the Long & Foster offices. Ball has
designed the survey especially for the conference, and she will specifically address the
topic of newspaper performance and service as it relates to the real estate business. As I
am sure you are aware, Long & Foster is the largest real estate firm in this market,
and you will not want to miss what she has to say about newspaper performance.
Chuck Cornelius, director of classified advertising at
Gannett Corporate, will bring his classified expertise to the workshop with his topic,
"Classified – A Changing Market Landscape." This is an extremely pertinent
topic for the classified business climate of today, especially in light of the
Internet’s challenge to classified. Chuck, who visits classified departments at
Gannett newspapers across the country, is savy about all factors impacting the classified
departments in small, medium and large markets.
Opportunities, ideas and solutions will abound during the
afternoon portion of the workshop as participants get a chance to brainstorm during
roundtable discussions. The assigned roundtable topics will be ones deemed timely and
crucial for classified and will provide the environment for lively discussion by
participants at each table.
This is just a glimpse of what is in store for the Classified
Challenge Workshop on December 7. Be sure to watch for the brochure in the mail and
register right away. The workshop is free to MDDC member newspapers and is one you
don’t want to miss!
If you have any suggested topics for the roundtable
discussions that you would like to toss on the table, e-mail them to me at
cspriggs@mddcpress.com and the committee will take them under consideration.
I look forward to meeting and working with each of you at
the Classified Challenge Workshop on Dec. 7.
Registration materials are in the mail and will also be posted on
the Association’s Web site at www.mddcpress.com. |