Newspaper Inserting--This Time, It's Personal
Newspaper inserts have moved away from the general audience and have taken aim at smaller pockets of subscribers—even at the carrier level.
BY ERIK CAGLE
Hey you, living at 221 Railroad Avenue! Yeah you, the one who just finished putting a deck on the back of your house about a month ago. Now you're on Johnson Hardware's list of prime candidates to receive its Handyman's Special sale circular in the Saturday edition of the Daily Bugle.
As advertising costs increase and the days of mass insertions lose their viability, advertisers look for more economical and effective ways of reaching their target audience. Zoning has long since reached the ZIP code level, but that's not going to hold clients for long. Advertisers have your address and a consumables rap sheet a mile long, so they're coming to your front door. It's the wonderful world of one-to-one marketing.
By the same token, the advertiser's partner, the newspaper, has to spit-shine its inserting machines and, in some cases, convert to the latest in high-speed insertion technology. Tremors of change can be heard rumbling like web presses throughout the mail rooms of large dailies throughout the country. The following is a look at what some of these dailies (and we've zoned down to each of the three time zones in the continental United States) are doing to answer the call of the modern insert.
Dayton Daily News
Stan Richmond, vice president of operations
Richmond wonders if the volume of insertions has reached its peak, given the steady growth over the last 20 years. Not that the Daily News (170,000 daily, 210,000 Sunday) expects volume to plummet any time soon, as it put the wraps on a new 260,000-square-foot plant in August 1999.
Larger machines with the capability to place numerous inserts into a jacket on a single pass are making their way into the Dayton, OH-based Daily News facility. Richmond & Co., the paper's parent, sought out increased automation and added more gripper conveyors, as well as made changes in press folders to produce more consistent product that can easily be inserted.
"We tried to automate the packaging center as much as absolutely possible," Richmond remarks. "We bought all the assembly functions—buffering, storage and retrieval, conveying, stacking, tying bundles —from Heidelberg because we believe in buying systems, not just components. We don't believe people who operate newspapers are good integrators of systems."
Many a truth said in jest.
The Daily News is anticipating the call for address-specific targeting. Its new facility was designed with future additions in mind for that purpose. Richmond does feel a pair of issues will need to be addressed before such targeting becomes viable for all parties.
"The problem is the manufacturing process of address-specific products; doing it consistently and constructing a quality address-specific system," he says. "That has two components: the manufacturing or assembly process and the distribution process. With manufacturing, how do you repair an improperly constructed product and get it back in the sequence it needs to be in, so that it is in line for delivery at the proper time?
"If I'm inserting your paper, and one of the pieces that you want didn't fall, I can recycle the inserter and acquire that piece," he adds. "But now, how do I get your paper back in the sequence with the newspapers that were correctly assembled? There aren't any machines that do that at a fast enough speed to allow us to manufacture in the window we have available. As for delivery, if the carrier disrupts the order of delivery, how can I be assured he'll get them back together properly?"
Regardless, Richmond envisions it becoming a reality "down the line."
Houston Chronicle
Doyle Evans, director of packaging and distribution
The Chronicle has been zoning at the ZIP code level for about 10 years and currently sells into roughly 140 ZIP codes in its market. Full-run inserts have become a thing of the past for the 620,000 daily, 820,000 Sunday performer as smaller production and delivery versions have become the norm.
"Everything is partial circulation, and it certainly reduces efficiency when we're running smaller numbers," notes Evans. "The volume of advertisers has increased dramatically and our preprint volume goes up each year."
The Chronicle churns out a staggering 40 million insert pieces per week, backed by 3 percent to 4 percent annual increases over the past 15 years. To help maintain the pace, the Chronicle has added, among other units, controllers that allow the operator to designate a particular insert for a given quantity. It adds accuracy, efficiency and less down time to the equation and allows the operator to pay more attention to the inserting machine.
Evans believes this is only the tip of the zoning iceberg.
"We're just getting started; the changes will definitely continue," he says. "Zones will be getting smaller. Ultimately, I think we'll be looking at address-specific delivery within the next 10 years. We have some demand for it now. At this point it is very labor- and cost-intensive, but it's something we've done and it will become more of a factor in the coming years."
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Mike Riordon, packaging superintendent
Even with Wayne Newton and the blinding casino lights in the back yard, it wasn't a huge gamble for the Review-Journal to invest in bigger Heidelberg Finishing machinery. The Review-Journal parlayed a pair of 1472 inserters into four NP630 models, adding more flexibility to the paper's ability to address zoning needs. Two of the 630s boast 22 hoppers, with 14 apiece on the other pair, providing backup hoppers for pieces difficult to run.
"We zone by ZIP code, but the new system will give us the capability of targeting inserts to smaller areas of the community or even at the carrier level," Riordon explains.
The Review-Journal (170,000 daily, 245,000 Sunday) processes 35 million to 38 million insert pieces per month. It has a joint operating agreement with the Las Vegas Sun—a 50,000 afternoon daily—that includes handling its circulation, distribution and packaging portions, along with the printing. It also boasts eight tabloid publications, called View, which are aimed at eight different geographic zones. Four of the tabs are printed twice a week, four weekly.
The additions will spell the end of the Saturday Night Hand Slam, the hand assembly of the classified section and the advanced section into 70,000 Sunday street copies. Personnel will not dwindle, however, as the iron additions call for an increase in employees. And new equipment is tabbed to complete the package in the near future.
Zoning at the carrier level, once again, is the main culprit behind the move, and the Review-Journal is prepared for this progression.
"Advertisers want to take it to the carrier route level, and our new gear will allow us to get to that level," Riordon says.