The newsletters which have repeatedly generated the most reaction - emails, comments, calls - are those which report IDEAS we've encountered in our travels or hinted at in Belden research engagements. Since we're coming up on the NAA Marketing Conference we fully expect this and the next edition will be full of notions to ponder. We look forward to your feedback!

It DOES seem like attendees get the most value from such a conference via the ideas shared during the multiple tracks and from fellow interaction.

So, maybe this will serve as a pre-NAA idea springboard? You tell us what you think, especially, if something mentioned here translates in to a real revenue driving or expense saving or, heaven forbid, a real change facilitating notion, we'd really be interested in knowing about it.

On the single copy front... are organizations leveraging their online registration (if doing so...) in ways to drive more single copy sales? An occasional email to the user telling them there is content in the paper TODAY which might be of interest? And, where the nearest single copy location is?

...has anyone used Post-It notes on the Friday paper talking about upcoming weekend content?

...A totally "contained" Sunday product? Since a large percentage of purchasers buy the Sunday paper for the inserts, most will attest the integrity of the Sunday package is paramount. If it could be wrapped or bound in affordable packaging, there would NO DOUBT be a spike in Sunday single copy sales. While this has been done, the key is affordability?!

...what about Sunday all week?

...And, since we're talking "ideas" here...how about racks that don't require coins (young prospective readers don't carry change!) promote on all sides, have current rack cards and ENGAGE our single copy customer?

By the way, we lead off with Single Copy since we're hearing about that more than any other challenge. It's clear this is an increasing "hot" spot and warrants the best of all our thinking.

(Shameless Plug- Belden has just launched the Single Copy Insight Program to capture single-copy intelligence. By driving purchasers to an 800 # and capturing key metrics via an Interactive Voice Response system, we're developing a fast, timely snapshot of different segments of single copy buyers. Call to learn more.)

The following are notions and observations stemming from a presentation by Seth Godin to the International Newspaper Marketing Association meeting a while ago...

...Successful brands aren't entitlements and, they don't guarantee the right to succeed. The success we've enjoyed for so long has us spoiled. Some might argue our success has doomed us.

[The Belden Associates point of view? We have NOT leveraged incredibly strong newspaper brands appropriately and NOW is the time to start doing it or we WILL fail]

Speed; or, lack there of.

It applies to everything - product to market and in response to clients and market changes. We gotta work on this. Readers of this newsletter will recall the Belden SWOT analysis conducted some 5 years ago revealed this as the #1 challenge facing our industry. Nothing has changed.

...At several conferences the notion that Moore's Law is accelerating change gets play. We'll acknowledge that point. Adoption of the internet and new devices like the IPod occurs faster than ever.

The interesting relevant newspaper point - organizations who can change relatively easily will eventually dominate industry. Newspapers have not demonstrated such a skill set, but there's NO reason it cannot happen. Tough, yes! Impossible, NO. We see the impossible happen every day.

...a key to any fast success will be the need (it must happen) for fast feedback on whatever change is deployed. And, yes, this sounds suspiciously like research. Just like we "record" incoming calls for training. We should be measuring all sorts of benchmarks in our ability to respond to a faster consuming audience.

...READ TWICE >>> "Getting better at yesterday's business is pointless!"

How many actions, processes, deliverables are we providing that fall in to that category?

Once we determine what those are (and, there will be several...) we should choose to discard most. That's one of the hardest enterprise things to do, - stop doing any practice which has served as well - but is a must if we're going to adapt and adopt and develop new offerings.

...the pace of business is a function of the pace of decision-making. Make 'em faster (recognizing faster decisions will surely mean occasional mistakes, but that's ok!) and you will succeed faster, as well. It IS that simple.