The Local Media Innovation Alliance April Report, SoLoMo, is a fascinating case study coming out of Morris Communications. 

Live from the Local Media Association/Blinder Group/Florida Press Association Revenue Summit

By Al Cupo, Vice President, Local Media Association

From the presentation ‘Boost Your Revenues by Turning-on Your Sales People’
Presented by: Pason Gaddis, President & Group Publisher, Florida Weekly

Pason Gaddis

4 Simple Steps to Creating a World Class Team

1. Culture - Create an entrepreneurial atmosphere.
   
   • Allow your self-starters to grow.
   • Be a champion of team work.
   • Provide the support necessary for sales staff to be successful.

Live from the Local Media Association/Blinder Group/Florida Press Association Revenue Summit

By Nancy Lane, President, Local Media Association

The Power of Print

Gareth Charter talking with Thomas Byrd, President/COO, Independent Newsmedia Inc. after his presentation.

Charter kicked off the session with this announcement, "Two of our weeklies just published the largest billing issues in their history. The Landmark - $100,946 and Milbury-Sutton Chronicle - $18,013. Average issue for The Landmark is $20,000."

Live from the Local Media Association/Blinder Group/Florida Press Association Revenue Summit

By Nancy Lane, President, Local Media Association

Bruce Faulmann

From Bruce Faulmann, VP Sales & Marketing, Tampa Bay Times

Seller Comp Plan – Key Performance Indicators: they influence behavior & drive performance. “No more than 5 KPI’s”:

• They measure active accounts (# per month- ranges from 15 to 40+)
• New account growth (# per month – ranges from 1 -7)
• Customer retention – 80% is the goal from month to month (the # that advertised last month that also advertised this month)
• Revenue diversification – any healthy business does this - % print and % digital/everything else. It is a custom # for each rep.

Performance to budget: 4 KPI’s: +45%; 3 KPI’s: +20%; 2 KPI’s -10%; 1 KPI -20%; 0 KPI -25%. If they miss their budget but make all 4 KPI’s, he pays them $850.

Live from the Local Media Association/Blinder Group/Florida Press Association Revenue Summit

By Al Cupo, Vice President, Local Media Association

Matt Coen

From the Session ‘Evolving Opportunities with Deals, Promotions and Contests’
Presented by Matt Coen, President, Second Street

Promotions
Online promotions will continue to grow and will outpace other forms of online advertising in the next several years. Promotions are all about the ability for people to interact with businesses in their market; it’s what the advertisers want.

Benefits of a successful online promotion include:

• Increases awareness / builds audience
• Generates ad revenue / develops sponsors
• Collects email addresses / grows user database

Promotion Opportunities to Consider:

• Sponsored contests (football winner picks, wedding contests, cutest kids, pizza payoff, lucky dog photos, etc).
• Client-centric agency contests tied to advertisers’ Facebook pages. The local publication makes these contests work by providing a turnkey program to individual businesses that includes design, promotion and tracking services.

Live from the Local Media Association/Blinder Group/Florida Press Association Revenue Summit

By Nancy Lane, President, Local Media Association

At the start of the second day, Mike Blinder asked attendees to share their top take aways/action items from the first day. More than 20 hands shot up immediately to share with the group. In no particular order, these were the top ones:

1. Start a new business development team and hire hunters (many mentioned this in reference to Chris Edward's presentation from Cedar Rapids - featured yesterday on this site)
2. Have your sales reps collect video testimonials from their clients and share them at the weekly sales meeting. This came from Jim Doyle's "8 to be Great". Jim is the top sales trainer to the TV industry.
3. Many liked the iPad app that Brainworks showcased during the working lunch. It is designed for sales reps and features a location-based map that shows them businesses in the area that are and are not advertising with the paper. Helps with prospecting while on the road.
4. Big format banner ads coming out of Europe (from Nancy Lane's presentation on WAN-IFRA study tour) - many are eager to experiment with them
5. Add more digital expertise to their team (came from several presentations)
6. Have the sales team write their own job descriptions and work with each rep on a new business development plan
7. Getting back to sales basics with the account executives (attendees expressed their plans in a number of ways)

Live from the Local Media Association/Blinder Group/Florida Press Association Revenue Summit

Session Focused on 8 Hot Trends from Recent WAN-IFRA tour

Nancy Lane

Revenue Summit attendees were intrigued and inspired by some of the top trends coming out of the most innovative media houses in Europe. Lane's top takeaways included:

1. Multi-Channel Offerings are the Norm
2. European Media Houses Are Making Huge Investments in Mobile & Tablets
3. Sales Structure – Digital Experts Support Sales Teams
4. Home Page Rules – Beautiful Design; Impressive Revenue Results
5. Editorial Supports 360 Advertising Strategies
6. Social Strategies Focus on Facebook
7. Print is Important; Leverage It to Grow Digital
8. Increased Investment in Video or “TV”