Dealing with hundreds of advertisers across multiple properties is nothing new for newspaper publishers.

But only recently have newspapers begun seeing viable options that permit them to successfully automate the process of selling and placing ads.

 

Papers are attracted to automating as much of the advertising production process as possible as they attempt to find ways to reduce errors and raise their visibility among potential customers.

Take Clarity Media Group’s Examiner newspapers, with properties in three of the largest U.S. markets — San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

The three papers deal with more than 200 large advertisers through Clarity’s national advertising arm, said Susan Chieca, Clarity Media’s director of sales. To help Clarity more efficiently deal with the volume, last quarter it tapped Mediaspace Solutions to automate its ad management.

Norwalk, Conn.-based Mediaspace plans, buys, places and verifies advertising for agencies and marketers throughout the United States.

“I’m on the road most weeks so the automation they offer is appealing,” Chieca said. “It’s easy to obtain ad orders because everything comes over electronically.”

Chieca had previous experience with Mediaspace, having worked with the company during her tenure with Newsday in Long Island, N.Y.

Increasing incremental revs

Since Clarity began using Mediaspace, the company’s services helped Clarity secure a number of accounts for its newspapers, Chieca said.

“We’re seeing a lot of incremental revenue, which is fantastic,” she said.

Feedback from advertisers has been positive as well.

“They do not have to constantly call in for specs and rates and deadlines,” she said. “You often get numerous requests every day from similar companies that you deal with asking for the same information, and that is time-consuming. (Mediaspace) is very streamlined.”

Mediaspace planners act as middlemen, discussing with newspapers the type of campaign an advertise is requesting and ensuring the newspaper establishes a suitable program in response.

 “Rates and everything are agreed upon and then Mediaspace executes (the plan),” Chieca said. “They take it off my mind because I know they have handled it.”

Monthly advertisers’ orders are sent out and accepted by Clarity on behalf of the three newspapers.

Typically, Clarity works to place ads in all three Examiner papers. Electronic tearsheets serve as confirmation, and they also help eliminate any potential billing issues, “which is a breath of fresh air in my business,” Chieca added.

Conn. daily leveraging automation

The Day in New London, Conn., also uses Mediaspace to manage advertising accounts for the daily as well as 16 weekly newspapers it operates, said Randy Murallo, senior account executive.

“Whatever market (an advertiser is) trying to hit, we can cover it,” he said.

The Day began using Mediaspace on the recommendation of its largest advertisers, two casinos in southeastern Connecticut.

“They elected to use Mediaspace to traffic their material and make sure the local newspaper of record is covering not only their ads, but also any news stories,” Murallo said. “It helps to have an agency that can quickly get to me, because I have over 150 accounts.”

That’s a number that isn’t always easy to manage, Murallo said.

“When it all comes in it makes it very simple to get an e-mail that tells us we have an order for an ad in a particular paper,” he said. “It’s always very timely and very easy to communicate that way.”

The system also allows The Day to quickly detect any potential errors in ads’ specifications.

 “Or let’s say I have a better suggestion for placements — I can send it back, but I can still record and reserve the ad,” he said. “That’s the big thing for newspapers in making sure that production is continually flowing and we don’t stop the presses for one error.”

Multiple buys, one place

Having worked in retail for 23 years, Murallo said he appreciates the benefit of being able to execute multiple buys through a single conduit.

“I used to work for May Department Stores as a buyer and I knew that if I want to get my ad out, I had to make all those phone calls,” he said. “It’s very difficult because of different papers’ ad sizes and specs and different deadlines. This way, one shot and it’s out.”

The Day also uses the e-tearsheets feature of Mediaspace’s software, which dovetails with an in-house app that lists each order. As orders are listed, their respective numbers can be typed in to generate a tearsheet, which is sent to Mediaspace.

Tearsheet automation has been among the biggest timesavings for The Day.

“Something that used to take three to five hours a week now takes literally 15 seconds,” Murallo said.

Newspapers can also review their tearsheets through a secure Web site.

2 tools

Mediaspace consists of two apps: PlanET, an online media planning tool; and ApexDirect, a customizable desktop app that oversees newspaper-advertising campaigns.

ApexDirect manages all aspects of a newspaper’s campaign execution, including generating, delivering and confirming automated insertion orders; managing, preflighting, delivering and confirming print ad materials; collecting and delivering tearsheets, e-tearsheets and other forms of verification and compiling and delivering consolidated invoices.

Recently, Mediaspace released eInvoice, which provides newspaper advertisers with real-time access to full-color PDF images of tearsheets and e-tearsheets.