Competitive pressures and traditional practices combined to create a "sold out" condition for this mid-sized daily. On the most popular days of the week, auto dealers sometimes withheld or withdrew their ads when color was unavailable or when ad volume forced them to a position outside of the Classified section.
DCG worked with Production, Circulation, and Transportation to reconfigure the daily press runs to provide for a separate, free-standing Classified section seven days a week.
The new section-front position - now appearing on low-volume days like Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday - was highly promoted and specially priced to attract new revenue from auto dealers who could not afford to compete with the most dominant advertisers on the traditional "auto days" in this market.
Additionally, supporting programs, including photo-line-ads were introduced and highly touted as the paper worked to redesign and redefine its marketplace.
The expense associated with the product's reconfiguration was nearly $750,000 annually, but the incremental revenue stream grew to more than $4 million in less than six months. The success continues today and the benefit continues to grow.
The reconfiguration also established consistent, reliable deadlines for the News department and consistent and reliable delivery times to the distribution centers. Those changes also made it possible to create more efficient and more profitable carrier routes.
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