Your redesign typefaces: Hiding in plain sight?

By Ed Henninger

You want a redesign. It’s time to give your paper a new look and you’ve finally got the go-ahead from your publisher to give it a shot.

But he’s made it clear that you have to do it on a shoestring. No pie-in-the-sky stuff—and make it happen at little or no additional expense.

You have your doubts. “How,” you may ask, “am I gonna do a redesign with these same typefaces? Sheeesh! New Century Schoolbook. Times. Helvetica. We’ve been using those for years and they’re just tired! We just gotta get some new faces!”

Well, yes…and no.

Have you checked your typeface files lately? Yes, those typeface files that are hiding somewhere on your server—those typefaces that may work very well in your redesign. They may have been there all this time, hiding in plain sight.

You never knew you had them because, well, you’ve always used New Century Schoolbook. Times. Helvetica. You rarely felt the need to use other type faces.

It’s a design Catch-22: You haven’t tried to use other type faces because you didn’t know you had them—and you didn’t know you had them because you didn’t try to use them.

When I’m working with a client on a limited budget (and whose isn’t?), one of my first steps is to take a look at their entire font library. For me, it’s like a treasure hunt.

Akzidenz Grotesk. Basilia. Berkeley. Bodoni. Caslon 224. Formata. Frutiger. Goudy. Lucida Bright. Myriad Pro. Photina. Utopia. You may have these typefaces in your system already, just waiting to be used in a redesign.

Some suggestions:

LOOK FOR THE CLASSICS: Stay with those fonts that you know work well. Don’t go for Bernhard, for example, when Berkeley will do much better.

LOOK FOR NUMBERS: A typeface family with six or eight fonts will be more versatile than one with only four fonts from which to choose.

LOOK FOR COMPATIBILITY: You want the typefaces you choose to work well with each other. See if their letterforms compliment each other.

LOOK FOR SIMPLICITY: Consider what I call the “Rule of Three”—only three typeface families in the entire redesign. One for text (always a serif), one for display headlines (often a serif), one for accessory uses (often a sans serif).


Choosing new typefaces for your redesign can be an exciting process. But there’s often no need at all to rush to buy type. Very often, the typefaces you need are already available to you.

All ya gotta do is look in the right place.


…………

IF THIS COLUMN has been helpful, you’ll find more help in Ed’s new book, Henninger on Design. With Henninger on Design, you’ll become a better designer because you’ll become a thinking designer. Find out more about Henninger on Design by visiting Ed’s web site: www.henningerconsulting.com



ED HENNINGER is an independent newspaper consultant and the Director of Henninger Consulting. Offering comprehensive newspaper design services including redesigns, workshops, training and evaluations. E-mail: edh@henningerconsulting.com. On the web: www.henningerconsulting.com. Phone: 803-327-3322.

Ed Henninger | Director | Henninger Consulting
edh@henningerconsulting.com | http://www.henningerconsulting.com
TEL: 803-327-3322 | FAX: 803-327-3323
756 Summerwood Dr Rock Hill SC 29732 USA

Latest Foundation Research Asks Young People: How Do You Want Your News?

While newspaper publishers have long understood the importance of attracting younger readers, competing with iPods, Facebook and MySpace for their attention has presented a unique challenge. The question of how best to draw a young audience in today’s media landscape was the spark for Youth Media DNA, new NAA Foundation research designed to foster a deeper understanding of the attitudes and behaviors young people have towards news and newspapers.

"Years of NAA Foundation research have shed light on the positive impact of youth newspaper readership both in and out of the classroom,” said Margaret Vassilikos, senior vice president and treasurer of the NAA Foundation. “While today's younger readers are growing up with unlimited choices in how they take their news and information, research such as Youth Media DNA helps us understand their evolving media consumption habits, allowing newspapers to develop new products and strategies that best connect with a generation that wants their information, their way."

Researchers from DECODE, who surveyed 1,462 U.S. residents aged 15-29 years old, discovered that parental influence is vital to future newspaper readership. More than half of all newspaper readers say their parents encouraged newspaper readership and about half say their teachers encouraged them to read the daily paper. The study also indicated that Newspaper in Education programs are critical and may not be happening early enough.

The study report, as well as a podcast on the research, is available at www.naafoundation.org.

School coverage on Web an opportunity to snare young readers

By Gary Sosniecki

Every Friday night during the school year, the visits to our weekly newspaper’s Web site would spike between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.

The kids at our local high school were getting home from their post-game trips to Dairy Queen or Pizza Hut, they were booting up their computers, and they were checking our Web site to see whose picture we had posted on the home page.

Like thousands of other small-town weekly-newspaper editors and publishers, my wife and I spent every Friday night covering the sport of the season at our high school.

In fall, we were on the sidelines of the football field. In winter, I was in the bleachers keeping score of the basketball game while my wife was courtside shooting photos.

We returned to our office after every game to download and back up our photos. We picked the best photos, then decided which would go on the Web site and which would be saved for the next week’s newspaper.

Then I’d write a cutline describing the action and a two- or three-paragraph story summarizing the game. The last sentence of every story read: “For a full report, see Wednesday’s Vandalia Leader.”

I posted the photo and story, and we went home.

In the morning, I would check our Web stats. It never ceased to amaze me how much traffic came to our Web site late on a Friday night – after I posted a photo and story from the game.

My stats didn’t tell me this, but my gut feeling was that most of that late-night traffic came from the kids who had been to the game, and, in a small community, that’s just about every kid in town. By posting a photo and short story from the big event of their weekend, our newspaper – through its Web site – was connecting with the kids.

My wife and I also spent a lot of time at the school taking photos that didn’t involve sports. Concerts, awards ceremonies, spelling bees, FFA banquets, classroom projects – we didn’t miss very much. Usually we came back with more nice shots than we could use in the newspaper. One of those pictures would go online with a cutline reminding the reader to see a full report, or more pictures, in our next print edition.

Those non-sports pictures, online as well as in print, also helped our newspaper connect with the kids in town.

Last year, we added video to our Web site in time for the start of school. The closest we had to a video camera was a 4-year-old Canon PowerShot G3, our backup news camera, which had a video function.

I took two cameras to football games, our Canon EOS Digital Rebel for still shots, and the old PowerShot for video. My plan was to shoot four video clips at each game: one series of downs (our team on offense) in each half, the pep band performing one number at halftime and the cheerleaders performing one cheer. If I was lucky enough to be shooting video for a touchdown, even better.

By the second week, I was setting the scene verbally at the start of the clips: “Van-Far ball, first down on the North Callaway 35, 3:38 to go in the first quarter, North Callaway leading 7-0.” Al Michaels had nothing to worry about, but it worked. We didn’t know how to edit video, so I posted the clips raw. And they were an instant hit, driving even more future readers traffic to our Web site. My gut again told me that young people were responsible for much of that traffic.

(We used video for non-school news, too, including shooting clips of a street being paved. You almost could smell the hot asphalt! With video, we began the first stage of competing directly with TV. When our customers viewed our videos the perception of our overall product changed.)

Expanding coverage of school events on our Web site enabled us to turn our hoped-for future readers into today’s readers.

If young people indeed are turning to the Internet for the news that’s important to them, it doesn’t take much effort for a small newspaper to provide some of that news to them.

Gary Sosniecki is a regional sales manager for Townnews.com specializing in weekly newspapers. He has owned three weekly newspapers and published a small daily in Missouri during a 34-year newspaper career. He may be reached at gsosniecki@townnews.com.

Not all buyers are created equal

BY-LINE

By John Foust

Raleigh, NC

Sean spends a lot of time talking to his advertisers about consumer behavior. "A big part of my job is to help them manage their expectations," he said. "I once learned that buyers generally fall into one of six distinct categories. By examining each category, my clients and I have been able to understand why an advertising tactic that works with one type of buyer will not work with another."

Sean explained that the concept is easy to grasp, because we can all identify with the six categories. "It all depends on the product. Price may be a person's dominant motive in the purchase of a widget, while brand loyalty may be the determining factor when buying a gizmo."

Let's take a look at Sean's buying types:

1. Consumers who are loyal to you. My wife, Suellen, is loyal to a particular brand of car, and is currently driving her fifth consecutive model of that car. From her perspective, there is no need to consider anything else. Likewise, your advertisers have valued segments of their customer base – people who are loyal to them through thick and thin.

How do you appeal to Loyals in your advertising? Reassure them that – although your product may be "new and improved" – your standards of quality remain the same.

2. On the opposite end of the buying spectrum are those who are loyal to a competitor. If another car dealership tried to convince Suellen to switch to their brand, they would be wasting their time and hers.

This type of buyer cannot be won over with a single ad. The best chance is a long-running campaign of comparative advertising. Even then, there must be some measure of discontent for the buyer to consider switching.

3. Bargain hunters. These buyers are driven by price discounts, not brand loyalty. When Suellen and I go grocery shopping, we have an "either-or" mindset. Either Coke or Pepsi will be acceptable. We buy the brand with the best price.

4. Butterflies. These buyers thrive on change, and constantly move their business from one brand to another. New restaurant in town? Yeah, let's try it. New neighborhood? Hey, let's take a look.

How do you reach these buyers? Sell newness.

5. Investigators. A few years ago, we needed to replace our garage doors. Suellen is extraordinarily knowledgeable about house things (thank goodness), so she eagerly researched the options. She learned so much about garage doors that she could identify the various brands as we drove around our neighborhood.

By the time she figured out the best choice, I was in 100 percent agreement – because she had become a real authority on the subject.

How do you appeal to Investigators? Provide them with plenty of information.

6. Then you have the non-users. These are the people who are not now – nor will they ever be – prospects for particular products and services. In other words, don't expect to sell surfboards to people who live in the Arctic or snow skis to people who live at the Equator.

COPYRIGHT LINE

(c) Copyright 2008 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

CREDIT LINE

E-mail John Foust for information about his training videos for ad departments: jfoust@mindspring.com

Outbound calling takes sales finesse – and a bit of science

By Beverly Crandon

Is there even such a thing as inbound ad sales anymore? With the inbound phone lines ringing less in contact centers, it’s even more critical to reach out to present, past and future customers. (Most ad publishers are finding it necessary to reach out to incumbent customers for renewals and following the competition for new leads. If you’re going to meet your revenue targets and market-share expectations, these activities are imperative.

That said, outbound sales must be done with some sort of science applied, to ensure your maximum potential is met. Outbound is never as simple as just picking up the phone and dialing and as a result below are a few things that will help you to ensure you are getting the most out of your outbound program.

Whom you should be calling?

With state and federal DNC (Do Not Call) laws providing a solid barrier to new private-party ad acquisitions, it makes sense to focus on your renewal program first. A renewal is any customer that ran an ad with you in past, but has since not initiated an independent renewal with you on their own. We define a renewal as anyone who ran an ad with you within a four-week period. Moreover, if your renewal call does not result in a sale/renewal, you will at least be able to get good “product-relations” information: Why did the customer not renew? Did they sell the item already? If so, how long did it take? Were they unhappy with an element of your service? Did they opt to go with the competitor? A well-positioned renewal call will tell you all of this.

Dialing strategy

“We have a list of customers who ran ads with us during the past four weeks – now what?” If this is the type of question, you are asking prior to dialing, pat yourself on the back. Dialing leads without a strategy is one guaranteed way to burn through your invaluable leads.

-- If you’re calling across time zones, first separate your list into regions you support. You will be surprised how regions differ from each other. (If all your calls are local, skip this step.) Perhaps one region performs better in the 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. hour than do others. Your dialing reports will paint a picture of the best hours to dial, by region.

-- Separate your lists into weekly leads, guided by the renewal period. In the end you will end up with four regional lists, each based on renewals on ads placed with you one to four weeks ago.

-- Have your team dial the leads starting with the one-week renewals and work their way to the four-week sheet.

If you do all of the above, you will find yourself with a dialing strategy that will make it easier for you to decipher pain-points in performance.

KPIs you must measure

Below is a list of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you must measure. There are others that could be added to the list, but they are secondary to the foundation stats.

-- Dials per hour/by team and by agent: it is important to measure this both by agent and by team. Team results will give you aid in forecasting performance, but agent performance tracking will allow you to see who is performing to efficiency expectations and of course who as a result will require a deeper level of coaching.

-- Right Party Contacts: This tells you how many true customers your agents are speaking to and will help you forecast how quickly you will be able to penetrate a list.

-- Conversion Rate: This metric tells you how many of your true contacts you have been able to convert into a sale.

-- Sales per hour: This metric gives you additional insight on how the team performs by hour and if this is tracked daily and hourly, you will be able to determine what your high producing hours are and then try to replicate the dynamics throughout other hours, which are not doing as well.

-- Average sale per customer: This gives you the true value on what a customer is worth in a dollars perspective.

Quality monitoring and coaching

If you don’t already have a call monitoring and coaching program in place, you are strongly encouraged to do so. Monitoring calls will allow you to determine:

-- Who on your team is executing well.

-- Common areas of concern that could result in a refresher training session for your reps

-- Get a grasp on what customers are saying.

-- Determine if you are hearing common objections and as a result, your rebuttals should be updated.

-- And most importantly, this helps in determining if the service delivered to your customers are in accordance to the corporate footprint.

When monitoring, try to use a spreadsheet (Excel or similar) that has the call dynamics listed with a weighting attached to each. At the end of a monitoring session and through using your spreadsheet, you will end up with an objective score and a tool to use to coach your representatives.

****

Beverly Crandon, of Toronto, is a new media and call-center expert. She has more than 11 years of hands-on experience in strategic planning, publishing, business-unit development project and product management and contact-center management. She led a 250-employee team for Trader Corporation, the largest classified-ad company in Canada. She lead’s call-center consulting for Classified Intelligence and its umbrella organization, aimgroup.com. Reach us at 407-788-2780.

Politics By the Numbers: `Go Figure’ Reporting Tips

By Matt Baron

Whether you’re a reporter covering the national bid for the Oval Office or a contest that’s more local, you’re bound to be scribbling a dizzying array of numbers in your notebooks.

That’s just where the fun begins, as politicians have a yen for contorting facts and figures as nimbly as a 16-year-old Chinese gymnast.

And some especially audacious politicos exhibit looseness with the truth that, metaphorically, rivals the flexibility of, oh, let’s say a 13-year-old Chinese gymnast.

With those 2008 Beijing Olympic allusions aside, here are some “Go Figure” truths to keep in mind:

Think Visually

Can you picture what you’re telling readers? If not, then get clarification from whoever is painting a picture for you as they are on the campaign trail. That way, you will equip yourself to develop a vivid portrait that brings a given issue into sharper focus.

Smooth Out Awkward Percentages

Round off, wherever possible. Convert awkward percentages to easy-to-grasp fractions. Instead of 73.4 percent, write “nearly three-quarters.”

Befriend math buffs

Where appropriate, you can attribute a mathematical point you make in a story to a teacher, professor or other recognized math buff.

Get the raw data

Don’t settle for percentage changes, vague estimates—or hysterical hyperbole. Merely saying that crime has “gone through the roof” or that you’ve “cut taxes nearly in half” is hardly detailed enough for you to accept without question. Press for the data upon which claims are made.

Use information boxes and graphs to give stories breathing room

Let complementary elements save you space, and give you the room to probe beneath the numbers and explore individuals affected by the figures.

< CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in">Context, context, context

Numbers come from somewhere, and they also have a rightful home. Put them in their proper place by providing a frame of reference.

Beyond these basics, it’s imperative to coax specifics out of candidates and their mouthpieces, and to do it early and often.

Pay close attention not only to the content of their responses, but the manner in which they respond. Are they forthcoming, or are they evasive? The answer to that question will help guide you on how much weight or credibility to give either side.

A longtime reporter, from small weeklies to large dailies, Matt’s work has appeared in Time magazine, the Chicago

Tribune and USA Today. He delivers seminars, in person and via webinar, on interviewing techniques, deadline reporting, numeracy and other communication topics. You can reach him at Matt@InsideEdgePR.com or 888-713-6589.

Part three – Continued from August Pressing Issues

THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson

What Drives Your Desire?

It was love at first sight. I was a 15 year old working as a parking lot cashier, when a brand new car pulled up to the booth. I’d never seen anything like it; it was a new model from Toyota called Celica. Approaching the legal driving age, I dreamed of owning a car. Now my dream had a form. For the next two years, I saved all my money and during that time a Celica couldn’t come within my peripheral vision without my noticing it. It was the only car I wanted. I went to the showroom dozens of times to sit in it, feel it, smell it. I talked with every owner of one who passed through my parking lot. I was driven.

Unfortunately, a new one was too expensive, so I looked in the newspaper every day for a used one, but I was always more than $1,000 short. At 17 and half years old, borrowing my parents car was painful. The desire and the peer pressure to own a car – any car – was nearly overwhelming, and my dream was wavering. My friends began suggesting cars that I could afford. Then my Dad introduced me to a car wholesaler. When I met with him, I reluctantly gave him a list of cars I thought I could afford. As we talked about them, he seemed to sense my lack of enthusiasm. He pressed me, “Are there any others you’re interested in?” “Well... there’s the Toyota Celica,” I replied, “but I know I can’t afford it.” He jotted it down and said, “You let me worry about that.” My eyes lit up as he asked me about colors and options. Then he drew a big circle around the word Celica. Less than a week later, he phoned me. He found one I could afford. It had a small dent in the fender which I could fix for under $100. Cha-ching Desire satisfied.

When was the last time you were obsessed with something? Desire is a powerful motivator, but unlike Fear it cannot be easily triggered. Oh, sure, I can create a television ad depicting a thick juicy steak sizzling on a grill and make your mouth water. Maybe I can even get you off the couch and into your car to go get one. As a marketer, an employer, or even as a parent, I can plant the seeds of desire, but in order for it to blossom, it must develop from within. Once it takes root, Desire has the amazing ability to drive itself. When it becomes very powerful, we call it Ambition. So few people reach this level that we use the word Hunger to describe it because that is a Desire that everyone can understand.

When you observe the world’s most successful people - - in business, sports, or politics - - you see that Desire takes precedence over every other aspect of their lives. As Frank Sinatra sings in I’ve Got You Under My Skin: “I’d sacrifice anything come what might.” Most us have many things we are unwilling to sacrifice. Family and friends are two of the most common. Winners give their Desire complete attention, focus and energy. Michael Jordan is an excellent example; he became one of the greatest basketball players by making 2000 practice shots everyday. Are you that dedicated to your dream?

On the other hand, perhaps you gain more satisfaction from your hobbies than your work. In that case, you probably wish you could spend more time pursuing them instead of your job. That is because pleasure is the force that fans the flames of Desire. Marsha Sinetar in her book Do What You Love the Money Will Follow writes: “When you study people who are successful...it is abundantly clear that their achievements are directly related to the enjoyment they derive from their work.” Are you ready to give up everything for your Desire?

Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. is a motivational speaker and humorist.  He works with companies that want to be more competitive and with people who want to think like innovators.  For more information on Robert's programs please visit www.jumpstartyourmeeting.com.

----------- Publishing Information ----------

This article is offered free of charge on a nonexclusive basis. The copyright is retained by Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. You may reprint or post this material, as long as my name (Robert Evans Wilson, Jr.) and contact information (www.jumpstartyourmeeting.com) are included. If you publish it, please send a copy to Jumpstart Your Meeting! PO Box 190146, Atlanta, GA 31119. If you post it, please send the URL to robert@jumpstartyourmeeting.com.