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Transcript of 2014 June TCNAToday
V I S I T U S A T W W W . T C N A T O D A Y . C O M
Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 223-5708 (888)450-8329 fax 1
TCNATodayTCNA offers connections—connections to information, trends, training and direct revenue opportunities.
Conference ScheduleWe had an awesome time in San Antonio. The sessions were full of great ideas that helped us make our publications more profitable. Plan today to attend our next conference.
Graphics Series Ellen Hanrahan teaches us how optical illusions can be used to make our ads more attractive and effective.
Page 5
Work PositivelyDr. Joey Faucette shows us how we can lead our organizations by being courageous and serving our communities.
Page 6
Advertising Is War!Bob Berting , Mr. Community Paper teaches us how we can win in the battlefield of sales. Page 3
USPS UpdateDonna Hanbery of the Saturation Mailers Coalition keeps us informed regarding legislation and rules governing the United States Postal Service. Those rules will change the way you do business.
Page 8
SUCCESSFUL SELLING DEPENDS ON BOTH QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERSby Jo-Ann Johnson of Metro Creative Graphics, Inc.
These days, everyone is talking about consultative selling — and with good reason. Consultative selling, as the name implies, rests on a redefinition of the salesperson’s role. It relies on salespeople to build trusting relation-ships with customers based on listen-ing to and understanding their needs
Questions &Answers
as both entrepreneurs and advertisers in a variety of media.
Building the foundation of a consulta-tive customer relationship begins with asking questions — and then listen-ing carefully to the responses. Most people love to talk about themselves and their businesses, and are eager to share both their successes and their challenges. But most often, they wont’ share unless they are asked the right questions. That’s why today’s success-ful media sales professionals learn about customers’ businesses prior to
SERVING THE COMMUNITY MEDIA OF TEXAS JUNE 2014
continued on page 2
sales calls and arrive with questions designed to uncover the businessper-son’s challenges, successes, objectives and needs.
Once the foundation has been laid and the advertisers’ needs are ac-knowledged and understood, only then should the consultation be trans-
Did the Dog Eat Your Homework? John Foust, like all of us, has heard this excuse before. Do we try to use similar excuses in our sales process?
Page 2
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Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 223-5708 (888)450-8329 fax 2
formed into a search for solutions that leads to a sale. And while many of to-day’s topnotch ad sales reps are apply-ing consultative sales strategies with great success, the bottom line still de-pends on the quality of the resources the publication can offer.
“To be successful, today’s publishers and ad reps have to sell solutions,” says Lou Ann Sornson, Regional Manager of Metro Creative Graphics, Inc. “And selling solutions requires not only deep knowledge of new media and a keen understanding of the full range of customers’ businesses and needs, but a wide range of print and digital advertising resources at the ready.”
The bottom line? Listen carefully, then be ready to offer solutions. The follow-ing are just a few examples.
Advertisers whose goals include tar-geting new advertisers or capturing advertisers looking to reach specific zones might benefit from free-stand-ing inserts rather than ROP ads.
If a business is looking to solidify its
continued from page 1 branding through both advertising and print materials such as business cards, flyers, brochures, etc., many publica-tions can — and should! — serve both sets of needs.
Special sections have always been a great way to expand ad sales revenue, but having complete, ready-to-pres-ent print and/or online sections with engaging, high-quality editorial con-tent and ad positions of varying sizes to present to existing advertisers and
prospects are key to closing a sale.
If they like what they see, advertisers with even the smallest budgets will jump at the opportunity to be associ-ated with purveyors of complementary goods and services. Arriving at a sales call armed with actual layouts for tar-geted, themed, multiple-advertiser ads or themed pages with a variety of ad positions and sizes, fills a lot of needs and makes it hard for even the smallest business owners to say no.
Did The Dog EatYour Homework?By John Foust, Raleigh, NC
It’s no secret that the more sales people know about their prospects – before they begin a sales presentation – the better their chances for successful outcomes. In advertising, this means learning prospects’ business and mar-keting histories, identifying major competitors and analyzing what they
want to accomplish in their advertis-ing.
Since pre-presentation homework is such a crucial step in the sales process, why don’t more sales people make it a top priority? There are several possible reasons:
1. Impatience. High-energy sales peo-ple thrive on the adrenaline of the
pitch and are eager to get to the main event. After all, isn’t that where their powers of persuasion come into play? And isn’t that where decisions are made?
Impatience has a big downside. It sends a signal that sales people are
continued on page 7
V I S I T U S A T W W W . T C N A T O D A Y . C O M
Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 223-5708 (888)450-8329 fax 3
DirectorDonna Stanley 512-259-4449
PublisherHill Country
News
DirectorRick Wamre 214-560-4212
PresidentAdvocate
Media
PresidentKathleen Holton
281-331-4421Managing
EditorAlvin Sun
DirectorNicole Morris 361-668-6397
Publisher/EditorReal Hometown
Media
DirectorDennis Skinner 903-794-0996
PublisherAmerican
Classifieds/Texarkana
Vice PresidentLance Winter 817-594-9902
Publisher/EditorWeatherford Star-Telegram
Past PresidentDennis Wade 512-994-0482
PresidentGranite
Publications
Sec/TreasurerAmber Weems 830-693-7152
PublisherVictory
Publishing
Executive Director
Douglas FryTCNA Office
Columbia, TN931-223-5708
DirectorJonathan McElvy
713-686-8494Publisher
The Leader News
LeadershipNot only is the board of directors made up of some of the sharpest and most dedicated media minds in Texas, they also take time from their very busy schedules to make decisions that will help your and your business.
ADVERTISING IS WAR—DEVELOPING ADVERTISING
SALES POWER ON THE BATTLEFIELD IN 2014
By Bob Berting, Berting Communications
What can be done to develop greater sales and image power in your market battlefield in 2014? Although there are
many activities that can be worked to achieve greater recognition in the mar-ket place, there are certain guidelines that will give an immediate attack plan. These guidelines will help your salespeople be accepted as advertis-ing consultants, help publishers give direction to their sales management, and serve as a yardstick for recruiting continued on page 4
Advertising Is War!
quality people.
SEVEN BUILDING BLOCK GUIDELINES
Have all salespeople work with customers as a trust-ed friend and advisor, not an interviewer. Contrary to many sales training programs, a customer doesn’t want to be put through progressive questioning. They expect the salesper-son to do research on their business via the internet, and not say “tell me all about your business.” In fact, the customer must trust and believe in the salesperson and their publication first
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before they will openly discuss their goals, strategies, and budgets.
Don’t keep bombarding customers with dozens of ways to advertise. They should be sold on the publication as the major player in their media mix and on an ongoing program that re-quires consistent advertising on a set basis. Many well meaning publishers will constantly start new promotions and put pressure on their salespeople to sell them. The end result is that the customer sees the salesperson as a peddler who wants to constantly add more costs and changes to a set pro-gram, not a trusted advisor.
It is absolutely vital that salespeople know and understand their media competition to effectively compete against them.
All advertising plans submitted to prospects must feature long range programs with consistent, repetitive advertising. Salespeople must always present plans, packages, campaigns, and programs… and not one time trial ads.
Shopping centers, small towns, and business communities can be sold on a yearly contract basis. This must be a well-conceived marketing plan which offers them some services as no charge as an incentive for participation in the total yearly marketing plan.
There must be an arrangement for a majority of merchant participation to assure the fulfillment of the total mar-keting package.
2014 should bring about a revival of cross functional teams, involving sales-
people, graphic artists, tele-marketers, and marketing support people. Publi-cations with these teams will achieve a greater relationship with their cus-tomers and will see greater response to their creative efforts.
Have a recruiting and interviewing policy that requires new salespeople to have the following traits:
Excellent communication skills—can they paint word pictures verbally?
Good attitude and values—hire people you can trust, especially if you know they will be a part of a cross-functional team.
Good work ethic—are they goal ori-ented and can they manage their time—especially customer contact time.
Creativity—are they innovative, do they have good ad design ability? Can they put together a marketing plan?
The bottom line is that advertising is war and that a publisher can win on the battlefield by constantly working on their branding and top of mind awareness.
The harsh reality of most competitive battlefields is that few come in second and do well in today’s environment. Consequently every effort must be made to develop a tough sales force that has the right attitude toward the publication, the customer, and the skill of selling advertising programs on a long range basis.
Bob Berting, newspaper marketing con-sultant, has published his new e-book for sales professionals in the newspaper in-
Advertising is War!continued from page 3
dustry entitled “Advanced Selling Skills For The Advertising Sales Pro”. This is a publication for beginning salespeople who can learn advanced selling techniques and experienced salespeople who can sharpen their selling skills. Salespeople can learn more about this publication by using the link www.adsalespro.com and see the table of contents as well as reading the complimentary first chapter. Payment of $24.95 to download the 34 page e-book.
Bob Berting is a professional speaker, newspaper sales trainer, and publisher marketing consultant who has conducted over 1500 live seminars and tele-sem-inars for newspaper sales staffs, their customers, and print media associations in the U.S. and Canada. His 40 year background includes 15 years in news-paper management, 5 years as university marketing instructor, and owner of a full service advertising agency for 20 years..
Bob can be contacted at [email protected] or 800-536-5408. He is located at 6330 Woburn Drive, Indianapolis, In 46250.
Free PapersWorking For You
Wouldn’t you love to see one of these?Your free community paper lets you race around in many ways. You read our printed publication at your own home at your own speed, you can zip around our website with no limits, and you can even zoom through our content on your smartphone. That’s speed without limits.
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Another sign we’re working for you.
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Ellen Hanrahan ©2014
I welcome your input and suggestions. A former art teacher, I entered the free paper publishing business in the early 80s. I write for IFPA, Community Papers of Michigan, and am still learning. E-mail: [email protected]
Visual LiteracyWE WORK WITH WORDS AND IMAGES IN GETTING A MESSAGE TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS WE CAN. SOMETIMES WE GET SO CAUGHT UP WITH THE WORDS THAT WE FORGET THAT PICTURES AND IMAGES CAN ALSO BE “READ.” WE ALL SHOULD HAVE A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF…
Graphic design, because of its visual nature, requires an under standing of pictures, let-ters and symbols. It seems so simple—“make it look good”—and yet, visual information is much more complex. The graphic designer must combine words and images to make visual statements that are to be read and understood. The words and images must rein-force each other in both intent and content to be readable, legible…and most of all, believ-able to the reader. Visual literacy is a skill that helps to inter-pret, understand, and derive meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which we most often think of written or printed text. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pic-tures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading. Prehistoric animal drawings in ancient caves, such as the ones in France and Spain, can be thought of as early forms of visual lit-eracy—they relay information. The concept of reading signs and symbols is certainly not new… we do it all the time with
the symbols for men’s room or ladies room, red cross, railroad crossings, poison, etc. A simple symbol is substituted for words and in most cases, understood by many, even if they do not speak the same language. There are also a lot of studies, theories, prac-tices and books that delve deeper into visual literacy, but this is just to expand your design capabilities in understanding the tools you have available to you. Sometimes images create illusions that put our visual awareness to the test. We can apply this same concept to the ads that we do. Since we also work with images—photo, illustration, text—all can be viewed as elements with simi-lar characteristics. When we create an ad, we place all these elements into a visual represen-tation. Remember contrast, repetition, align-ment and proximity? These principles help organize the ad content and help the reader understand what the information is all about. The following illusions, or at least the idea behind them, can be used to make our ads better—especially if we have to create the illu-sion that there is more space in the ad.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
Easy come, easy go.
We rely on familiar word shapes to help us read.Lowercase letters have distinctive shapes and sometimes we are able to figure out what the words say just by their shapes alone. See if you can recognize the following two proverbs just by the shapes. Don’t peek at the answers—you will be able to get it!
①
②
Simple geometric shapes can alter the way objects look and are perceived. Both the square and the circle are the same size from edge to edge. The circle only appears smaller because the white space that sur-rounds it seems to minimize its shape. Before words, information came through visual representations. As children we learned through images, but once we learned words, we no longer continued to develop our visual literacy.
The Muller-Lyer Arrow produces an illusion that in itself is not distorted but produces the distortion when the two arrows are viewed together.
Which horizontal line is longer?
Visual Literacy has three parts…Visual thinking is the ability to transform thoughts, ideas, and information into all types of pictures, graphics, or other images that help communicate the associated and appropriate information.Visual communication is when pictures, graphics, and other images are used to express ideas and to inform people. For visual communication to be effec-tive, the receiver/reader must be able to construct meaning from seeing the visual image.Visual learning is the process of learning from pic-tures and graphics. Visual learning includes the con-struction of knowledge by the learner as a result of seeing the visual image. All parties involved have to understand the images that they are seeing. If someone does not understand a graph or chart, then that information is not useful.
In the meantime…Remember to combine words and images carefully. The image must support the words, and as you can see from this lesson, images can also deceive the viewer! It’s hard to think of words as being an “image,” because they’re, well, words. But if you can think of the text, or prices as a shape, you may be able to come up with more options to fitting all that stuff into a specific ad size. We have to create the illusion that all the pic-tures and words that we need to fit into that ad space were specifically designed for it—whole, complete, organized… plus it must “sell” the product or service. Welcome to the world of graphic design.
Visual perceptions are based on our own human behavior, experiences and mem-ories. An image of food can trigger hun-ger. The experience of touching fire leads us to understand “hot.” We respond to visual images based on what we know. Different cultures may interpret some images differently. In Gestalt Theory this is called “Isomorphic Correspondence.”
Another illusion is based on the premise that the brain is confused by ambiguity, and will there-fore select one image over the other, usually the more familiar, or recogni zable, object or shape. In this draw ing based on the illustration de signed by E.G.Boring, we see the profile of a young woman with her head tilted to the side…or do we? Look again and you may very well see the face of an old woman!
ANSWERSMuller-Lyer Arrow: The two lines are, in fact, equal in length.Proverbs: 1. Beggars can’t be choosers. 2. Easy come, easy go.
You can’t always believe what you see!
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Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 223-5708 (888)450-8329 fax 6
Work Positive3 WAYS TO LEAD POSITIVE IN A
FEARFUL WORLDDr. Joey Faucette
For the past couple of weeks, you’ve read about great leadership truths I discovered from Ed Friedman. The first one we talked about is that great leaders have “a capacity to separate themselves from the anxiety around them.” The second is that great leaders have “a commitment to goals beyond the horizons that everyone else saw.”
This week we look at the third one which is great leaders have “the cour-age to define themselves within their community.”
Anxiety drives those whom you lead by influence to look short-range. Such a narrow focus creates fear within them. Fear paralyzes their action. Lack of action stunts results. Stunted results decrease sales with less productivity.
How do you vanquish fear among those you lead?
Here are 3 Ways to Lead Positive in a Fearful World:
COURAGE WHEN YOU CANIt’s a challenge to act courageously when so many around you are fearful. Yet it’s necessary to Lead Positive.
Courage is best expressed at certain moments; times of high-influence op-portunity. Those experiences when all seems anxious with no relief in the short term.
That’s when you Lead Positive and in a break room conversation, recall with courage a similar intersection of dan-ger and opportunity when all turned out well. Or, on a conference call re-mind everyone with courage of the
corporate mission and vision and how focus on it has in the past steered the ship around the mines of fear.
Speak courage when you can, times when your positive influence is most needed.
CONTROL WHAT YOU CANIn anxious, short-sighted moments, fear runs freely, demolishing innova-tion and creativity. It seems at those times that the world is out of control, on a collision course with destruction.
Find one thing you can do that creates a short-term, high-impact win. One action that results in a positive, visible outcome with those you lead. Share the win. “Look what happened!” is the rallying cry.
As you do, you discover that others ask, “How did you do that?” Fear nar-rows their range of mental options to what they can’t do. Encourage them to follow you in controlling what they can; to find one action that will gener-ate a positive outcome. Then go do it.
You define yourself as a leader as you control what you can and inspire oth-ers to do the same.
COMMUNITY WHERE YOU CANYour followers’ reactions to fear vary greatly. Some receive your self-defi-nition with relief and step away from fear. Others choose to follow fear fur-ther and disbelieve your positive out-comes.
Create community among those who follow you away from fear. Your cour-age inspires their courage. Your ac-tions encourage their actions. Both de-fine a new community; a critical mass of folks who team around positive leadership that dispels anxiety, length-
ens short-sightedness, and vanquishes fear.
Rally this community. Invest your leadership capital in them. Allow the others to self-select. You go Work Posi-tive with those who will.
You amaze yourself and others as you Lead Positive in a fearful world.
SUMMARYHow do you lead when fear surrounds your team? Here are 3 Ways to Lead Positive in a Fearful World from Dr. Joey Faucette, #1 Amazon best-selling author and leading Positive Business Expert.
Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Nega-tive World (Entrepreneur Press), Work Positive coach, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the of-fice earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.Listen-toLife.org.
Free PapersWorking For You
This free community paper is a vital force in our community. We live here, we work here, our kids attend school here, we shop here, and we love it here. Because we feel so connected, we want everyone to feel the same way. That’s why we offer the best our community has to offer each issue. We invite you to strengthen our community by shopping locally, being involved, and supporting each other. We do.
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Your free press strengthens our community. Not by being separate from it, but by being part of it.
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(1) unprepared and (2) concerned only about themselves. That’s a nega-tive first impression that is difficult to overcome in a presentation.
2. Overconfidence. This is particularly common with experienced account executives; they feel like they can wing it, instead of spending time gathering information. They have dealt with so many widget dealers that they think they can skip the discovery step.
3. Lack of knowledge and skills. Sales people may skip this step because they don’t know the techniques to gather in-formation. They may not have learned how to ask open-ended questions to encourage prospects to talk. They may be poor listeners. They may not know where to find information (online re-
search, networking, etc.).
4. Research paralysis. Some people are more comfortable with technol-ogy than they are with people. Rath-er than avoid gathering information, they overdo it. You’ll find them at their desks, basking in the glow of their computer monitors, poring over on-line and database research, surround-ed by charts and graphs.
Their mantra is not “Ready, aim, fire.” It’s “Ready, aim, aim.” This approach creates the risk of losing relevant, us-able information in a mountain of de-tails.
5. Poor time management. You may be familiar with the time management grid which illustrates four categories: (1) Urgent and Important, (2) Urgent
but not Important, (3) Important but not Urgent and (4) not Urgent and not Important. It’s human nature to con-centrate on the tasks which are in the urgent category, regardless of their im-portance. Something shouts “do this now,” and we do it – often without asking ourselves if it can wait.
Good time managers discipline them-selves to focus on tasks which are im-portant but not urgent. Preparation time can easily be put on the back burner, but they don’t let that happen.
6. Lack of desire. Every job has its most favorite and least favorite parts. Strong sales people persevere through the parts they don’t like, because they see how those duties fit into the big picture. Weak sales people simply avoid the things they don’t like.
7. Lack of perspective. Too many sales people – veterans as well as rookies – simply don’t realize the importance of research. The message here for them is: knowledge is power. That goes for knowledge of the sales process, as well as knowledge of their prospective ad-vertisers.
(c) Copyright 2014 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad de-partments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. Email for informa-tion: [email protected]
Shannon Fry PaligoShannon Fry Paligo, 35, wife of Ryan Paligo, mother of two beau-tiful daughters and daughter of Douglas Fry (Executive Director of TCNA), died after a long battle with cancer on Thursday, April 24, 2014. You may have met her at the SAPA Conference in Birmingham, AL in 2011.
Shannon was born May 26, 1978 in Wilmington, North Carolina to Douglas & Debbie. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, graduating as Valedictorian. Before becoming a full-time mother she was a social worker for The Family Center in
Columbia, TN as a child abuse pre-vention specialist.
In addition to her parents, she is survived by her husband whom she married December 1, 2001, Ryan Daniel Paligo of Columbia; two daughters, Brooke Leslie Paligo and Courtney Megan Paligo, both of Columbia; two brothers, Kevin Douglas (Kristen) Fry of Misha-waka, Indiana and Gregory Logan (Sarah) Fry of Murfreesboro; pater-nal grandfather, Donald W. Fry of Bremerton, Washington; and ma-ternal grandparents, John & Shirley McKinney of Wilmington, North Carolina.
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continued on page 9
USPS UpdateUSPS SEEKS TO AVOID PRC ORDER
- AND MISSES DEADLINESINDUSTRY OPPOSES PRC ORDER
USPS TO REPORTDonna E. Hanbery, Executive DirectorSaturation Mailers Coalition33 South Sixth Street, Suite 4160Minneapolis, MN 55402(612) 340-9350 Direct Line(612) 340-9446 [email protected]
When the Postal Regulatory Commis-sion made its decision and Order on the exigency rate case on December 24, 2013, the PRC ruled that the Postal Ser-vice could put the 4.3% exigency rate increase in place on top of the approved CPI increase, on a temporary basis, as a surcharge. The Commission order di-rected the USPS to report the additional, incremental revenue it was receiving from the surcharge within 30 days of the end of each quarter. Further, it directed the Postal Service to file, by no later than May 1, 2014, a plan for how it would re-move the exigency surcharge when the additional contribution, that the PRC found the USPS lost “due to” the reces-sion, had been recouped.
On April 23, 2014, the USPS filed a mo-tion with the Postal Regulatory Com-mission seeking a stay of this portion of the order based on the Postal Service’s appeal to the DC Circuit Court seeking to make the 4.3% exigency increase per-manent.
Most of the mailers and associations par-ticipating in the appellate process, both in bringing an industry appeal challeng-ing the award of exigency as a surcharge or for any period at all and, in interven-ing in the Postal Service appeal, filed an Opposition with the PRC in response to
the Postal Service motion for a stay. The opposing parties include SMC, the As-sociation for Postal Commerce, the Al-liance of Non-Profit Mailers, the Ameri-can Catalog Mailers Association, Inc., the American Forest and Paper Associa-tion Paper, the Association of Marketing Service Providers, the Direct Marketing Association, Inc., Major Mailers Associa-tion, the Association of Magazine Media, the National Association of Presort Mail-ers, National Newspaper Association, National Postal Policy Council, Newspa-per Association of America, RR Donnelly and ValPak. The industry made the fol-lowing points:
The USPS motion is untimely. The Post-al Service had four months’ notice that this report was due. Waiting to the last week for a stay is a disregard of the PRC’s lawful order.
The USPS has not made a showing that it is entitled to a stay. The Postal Service legal team did not stay up late at night to write the stay motion. It is the brief document. Normally, a moving party must establish four criteria to justify the extraordinary remedy of a stay from a lawful judicial order. The four criteria include (a) the likelihood the moving party will prevail on the merits; (b) the extent of any irreparable injury the mov-ing party would suffer without a stay or injunctive relief; (c) the extent of any irreparable injury the opposing party would suffer if the stay is granted; and (d) public interest. The opposing par-ties point out that this analysis of factors a favor the PRC enforcing the order.
A stay, if granted, could injure mailers. The stay poses risks that the Postal Ser-vice will be charging more than it is en-titled to under the Postal Service order for a longer period. Further, the lack of information on a plan to remove the
surcharge, prevents mailers and mail service providers from meaningful plan-ning.
The Opposition urged the Commission not to let the Postal Service get away with flaunting the role of the regulator by filing an untimely and unsupported request for a stay. The opposition states: “If the Commission is to serve as an ef-fective regulator of the Postal Service, it must emphatically remind the Postal Service that it does not get to decide for itself which Commission orders to obey.”
The Postal Service let the May 1, 2014 deadline for filing its report on exigency revenues received to date, along with a plan for removing the surcharge, come and go without filing the report as or-dered.
PRC DENIES USPS STAYSETS NEW DEADLINE FOR
REPORTING REQUIREMENTSThe PRC was swift in ruling on the Post-al Service motion for a stay of its report-ing requirements. In less than a week, the PRC ruled on May 2, 2014 that the Postal Service motion for a stay was de-nied.
The PRC agreed with the arguments ad-vanced by the industry in opposing the motion for a stay and set new, but mini-mally adjusted, deadlines for the Postal Service to comply with the PRC’s initial order.
The PRC adjusted its quarterly filing re-quirement for the Postal Service to share how much revenue has been produced by the exigency surcharge to 45 days af-ter the close of each reporting quarter. The PRC wrote: “It is incumbent on the Postal Service to file the relevant billing determinants in a timely fashion. Given the limited, but uncertain duration of the
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surcharge recovery, it is imperative that mailers and the Commission be timely apprised of the ongoing recovery.”
The Postal Service gave the Postal Ser-vice an additional month, until June 2, 2014, to provide a plan for removing the surcharge from postage rates with a complete explanation of how the plan will operate.
EXIGENT APPEAL PROCEEDS ON EXPEDITED BASIS
The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has granted the parties par-ticipating in appeals on the PRC order in the exigent rate case an expedited schedule for briefing and oral argument. There are two appeals pending before the D.C. Circuit Court. The indus-try has appealed the PRC award of any
exigent increase at all, arguing that the Postal Service did not satisfy its burden of showing any lost revenues that were “due to” the great recession. The indus-try argues that the ambiguous testimony before the PRC from the Postal Service, and the economic studies submitted, did not substantiate revenue losses that were “due to” the recession as opposed to other, predictable diversion to digital electronic methods of communicating and paying bills that have nothing to do with the recession.
The Postal Service has also appealed, seeking to make the 4.3% exigent in-crease “permanent.” The industry has intervened in the Postal Service appeal.
Under the Circuit Court Scheduling Or-der, a preliminary statement of issues was exchanged by each party in April. The Commission’s brief, defending its
exigency decision Order, is due on May 22, 2014. The appealing mailers can re-spond to the PRC in a brief due on June 22. Reply briefs by the mailers and the USPS relating to the PRC Order are due June 26.
Oral argument is expected in September 2014 with the possibility of a decision before the end of the year.
In the meantime, mailers are keeping a nervous eye on the House and Senate as bills and discussions on reform are con-sidered. Mailers are looking to Senator Susan Collins of Maine, and Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, to help oppose efforts being made to eliminate or modify the CPI rate cap in any future postal legislation or to allow the 4.3% exigency increase to be “baked in” to rates as a permanent increase as part of any postal reform.
continued from page 8
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Celebrate Free Paper MonthBy: Scarlette Merfeld, event chairperson
Industry insiders know and recognize the valuable service our community papers provide to readers and adver-tisers, but all too often in the hustle and bustle of today’s fast pace world we become so wrapped up in publish-ing that those important facts get over-looked.
For the benefit of publishers of this valuable service, and for future gener-ations of community paper publishers who will follow, it’s important to re-mind those we serve of our important role in their community and to toot our horn just a little bit. PaperChain is the common link between all the na-tional, regional and state free commu-nity paper organizations which makes it the logical choice to lead the charge to organize a recognition and celebra-tion of our industry.
The PaperChain leadership believes the noble mission of Free Community Papers fits perfectly with the nation-al celebration of freedom the United States so proudly enjoys. The concepts of freedom, liberty and the rights we hold so dear provide the nation’s com-munity papers with the perfect back-drop to remind the country of the valuable services we bring to millions of homes each week. In the spirit of independence and freedom celebrated nationwide every July we need your help to spread the word and demon-strate the reach of our industry. We will do this through a celebration of the Free Community Paper Industry during the entire month of July.
Here is the agenda for the 2014 cel-ebration roll out.
Shown below is the Free Community Paper Month Logo. Please use this logo often on your mast head, folios, promotional ads, articles and as fill-ers throughout your paper leading up to and during the month of July. For original artwork and PDF’s visit
http://paperchain.org/freepaper-month.html
Also shown are sample ads from the 2013 Free Community Paper Month celebration. We are awaiting final de-tails before releasing the creative mate-rials for 2014. They will also be avail-able on the web site noted above on or about the first of June and will also be distributed by your state, regional and national associations.
We encourage all free paper publish-ers to put together a prize package for their readers to be able to enter and win on the PaperChain website.
Publishers are asked not to alter the logo, but to use it often. We encourage you to localize the ad and draw your reader’s attention to the important role
your paper and staff play in this indus-try and how this industry stimulates the local and national economy.
We are all so very busy these days but we also encourage you to brainstorm with your staff and find ways to use the month of July to highlight your publication’s accomplishments and the many ways your publications help drive and support the local economy.
The 2014 celebration is a national event but you can provide the local fla-vor. Ask your town fathers, city coun-cil and county government to consider taking action on a local proclamation formally recognizing Free Community Paper Month. Suggested proclamation verbiage can also be found at http://paperchain.org/freepapermonth.html.
Your paper has made a great investment in your community and this industry. Only you and your staff can help us bring that story alive to your readers in this consolidated industry-wide effort. Please consider active participation in the July 2014 Free Community Paper Month. Visit us on Facebook and let us know your plans for Free Community Paper Month. Thank you in advance for all you do to enhance the industry with every issue you publish and your support with this project.
V I S I T U S A T W W W . T C N A T O D A Y . C O M
Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 223-5708 (888)450-8329 fax 11
Does your paper sell these?
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Whether you’re starting a new program or trying to make an existing one better. We partner with papers to make printing
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I-4
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258.pdf 1 5/10/13 3:45 PM
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