update! - NTMC website

** Winter 2015 **
NTMC
Update!
The Cannery on Newport Bay – WKG Photos
NEWSPAPER TARGET MARKETING COALITION
JANUARY 12, 2015 – VOLUME SIX, NO. 4
S TILL ON THE F ENCE ?
~~~~~~
2015 NTMC Conference Presenting
CIPS Marketing Group, February 4-6
~~~~~~
We are now only three weeks away from our annual
newspaper summit. The hotel reservation and registration deadlines are both January 16th. If you haven’t already, there’s still time to sign up now to
connect with other advertising and marketing executives from around the country to discuss shared challenges, successes, and the future of our business.
We have some very serious fun planned for our
business meeting in Newport Beach - but that’s what
everyone likes about our annual conferences - the
opportunity to mix business with pleasure, in a
world-class location!
Newport Beach is a wonderful destination for our
28th NTMC Conference. Visitors can enjoy luxury
shopping, spa treatments, championship golf, while
sampling the aspirational lifestyle there. With the
largest recreational harbor on the west coast, Newport Beach has lots to offer. There are miles of hiking and cycling trails, surfing, and sailing. You’re
invited to enjoy some local offerings on Friday with
one of two outings – join us if you can!
In addition to being a great location and time of year
to meet in Southern California, our conference hotel
is conveniently located only 1.5 miles from John
Wayne International (SNA) http://www.ocair.com/,
easily accessible via direct flights from most major
cities throughout the U.S.
Hotel features:
The Fairmont Newport Beach, our conference hotel,
offers world-class hotel accommodations and guest
services in a relaxed Orange County atmosphere.
The hotel’s comfortable meeting space and state-ofthe-art business facilities are supported by a comprehensive array of services.

Negotiated room rate only $169 per night, double occupancy - total $191 per night, including
all service charges and taxes

Advance credit card payment not required

Free wireless Internet in the conference room
and throughout hotel (guest room access requires a free Fairmont President’s Club account
– sign up in advance at www.fairmont.com/fpc).

Convenient daily courtesy shuttle service to and
from John Wayne Airport, Fashion Island, South
Coast Plaza, and Balboa Island

Complimentary Fitness Center with an assortment of machines, free weights, yoga mats, etc.

Large outdoor heated pool, sundeck and large
outdoor multi-person whirlpool – with towels at
no additional cost

20% Amadeus Spa discount for NTMC guests
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Winter 2015
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Meeting details:

A modern 24-hour Business Center
This year the Advertising and Business sessions,
scheduled all day Wednesday and Thursday, are
open to all attendees. The “Sponsor Exchange” on
Wednesday afternoon has been optimized for more
interaction, prizes and fun! And newspaper reps
should plan to attend “Negotiation Skills” with Eric
Henry on Friday morning – this session alone will
justify conference attendance many times over!

Quality evening events planned with transportation provided

Friday afternoon outings included
Meeting February in Newport Beach will be a great
way to start the year! The meeting dates fall two
weeks before Presidents Day and six weeks before
the mid-March 2015 NAA mediaXchange in Nashville. And, the timing is too early for spring break to
be a factor for anyone.

Conference fee still only at $525 per member
rep (includes all events and meals, etc.)

Nonmember conference fee lowered to $525 for
first nonmember from each qualified newspaper;
others from the same qualified newspaper $675
each (includes all events and meals, etc.)
A great conference location, key advertising and
business speakers, newspaper sessions, peer networking, excellent vendor participation and quality
events all will contribute to a first-class experience
for everyone.

Professionally staffed A/V office in the hotel,
providing a complete range of presentation services, skilled technicians, state-of-the-art
equipment
If you’re still on the fence, jump now, register by
Friday 1/16 and join us in sunny Orange County!
You’ll be glad you did! Registration and other details are on the NTMC “Conferences” page. 
From: Rod McLain [[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 8:27 PM
Subject: RE: IMPORTANT message from NTMC President Rod McLain ** DEADLINE NEXT
WEEK ** 2015 NTMC Conference Presenting CIPS Marketing Group
Importance: High
All NTMC Member Newspaper and Corporate Reps,
Happy New Year! The NTMC Board and Committees have developed an outstanding conference,
February 4-6 in Newport Beach – but, if you want to attend and haven’t registered for the conference or reserved your hotel room, PLEASE ACT NOW before our room block is SOLD OUT!
The DEADLINE for registration and hotel reservations is next FRIDAY 1/16/15!
The REGISTRATION FORM IS ATTACHED with all the information you need to REGISTER to attend the conference and RESERVE your room. Additional information is also posted on our website
“Conferences” page.
The 2015 NTMC CONFERENCE has important advertising speakers, business segments, great venues and events! We will be based at the Fairmont Newport Beach, a FIRST-CLASS FACILITY providing excellent VALUE.
Your Program Committee has secured presentation commitments from three important ADVERTISING AGENCIES with others to be announced in the next few days:
 ACG Media
 Novus Media
 Valassis Solutions
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And we’ve developed timely BUSINESS SEGMENTS designed to help grow revenue and improve the operating efficiency of newspaper advertising programs:
 Newspaper Challenges and Successes - Rod McLain & Jane Comfort
 2014 Preprint Survey discussion - Keith Gilpin
 NAA Update and HASS Study - Rich Schiekofer
 MediaWorks - Account Successes - Susan Jacobs
 Maximizing Local Revenue - Jim Hart
 Successful Contract Negotiation Skills - Eric Henry
We are also grateful for the terrific SPONSOR SUPPORT this year, beginning with our three-peat
“Presenting” sponsor - CIPS Marketing Group - as well as 10 other important newspaper partners:

“Presenting” sponsor:
o CIPS Marketing Group
 “Distinguished” sponsors:
o American Circulation Innovations
o NewsNotes Advertising
o Doodad
o Ultimate PrintSource

“Supporting” sponsors:
o Preferred Marketing Solutions
o PCF
o Tactician Media
o Data-Dynamix
o Rockledge Software
o Marketing Solutions Group
We have terrific EVENTS PLANNED each night, including an Ice-Breaker reception on Tuesday as
well as a relaxing reception and dinner Wednesday night in the Fairmont's Orchid Terrace. And
we’ll motor down to The Cannery, Thursday night, to enjoy our reception and dinner on Newport
Bay!
Plan to take a later flight on Friday and enjoy an afternoon of GOLF or the LAGUNA BEACH
LUNCH AND TOUR, included at no extra cost.
But the icing on the cake is YOU! While our speakers deliver a wealth of information, MEMBER
INTERACTION and SHARING IDEAS are what make the NTMC Conference UNIQUE AND INVALUABLE!
Great speakers, timely business segments, member networking, vendor interaction, outstanding
facilities and events, and WARM WEATHER! The only thing we may be missing is YOU…! Thank
you if you’ve already registered. If not, we welcome you to join us and help make this the BEST
CONFERENCE EVER!
HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON IN NEWPORT BEACH!
Rod McLain
PRESIDENT, Newspaper Target Marketing Coalition
Direct Marketing Manager, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/McClatchy
817-390-7392 [email protected]
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WEDNESDAY: PREPRINT SURVEY
On Wednesday, Keith Gilpin, former NTMC Board member and now an independent media consultant, will lead a
discussion of the key findings from the extensive member survey conducted this past fall. What percent of member
TMC deliveries are being made by the USPS? How high are TMC penetrations now and how much smaller have
TMC display zones become? What percent of TMC deliveries are now being made by third-party alternate delivery
companies? How much has the number of Select deliveries increased recently? What’s happened with Select penetration and jacket page-counts? How has program auditing changed for TMC and Select programs?
These and other program aspects will be discussed in this revealing session!  
FRIDAY: NEGOTIATION SKILLS
These sessions with Eric Henry will introduce participants to the proven best practices of negotiation. Participants
will learn tools developed at The Harvard Negotiation Project and refined in practice across a range of communities
and industries. The interactive sessions will explore the “Seven Elements” interest-based negotiation model through
exercises, case studies, role plays, discussions, and teaching pieces.
Participants will learn the essentials of negotiation practice. As a result, they will be able to strategically prepare for
negotiations, apply new tools for effective engagement at the negotiation table, and create better deals and stronger
relationships. This opportunity alone justifies NTMC Conference participation this year – don’t miss out! 
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REGISTRATION CONFIRMATION
AND THE FRIDAY OUTINGS
Everyone who registers to attend the 2015 NTMC Conference will receive a Registration Confirmation email to
verify attendee details, shortly after the 1/16/15 registration deadline. More details on both the Golf Outing and
the Laguna Beach Outing will be included in the Registration Confirmation. The Friday Outings are included
with registration at no additional cost and the confirmation will ask attendees if they would like to participate.
Transportation for the outings will be provided, but participants who plan to travel Friday night should plan for
flights departing no earlier than 7pm. 

NEW NTMC VP AND SECRETARY;
AND BOARD ELECTIONS
Serving the NTMC as Vice-President since 2011, Duff Heyl had to step down due to a broadened set of responsibilities at the Arizona Republic. After careful consideration, Rod McLain asked Adam Bush, Pittsburgh PostGazette, to serve out Duff’s remaining term through 2015, and he accepted. Harry Jackson, Baltimore Sun, also
agreed to step up to NTMC Board Secretary this month.
Four Board of Directors seats will be open this year for election at the 2015 Conference: Treasurer, Secretary and
two At-Large. These are each two-year terms and nominations will be accepted from member newspaper reps
before the conference.
The elections will be held at the conference newspaper session Friday morning after final nominations are accepted from the floor. Each candidate will be given the opportunity to make a brief statement and then each member
newspaper will submit a secret ballot with their choices. The votes will be tallied and the new Board members
will be announced before the conference adjourns on Friday.
Please look for the nomination “survey” in the next few days and step up or nominate others you know would
make good leaders for our association and industry. 
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SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION:
WHEN IT COMES TO MEDIA, NOT EVERYTHING
THAT COUNTS CAN BE COUNTED
~~ by Mathew Ingram, Gigaom, Jan. 6, 2015 ~~
“We literally say one company or service is
bigger based on a single number —
specifically, number of people who have used
it in the last 30 days. Even without even getting into how use is defined, this is dumb.”
Pictures vs. tweets
Credit: Thinkstock /
Sergey Nivens
One of the great ironies of the online media
business is that there are more ways to measure reader activity than there have probably
ever been in the history of human communication — pageviews, unique visitors, time
spent, clickthroughs, etc. — but no one can
seem to agree on which measure accurately
reflects the value that content creates. It’s like
quantum mechanics: Our tools have never
been better, but the thing we are trying to
measure still slips from our grasp.
A sense of frustration at this state of affairs seeps out of a recent post by Evan Williams, the former co-founder and CEO of
Twitter and founder of Medium, the site that
is part content platform and part traditional
publisher (something he also recently posted
some thoughts about, after some criticism
from Pando Daily’s Sarah Lacy). The industry still seems obsessed with large numbers
such as pageviews or unique visitors, he says,
but this results in sites and services that are “a
mile wide and an inch deep.”
This is particularly obvious when comparing
services like Twitter and Instagram, says Williams, returning to the scene of an earlier argument. As he put it in his original comment
to Fortune, Twitter is “what we wanted it to
be. It’s this realtime information network…
important stuff breaks on Twitter and world
leaders have conversations on Twitter. If
that’s happening, I frankly don’t give a shit if
Instagram has more people looking at pretty
pictures.”
His point, Williams says, isn’t that Instagram
is somehow less valuable because it involves
pictures, but that the two services are trying to
do completely different things, and so measuring them with the same blunt instrument —
whether it’s called unique visitors or monthly
average users — tells you virtually nothing of
any value about their likelihood of success.
Even replacing those kinds of crude measurements with something like time spent
probably doesn’t help with services like Twitter, Williams notes, since it is somewhat similar to Google, in that part of what it does is
link to things, and thereby send people elsewhere. How does one measure the value of
that?
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Winter 2015
“Twitter is as much utility as media and part
of its benefit is being incredibly concise —
plus, a lot of its purpose, like Google, is to
point people off to other places. So optimizing
for time spent probably wouldn’t make
sense.”
When it comes to sites like Medium, however, looking at time spent gets closer to what
they are trying to achieve, Williams says —
so the site looks at a metric it calls “total time
reading,” which is similar to what Chartbeat terms “total engaged time” and Upworthy refers to as “attention minutes.”
These metrics are an attempt to discover real
engaged users, as opposed to the drive-by
click traffic that is never going to return.
Time spent vs. clicks
In Medium’s case, for example, a recent post
that went viral on Facebook drove traffic
numbers through the roof: “By number of
unique visitors to medium.com, we blew it out
of the park,” says Williams, “but the vast majority of those visitors stayed a fraction of
what our average visitor stays, and they read
hardly anything.” And so the company was
much happier with a week in October when
the unique visitor count was 40 percent lower,
but time spent was 50 percent higher.
Although he touches on it somewhat —
where he notes that Wall Street continues to
value companies based on outdated metrics
like monthly average user — the Medium
founder doesn’t really grapple with the underlying cause of the media’s obsession with
pageviews or unique visitors: namely, the fact
that the advertising industry continues to focus on those raw numbers, regardless of
whether they actually denote anything of value, because the ad industry is arguably even
page 10
more backward than the media.
There are signs of hope here and there, with
Chartbeat pushing the time-spent measurement and being accredited to do so for advertising (which will make the metric more appealing for both publishers and advertisers)
and certain publications like the Financial
Times and The Economist convincing ad
agencies to go with time-spent measurement
instead of raw visitors. But it’s going to take
more than that to shift the industry towards
measuring actual engagement rather than the
equivalent of window-shopping or foot traffic.
The biggest problem is that there is no single
“God metric,” as BuzzFeed founder Jonah
Peretti put it in a recent interview — no overarching measurement that both describes value and is easy for advertisers to understand. It
changes depending on what the content is and
what the goal is. As sociologist William
Cameron put it: “Not everything that can be
counted counts, and not everything that
counts can be counted.” That may be hard for
advertisers and publishers to accept, but it’s
true. 
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NTMC PUBLISHING GROUP MEMBERS
The NTMC Corporate Membership program was launched in 2012 to involve more key decision makers in the
group while also making available lower annual renewal costs for all member newspapers.
Corporate memberships make it less expensive for larger publishing groups to add other non-member newspapers
in their groups to the NTMC while also lowering annual renewal costs for all newspapers already in the group.
Publishing groups that have joined the NTMC are now posted on the NTMC “Publishers” website page where
there is more information about them and the program.
Thanks to all our NTMC Corporate Members: A. H. Belo, Advance Publications, Berkshire Hathaway, Block
Communications, Cablevision, Cox Media, Digital First Media, Dispatch Media Company, E. W. Scripps, Freedom
Communications, Gannett, John W. Henry & Co., Journal Communications, Landmark Media Enterprises, Lee Enterprises, McClatchy, MLIM Holdings, Morris Publishing Group, Mortimer Zuckerman, Nash Holdings, Philadelphia Media Network, Seattle Times Company, Star Tribune Company, Stephens Media Group, Sun-Times Media
Group and Tribune Company
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TRANSITIONS:
COMMITTEES:
Alison Laffe is now Director of Advertising at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and
plans to attend the 2015 NTMC Conference.
Each NTMC committee includes newspaper reps that help the
association function effectively. Each committee has online
meetings each month to review work and set goals. If you
would like to be more involved and feel you could help, please
contact any committee member.
Allison Altobelli is now Advertising Financial Operations Director at the Philadelphia Inquirer and plans to attend the
2015 NTMC Conference.
Deborah “Frankie” Ulrich and Lisa
Szal both left the Orange County Register
in November due to staff cutbacks there.
Gregg Dittoe, a direct marketing innovator who created the ADVO National Network Extension program, served as Managing Director of Advertising at The Los
Angeles Times and operated National
Print Partners in Scottsdale, Arizona, the
past several years, passed away in late
December.
Jason Semrad has left the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel.
Sarah Lovell has left the Virginian-Pilot.
Communications:
 Harry Jackson: 410-332-6321/[email protected]
 Duff Heyl: 602-444-4586/[email protected]
 Keith Gilpin: 949-554-8929/[email protected]
Finance:
 Jane Comfort: 904-359-4036/[email protected]
 Rod McLain: 817-390-7392/[email protected]
Membership:
 Adam Bush: 412-263-1384/[email protected]
 Joseph Jahns: 213-237-2345/[email protected]
 David Kiehle: 313-222-2356/ [email protected]
Program:





Rod McLain: 817-390-7392/[email protected]
Jane Comfort: 904-359-4036/[email protected]
Camille Stinton: 860-241-3181/[email protected]
Rita Jurczyk: 619-293-1424/[email protected]
Sindy Speelman: 212-210-1970/[email protected]
Editor’s note...
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those
who hustle!” -Abraham Lincoln
If you hustle now you can still get this year off to a great start and make it to the 2015 NTMC
Conference in Newport Beach with others who have already signed up! And as Rod
McLain’s email above on page 3 stated, “The only thing we may be missing is YOU…!”
It’s going to be a great conference but won’t be as good as it could be without you – and you
won’t really have any idea what you missed! Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Don’t wait
and be left behind by others in the group who realize the value of an honest “hustle”!
See you soon I hope!
Philip Brown
DIRECTOR, NTMC
[email protected]
202-386-6357
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NEWSPAPER MEMBERSHIP
Membership in the NTMC is available to newspapers with Sunday circulation of 150,000 or a combined circulation of
300,000 including TMC. A complete list of current NTMC Member Newspapers appears below. Other newspapers
qualified for NTMC Membership are linked on our website “Membership” page. We welcome reps from these and
other newspapers to participate at our annual meeting February 4-6 in Newport Beach.
AFFILIATE MEMBERSHIP
American Circulation Innovations renewed their NTMC membership this quarter. Along with our other affiliate
members, they enjoy many member benefits including the ads you see in our newsletters, first option on conference
sponsorships at discounted rates, up to four conference participants without additional expense, their logo and link
posted on the NTMC website “Affiliates” page, and they are included on and have access to the complete NTMC
member list. If you are working with a company you think would benefit by partnering with the NTMC, please ask
them to contact Philip Brown.
“Share, Understand, Deliver!”
BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
PRESIDENT & PROGRAM CHAIR
VP & MEMBERSHIP CHAIR
TREASURER & FINANCE CHAIR
SECRETARY & COMMUNICATIONS CHAIR
AT-LARGE
AT-LARGE
AT-LARGE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
ROD MCLAIN
ADAM BUSH
JANE COMFORT
HARRY JACKSON
CAMILLE STINTON
RITA JURCZYK
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
FLORIDA TIMES-UNION
BALTIMORE SUN
HARTFORD COURANT
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
OPEN
PHILIP BROWN
NTMC
MEMBER NEWSPAPERS:
The Arizona Republic, Atlanta Journal -Constitution, Austin American -Statesman, Baltimore Sun,
Birmingham News, Boston Globe, Buffalo News, Chicago Sun -Times,
Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, Dallas Morning News,
Detroit News & Free Press, Florida Times-Union, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Grand Rapids Press,
Hartford Courant, Kansas City Star, Las Vegas Review -Journal, Long Island Newsday,
Los Angeles Times, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Miami Herald, Milwaukee Journal -Sentinel,
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, New Jersey Star-Ledger, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel,
Orange County Register, Palm Beach Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post -Gazette,
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Portland Oregonian, Sacramento Bee, San Diego Union-Tribune,
San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Times, South Florida Sun -Sentinel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
The Virginian-Pilot and Washington Post
(January, 2015)
For more information about the NTMC or to inquire about membership and future events please contact:
[email protected]  202.386.6357  NewspaperTMC.org 