Journal Times Success Story

Journal Times Pumps Up its Circulation
The Situation
The Solution
U.S. newspapers have struggled with declining
The publisher hired Corporate Images to help re-
subscribers for the past three decades. Subscribers
establish a clear, strong brand in Racine for the most
tend to be older and have an established daily
local news coverage in the county. Johnston quickly set
newspaper habit, while younger (light) readers
to work to establish on-time daily delivery and a myriad
may read only one newspaper a week.
of other improvements in all departments, especially
customer service. He said he hired Corporate Images “to
The Journal Times of Racine, Wisconsin was
struggling to hold its circulation of about
26,000. This 150-year-old community institution
make it easier to maintain the discipline and consistency
required to build a strong brand awareness in the
market.”
gives advertisers the most audience in both
Reporter print ad
frequency and reach of any local medium in Racine.
Corporate Images quickly developed an integrated
approach to stopping or actually reversing the
But advertisers were growing restless. Circulation was
dropping quickly. Subscribers quit in large numbers due
to late or missed deliveries, rumors of high employee
turnover and poor customer communication. Growing
For the first
time in 11 years,
circulation is up
community criticism of the news reporting gripped the
paper. The brand was clearly declining so alarmed
owners, Lee Enterprises, named Richard Johnston as the
Images helped
build the gains.
subscribers to re-subscribe and reduce the turnover. To
achieve that, the main marketing objective became
establishing a branding environment that made it
virtually impossible for anybody to move within Racine’s
city zone without becoming positively conscious of The
Journal Times.
new publisher to bring the paper back to prominence.
over the year
before. Corporate
circulation decline. The business goal was to get
To win back subscribers, Executive Editor Randy Brandt
As Johnston stepped in, the paper’s remaining
subscribers were wooed by a competitor in their own
backyard, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which
created a new weekly section devoted completely to
coordinated the brand building from inside, aiming for
“ubiquity on the streets.” “Ubiquity means when you’re
out of range of one message, you’re immediately in the
range of another,” claimed Brandt.
Racine county
coverage for its
highly-read Sunday
edition. They made
it appear that The
Journal Times no
longer “owned”
Racine county for
local news.
Reporter billboard
Most important to him was touting his
award-winning reporting staff. The key
message was more in-depth news and
features in Racine county, primarily
because of their high school sports and
local education coverage. Reporters’ faces
began popping up on billboards, buses
Bus board
and in-paper, in an ad campaign that
highlighted their special skills. Almost a
dozen reporters were carefully rotated
around town to make sure everyone became
aware of the depth and breadth of the
editorial staff.
Above: Testimonial print ad
Above Right: Reporter ad
placed on bus exteriors
Below: Bus wrap
(newspaper article)
TV and radio spots repeated this theme. Reporters’
The Results
Ubiquity was achieved. You could not move more than
a few blocks around the city and not see a proactive
brand-builder message regarding The Journal Times.
And as a result, finally after three years of effort,
voice-overs were woven into the spots that discretely
Circulation Manager Michael Rehberg declared that
promoted their abilities, indicating that their skills
circulation was on the rise over the prior year with gains
translated into great stories for readers.
in both Daily and Sunday circulation as measured by
ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation).
Corporate Images completely wrapped a city bus. The bus
drove a different route each day, blanketing the city zone
“For the first time in eleven years, circulation is up over
with more ubiquitous exposure for the paper.
the year before,” said a pleased Rehberg. “It’s an
important achievement in our ability to serve our
After the reporter series built on the “More Local
community with the news coverage they deserve, and
News” theme, readers chimed in with testimonial ads
serve advertisers with the audiences they need to be
stating how much they valued The Journal Times for its
successful,” he added.
local coverage of issues they held near and dear.
These ads were run in-paper.
As a further proof of the quality of the campaigns, The
Journal Times took highest honors for its size at the
To further build ubiquity, Corporate Images
International Newspaper Marketing Association awards
beefed up point-of-sale activities. Clerks were
in Toronto in 2002, both for the series of TV
encouraged to sell The Journal Times with
commercials and for the billboards Corporate Images
coffee at convenience outlets. Window displays
designed. Publisher Johnston declared, “This is huge,”
and new shelf talkers were designed and
regarding the unique status of the awards.
distributed to create more visibility for The
Journal Times. Strong graphics were placed
on vending boxes all over the city zone to
Summary
promote special series that ran in the paper.
A total frontal marketing assault on a crippled
A key part of the re-branding was directed
to employees. Prior to Corporate Images’
brand helped revive The Journal Times and reversed
an 11-year circulation slide.
engagement, branding messages both
Corporate Images designed award winning TV
internal and external were inconsistent
commercials and transit advertising that was
with no clear direction. Corporate Images
recognized internationally for helping put The
communicated all branding messages to
Journal Times circulation back in the black.
staff prior to launch. In addition,
Corporate Images’ directly participated
in many staff improvement activities.
For example, Alan Bagg trained
advertising sales reps and pre-press
production artists on how to create
more impact in the ads they make
for their advertisers.
417 6th Street
Racine, WI 53403
262.633.7772
Fax 262.633.5310
www.corporate-images.com