Promotional Spotlight Special Edition: Pocono Record

Pocono Record joins fellow Gannett papers to launch Rebuilding America campaign

On May 31, 2020, the Pocono Record was one of 260 daily papers in the Gannett newspaper family to launch the Rebuilding America campaign. The initiative was developed to cover and support communities across the nation as they reopen in the “new normal” following several months of lockdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the Pocono Record, advertising director Stephanie Fairbanks saw the program as an incredible opportunity to involve businesses across the region in the reopening celebration. Fairbanks said that she and her team were able to offer deep discounts on advertising packages for the program, which afforded many businesses in the area the ability to have a strong presence in the publication, including those that might not have been otherwise able to.

The Rebuilding America program wasn’t a special section, but rather an overall theme for the publication’s Sunday edition and online content thereafter. “The corporate Gannett team provided us with an illustration for the front page, which provided a unified look for all the papers in the group,” said Fairbanks. “From there the content within the publication was unique to our local stories and businesses.” Fairbanks explained that local editorials were written on 12 business categories, and businesses involved in those categories were then given a sponsorship option for the corresponding content in addition to the regular advertising opportunities. Fairbanks cited examples of such sponsorships: the local chamber of commerce sponsored the content on restaurants and St. Luke’s Hospital sponsored the story on the local healthcare industry.

The program has been a great success for the Record thus far, with more than $11,000 in ad revenue to date coming from an array of business types including those that had remained open during the pandemic-related shutdown and those that were just beginning to reopen at the time of the start of the program. Fairbanks said the May 31 edition of the paper was 46 pages, nearly doubling the size of the regular Sunday edition. Additionally, the ad packages offered with the Rebuilding America program included online ads and online editorial sponsorships, which bolstered business visibility and the overall look and feel of the publication’s online presence. Fairbanks is optimistic as the team moves forward in the second phase of the campaign, which continues the push for sponsored editorial content to showcase news in the community while maintaining valuable sponsorship opportunities for local businesses.

“It’s cliché to say we all are in this together, but clichés become clichés because a measure of truth is associated with them,” said Fairbanks. “This is our community. We are better working together than working apart.”

For additional information, contact Stephanie Fairbanks at 570-460-0316 or sfairbanks@poconorecord.com.

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