Promotional Spotlight: The Tribune-Democrat’s We Reach 82% Campaign

Promotional Spotlight: The Tribune-Democrat’s We Reach 82% Campaign

We need to get our swagger back!

Our industry has taken some serious hits lately. Discussions of diminishing home circulation numbers hit the news feeds every day as some newspaper companies explain the need for strong action.

So, in today’s world, that means cost cuts, for some of our peers. But why are we doing that?

In most operations, our audience is larger than it has ever been. When you add together our websites, our average daily newspaper, and our other products, it becomes very evident that we are still the main source for local news, weather, sports, and political coverage. In fact, if you look at the numbers of today, we could challenge that we have more people reading our paper than ever before.

How can we make that claim? Let’s look at the numbers:

  1. On any given day, we deliver an average of 22,202 papers to the community in the greater Johnstown area. According to the latest PNA study, we average approximately 2 readers per paper. (22,202×2= 44,404 readers)
  2. We deliver a free newspaper to homes that do not subscribe to us on a weekly basis. That number is 60,330 readers since we are only taking credit for one reader per paper.
  3. According to our Google Analytics report, we have more than 300,000 Unique Users on a monthly basis, but we have 88,004 users that are from our core market. We claim half of those as Unique Users who do not subscribe to our print or digital edition, so that we do not count someone twice who might be reading it in print and online.
  4. We measure these numbers against the population of our distribution area by looking at the most recent population numbers on USCensus.gov. This would give us a total population of 179,870 in our distribution area which extends beyond the borders of Johnstown.

To make this usable by our sales team, we just follow the math next:

  • 44,404 readers of our print edition
  • 60,330 readers of our free paper
  • 44,002 Unique Users in our distribution area
  • Total readership of all three products – 148,736
  • Divide that number by the total population of our distribution area – 179,870
  • Our market penetration number is 82%. (actually 82.69%, but why be greedy?)

So, with a number like that, what should you do about it? Brag.

We would be happy to help anyone who would like to discuss this promotion or our numbers. You can also see our math at tribdem.com/82.

Let’s take pride in our audience and stop defending our numbers like we should be ashamed. No other local news source can do what we do.

Rob Forcey is the Publisher of The Tribune Democrat in Johnstown, PA and the Times-News in Cumberland, MD. He can be reached at 814-532-5111.