Gannett Trains The News Journal as Lead Test Paper for all its IVS Audits

Situation

Gannett opened its newsroom doors in 1906 and since has expanded to become the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., with a combined daily paid circulation of approximately 7.2 million for U.S. daily newspapers. In the U.S., Gannett publishes 85 daily newspapers, including USA TODAY, and nearly 1,000 non-daily publications.

“An important step in this process that was very helpful was the IVS Audit Timeline good work that NAA did in quantifying the best practices of newspapers,” said Althaus. “IVS has been a real measurement tool of how the best practices that were put together at least a year prior can be put into practice. This is beneficial to all newspapers across the country. Ideally, IVS becomes the measurement tool that shows that standards are being complied with and that newspapers take this very seriously.”

Realizing that accuracy of insert delivery is critical to its customer’s satisfaction, Gannett enrolled 22 of its largest newspapers in IVS as a way of showing advertisers that they are getting the most for their ad dollars and that their pre-print ads are reaching the right people.

Althaus noted that the success of the audit involved the collaboration of all departments from the clerical input through the truck loading. “Everybody had a vested interest [in the audit] and when they all saw how the process all tied together it was kind of enlightening to the whole group. I think they took a lot of pride in making sure it was done right.”

“It’s important that all departments are aware of the upcoming audit,” said Michael Kane, vice president of circulation, The News Journal. “Eight weeks before the actual audit we started alerting everyone on what was going to happen and then started our own in-house testing.”

IVS is a quantitative review and audit of a newspaper’s advertising insert distribution process on a specific date. Each report includes a “Total Insert Proficiency” calculation that reflects the newspaper’s insert distribution performance. This is represented as an overall success percentage indicating the volume of inserts reaching the intended newspaper recipients.

Typical proficiency rates for completed IVS audits range from 97.2 percent to 99.9 percent. The News Journal received a rating of 99.8 percent and plans to use this in its future advertising campaigns.

“We really take a lot of pride in the results we deliver to the advertisers, said Kane. “The ABC stamp validates that. We never had anything to validate our process and accuracy. These figures showed that we indeed deliver an exceptional number.”

Kane recalled receiving low scores for some samplings, but looked at this as a learning experience and vehicle to improve. “This allows us to trace back to the machines, operator or training issue he said. “IVS is a continual educational and learning process for us.”

Kane summed up his experience with the ABC auditing team as “cooperative to our needs and very sensitive to our operation.”

For more information on IVS, contact ABC’s manager, sales and marketing at (847) 879-8412.