Case Studies
The Sacramento Bee Uses Audience-FAX to Build Better Picture of its Reach
Founded in 2007, Audience-FAX is a U.S. daily newspaper audience-reporting initiative that integrates circulation, print readership and online audience data on ABC reports. More than 200 newspapers participated in the inaugural release. The next release is scheduled for April 28, 2008.
Situation
On February 3, 2007, the McClatchy Company and The Sacramento Bee celebrated their 150th year anniversary. The goal of its first edition, published on February 3, 1857, was to produce a newspaper that served the needs of its community without becoming subservient to the whims of public opinion or the pressure of the powerful. The Bee has thrived for more than five generations of family ownership. Today, McClatchy’s success is evident in its distribution of over 3.2 million papers each day. The Bee is the flagship of the 30 daily and almost 50 non-daily newspapers owned by the McClatchy Company.
The Bee’s circulation covers approximately 12,000 square miles: south to Stockton Calif., north to the Oregon border, east to Reno, NV and west to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Issue
In 2007, The Bee underwent an important transition. It converted its circulation group to an audience-development and membership services division to position the paper as a multiplatform media company. As The Bee’s leadership team began to look at its market from this very different perspective, it sought new ways to communicate to its advertisers about The Bee’s ability to reach audiences in multiple ways.
Solution
The Bee needed ways to inform advertisers about its total audience reach in both print and online. ABC’s Audience-FAX provides advertisers with just that.
Results
ABC’s Audience-FAX created a better picture of The Bee’s audience reach to present to its advertisers. Buyers have embraced Audience-FAX and are confident knowing the data comes from ABC.
Audience-FAX Shows Total Audience of Print and Online
“We looked at the fact that we have the leading Web site, print product and direct mail product in the market,” said Dan Schaub, senior vice president of audience development and membership services at The Sacramento Bee. “Audience-FAX helped us tell our advertisers about the capabilities of our company and what’s under our umbrella in total. This [Audience-FAX] is one step of many that has to happen in the upcoming year to begin to show what the newspaper has to bring to the table as a whole. For the first time we’re really seeing a different way to report on the reach of our print and online products. It’s broadening the view particularly for those who look from outside the market and want to understand the market. It’s opened a whole new door for them.”
Steve Bernard, senior vice president of advertising of The Sacramento Bee, agrees.
“Advertisers are now beginning to understand the value of the total audience rather than just copies of newspapers distributed to their doorstep,” he said.
Audience-FAX Shows Advertisers a Bigger Picture
Audience-FAX details the reach of newspapers in print and online.
“There’s no better way to reach an audience in any market than to go to your newspaper,” said Schaub. “Putting the duplicated and unduplicated together allows you to get a picture of both markets and target a campaign you know will serve an advertiser.”
Bernard described how The Bee uses Audience-FAX as part of its marketing campaign.
"We use the cover sheet of the ABC's Publishers' Statement because it shows what the audience is in total," said Bernard. "From a marketing standpoint, we utilize it in all our presentations as an educational tool as well as an overview of our total penetration in the marketplace. We utilize the total audience measurement in each presentation in order to give our customers a true reflection and value of what they receive. It is a key tool and the advertisers are willing to embrace it and use it."
Bernard added that now The Bee can legitimately compare its audience against its competitors’ audiences by looking at total readership and viewership of products versus just circulation numbers.
"We use the cover sheet of the ABC's Publishers' Statement because it shows what the audience is in total. From a marketing standpoint, we utilize it in all our presentations as an educational tool as well as an overview of our total penetration in the marketplace. We utilize the total audience measurement in each presentation in order to give our customers a true reflection and value of what they receive. It is a key tool and the advertisers are willing to embrace it and use it."
Steve Bernard
senior vice president of advertising
The Sacramento Bee
The Value of ABC and Staying Competitive in the Marketplace
Bernard stressed the importance of having the credibility and force of ABC behind Audience-FAX.
“It [Audience-FAX] wouldn’t be embraced and considered nearly as much if ABC wasn’t leading the charge,” said Bernard. “Most of our advertisers want to be assured and comfortable that the measurement of print and online readers is done with the greatest of accuracy.”
Bernard added that advertisers are asking about research methodology and sources. “They become comfortable with the quality of the numbers and the penetration into the marketplace once they find out it is ABC and Scarborough-backed.”
Audience-FAX an Industry Standard
Newspapers have sold solely based on circulation numbers for many years. Audience-FAX expands the picture of audience reach by incorporating circulation, print and online readership, net combined audience and total Web site usage data on ABC media reports.
“It’s critical that publishers now understand that there’s more value for them and their advertisers to combine the audience impact of these electronic and paper products together,” said Bernard.
Schaub foresees others joining Audience-FAX once they see the momentum. “Advertisers will begin to use it for buying and newspapers will begin to use it to better talk about the audience they’re serving,” he said.
Bernard noted that Audience-FAX is critically important to the entire industry. “We need a stand that all of our customers and all of our agencies can rally around that shows the true measurement of our impact in the marketplace versus the traditional radio, TV, or even Internet by itself,” he said. “The retail segment of our customers can use that as our real benchmark to see what impact they can make into the marketplace with our multiple products.”
For more information about Audience-FAX, please fill out the online information request form or contact ABC’s manager, marketing and sales, at (847) 879-8321.