20 Under 40 - 1997 Profile: Jeffrey A. Mollway, Copley Chicago Newspapers

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 1997

Not your typical research mole: That's how colleagues at Copley Chicago Newspapers describe Jeffrey A. Mollway, research and database marketing manager.

Mollway laughs and says he's flattered, not offended, by that characterization. Marketing Director Randy Chapman, explains: "I've worked with researchers who sit at computers and don't come out in the daylight to see how the data is applied in the field. Jeff not only interprets data, he makes everyone understand it. He goes into the editorial department without fear and suggests in his most charming way that reporters ought to consider for whom they are writing their stories.

Mollway, whose grandfather, Alfred, was an Associated Press reporter and whose father, Paul, is director of operations for the Gannett Co.'s Rockford (Ill.) Register Star, admits that shaking up the journalistic status quo through research isn't always easy. Editors tend to "sit in a closed room and think that everyone in the market is just like us and wants to read what we want to read," Mollway says.

Instead, Mollway and his staff use tools like the Prizm lifestyle segmentation system from Claritas in San Diego to profile readers in suburban Chicago neighborhoods and fashion four weekly newspapers that play to their interests. So far, the strategy works.

The first weekly, called 60504 after the ZIP code it covers, wasn't expected to make money until 1999; the first edition in May 1996 hit that target, he says. Three subsequent weeklies, wrapped around school districts rather than ZIP codes, posted even greater profits in their first year.

"Ten years ago, technology led who would be king of the block," Mollway says. "Today, information about markets and customers is the leading edge. Most [publishers] have enough toys on the equipment side to produce a newspaper. Now they need to know how to target and talk to people in a relevant manner."