20 Under 40 - 2001 Profile: Laura L. Hollingsworth

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: November 2001

Laura L. Hollingsworth recently sat on a Gannett committee that pondered how to get young people to read newspapers and came up with a lively classified section to hook them. The "cool product really worked" for the 70,559-circulation Lansing (Mich.) State Journal and has since been syndicated so other publishers can offer the same format.

In a long list of accomplishments, the State Journal's Ad Director Hollingsworth says that studying long-term readership trends and coming up with different approaches to reach younger readers were the most rewarding. In its first year, the redesigned classified section generated 30 percent growth in merchandise sales and improved section readership by 8 percent.

Publisher Michael G. Kane also credits her with helping to develop automated programs using laptops to improve sales performance in areas such as display and employment ads, developing partnerships with community groups, leading a quality-control program, restructuring ad-operations teams, and recruiting "the best" sales people.

"She is committed to results and excellence, and extends those qualities in everything she does," Kane writes.

"We're in a competitive situation," she admits, one that "requires us to be creative in our strategies." For example, she points to a recent campaign that brought in a grocer, Farmer Jack's, who had defected to direct mail. By combining innovative newspaper ads with other media, the team brought the A&P subsidiary back.

"Even in these challenging economic times," she says, "we've recruited and trained a staff of great people so we can sit in a position of force where we can be strategic and creative and innovative."

Education: 1989, B.A., communications, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.
Career: 1989-94, retail sales executive, retail sales supervisor, assistant retail advertising manager, Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette; 1994-97, retail advertising manager, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.; 1997-99, retail advertising manager, Rockford (Ill.) Register Star; 1999-present, advertising director, Lansing (Mich.) State Journal.
Personal: Age, 34. Born, Chicago. Married, husband John, one daughter.
Diversions: Time with family, working on her house, reading and traveling, "day tripping."
Connections: Lansing State Journal, 120 E. Lenawee St., Lansing, Mich. 48919, (517) 377-1120, lholling@lansing.gannett.com.