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The Goal

The objective of the Sacramento Bee, located in Sacramento, Calif. (295,921; 352,861) was to successfully reduce stops and subscriber churn and allow new acquisition activities to produce more incremental circulation growth. 

The Story

“The Bee’s Press Club is a member benefits and services program designed to provide added value to readers who are subscribers," said Strategic Planning/Circulation Marketing Manager Mark Montgomery. "As a Press Club member, our readers are no longer subscribers but rather members who receive benefits and services that are provided in addition to their subscription service.  By bringing more value to being a subscriber the subscribers’ choice to renew becomes more likely, leading to fewer permanent stops and reduced churn,” said Montgomery.

Press Club benefits include early online access to classifieds and weekend entertainment sections, easy-to-use customer service functions, free archive service, discounted event tickets and free Bee photography and screensavers.

To become a Press Club member subscribers register online, where they access many of the member benefits, including printable Press Club coupons and online subscription management.  By having members register online The Bee hoped to increase online viewers and gain new subscriber information that would allow for better customer communication, tailored benefits and better subscriber affinity.

The results: In the first two months of the program the total membership increased to 3,000 members. As of July 2005, membership had reached 49,000, just short of the 50,000-membership target, which will represent 20 percent of The Bee’s subscriber base.

The Moral of the Story

By increasing the value of being a subscriber, you retain more customers in the long run.