CUSTOMER SERVICE:
THIS IS GOING TO BE BIG

Wednesday’s first post-press session was called "Listening and Responding to Our Customers." Accordingly, the session’s first speaker was a customer, Anthony M. Gasparro, vice president of advertising for The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc. of Montvale, N.J.

As the top ad buyer for a $10.2 billion supermarket chain, Gasparro does a lot of research and thinking about where best to spend his ad dollars. Thankfully, much of that money currently goes into newspapers.

"Inserts represent 25 percent of total store sales," said Gasparro. "Readership of our 5 million inserts has never been higher."

Which is not to say that newspapers can’t do a better job or shouldn’t be worrying about the future.

"You must version not only geographically, but also demographically," Gasparro said. Also, "you have to figure out address-specific delivery. There is a tremendous amount of money going to direct mail because of your inability to do this."

Gasparro also would like newspapers to:

o Provide accurate breakouts of ZIP code circulation

o Demonstrate some ability to understand neighborhood circulation

o Improve insert deadlines

o Provide readership (as opposed to circulation) information

o Brainstorm ideas with supermarket ad buyers

o Learn more about his industry.

Gasparro then dazzled the audience with a review of how technology is changing his industry. "Smart" shopping carts, using frequent-shopper data, provide targeted purchasing information to customers as they shop. Supermarkets now transmit circulars to customers’ homes via the Internet, and customers can download complete shopping lists. And, as William Shatner pointed out in a brief video interlude, customers now can name their own price for groceries via priceline.com.

"This is going to be big -- really big," said Shatner, leaving the audience to wonder how big newspaper advertising will be in the future.

The next speaker described a program that he said will answer many of Gasparro’s concerns. Toland (Toby) Barfield Jr., vice president and director of sales and marketing for The Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C., described himself as a "passionate supporter" of NAA’s Quality Improvement Program.

"This is one of the best programs done by NAA in the post-press area," he said. "A few of you may be a little scared of it. A few of you should be."

Why? Because QIP certifies a newspaper’s ability to comply with minimum standards for distribution capabilities. Even so, Barfield said that QIP demands "absolutely nothing unreasonable," and "becoming QIP certified is painless."

Barfield said The Herald-Sun is one of only four newspapers to submit themselves to QIP certification, and he expects to be certified soon. He asked the post-press managers in the audience to follow his example because, he said, "If you don’t provide these minimum services, you could cost me business."

Next up was Tommie Anne McLeod, circulation director for the St. Petersburg Times, representing the packaging department’s other major customer -- circulation. McLeod described what she called "age-old issues" and "the big easies" of what circulation wants from the mailroom: consistent product flow, better communication, product integrity, quality, and on-time starts and finishes.

Noting that the Japanese word for waste is "muda," McLeod told of how a cross-functional team at her newspaper improved delivery times by going on "muda walks" around the plant. The purpose was to find and eliminate factors that wasted time. The result? A 28 percent improvement in delivering papers early to customers.

Consultant Mark Roggen completed the session by asking the age-old question, "What do advertisers want?" His list:

o A well-defined and profiled market

o Good penetration

o Cost-effective pricing

o Ad sales targeted to specific ZIP codes and polygons when required

o On-time delivery to subscriber homes and points of sale

o Quality (dry, complete and intact) newspapers.

Roggen addressed how newspapers can satisfy these needs by providing yet another list:

o Establish a standardized hierarchy of ad zones with cost-effective ad pricing

o Assure accurate zoned distribution through alignment of delivery districts and routes with ad zones and ZIP codes

o Facilitate assembly of multi-part newspapers in the mailroom and in the field

o Find space for standing preprints and advanced sections without double handling.

Roggen concluded by stating that "effective assembly and microzoning of large multi-part newspapers in metro markets today still requires distribution centers."

-Clark Robinson