NEXPO'96 revealed evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, progress toward the post-press department's current El Dorado, address-specific zoning. Robin Shank, special project manager for The Miami Herald, observed, "There has been very little innovation in inserters. The technology is not there to do household-level zoning, and that's a problem for us."
While some equipment suppliers concede Shank's point, others defend current capabilities. Kirk Rudy Inc., Kennesaw, Ga., sells the KR512 inserter with an automatic route-setup system that enables and disables insert stations for each route through a link with the subscription database. The system offers three feeders for single-sheet ads from small advertisers.
In a NEXPO workshop, "Post-Press Packaging and Distribution," Randy R. Seidel, president and CEO of GMA/Muller Martini, Bethlehem, Pa., explained that his firm has developed a small-product feeder that will insert 8 1/2-by-11-inch sheets, or even smaller pieces, at speeds of up to 40,000 copies per hour. Seidel said the feeder works with GMA's SLS2000, now in operation at three sites and on order at more than a dozen others. "Today there is no technological reason why newspapers can't match or exceed the effectiveness of these other media through microzoning a zone of 200 or fewer addresses," Seidel said.
Some vendors say management, not hardware, prevents newspapers from giving advertisers the precision marketing of direct mail or other competitors. They bolster their view by pointing to newspapers that offer microzoning with current equipment.
At the post-press workshop, Bill Burks, metro circulation manager for The Roanoke (Va.) Times, described how his paper tweaked its database and worked with carriers to hammer out Pinpoint Target Marketing. A dedicated, professional force of 220 independent contractors delivers The Roanoke Times, a TMC publication, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, magazines and product samples--and wins awards for accuracy.
Instead of adding automation, The Times involved carriers in setting up routes and identifying best practices for sorting and delivering multiple products.
The quest to save newsprint, and to target advertising, led the Austin American-Statesman to its Pin Point marketing program. Circulation Director Toby Pearson explained that American-Statesman subscribers pay in advance, and 731 adult contractors deliver routes that average 230 homes. In January 1995, as a test, managers asked readers how many wanted the year-end stock review. Only the 5,300 subscribers who called to request it received the annual section. In June, a similar test limited distribution of the Summer Camp Guide to the 4,300 households that ordered it.
The next step was cutting weekend stock agate from the newspaper's full run and offering it only to requesters. In its place, editors added Saturday Personal Technology and Sunday Personal Finance sections to the full run. Stock data appears in the Weekly Business Review, delivered to 17,600 subscribers. The switch saves 260 tons of newsprint a year.
Here's how the system works: When a subscriber calls to request the Weekly Business Review, a voice-system computer captures the telephone number, which is downloaded to the circulation database, matched to a subscriber account and flagged to receive the review. The database generates labels and prints a manifest for the press run.
A carrier with 100 subscribers, 10 of whom want the business review, receives 100 newspapers, 10 copies of the review, 90 clear polybags, 10 bright yellow polybags, and 10 self-adhesive labels for review subscribers. The carriers bundle the reviews with the newspapers, place the packages in the right bags, and arrange the labels in sequence.
Pearson reported that the system accommodates a variety of special sections, direct-mail products, magazine samples and inserts.
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