NewsBeat

10 NewsBeat February 2017 (Continued from previous page) client. Then, we offer solutions that fit, which is opposed to the 'old way' of selling audience and pushing product," he said. To be effective, the salesperson must be rebranded, too—from ad sales to media consultant. The new role of ad reps includes having conversations about where reluctant advertisers and their marketing agents are investing their ad spends, and why they are perceived as a better buy. Osterman said, "We try to crack open that conversation about why they're spending elsewhere, especially in the digital space. Is it that the others are actually doing a better job than our digital team can do, or is just because the site is new and has a trendy look? We find that there are a ton of fly-by-night operations that we can far out- perform when it comes to creating multi- faceted digital campaigns. Plus, in the end, those publications are not the newspaper. Osterman cited a favorite quotation by businessman and author Stephen M.R. Covey, who said, "Trust is equal parts character and competence." "A lot of times, businesses don't trust us to handle their digital (messaging). In their eyes, we may not be 'competent,' though we have the character," he explained. "They know us. They know who we are, so we have the character, but we haven't done enough work to show them that we're competent in the digital space and that we've trained up as well." The implication is that, while newspapers are known to have digital complements now — the web, web mobile and mobile apps — they're not perceived as being leaders or particularly innovative for those efforts, at least not yet. "The winning scenario is we build on the character that we've already established and prove that we're a digital force," Osterman said. "In some cases, they may be turning to a digital advertising alternative that's merely using an off-the-shelf technology for something as important as search engine optimization. Meanwhile, we have a fully staffed team of extremely talented marketing professionals at their disposal. They may not know we have that expertise." Wiita said at the Lincoln Journal Star, they're accustomed to hearing that ad budgets have been sliced, leaving less of the pie to portion out. "The budget objection is obviously a very common objection in sales, and while in some cases it may be valid, most of the time, if a consultant gets this objection, they haven't sold the agency or the advertiser on the value of the program," she said. "We do a lot of training and role playing with our staff on getting the value proposition right." Prove Your Worth Certainly one of the greatest challenges that advertising sales teams have faced in recent years is reinforcing the advertising value proposition of the news organization. When asked if advertisers generally still understand and buy into that value proposition, Osterman said definitively, "No." "I think newspapers, in general, are behind the times of self-promotion, especially compared to broadcast and radio," he said. That needs to change, and he suggested that educating advertisers—and the public—about what the newspaper does for its readers and advertisers must start at the highest levels of the organization, at the publisher level and certainly among marketing teams. Beyond evangelizing the value of the news organization, sales teams need to be prepared to come to the table with real solutions based on the expressed needs of the advertiser. But the work doesn't stop there. Then, they must be able to prove ad effectiveness, and do that with every single program, with every single digital or print display and insert advertiser. And about the "character" part of the trust equation that Osterman suggested? Lewis concurred and pointed out that character, integrity and a record of getting the stories right have a tremendous impact on value proposition messaging. "When I discuss newspapers as a viable and reliable source of news, I point to issues such as the Dan Rather story regarding former President Bush's service in the Air National Guard, the recent election and how it totally caught the broadcast media off guard, and now this 'fake news' on the web regarding a Hillary Clinton sex ring in D.C. The print media is still, in my humble opinion, the only truly investigative news source available." "I do think that advertisers believe in our value proposition," Wiita said. "However, it's important that we continue telling our story as an industry. While our industry is changing, it's not a bad thing. People read our content now more than ever, and our audiences are larger than ever before…I think it's important that we acknowledge that change is good and that all industries have been forced to adapt to a digital world." Gretchen A. Peck is an independent journalist who has reported on publishing and printing for more than two decades. She has contributed to Editor and Publisher since 2010 and can be reached at gretchenapeck@gmail.com Today's advertising sales teams are not taking "no" for an answer

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