Industry News

Distinctly Montana Magazine

Distinctly Montana Magazine has been sold by founder Michael Blevins to Bill Muhlenfeld and Anthea George of Bozeman, Montana, according to John Cribb, Cribb, Greene & Associates, who represented the seller in the transaction.

Distinctly Montana Magazine is a high quality glossy product published quarterly and distributed throughout Montana and most of the nation. The magazine, founded in 2001, is a resource guide for all things Montana and includes local features, literary pieces, and high quality art and photography. Included in the sale is the magazine website at distinctlymontana.com.

According to Anthea George, "Distinctly Montana is a quality publication with a great concept and a focused mission. We look forward as new owners to bringing the best of Montana to residents and visitors alike."

Cribb, Greene & Associates is an eighty-seven year old publishing company merger and acquisition firm with offices in Bozeman, Montana and Charlottesville, Virginia.

Promotion "cross-pollinates" sales staff in clustered neighboring newspapers

July 01, 2008

A group of GateHouse Media newspapers in northern Illinois has developed a creative way to find an additional $184,567 in new revenue over the next 90 days.

Scott Champion, co-president of GateHouse Media, was looking for a program that benefited their advertisers, salespeople, and the company. He asked advertising managers from this group of newspapers to brainstorm on a promotion that did just that and they came up with the Super Summer Sales Event.

They started by naming 13 team leaders. The team leaders then "drafted" salespeople from the 13 newspapers, which meant that the teams crossed over from one newspaper to the next. The salespeople then started selling a program that allowed a new advertiser (an account that has been inactive for at least 90 days) to pick up a free ad in any one of the participating newspapers, after they purchased it for regular price in their home newspaper.

To sweeten the pot Champion put 10% of all the sales into a pot that was handed out to the top four teams.

The promotion created a buzz with both advertisers and salespeople, and created 267 new contracts from businesses that had not been advertising.

While this promotion was run between sister newspapers, it would also be possible to do it with any group of neighboring newspapers that are willing to help each other create new revenue and new customers.

Congratulations GateHouse Media team members on a great idea!

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