Most newspapers would say that one of their biggest objectives is to get all of their prepress users on a single business system.

The benefits are myriad. Stitching together customer service records, subscriber demographics and advertising histories into a unified database platform gives newspapers a quick, clear view of their customers.  

Scripps is using PBS' InSight data analysis tool to closely examine its subscriber and advertiser trends and identify markets for growth.
Graphic: PBS

Scripps Howard spent three years looking for a system that would allow the newspaper publisher to do just that - create a “data center” to identify markets for growth in circulation and advertising.

To that end, Scripps has begun implementing Publishing Business Systems Inc.’s software, including MediaPlus for traditional and online circulation management and AdPlus for managing classified and display ads.

The plan

Scripps plans to deploy the applications at all 17 of its newspaper sites over the next five years following pilot testing. The rollout of these initial pilot sites will take place in two phases. Scripps’ Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail will be the first paper to use the apps, rolling out PBS’ circulation modules over the next several months and going live with circulation this year, said Ed Pieratt, E.W. Scripps’ director of technology, newspapers.

“Right behind Anderson, starting this year are three West Texas papers, which will be coming up on classifieds early next year. Starting next year, these four papers will have all three systems in the data center,” he said.

Much to consider

Pieratt looked at many vendors and systems.

“We looked at a number of companies early on and while they said they were integrated, they really weren’t yet and they had a long way to go,” he said.

Scripps already had a relationship with PBS, with more than 50 percent of its papers using some PBS products, and Scripps was also getting ready to install PBS’ advertising and circulation software on a single database at the Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times.

“We already have our foot in that direction and we already know that part of it works,” Pieratt said. “Now we’re looking at the integration to the third piece.”

Pieratt said that although other vendors may offer integrated systems for circ, display ads and classifieds, PBS was, to his knowledge, the only vendor that offered a system that was ready to install now.

“Most of the other newspaper groups that I’m aware of are using multiple vendors and integrating the pieces - Knight Ridder is, Morris is too,” he said. “They’ve taken the approach of best of breed and doing some heavy level integration. We’re taking the approach that we have a vendor who has it all under one roof and hopefully that means integration is fairly smooth and fairly seamless to us.”

Identifying markets for growth

Targeting markets for growth -among them circulation and advertising - underpins the Scripps’ project, Pieratt said.

“We’re really trying to use the data we do have as effectively as we can,” he said.

Scripps even worked with PBS to include a button on the classified order entry screen that is either green or red to denote whether or not the person placing the ad is a subscriber. If a person is not a subscriber, the operator can click on the appropriate button and take a subscription from the caller through the classified window.

“That’s just one of the ways of using the system,” Pieratt said. “The others are just pretty much what every newspaper group is talking about - defining who our customers are, defining who our best customers are, defining programs to encourage those people and defining programs to encourage those who aren’t our advertisers or subscribers.”

Pieratt said Scripps intends to mine PBS’ InSight data analysis capability to more closely examine subscriber and advertiser trends.

“That’s an impressive product and it fits right over top (of the other PBS modules),” Pieratt said. “It’s already integrated so we don’t have to go out and build the link. If we’ve captured it in the system, we should be able to analyze the data.”

Pieratt said there are a lot of pieces to managing advertising and circulation and that Scripps may only roll out the PBS apps at a few of its sites.

 “Once we get all the four (pilot) papers fully outfitted and running for awhile then we can make a decision to go forward or not,” Pieratt said. “The truth is, we may decide for some of our larger sites that this may not be the way to go.”

Judy Taylor, manager of Scripps’ technology group, will be responsible for a large part of the implementation.

“One of our goals is to get some commonality between our sites and the ability to do some more reporting across units, versus when you ask a question to each site you get a different answer,” Taylor said.

Financial benefits just gravy

Pieratt said the financial benefits of this new data center - although positive - weren’t the driving force.