Advertising, Promotion, and Public Relations Plan
Objective: Communicate the value of newspapers using the language agencies and advertisers will understand and act upon.

Build the CNA brand.
While CNA is known among many Iowa advertisers and agencies, it is not known among many of the targeted national and regional advertiser prospect groups. Therefore, any promotion program aimed at media decision-makers must:
• Define CNA as a media planning and placement brand.
• Build awareness of CNA among media decision-makers in the national and regional target categories, and among Iowa advertisers and prospects.

Develop and Implement customized brand promotion programs aimed at selected national and regional prospects and Iowa advertisers.
Public Relations
• Expand and enhance the new CNA Web site for effective use by media buyers and planners in Iowa and in national and regional agencies that are prospects for CNA.
• Develop special newspaper effectiveness demos, a newspaper CD-Rom, and CD-business card. Develop software that makes it simple for the media buyer to put together his or her own CNA newspaper plans and buy.
• Implement a publicity program to build credible awareness of the CNA brand. The program will include pertinent newsworthy information about newspapers in general and Iowa newspapers specifically, results of the media decision-maker research, and new products developed as a result of the changes in the marketplace.

Direct mail
• Build an in-depth database of media decision-makers and influencers including third party placement services in each of the seven national and regional categories, plus Iowa's major prospects for new newspaper and other media packages.
• Develop and implement a customized direct mail program aimed at the database defined above. Some of the possibilities for mailing include specially designed newspaper mock-ups; "comp" subscriptions to daily/weekly papers (one per day) with message to specific target audiences; a "hip" alternative newspaper for agencies but involve university students in its creation; "unique" facts about newspapers that relate to current buying situations; or custom-designed media kits.
• Evaluate the feasibility of a periodic e-mail/attention-getting newspaper newsletter as a means for brand building.
• Investigate the possibility of implementing a broadcast e-mail program directed to agency executives and client decision-makers.

Promotion
• Expand the existing advertiser seminar series to reach advertisers and agencies in the major Iowa markets (Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Quad Cities, Sioux City, Mason City, Dubuque), Sioux Falls, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Omaha, Detroit and Chicago. This format is the best way to introduce the new Web site and other value-added aspects of CNA brand.
• Investigate further the feasibility of establishing a media director (planner) of the month, agency days, a mystery media sales person campaign, and newspaper days.

Advertising
• Create and launch a CNA brand-building program among advertising decision-makers in the Midwest and among Iowa's business community. This will likely include a limited number of trade publications (Adweek Midwest), and targeted Iowa newspaper business sections and business magazines.
• Develop and produce a statewide multi-media (newspaper, radio and/or television, outdoor) campaign to remind, reposition, and ignite reader and advertiser interest in newspapers. This campaign, sponsored by CNA, would be designed to reinforce the value of newspapers to the general readership as well as advertising decision-makers in Iowa's business, retail, and advertising communities. It is likely to begin with the use of in-paper advertising, media trade-out with broadcasters, and possible corporate sponsorship of promotion outside of Iowa.

Sales Plan
Objective: Develop new relationships and build partnerships with advertisers and their agencies in selected national and regional categories, and help Iowa publishers build stronger partnerships in the Iowa markets they currently serve. Create a national/regional account sales team to focus on targeted national and regional, and selected Iowa clients and prospects.

• Prospect and sell six target categories: Automotive, Tourism, State Advocacy, Fast Food, Agribusiness, and National Advocacy. Continue discussing how best to handle the enormous chain store category.
• Use a four-step sales process: (1) Pre-call research of prospect's product and market(s), (2) Initial call to gather more information about the prospect, (3) Proposal preparation and presentation, and (4) Follow-up.
• Develop a series of reasons for media decision-makers to give CNA's sales representatives and Iowa sales representatives the opportunity to present the case for newspapers. Develop relationships through knowledge sharing. Some of the door-opening possibilities include:
- Tailor-made products to fit an individual advertiser.
- Information prospective buyers can't get from elsewhere.
- Data on how newspapers can reach his/her target audience more effectively.
- Research on a prospective advertiser's customers. This will give the sales person important information that is also of value to the media decision-maker.
• Support the sales effort with effective marketing and media research. Find out what kind of information would help the advertiser, and then gather it. Research information should be available on-line and via e-mail. See Product Development Plan for details.
• Provide sales force with needed promotion and advertising, and administrative support.

With the help of the Iowa Newspaper Foundation, train current Iowa publisher sales organizations to help their customers and prospects do a more effective job of planning and buying.
• Educate publishers, advertising managers, and editors on how media plans are built. Present information to all newspaper sales and administrative support staff.
• Establish a readership/audience-based media sales school for Iowa publishers. The curriculum should be designed to answer two questions: (1) What media buyers and planners look for in today's media environment, and how they make decisions, (2) A three-step process for building business with existing advertisers, which includes (1) Analyzing a client's product or service category, plus marketing and media knowledge gained from looking at a comparable advertiser or a competitor. (2) Building two or three ad space proposals. (3) Follow-up.
• Teach the publishers and their staffs how to work most effectively with CNA.

Marketing, Media, and Product Development Program
Objective: Help CNA newspapers better serve their advertisers and prospects, by offering products and services that effectively compete with other mass media, especially television.

• Repackage and reposition newspapers to focus on readership and demography rather than circulation and geography of newspaper readers.
  - Integrate syndicated media research demographic, psychographic, and mediagraphic information into all newspapers and into all major CNA sales presentations. This will be especially helpful in understanding and defining prospect target audiences and in defining new opportunities for newspapers. It will also provide CNA an understanding of how newspapers are viewed by media decision-makers.
  - Present readership information by demographic categories, so that agency and client media personnel can evaluate the medium and buys efficiently. Know who is reading what in the paper and provide that information to the advertisers.
  - Present newspaper readership data in the language of television. This means talking audience and not circulation, and using such terms as gross rating points, audience cumes, and media reach and frequency. Television has created the language and has taken the initiative to make it the language of the media buyer. To effectively compete newspapers will need to talk the language of the buyer and advertiser.
• Create"new" products, which make it easier for media decision-makers to evaluate and buy newspapers.
  - Develop new networks (and display offerings) of newspaper readers that conform to the way advertisers and agencies purchase media: Target audiences within specific ADIs or DMAs. Evaluate the feasibility of sectionalizing the newspaper to fit specific audience groups: Seniors, teens, sports addicts, business, travelers, kids, home and garden, ethnic groups, pet owners, political junkies.
  - Integrate the Internet into all product development work in order to take advantage of both the technology and its ability to deliver specific and definable readers.
  - Develop advertiser-targeted products as supplements to the existing newspaper. These new advertising opportunities need to be based on an understanding of the prospect's target audience profiles. For example, a travel column could be sold to travel advertisers, or a special section could be developed around a special subject like AARP. Audience groups that offer such opportunities include teens, travel, aging, technology, retirement, and the stock market.
  - Continue establishing CNA as a one-stop shop for advertisers and their agencies for newspaper planning, placement, and distribution of materials and related on-line advertising.
  - Investigate the possibility of forming a new CNA/Iowa Broadcasters Association strategic alliance to provide placement and materials distribution for radio and television for advertisers and their agencies.

Budget and Timetable

As CNA looks to the future and considers how national and regional media decision-makers look at newspapers, we understand we need to take action to reposition newspapers for advertiser prospects and customers. The CDC research and PTF-recommended business development plan can enable this by positioning Iowa's newspapers for future growth and development. The plan will:
• Change the perception of newspapers from "old and stodgy" to "relevant and effective."
• Add significant new sales in business categories not effectively served by Iowa newspapers. The target categories represent billions of dollars in potential media spending in Iowa.
• Reduce CNA dependence on classified advertising and make it less vulnerable to swings in the U.S. economy.

As every publisher knows, changing perceptions and securing new share of market is a long-term process. CNA's proposed business development plan requires new packaging, new services, a new and focused sales effort, and research and communications programs that support the sales effort. This can only be achieved over time, and it can only be achieved if CNA reaches beyond its borders to build relationships with a new and large segment of out-of-state buyers.

A preliminary break even analysis suggests incremental sales of $30 million in advertising sales would make the program a success. While specific data is being compiled to verify the reasonableness of this goal, we believe it is likely to be understated. On a very preliminary basis, a number of media planning specialists estimate each of the categories represents billions in potential media spending.