Does "free publicity" translate into dollar returns?Is free publicity--newspaper, magazine, even radio and TV--worth anything to publishers in monetary terms? For some consumer publishers in the health, investment and travel fields it has been beneficial. The late Dick Benson drove the circulation of The Contest News-Letter to one million largely by working for free publicity in ladies magazines and similar news outlets. The frustrating part of the effort, for publishers, is managing to get the media not only to mention your newsletter but also to give the reader some way to reach you. (Newspapers, in particular, seem loath to provide this sort of information.) Investment advisor Investment Advisor 1. A person making investment recommendations in return for a flat fee or percentage of assets managed, known as a commission. 2. For mutual fund companies, it is the individual who has the day-to-day responsibility of investing and monitoring the cash and Bill Donoghue was getting so much of that "contactless" mention in the media that at one point he officially changed the title of his money fund newsletter to Donoghue's Money Fund Report of Holliston MA 01746 in an effort to force other media to provide readers with this information. In the internet age, however, this is probably less of a concern (as long as they spell your name right). It's now common for newspapers to include URLs in articles. We entered the names of four well-known consumer newsletter editors--Andrew Harper (travel), Dr. Julian Whitaker (health), Louis Rukeyser Louis Richard Rukeyser (January 30 1933 – May 2 2006) was a U.S. business columnist, economic commentator, and television personality. He was best known for his role as host of two television series, Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser, and (investment), and Robert Parker Robert Parker may refer to:
In the case of business newsletters, however, the consensus seems to be that publicity may be nice for the ego but it brings little to the bottom line. Publishers whose experiences pretty well mirror Dan Capell's (see above Publisher Profile) include: * Tim Baskerville, who told NL/NL about the lack of "results" from his appearance on one of the morning TV talk shows: "About the only response I got was from my grandmother who called to say she hated my necktie." * David Swit, who reported that being cited by name on the CBS evening news CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963. by Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (born November 4 1916) is a retired iconic American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for The CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81). himself didn't generate a single order. * Karen Coburn of Cutter Information, who, as publisher of Oil Spill oil spill: see water pollution. Intelligence, was sought out by the mass media at the time of the Exxon Valdez This article is about the tank vessel Exxon Valdez. For the spill, see Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon Valdez was the original name (later Sea River Mediterranean and eventually Mediterranean disaster. USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. did run a fetching photo of Coburn in a stream in her hiking shorts. From that experience she did suggest that publishers keep on file an up-to-date news release about the company and a photo of the editor, ideally more recent than college graduation, "in case anyone does ask." Savvy publishers do incorporate any favorable mass media mention into their promotional materials. Years ago, for instance, Time magazine called NL/ NL "the bible of the industry," and we've been including that phrase in our testimonials ever since. |
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