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The Details:
Make Customers Happy
Before its acquisition, the Republican Journal, a Lewis paper, seldom hit the street before 7 or even 9 p.m., lagging behind a rival Belfast paper. Today it's ahead of the competition, on the newsstand by 4 p.m. Being first is vital. Two-thirds of the Republican Journal's sales are single-copy, not home-delivery, sales.
Morse calls Courier a newspaper "group," not a chain, in conscious contravention to the cookie-cutter approach. When he came in he cut back on nationally syndicated material. That cleared out the news hole for more local, staff-written news. "We dictate editors, not editorial," he says. Each paper has a distinctive design and voice reflective of its readership. All customers can transact business with their local newspaper: they can buy an ad, lodge a complaint, or write a letter to the editor in Belfast, Ellsworth, Bar Harbor, or any of the other towns. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, thanks to the technological advances Morse has introduced, administration, accounting, billing, circulation, and production are centralized in Rockland.
It's easy, economical, and efficient for an advertiser to place an ad in any combination of Courier's seven papers. The rates provide for commensurate discounts that recognize the number of papers in which an ad runs as well as the number of times it runs. At the end of the month, though, each advertiser receives a single itemized bill.
Morse's technology investment has also enhanced Courier's ability to track invoices. Courier takes pains to alert advertisers to bills that will soon be overdue and to remind them that early payment will net them a discount. In Maine's chronically sluggish economy, it's tempting to cut the advertisers a lot of slack to keep their business. Morse seeks a middle ground.
He finds that retailers tend to forget a bill that is long overdue. Morse explains: "In retailing, five months is an eternity. Our job is to keep these guys in business. We are as responsible for their paying our bills as they are."
Ultimately, Morse sees himself as the advertisers' business partner -- together exploring this lucrative spur at the end of the information superhighway. While newspaper publishing is conventionally seen as an information-based business, Morse says, "beyond that, it's really a marketing and distribution business." Courier already does a brisk business printing advertising inserts for customers and offering them postal-distribution services. "It doesn't have to be just information you're distributing," says Morse. "Maybe a customer wants to get a promotional sample of a product to everybody who lives on a certain street. Well, we know how to find those people and how to get products in their hands."
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The Future:
Create More Opportunities
Another day, and the peripatetic Dave Morse is prowling the building. He has just met with managers from the post office, where he's been sniffing out new ways to cut costs. "We run $1 million worth of business through the post office each year. That's a lot of money." Morse is excited because he's going to drop his Ellsworth paper in the mail rather than use routine delivery. "This is gonna be great." Advertisers will love it; a rival Ellsworth weekly won't. "They'll think twice about raising their rates." He enters the pressroom where Maine Antique Digest is being collated by hand. It seems labor-intensive. Has Morse looked into automating that? Naturally. "Even if a machine could customize inserts as well as a person can, the cost per thousand by machine would be about $12. By hand it costs $4." He passes the preproduction area and comments on a new high-tech camera he has his eye on. It enables a photographer to download images directly into a computer. "It would bypass printing and developing. It's incredibly expensive, maybe $2,000 or $3,000." Morse, for now, will have to control his lust.
But Morse, the perpetual optimist, the perpetual opportunist, adds with a knowing smile, "I hear it won't cost more than $900 in two years."
THE SYMBOLS OF SUCCESS
Numbers tell the tale of Dave Morse's effort to revive Courier Publications. The transition year at Courier was 1992, the first full year with the new acquisitions and changes in place. That year and 1993 were recession years in Maine. Still, the company grew ad revenues at the Courier-Gazette by 3% in 1992, and by better than 4% in 1993. In the first quarter of 1994 they were up 25%. Courier let go marginally profitable contract printing business and focused on printing newspapers only; and after a drop in 1992, revenues from contract printing rose 28% last year.
1991 1993
Revenues $3 million $5.5 million
Operating margin 0% 5%
Number of employees (including part-timers) 90 135
Number of publications 2 7
Total circulation 34,000 80,000
Area served 1 county 4 counties
Area served/total retail sales $289 million $1.3 billion*
Total ad revenues $1.8 million $2.8 million
Contract printing $1.1 million $0.9 million
*in 1992 dollars
