Patriot-News Reaps Quick Rewards Using Adinfinitum

North Canton, OH, June 29, 2006

Implementation
Patriot's approach in notifying their advertisers about e-tearsheets was very straight forward. They inserted letters into approximately 2500 monthly invoice statements. These letters urged their advertisers to sign up via their website for electronic tearsheets and an internet proofing project that they were initiating at the same time. "We purposefully overlapped these projects so it would give the impression that we would be in a completely electronic environment," says Jim DelSanto, Prepress Manager of the Patriot-News. In order to reach all involved parties at the advertiser level, they also inserted flyers with the mailed paper tearsheets that touted e-tearsheets. "This turned up the response greatly." Says DelSanto.

These methods seemed to work. Having introduced adinfinitum just 3 months ago, Patriot already has 50% of their frequent advertisers on board. They continue to receive 5-6 new registrations per day. With more local advertisers than national, this percentage is impressive. "It proves the locals are very willing to accept e-tearsheets," says DelSanto.

Patriot-News provided a 30 day gateway for advertisers to receive both physical tearsheets and electronic tearsheets. As of March 31st, any user with a login through adinfinitum, no longer received a mailed copy. In addition, all classified liner tearsheets were eliminated.

Patriot has been lucky enough to see a savings through personnel as well. When the time came for one of the three tearsheet department employees to retire, no one was needed as a replacement as a result of adinfinitum. In fact, only one employee still does the few manual tearsheets that remain. The third has been reassigned to other duties within the prepress department.

Overcoming Technical Hurdles
Patriot automatically uploads a data feed from their Mactive Advertising System for both their ROP and classified ads. As is the case with many newspapers, the pagination room has last say and can change the layout at the last minute. In Patriot's case, this tends to occur on Sundays and Thursdays. With Adinfinitum's edit tool, they can easily correct such modifications. Each morning, someone from the prepress department corrects the incorrect ads so the advertisers will receive the most accurate data within their email notifications. "This is a great change in how Presteligence handles the processing of pages - especially now that the email notification concern was taken care of," noted Jim Brighton, Senior Manager of I.T.

Future
Implementing the invoice component of adinfinitum will be the next natural step for Patriot. The credit department makes a point to mention Adinfinitum and directs advertisers go to the site to reconcile their paper invoice to their e-tearsheets. Moving at their current pace and momentum, Patriot will continue to reap the rewards of Adinfinitum and save money.

About Presteligence:
Presteligence is a global software company with 30 years experience of providing solutions in the newspaper industry. Presteligence, Inc. develops cutting-edge software products and services for newspapers and associated industries, including advertising services, production workflow, color calibrated proofing, ink presetting and other innovative technologies.

For more information, contact Denise Oates, doates@presteligence.com

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