You may have noticed we’ve had a few more advertising circulars in The Laker/Lutz News since the beginning of the year. And, that we’re now selling sticky notes on our front page.
We’ve received a few emails and calls from readers asking about these inserts and notes, and I thought other readers might have similar questions.
So, let’s begin with advertising circulars. New to our papers is the weekly SmartSource coupon book, which has between 28 and 40 pages of manufacturer coupons for mostly grocery, drugstore and household products. SmartSource is included in all of our home delivery routes, which totals 32,000 homes in Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills. Coupon clippers love SmartSource for the savings it offers, plus it is a perfect complement to the Publix circular that has been in our papers since 2010.
In January, Walmart started running its circular in our Wesley Chapel edition. For now, Walmart is being delivered to the 3,300 homes we reach in the 33545 zip code, but we anticipate other zips will be added in coming months.
SmartSource and Walmart join several long-time circular advertisers in The Laker/Lutz News. In addition to Publix grocery and liquor, most weeks we have circulars from Michaels Arts and Crafts, Ulta Beauty, JCPenney and Ace Hardware. Plus, we’re anticipating that Lowe’s will be coming on board in March once it’s new Lutz store opens on State Road 54.
As much as we wish otherwise, the paper delivered to your particular home may not include circulars from every one of these stores. And that’s because national merchandisers are experts at analyzing zip codes and use The Laker/Lutz News in combination with daily newspapers to reach the households they are targeting in this market.
I share this with you because readers have complained when a friend or family member gets circulars in their paper, but they don’t get them in their edition. These readers typically think we are intentionally omitting their neighborhood.
If it were up to us, we’d insert the same circulars in all 43,750 papers that we print and deliver every week. That would be good for our readers — most whom do not subscribe to a daily paper — and obviously good for our sales. But the number of circulars we insert is determined by the merchant — we can only deliver as many circulars as we receive.
We believe that, in time, our reader loyalty will persuade these national accounts to add all — or at least more — of our circulation to their buy in The Laker/Lutz News. If you want to help us make that happen sooner, let the local manager of these stores know that you would like to receive their circular in your weekly community paper.
Now let’s talk about the front-page sticky notes. This is something new for us that local businesses have inquired about for many years. New technology has finally made these notes affordable for small businesses. Plus, the minimum order has dropped to 25,000, which is about what one needs to put a sticky note on every front page in Lutz and Land O’ Lakes.
We had some complaints last week when a sticky note covered up a front-page photo of the Rev. Ron Aubin, accompanying a story about Our Lady of the Rosary Church’s low-gluten communion hosts. We obviously did not intend for this to happen, and we explained that to Father Ron.
We also want you to know too, that we are working with our printer on the placement of these notes so they do not interfere with our photos. However, when they do, these notes are easy to peel off and we hope will not interfere with your reading enjoyment.
We do understand that many people find these front-page notes bothersome. However, they are easy to remove and we, and the businesses that wish to advertise in their local newspaper, recognize that these are a very effective advertising tool.
Industry research shows that sticky notes increase advertising response rates by 45 percent. Obviously, this makes this form of advertising a cost effective way to let people know about a special offer or product.
In addition to helping local businesses market their products and services, sticky notes helps to pay our bills. The Laker/Lutz News are free newspapers, which means advertising is our sole source of revenue. The ability to generate income from sticky notes helps us to produce a quality community newspaper every week that is delivered free to your home.
Published February 4, 2015
