ViewPoint
June 2014

Verified Would Like to Welcome...

Professional Mariner
Navigator Publishing
Portland, ME
Professional Mariner serves the owners and operators of commercial and military vessels operating on North American oceans, coastal waters, inland rivers and lakes. Professional Mariner covers the operations of tugboats, towboats, cargo ships, government vessels, passenger vessels, spill response vessels, pilot boats, offshore support vessels, salvage, dredge and fire boats. Professional Mariner provides industry news, reporting and analysis of maritime casualties, regulations, legislation, shipbuilding and design, safety, technology, and business/management issues. In addition to maritime business operators, they serve the licensed officers (captains, mates and engineers) plus their shoreside port captains, managers, trainers, academy faculty, equipment suppliers, classification professionals, Coast Guard personnel, regulators, naval architects and marine engineers.

LP Gas (Enhanced Report)
North Coast Media
Cleveland, OH
LP Gas Magazine's mission is to deliver timely news and articles, analysis and best practices for business management, facilitating education and communications within the propane industry. The LP Gas editorial team travels thousands of miles each year to cover the industry, from attending meetings and trade shows to visiting propane marketers and suppliers. Its writers provide in-depth coverage of issues and trends, case studies and research reports that are impacting the industry.

Announcement: Invoice Cycle Change

As you may have noticed, Verified has implemented changes to its invoice cycle effective immediately. Per the audit agreement, Verified's invoices are due upon receipt, not net 30 days.

For clients invoiced monthly, Verified now invoices two weeks prior to the invoice month to give clients more time to process the invoices and make payments in a timely manner. For clients on quarterly or semi-annual schedules, billing will now be two weeks prior to the close of the quarter or half.

For your convenience, Verified also offers automatic monthly payments via credit card.

If you have questions regarding invoicing or automatic payments, please contact Verified's accounting department at 415-461-6006, ext. 2011.

U.S. TV Soccer Ad Dollars Continue to Rise

With soccer's World Cup upon us in Brazil, a recent study notes that U.S. TV advertising dollars continue to grow with the sport at a rapid rate.

Nielsen says there was a 43% increase to $378 million in 2013 versus $266 million in 2010.

Nielsen calculates that U.S. soccer TV pulled in $174 million in 2012, $320 million in 2011 and $266 million in 2010 – the last time the World Cup event was held.

Now, it says there are some 21 total TV networks airing soccer programming, up from 11 a year ago: 13 English-language networks and eight Spanish-language networks. This list includes CNBC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPNU, Fox, Fox Soccer, FS1, FS2, Fuel, FX, NBC, NBC Sports Network, AZA, Fox Deportes, Galavision, Mun2, Telemundo, Univision, Univision Deportes and UniMas.

A total of 3,891 soccer events were televised in 2013 – a 33% gain over 2010 when there was 2,613.

Looking at the Major League Soccer league, its average U.S. TV audience per game per year was 174,000 in 2013, up steadily from 122,000 in 2011. Nielsen also notes that since 2009 there has been a 24% increase in the number of non-Hispanics.

© MediaPost Communications 2014

Events Calendar

Laredo Group: Native Advertising for Media Sellers
July 1, 2014
New York, NY
www.laredogroup.com

AAN Annual Convention
July 10 – 12, 2014
Nashville, TN
www.altweeklies.com

Florida Press Association and Florida Society of News Editors
July 10 – 11, 2014
Miami, FL
www.flpress.com

Yale Publishing Course
July 20 – 25, 2014
New Haven, CT
publishing-course.yale.edu

Masters of Media Selling (A Service of MediaPost)
July 23 – 24, 2014
Los Angeles, CA
www.mediapost.com

National Association of Black Journalists Convention and Career Fair
July 30 – August 3, 2014
Boston, MA
www.nabj.org

If you have an event that you would like to announce,
please send your information to e-newsletter@verifiedaudit.com.

Few Willing to Pay for Online News

Just over one in 10 Internet users (11%) have paid for access to news online in the last year, according to the 2014 Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University.

The Reuters Institute noted that this figure was unchanged from the year before, suggesting that news producers are failing to make much headway as they struggle to convince consumers that they must pay for their information.

Among nonpayers, the proportion of respondents who said they might consider paying for online news at some point in the future was also quite low, at 11% in the U.S., 7% in the U.K., 15% in Germany and 10% in France.

Here the study observed: "New pay walls and paid apps often find easy growth for a while and then stall – after the supply of loyal users runs out." If there was a glimmer of good news, it was that 59% of respondents who paid for news said they were doing so with regular subscriptions, up from 43% in 2013, which will provide a more dependable revenue stream for news orgs who succeed in selling subscriptions.

While not exactly encouraging about the overall prospects for paid online news, the 2014 Digital News Report contained a number of other interesting findings relating to new consumption patterns. Thus, 39% of news consumers worldwide said they use two or more digital devices to get news each week, and 12% use three or more devices. Further, 37% use their smartphone for news on a weekly basis, and 20% say their smartphone is their primary device for getting news.

The rise of mobile news consumption doesn't mean that people are consuming news from more sites; in fact, it's just the opposite. Smartphone use appears to encourage users to get news from fewer sources. Some 37% of smartphone users surveyed around the world said they get news from just one source on their smartphone each week, rising as high as 55% in the U.K. This probably reflects growing dependence on a small number of news apps, according to the Reuters report.

Reuters also found that Facebook is "by far the most important [social] network for news everywhere," beating out Twitter, which has so far failed to establish much of a presence outside the U.S. and U.K.

Worldwide, 35% of respondents said they use Facebook to share news, compared to 15% for Twitter, 7% for Google+ and 6% for WhatsApp.

The information was based on a survey of 19,000 people around the world conducted for the Reuters Institute by YouGov.

Tips & Techniques: Target Distribution

Connect With Your Community
Distribution is as important as any other part of your business. Give it the attention it needs and you will increase readership, build reader and advertiser loyalty, and enhance your reputation in your community.

• Match distribution locations to your readers' lifestyles.
  
• Keep racks well maintained and attractive.
  
• Keep papers clean and neat, untie bundles and don't allow litter or old copies to clutter the area.
  
• Deliver papers on time every week.
  
• Make sure your delivery staff is professional.

Optimize Distribution
Your distribution policies and practices are the key to your success. Maximize the value of your investment in sales, production and printing with excellent distribution.

• Maintain accurate, up-to-date route lists that are easy to read. Include complete addresses with ZIP/postal codes and cross streets. Add phone numbers whenever possible. List locations in delivery order indicating where to find/leave papers. Lists need to include the expected drop totals as well as a space for drivers to note adjustments to drops, returns and additional information (new or closed locations, start and stop times, comments, etc.).
  
• Maintain a summary page for every issue (drops, returns, net, staff, etc.).
  
• Deal with closed locations by checking for returns during open hours, changing delivery schedule or applying average return rates from open locations.
  
• Use a good circulation software system or develop in-house data management programs such as Excel, FileMaker or Access.
  
• Make backups (stored offsite) and save historical records.
  
• Carefully analyze your distribution performance. Monitor return rates per route, per issue, per month, etc. Track time for delivering routes and watch complaints.
  
• Stay in touch with distribution locations/businesses. Your sales staff can help and you should also make phone calls and periodic visits.

Manage Staff and Contractors
You are only as good as your people. Let them know how much you value their contribution. Pay a good wage and communicate your expectations. Insist on high achievement and praise good performance. Welcome feedback to support simple, efficient systems.

• Communicate early and often with your staff.
  
• Set high performance expectations and insist that your staff is accountable and professional.
  
• Regularly conduct your own regular field surveys to monitor performance.
  
• If you contract with an independent company for distribution, make sure you work closely with them at all times. You need to stay in charge of the relationship. You are paying the bills and your needs must be met. Communicate your high expectations and share the same specifics and performance expectations outlined above.

Please send comments and story ideas to
e-newsletter@verifiedaudit.com or contact us at:

Verified Audit Circulation
900 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite 230
Larkspur, CA 94939-1758
415.461.6006
415.461.6007 fax