Nevada Press Association The best in Nevada journalism since 1924
Related Articles
By Peter W. Wagner
“All Roads Lead to” is an easy-to-produce alternative to the traditional progress sections many newspapers publish sometime during the year. But the traditional large, all-inclusive progress sections of the past can often be difficult to produce.
The huge size of the finished piece can quickly consume the time of the newsroom and advertising department and the section revenue doesn’t always offset the dollars lost from normal sales during the weeks it takes to write and sell it.
Plus, in many markets, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has eliminated, or at least reduced, the amount of any real community progress in 2020.
We replaced our annual progress sections over a decade ago with a series of early winter sections dedicated to a different community each week. The 6- to 10-page sections feature positive pieces about changes taking place in the community with occasional material written by contributors living in the featured community.
The winter reflection series often kicks off in mid-December when holiday advertising is drawing to a close. Since we randomly preselect 12 to 15 communities in our five-county circulation area to feature each year, the series often runs through the end of March or even early April.
“All Roads Lead to” was one of our more recent themes. It concentrated on “good news” about the city, the school, the business district, the financial community, local manufacturing firms, recreational opportunities and new construction.
Advertising was sold to both the city and the economic development director as well as the local banks, insurance agencies, hospital, manufacturing firms, cable provider, construction companies, farm equipment and supply firms and the retail district.
By the end of the series the sections gave us exceptional presence in many of the communities in our circulation area. But beyond that, there were three truly unique benefits to doing multiple weeks:
First, the smaller weekly sections weren’t the drudgery for our newsroom that earlier progress sections had been.
Second, the weekly sections added size and additional value to numerous editions of our N’West Iowa REVIEW.
Third, the accumulated income from the many sections was greater than that produced by the old-fashioned progress sections.
Sample pages from one of the “All Roads Lead to” sections are included with this column. If you don’t have enough outside circulation to sell the project in surrounding communities you might consider weekly targeting various topics — business, construction, health, recreation, faith, etc. — in your community instead.
