Lessons Learned at API's Executive Marketing Seminar

USA TODAY leads in 19 of the 25 top DMAs. It delivers more circulation than either The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, and it has more affluent adult readers than either the Journal or the Times.

From left to right: USA TODAY President & Publisher Craig Moon; Jeffrey Webber, Senior Vice President & Publisher, USATODAY.com; Lauren Ashburn, Managing Editor and Correspondent, USA TODAY Live; and USA TODAY Editor Ken Paulson.

Seminar participants learned lessons about leveraging a brand from USA TODAY's top brass?Publisher and President Craig Moon, USA TODAY.com's senior vice president and publisher Jeffrey Webber and USA TODAY Live's managing editor and correspondent Lauren Ashburn.

"Our numbers continue to grow, " said Moon. In April 2004, USA TODAY reported 2.4 million circulation, up 141,000 copies from 2003. Combined with its online audience, USA TODAY's reach is 6.4 million daily readers. While most newspapers are struggling to build circulation, USA TODAY's continues to grow and, in its 21 years, USA TODAY has only reported a decline in circulation twice, Moon said.

How did USA TODAY built its brand? Product placement in movies. Availability in 60 countries overseas. "Just like in this country we like business travelers to open their hotel room door and find a copy of USA TODAY, we want to be there for travelers overseas, " Moon said.

USA TODAY is also in 30,000 primary and secondary classrooms, 3,000 school districts and 300 college campuses, giving the paper 1 million readers each day. The paper also has relationships with textbook publishers. "Our graphs, our content, and maps are in most modern day textbooks, " Moon said.

The paper also has worked to drive traffic from the Web site to print and from print to online. Last year 13 percent of the paper's new subscriptions were generated from the Web, said Webber, and at least 30 references to the Web site are built into stories in the newspaper each day.

The brand can be even bigger, Moon said. USA TODAY is now looking at expanding to cable television.

Jacob Kelderman, Marketing Director at the Newspaper Association of America, asks a question during the session.

USA TODAY Live is already seen on all 22 Gannett-owned TV stations. The two-minute spots are written from content from the day's newspaper and delivered live from the Gannett headquarters.

"It works because it's not something taped and generic, " said Ashburn. USA TODAY Live is now working on a half-hour weekly show called USA TODAY Sports Page that would be distributed through a national cable outlet. The show would air on Fridays, wrapping up the week and looking ahead, Ashburn said.

The goal, said Moon, is to get to an audience of 12 million, regardless of the platform.

"We once changed the newspaper business with USA TODAY, " Moon said, adding that he constantly challenges staff to find ways to change it again. "As other papers come closer to us, we need to find ways to distance ourselves. "

"We want to be your news source wherever you are, whatever you want, whatever platform you use. " added Webber.