If you don't run, you can't win. Consider past successes and current options

Chip Hutcheson

Jul 1, 2025

In the movie Chariots of Fire, English runner Harold Abrams races against the Scottish champion Eric Liddell and loses. It's the first loss of his life. The pain of his failure is so great that he tells his girlfriend he will never race again.

"If I can't win, I won't run," he insists.

She wisely replies, "If you don't run, you can't win."

There are times in the newspaper business when the revenue stream seems to resemble more of a trickle and the urge develops to give up. But you can never give up on the task to grow revenue.

Throwing in the towel cannot be your first instinct when revenue lags. Instead, use that as a challenge to revive some successful projects of the past while also looking at new opportunities to boost the bottom line.

Let’s consider some opportunities that may work in your market

• First and foremost, ad revenue. Every month, readers of Pub Aux will find some innovative thoughts related to advertising ideas. Some could work well in your market.

In past columns, we’ve touched on a number of advertising concepts that are relatively easy to sell and generate single copy sales at the same time.

Take advantage of the unique aspects for each month of the year. For instance, July is National Grilling Month, National Watermelon Month and a host of other food-related themes. Think about local groceries as well as other businesses that will have a connection to those special months.

August has plenty of opportunities, headed by National Back-to-School Month. It’s the perfect time to have a special section that includes all the information needed for the start of school. Telling advertisers about how useful that will be to parents and students means it will be a great advertising opportunity for any type of business. It’s also National Wellness Month, which can be used to solicit ads from doctors, hospitals and all types of specialty medical firms.

One Kentucky newspaper, the Oldham Era, has had success with a special 20-under-40 promotion highlighting people in the community who are under 40 years of age but making an impact in their county. Publisher Jane Ashley Pace said it not only attracts ad dollars, especially from businesses where those people work, but it also gets the younger demographic interested in buying the paper. A reception is held to honor those 20 who are featured in the promotion.

That paper also sees revenue increase by conducting contests, such as Queen for a Day and a pet contest. Combine print and digital to promote the contests.

Always be on the lookout for opportunities to get ads from senior care businesses, the medical community, banks, insurance agencies and funeral homes. Those businesses are, for the most part, eager to place ads that will bolster their image in the community. So make sure to contact those entities for any type of “salute” projects, such as Salute to First Responders, Teacher Salute, etc.

• Take advantage of mail saturation. Mailing a newspaper to every address in your county can reap a windfall of advertising. The Oldham Era does that three times a year, and it finds a substantial boost in ad dollars. Make sure to support it with a strong news product so people will be encouraged to subscribe. Most papers will begin working on feature stories a month in advance. Make good use of compelling photos.

Saturation issues were extremely successful revenue generators during my days as publisher in western Kentucky. Once you do one, you can expect infrequent advertisers to contact you and ask that they be contacted the next time one is planned.

One caveat: when talking with advertisers, make sure to mention that “it’s always a great time to advertise, not just in the saturation issue.” That tells the advertiser you are interested in their business more than a few times a year.

Matt Paxton has written the “how to” on this project in Pub Aux. It’s easy to do, but make sure you alert your local post office about your plans. Typically, a newspaper can almost double its page count with a product that will go into every home in the community. While auto dealer and real–estate advertising has diminished significantly in most towns, those businesses find a saturation issue a great advertising opportunity.

• Capitalize on digital opportunities. That is not my forte, but it appears that hosting a podcast a few times a week and selling ads on it can be a money-maker. Podcasts seem to be the “in thing” — don’t let that opportunity pass you by. I also see newspapers in small towns capitalize on the popularity of their local high school sports teams. Host a video interview with the local football coach on Saturday mornings, put it on your website and incorporate ads with it. Then expand to basketball and perhaps baseball and softball. There’s a time commitment, but it will pay off — not only in revenue but in drawing people to your website.

• Don’t overlook circulation in the revenue picture. Use social media to your advantage to highlight stories in each week’s paper. It might prompt someone to buy a single copy, and if you include a subscription offer in every issue, you could garner a yearly subscription. Having a paywall on your website guarantees that you are not giving the story away free and could result in someone purchasing an online subscription.

Every November and December, use social media and print to encourage people to give a gift subscription to the newspaper as a Christmas gift. It’s a perfect fit for the person who is hard to buy for.

• Classified ad sales have greatly diminished in most communities, but public notices usually are found there — and those can be substantial revenue producers. Don’t take them for granted. Make sure they are published without errors and on the correct schedule. Promote them in print and online. Be sure your newsroom is aware of those notices because quite often those can result in high-interest news stories.

• Finally, consider what your newspaper can offer that no one else does — then develop a plan on how to market that service. Does the physical location of your newspaper present an opportunity for you to have an electronic billboard? If so, sell spots on that for at least a six-month period. Most newspapers no longer are in the printing business, but the need for business cards, letterheads and envelopes can present a revenue opportunity. If you don’t want to invest in digital equipment to do that, then outsource that work. Seek ways to draw people into the newspaper office. Perhaps being a drop-off location for UPS and FedEx would be helpful. Do whatever it takes to make people appreciate the varied services you provide.

Chip Hutcheson is the retired publisher of The Times Leader in Princeton, Kentucky. He was NNA president in 2015. He currently serves as a content strategist for Kentucky Today, the online news website of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. Email him at chiphutcheson@yahoo.com