NPN brings in $2 million to Newspapers
Progress is very good with the implementation of the National Preprint Network (NPN) says
Sharla Trillo, director of CNPA Advertising Services. Already the program has contributed more
than $2 million, all in plus business, to the newspapers.
NPN currently has 25 contracted members including in California: The Sacramento Bee, San
Francisco Chronicle, The Modesto Bee, Los Angeles Times, The Fresno Bee and The Record in
Stockton. About 25 additional papers are in discussion to join NPN. Over-the-phone training has
been completed for 20 of the member papers. Trillo said the other members are scheduled to
complete training soon.
The NPN steering committee – consisting of Newsday, Miami Herald, Star-Telegram in Fort
Worth, Texas, Los Angeles Times and CNPA – has added The Seattle Times to its membership
as the committee continues to expand the reach of the program. Part of that expansion includes
the NPN website, which is about 90 percent completed, Trillo said.The website,
www.nationalpreprintnetwork.com, includes a map of the markets covered and extensive
information on the program.
Gregg Dittoe, a member of the steering committee, founding member of NPN, along with
Trillo, and managing director of preprint and LCV for the Los Angeles Times, said the
newspaper industry has needed for a long time to make major changes in the way it has been
accessible to preprint clients.
“Clients have repeatedly requested that our industry become more convenient and cost
effective to enable seamless purchasing of preprints,” Dittoe said. “Until the development of
NPN, preprint clients were left with two choices: hire a third party placement service and pay for
this service; or maintain the necessary internal staff to execute a multi-market buy. Neither
option is optimal in the competitive and complex marketplaces throughout the U.S.”
Dittoe said that NPN provides the ideal solution because it enables clients to execute a single
source, single rate, single invoice, across a nationwide footprint. Dave Mulvehill,
Majors/National Sales Manager for The Record in Stockton, agrees.
“We compete better with one buy, one bill and one salesperson responsible for administering
the program,” Mulvehill said. “Opportunities arise daily for advertisers to re-direct their budgets
to other media and the newspaper industry is protecting our long-standing impact of delivering
useful consumer information daily with both ads and news.”
Each month the NPN staff is working on recruiting, training and querying circulation figures
for member papers. Dittoe said streamlining this process has been the greatest challenge in
creating NPN, including standardizing all elements from contract, material specifications, order
deadlines and transfer pricing.
“To facilitate ease and convenience for clients, it has been imperative for all members in the
NPN cooperative to provide standard terms,” Dittoe said.
The NPN process is client driven and the client selects which member markets they want to
be in.
“We are successfully placing a large national retailer in 11 markets as well as quoting two
national fast food chains who have agreed to do a test run with NPN,” Trillo said.
Altogether NPN has given quotes to seven potential clients.
“The flexibility of the NPN program allows us to accept or reject inserts on a per case basis
thus not jeopardizing current relationships within our market,” Mulvehill said.
Another challenge in creating NPN has involved a major philosophical change for the
individual NPN members, Dittoe said:
“For the first time involving preprint products, independent newspapers have agreed to fully
cooperate with one another, to subordinate their independent needs, for the benefit of clients.
This is a significant breakthrough for newspapers, and represents the sincere interest of all
members, to make it easy and convenient for clients to buy our collective services.”
For information on how to become involved in NPN contact Sharla Trillo at sharla@cnpa.com.
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