City Staff Take Charge Of Escondido City
Council Broadcasts
Like many papers across the country trying to boost their Sunday circulation, the San Diego Union-Tribune recently launched a Saturday edition of its Sunday paper.
The special Saturday edition, which the industry has dubbed the “Bulldog,” has Sunday’s coupons, sales circulars and other consumer items. It costs $1.50.
The edition also has pre-printed sections from the next day’s paper, such as Travel, Currents, Insight and TV Week.
For its first day, March 24, the paper printed 23,700 copies of the Bulldog edition and 14,381 were sold, said Jeff Sirota, the Union-Tribune’s single copy sales manager.
Last week, on March 31, 14,948 copies were sold, Sirota said.
Bill Gaspard, the paper’s senior editor focused on readership, said the Bulldog edition was launched in response to the Union-Tribune’s declining Sunday edition sales , a trend that is widespread among newspapers across the country, he noted.
Although the Sunday paper continues to have the strongest circulation numbers of the Union-Tribune’s editions, it’s in a faster rate of decline than the Monday through Friday editions, Gaspard said.
According to Sirota, the paper’s average circulation for the last four years were 454,085 in 1997, 450,646 in 1998, 450,788 in 1999 and 439,367 last year.
While papers such as the Chicago Tribune have had a similar Bulldog edition for many years, the idea has been picked up in recent years by publications such as the Indianapolis Star and the Boston Globe.
In San Diego, the Bulldog edition is sold at local grocery and convenience stores, “high-traffic, single-copy sites,” Gaspard said.
The Union-Tribune’s Bulldog edition, with the four major news sections in front, has a different design from the regular papers. It’s more colorful and has additional references to stories inside the issue.
Although it’s had a varying amount of success in actually boosting papers’ Sunday circulation, the Bulldog edition has proven most successful in markets where it’s been the longest, Gaspard said. “It’s something that will build over time,” he said.
Although no one from the Union-Tribune would release any figures, the paper is reportedly spending more than $100,000 to market the new edition.
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Escondido, 92025:
Because of new broadcast equipment, the city of Escondido’s staff has taken over the broadcasting of its City Council meetings. It had previously been done by Cox Communications. City employees had been videotaping the meetings for years, but Cox had handled the actual playback of tapes from their facilities.
The City Council meetings continue to air on Cox’s Channel 17 at 6 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays in Escondido homes.
Signings:
Berkman Communications recently picked up two accounts, the launch of Hawaiian Airlines’ new flight service between Honolulu and San Diego, and the Gemological Institute, which is located in North County. Drasnin Communications has been helping promote Cox Communications’ new women’s soccer team, the San Diego Spirit.
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Sound Bites:
April looks to be a sentimental month for local ABC affiliate KGTV, Channel 10. Its longtime weather anchor, “Captain” Mike Ambrose, is retiring. The station is planning a monthlong farewell celebration. Once the station’s main weather anchor, Ambrose began doing the weekend newscasts in April 1999. A replacement has yet to be hired, according to a KGTV spokeswoman. Locally based Stoorza Communications has lured Gateway Inc.’s John Spelich to be its new executive vice president of PR. Spelich was director of investor communications at Gateway and had been with the company since mid-’99. Before that, he had been with the Ford Motor Co. for 11 years. Bailey-Gardiner Inc. recently promoted Francine Crocker to senior vice president of advertising.
The deadline for the next Media & Marketing column is April 12. Rodrigues can be reached at (858) 277-6359, Ext. 107, or via e-mail at trodrigues@sdbj.com.
