May applies circulation skills to the Web

When it was searching for someone to run its online operation, The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York, found the perfect candidate — in the circulation department.

Circulation veteran Julie May is now in the middle of her second year as director of new media at DemocratandChronicle.com, and the novelty of the move hasn't completely worn off.

"I am really surprised," said May, who led a discussion during API's Circulation Executives seminar March 20. "I think too often the newspaper as an organization sees circulation as only an operation department."

What many overlook in circulation, May said, is the need to coordinate numerous components into an efficient operation. That skill is more than just welcomed in an online environment — it's vital.

"In the online department, I have sales people, I have really technical people, a graphic artist and news people, all with their own agendas," May said. "And to make people feel like we're all on one team together was a huge accomplishment and definitely needed because we were not moving forward as a cohesive unit."

May also spoke of many sleepless nights early in her tenure, caused by an abundance of start-ups trying to cut into the Democrat and Chronicle's market.

She finds herself more rested in the mornings these days, however. Many of those would-be competitors have run out of funding and faded away. That's helped the Gannett newspaper's online division move closer than ever to profitability. May also credits a recent change in philosophy with reducing the amount of stress in her life.

As a member of the Democrat and Chronicle's operating committee, May was a strong advocate of making the Web site a portal, called e-Rochester. That goal has since changed.

"We wanted to be everything Rochester and still use news, but in a role that was relegated to 'Oh yeah, and the news is provided by the Democrat and Chronicle,'" May said.

Fortunately for the newspaper, a local Rochester television station tried a similar Web portal approach first, and failed.

"We saw their market share completely plummet," May said. "We started to feel like, 'You know what, we should stay all one brand, but not dilute the brand, and not compete against each other and leverage the strength of one to the other.' We were walking down that same path. That would have destroyed what we had."

May said she tries to use the "all one brand" approach now when working with other branches of the newspaper, like classified advertising, which expresses concerns about online content cannibalizing newspaper sales.

Playing the role of devil's advocate, May poses a simple question: "Who would you rather lose the eyeballs to: your online product or Monster.com?

"It's easy for print circulation to say online is evil, but it's easy for me to say, we're on the same team," May said. "It only matters to the person placing the ad that the job gets filled."

That's not to say the Democrat and Chronicle has no specific measures in place to prevent the Web site from eroding newspaper sales. There's a strict rule that no more than 40 percent of the newspaper's content can be made available online.

"Duplication is really scary, from the perspective of a circulation person," May said.

And while that can make for some delicate maneuvering between departments, May said the Web site uses some basic knowledge about its online traffic and newspaper sales to help make some of the decisions easier.

For example, as users take advantage of higher-speed connections at work, most of DemocratandChronicle.com's traffic occurs on weekdays between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Concurrently, 90 percent of the newspaper's single-copy sales are completed by 11 a.m. During the peak Web site traffic periods, DemocratandChronicle.com places more of an emphasis on updating the site with content not found in the newspaper.

Also, knowing that a great deal of its Web traffic is from out-of-town visitors looking for unique content on area sports teams, editors place a greater emphasis on sports on the Web site than in the print product.

While May's career has changed in many ways in her new role, some things will never change. She will always have to be concerned with promoting the product, whatever form it comes in.

After her presentation to this year's seminar attendees, May talked about some of the tips she picked up from when she attended API's Circulation Executives seminar in 1998.

May took home several ideas from that program. In addition to developing a retention department and adding a system of "loyalty codes" to the Democrat and Chronicle's customer information database, May got the idea to have baby bibs made up that read, "Future Headline Maker."

"I had a six-month-old when I came here, and I thought, 'Geez, how do you get to a parent? They're too busy to read the paper.' As soon as I saw the bib, I thought, 'That's how you get to the kids.'"