Plan to grow in 2025

Kevin Slimp

Jan 1, 2025

I always receive a lot of fan mail when I write a “10 tips” or “five best” column. In this digital age, I suppose we’ve all become accustomed to quick bites of information. With that in mind — and in honor of the final days of 2024 and the early part of 2025 — I’ve composed a list of tips for my newspaper friends and readers. I’m calling it:

Kevin’s Tips to Grow Your Newspaper in 2025

Tip 1: Make your customers feel special. Whether it’s your paid subscribers or advertisers, find ways to make them feel special in the coming year. Send hand-written notes to say “thanks” for supporting your local business. Make your subscribers feel special by adding a note with each subscription reminder. Make it a group effort. At many newspapers, staff take turns writing “thank you” notes with each subscription reminder. Personally deliver simple gifts to advertisers this year. I remember how much I always loved it when a vendor would drop by my office with a box of cookies or another small gift. I teach classes in communications and customer service. I often remind students that gaining a new customer takes 20 times more effort than keeping an existing customer. Job #1 is keeping our current customers happy.

Tip 2: Replace outdated equipment. Before you start yelling, I ask you to remember that I don’t get hardware and software for free, either. I purchased a new M4 Mac Mini in November, and I’ve not looked back. The speed at which I get my work done sometimes amazes me. I don’t have time to wait on slow equipment, and I don’t want to spend more on payroll so others can work on slow equipment. As the new year begins, look around your newsroom and make a list of outdated computers. Replace (or add to) your on-site backup drives each year. External drives tend to last two or three years. Page designers should not be working on five-year-old computers. The larger the monitor, the less time it takes to design a page. Time really is money.

Tip 3: If you haven’t already, create a master chart to track your sales calls. This tip is so important that I’m including it for a second straight year. Be sure to include columns for in-person, phone, text, and email contacts. Look over your calls with your ad manager or publisher at the end of each week. A master chart is a straightforward method for increasing the number of calls, guaranteeing increased ad revenue. It is also an excellent reminder to make more in-person calls rather than relying too much on email or other contact methods. My publisher friends tell me this step often makes a significant difference in sales.

Tip 4: Research and apply for grants. I spent an hour with a publisher who recently received a $100,000 grant this morning. Two newspapers I work with have received six-figure grants over the past few months. One publisher said they started applying for grants after hearing me speak about them at a newspaper association convention. Several other clients received grants in 2024 for $15-25K. Call the Small Business Bureau (In some states, grants come through the Economic and Community Development office.) and ask about grants for small businesses. You can also find information about grants at grants.gov.

Tip 5: Redesign your newspaper. I can’t think of anything that will kick-start excitement about a community newspaper more than a total redesign. If you’ve redesigned your paper in the past five years, feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph. If, however, it’s been more than five years since you’ve redesigned your paper, you are losing an excellent opportunity to keep existing readers and win over new readers and advertisers. A common theme among papers I’ve redesigned (No, you don’t have to hire me to redesign your newspaper.) is growth in readership, subscribers and ad revenue afterward.

Tip 6: Hold a staff brainstorming session. Schedule a time in advance so everyone can begin formulating ideas. There’s no better time than the beginning of a new year to gather your staff and ask, “What can we do to be better?” Get everyone away from their desks and hold the meeting in a conference room, or leave the office and meet in a restaurant meeting space. Have a whiteboard and marker handy. I’ve been around for many of these sessions, and the results are often remarkable. Ideas flow. Plans are made. Improvements happen almost immediately.

Tip 7: Get a high school reporter. Find a high school student — or a group of high school students — to provide weekly stories for your paper. Hold these stories to the same guidelines as other stories in your newspaper. At focus groups, I often hear readers speak out about their desire to learn more about what’s happening at the local high school. Plus, you just might attract younger readers.

I had planned to include 10 tips for newspapers in 2025. However, I passed my 800-word limit around the end of the sixth tip, and I learned long ago that most readers will never make it past 800 words. Let me take a personal moment for those who made it to the end of this column. I have been swamped with work in 2024, and 2025 doesn’t appear less busy. There are a lot of newspapers making serious plans to grow their papers. I’m noticing younger publishers and staff. I’m seeing a return to local ownership. Something good is happening in our industry, and I’m thankful to be a part of it.

Kevin Slimp is former director of The University of Tennessee Newspaper Institute and founder of NewspaperAcademy.com. kevin@kevinslimp.com.