In the face of a growing number of print competitors, The San Luis Obispo Tribune wanted to increase their automotive advertising market share. In September of 2006, they launched a new stand-alone weekly automotive section using their online Cars.com inventory in a process developed with Classified Concepts. The Auto Directory section publishes every Thursday in print, with an accompanying interactive online map, highlighting the participating auto dealers’ locations.
Result
The Tribune reports that they are delighted with the results. The revenue is all plus business, supplementing their traditional Friday and Saturday automotive advertising. They will realize over 13% revenue growth from this program.
In addition to running in the paper every Thursday, the Tribune prints an overrun for stand-alone distribution. They report that due to customer and advertiser demands, they have expanded the distribution area, added more pick-up locations, increased their print run, and are seeing extremely low rack returns.