MANSI Media, Oct. 30

E-tearsheets: Better than sliced bread?

By David LoBianco, Manager, Tearsheet Operations
MANSI Media, (717) 703-3044

To me, talk of electronic tearsheets serves not only as a stepping stone into the future of newspapers, but also as a reminder of newspaper history. From stone etchings to handwritten paper notices to the printing press. And the telegraph and fax machine, then the Internet and e-mail.

In every case, the newspaper industry has used the latest technological innovations to get the information out to their audience more effectively and efficiently – always with growth in circulation. Faced with more challenges due to the Internet, we need to begin to look for ways to use this medium as a resource instead of competition. I think that creating a Web site to harness advertising dollars is great, but can we use the Internet to further our print product as well?

Electronic tearsheets are one of the most effective ways to cut costs and improve communications with advertisers. Whether a newspaper makes electronic tearsheets available itself or through an outside provider (www.shoom.com, www.merlinone.com, www.presteligence.com are some of the more prolific examples), they have many advantages.

• Time – According to Ronnie Walter, an employee at The Morning Call in Allentown, “the benefit ... is that the advertiser has access to the tearsheets beginning at 9 a.m. the day of publication” and the “savings of man hours used in collecting the tearsheets.” While not all electronic tearsheet sites will have them available right at 9:00 a.m., they are always viewable sooner than they could have been mailed.
  
• Money – James Nylander at the Pocono Record in Stroudsburg notes that “by using e-tears we eliminate much of the expense of mailing them.” There are still those advertisers who insist on physical tearsheets, but for every one client who accepts them, that still means savings.
  
• Manpower – Whenever time is saved and money is saved, efficiency is increased, leading to less necessary manpower to get the same job done. Last time I checked, less work to get the same job done is a good thing.
  
• Trustworthiness – As Ronnie Walter explains, “The PDF for the tearsheet system is created from our pagination system after the page has been sent to plate for the pressrun. In fact, one of the employees in quality control creates the PDF files at the end of the night. Down to the color.” The last thing done before a page goes to press is that it is approved for electronic tearsheets sounds like there is not much questioning the authenticity of what appeared on that page.
  
• E-mail Links – Sally Young at Lancaster Newspapers Inc. notes that “The customer controls the tearsheet. They get an e-mail when they have an ad in the paper that has a direct link to the ad.” There is not even the need to log onto a site and memorize dozens of passwords; you simply open up your e-mail and there are your ads.
  
• Space Saving – Rather than trying to keep an entire room full of folded newspapers in organized piles, you only have to keep your computer organized. No more tripping over newspaper stacks. Enough said.
  
• Position Reports – There are certain clients out there who insist on knowing on which page number their ad ran on, which section it ran in and how many pages were in that section. And they want this information the same day the ad runs. For an advertiser, taking a few seconds to look on a Web site for an ad is quicker than asking our employees to flip through that day’s paper.
  
• Opposite/Adjacent/Competition – These same clients often want to know where their closest competition ran or what was on the opposite or adjacent page to their ad. James Nylander’s comments on this included, “There are a number of accounts who ... required us to call them the day their ad ran to report position and position of any competitors ads. E-tears has cut down on most of those calls.” Even if a car dealer wanted to know where the closest dog food ad ran, he or she would have the ability to do just that.

And all of these advantages don’t even go into the number of times that I have washed my hands after working with physical tearsheets and had the water run black from newsprint ink. However, with all of these pros, are there any cons? I asked a few people at newspapers that already have electronic tearsheets. Here is what we came up with.

• Lost Visual Impact – When something is printed onto 8.5” x 11” paper the same feeling is not evoked as with a full 6 column, 21” newspaper page. However, if we are just trying to prove to a client that an ad ran, feeling is not an issue.
  
• Download Time – Some files (mostly on pages with all color) can get very large and take a long time to download. That being said, most files are under 10 megabytes and unless you have the slowest of dial-up connections, this download is not going to take longer than a few minutes.
  
• Color – Everyone I talked to had this concern, but not because the color would not show up as printed. The concern was that the same color might look different on a computer background, a white colored paper background and a newsprint colored background.
  
• Paper Name/Date – In a few papers that I have dealt with, when a full page ad is run, the paper name and date do not appear at the top of the page. In these cases, it is often necessary to provide a physical tearsheet for proof of publication.

Now that your head is swimming with all these e-tearsheet facts, what do you think? Are e-tearsheets affordable, efficient and trustworthy? I believe that the answer is one resounding YES. Feel free to contact me if I can help convince you that e-tearsheets are the way to go.

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