The 2016-17 Campus News VIP Plan. Contact: Darren Johnson, Publisher, Campus News E-Mail: editor@campus-news.org Phone: 518-879-0965
Introduction to Campus News. I
n February 2010, the first issue of Campus News hit about a dozen two-year colleges in the New York Metro area.
At the time, the idea seemed counterintuitive. Print media was shrinking, the pundits said, especially among the younger demographic.
With our original graphic designer.
And while they were right about the younger demographic abandoning the newspapers of their parents’ generation, they were wrong about niche papers like Campus News, that are written by students, for students. So, as community college journalism departments, based on the punditry, started abandoning their print papers, Campus News kept growing. It now hits 37 campuses and prints over 100,000 issues a year. It’s easily the largest community college newspaper in the world! Campus News is now a 32-page, full-color, saddlestapled newspaper, printed using recycled paper and eco-friendly inks. The campuses embrace it. Student readers love it. Our student writers go on to prestigious four-year journalism programs and intern at top national publications.
Publisher Darren Johnson keeps the integrity of the product high while streamlining production, making it a safe and affordable place for advertisers to be.
Our student writers intern at places like Cosmo.
The publisher.
Founded with you in mind. F
or several years, founder Darren Johnson was a part-time journalism instructor and newspaper advisor at a large community college. The paper was on the verge of collapse and Johnson rallied students and worked with advertisers to keep it going.
As he was about to depart for a college upstate, he asked the advertisers – colleges in the New York Metro area – what they thought of the idea of Campus News, a paper that hits multiple two-year college campuses. They thought it was a great idea, solving a common problem they had: gaining brand recognition among the growing population of potential transfer students. How else could these students consistently hear about transfer opportunities at four-year colleges? Thus, Campus News was born, serving three distinct purposes: It helps keep the student bodies on the campuses informed; it helps keep student journalism vibrant at the twoyear college level; and it helps
students meet their goals of graduation and then transfer to institutions like yours.
Colleges spend tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece, sending reps to transfer fairs, producing expensive direct mailings, buying e-mail lists, and buying ads in mediums that don’t directly hit their target. Here is a popular media product that hits the bullseye, and, because it uses newsprint and student writers, can do so affordably, passing the savings on to advertisers.
Campus News wouldn’t exist without institutions like yours, and we are very appreciative. In the pages ahead, see why our VIP Plan was specifically designed to help you. Thank you for your support!
What is the VIP Plan? E
ach year we partner with six to eight regional four-year colleges on what has been dubbed the “VIP Plan.” This is a bit of a misnomer, because the VIP Plan actually costs a lot less than buying ads a la carte.
But it’s very convenient and effective for both you and us because:
Your four-color spot is guaranteed month after month. Readers get used to seeing you on the same, high-profile page each issue. While 80 percent of our distribution is in the New York Metro Region, you also get free pickup for other regions, including New England and New Jersey. You also get editorial consideration: Our writers tell your story, and your press releases get the red carpet treatment. We’ve also become quite profi
cient with social media, search engines and the web – you get our expertise and traffic in those areas, as well. You get free banners and boosts, video links and interactive ads in our digital edition. The VIP Plan makes you a major player among transfer-minded students in this region.
Improve your brand recognition, create calls to action and influence not only students, but their influencers: faculty, advisors, parents and more. Be a VIP!
With the most amazing college paper route ever. O
ur “secret recipe” these past seven years has been an amazing route that blitzes 37 community college campuses over three days each month. It’s a supply-chain miracle!
We hit campus cafeterias, student unions, academic buildings, performing arts centers – you name it. And we very carefully inventory our racks and changing student demographics at each campus to maintain an incredible pickup rate of 95 percent per campus. You probably send representatives to community college campuses, for a few hours each semester. Being in Campus News is like having a representative on campus 24/7, every day of the year. And that ad will reinforce your institution in the minds of students for when your rep does visit.
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A la carte: Rate card. VIP: All issues, all regions, free pickup.
College students still love print. W
e were very well received at the national Future of Student Media Summit in April at Ohio University,
We knew that students at the 37 community colleges we serve like us, but we found the hundreds of students there deeply interested in what we’re doing with our print product.
For the conference, Borrell Associates and the College Media Association commissioned an intensive study. The results: College students still love their printed newspapers and advertisers consider college newspapers crucial to their 2016-17 campaigns. The ads in print resonate!
Print ads are a classy way to tell your story. G
reat photography, exciting copy, modern design – the art of the color print ad is alive and well.
And it’s a style of advertising that you can’t replicate in other forms of media. A reader will surely see your print ad. Unlike with TV and fast-forwarding and the Internet with adblocking, newspaper readers do at least glance at every page. And those truly interested in your ad can spend quality time with it. They can dogear it, mark it up or cut it out and save it for later. You can truly impress them with this type of advertising.
Quality institutions don’t advertise in tacky ways – a print ad is as classy as it gets.
With Campus News, you will be in a well-printed publication exactly targeted to your audience, next to vetted news.You can’t hit the target any better and more safely than this.
Another plus of this type of advertising: Your office can become a team again.
Print ads require inspiration and cooperation.Your writer will work with your layout artist who will work with your photographer. Your supervisor will want to look it over.
Your team will meet and bounce ideas off the wall. There will be back and forth.
This is the way advertising is supposed to be. Get inspired. Be sure to include this very creative medium in your 2016-17 campaign!
Our web site is also a big hit. P
rinting newspapers, distribution, social media ... sometimes we forget how great our own web site is!
Using Word Press and linked with a new app, with a direct connection to Google News and a feed on Apple News, the site actually grows year after year, now with over 100,000 hits a year.
The site also provides access to digital versions of the paper, plus publishes stories that don’t make the print edition. We’re confident our web audience is similar to our print audience. When we cross-promote the web site with ads in the printed paper, using contests and other promotions as incentive, a significant increase in very specific traffic occurs.
Our site rates high using many indicators: It has a high trust rating and is a Top 100 college newspaper site in the country. Amongst two-year college paper sites, it’s No. 1.
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A la carte price: N/A. VIP price: Free.
Campus News will be your Facebook friend. C
ampus News founder Darren Johnson is an expert with social media, having spearheaded one of the first paid Facebook campaigns in the SUNY System. He presented at SUNYCUAD last year on the topic: “Facebook and Twitter: Paid and Free.” Using the Campus News brand and the right formula of photography, copy and a trackable link, here’s another way to reach students and potential students. For example, we can target a
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campaign to hit students geographically, by age and by affiliation with your feeder community colleges and/or high schools.
Community college students, in particular, are very aware of the Campus News brand. After all, the paper is everywhere. They have seen it and like it.
So when they see our brand on Facebook, tied to your call-to-action, it will carry a lot more weight than if you boosted yourself or with another company.
A la carte price: 33% of buy. VIP price: 10,000 impressions free; 25%, if more are desired.
It’s all about Google, too. C
ampus News has done everything right when it comes to being on Google; and our stories about you get prime placement on the world’s most important search engine.
Campus News has built its positive reputation on Google by not selling out its original content, not taking on inauthentic ventures and avoiding the companies that try to manipulate code to get better “SEO.” Such approaches may work in the short term, but eventually Google catches on, and shortcut tactics end up being a waste of your time, resources and money.
Slowly and carefully, we have been a good partner with Google, and were accepted to be on Google News in 2014.
Our placements not only land on the authoritative Google News and via Google Alerts, but also atop Google’s main search engine!
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A la carte price: N/A. VIP price: Free.
We are also a team of writers, telling your story – well. A
n advertiser in the VIP Plan finds its year capped off with a story written by one of our staff writers about the institution.
This isn’t “advertorial” or “native advertising.” These are very real stories written in the style of the paper, using journalistic standards, and thus extremely valuable.
These stories appear up front on a full page of our print edition as well as on our web site. They also go out on Google News and get great Google rankings, because they are tied to our trusted brand. We find that institutional stories like these get clicked on for many
years after their initial publication. This is an everlasting value!
We also can write about particular programs you offer, for print or for the web. In tandem with social media and search engines and also linked to your institutional site, these stories can gain a lot of steam.
You may also want to republish them, to add to your admissions packages for prospective transfer students. We’d be happy to lend you our logo and design.
Public relations still has value. W
hether you have an inhouse PR staff, outsource it to an agency or some combination therein, the traditional press release is as valuable as ever. We treat press releases in a number of ways. They may make the print edition, or we may assign a writer based on the release.
press releases on our web site right away. From there, they get pushed out on Google News. Then, they get picked up by your influencers via Google Alerts. They also may make influential aggregators and widely read institutional “news clips.”
We appreciate the work of public relations officials, and look forward to working with your representative in 2016-17.
How we help. As an added value, we usually put
O
ver 50 different colleges send us press releases on a regular basis. We post those that may be of regional interest. Please have your PR representative add collegestories@cccn.us to his/her press release list.
We also encourage student-written stories, with bylines, from your campus about your institution.
A la carte: Free for regional community colleges only.
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VIP: Free for all colleges.
Our transfer students want to hear from you. O
ur polling shows that our readers don’t differentiate the ads from the news content. Considering the convergence of media that is unique to their generation, all content – ads and editorial – is taken simply at face value.
As well, because we treat ads as “content,” we do not allow certain types of ads in the paper. So your ad will only be in the same publication with similar, well-respected institutions.
On our end – and our steady advertisers will attest to this – we will go back and forth with you on an ad, if necessary, and its place in the paper. We want you to be happy.
Your advertising content is very timely, useful and appreciated.
Thus, ads in Campus News are treated as content.You are providing advice to our readers – transfer students seeking information.
We will let you know if there are errors in your ad, or if we feel your ad can be more effective with a different call to action. Our advice is free and our goal is to help you succeed in your goal.
Campus News is also in the transfer office waiting areas of most of the community colleges we serve, thus getting picked up by the very students seeking transfer advice.
Your VIP Plan. L
ast year and the year before, several colleges locked up the best parts of the paper, all editions, with over 100,000 copies in circulation/year as a part of the VIP Plan. Campus News has also given these colleges significant editorial coverage and run-of-website and other digital bonuses, at over 100,000 impressions. We anticipate that our digital presence will grow a good deal in 2016-17. Also, we have been working more closely with college PR offices in getting out institutional messaging. Most important, our print newspaper continues to grow in size and prestige, and our 2015-16 route was our most aggressive ever.
We will print over 100,000 papers in 2016-17 and a majority of them will hit your feeder colleges. Some of our top campuses are: Rockland (1000/month), Nassau (1600/month), Suffolk (1000/month), Queensborough (1300/month), Westchester (1000/month) and LaGuardia (1000/month) – these are all within a reasonable commute to your college. The paper is picked up by the smartest two-year students; those most likely to transfer. Having a prime VIP space guarantees that the ad will be seen by everyone and is a
major statement. It says to these students that your college is a big player in the college transfer game. To be a VIP in 2016-17, here are details:
2016-2017 rate: See last page; rates are net. circulation numbers/distribution: Over 100,000 print, with approximately about 80 percent going directly to your feeder colleges. run dates: The first of each month, September through June. deadlines: The 24th of each preceding month, except August and December, where it’s the 20th.
specs: 9.5”w x 11”h, color, PDF. free bonuses: Advanced PR placement on Google News (Up to 2/month), run of web site logo ads (100k impressions), full-page editorial coverage up front in the paper, hyperand video links in the digital edition (10k), Facebook boosts (10k) and free pickup in all editions/routes.
Suggested add-ons: social media: Boosting with our name can garner a new audience; we can target to transfers, who know our product. We can also promote on YouTube. Cost is 25% of gross buy. front cover stickers: Twice a year, add a 3” square sticker to the front page to promote open houses: $1150/month/gross.
So, how to sign up for ’16-17? B
ecause we are primarily a print publication, space is finite. There is only so much space, and only one each of the specialty spaces. So we need you to let us know as soon as you can your plans for 2016-17. The VIP spaces are on a first-come, first-serve basis, but we ask the 2015-16 advertisers first if they would like to keep their spots. Most of our advertisers stick with us year after year, but we take on some new advertisers, too. Tell us your direction by calling
518-879-0965 or email ads@cccn.us, and we will send you a plan. We are extremely flexible with invoicing and are used to dealing with colleges and/or agencies. Most colleges book for the coming year in May and June, to billed in August or September 1. Hopefully, this media kit has made it apparent that the VIP Plan is an unparalleled bargain, and extremely easy to implement, hitting your transfer market directly.
CAMPUS NEWS 2016-17 VIP RATE CARD
VIP Adver'sers Book All 10 Issues With One of These Packages:
$13,500 Full Page, Back Cover
$11,500 Full Page, Inside Cover 9.5”w x 11”h; yearly; 10 issues; September 2016 through June 2017; first art due August 20.
$9000 Full Page in Center 9.5”w x 11”h; yearly; 10 issues; September 2016 through June 2017; first art due August 20.
$8000 Full, Odd Numbered Page 9.5”w x 11”h; yearly; 10 issues; September 2016 through June 2017; first art due August 20.
9.5”w x 11”h; yearly; 10 issues; September 2016 through June 2017; first art due August 20
Invaluable Free Bonuses! Only for VIP Adver'sers!
Press Releases
Great Editorial
Your press releases get priority on our web site, go out on Google News and influence your influencers!
We will assign one of our writers to cover your college, do an awesome story and run it in print and online.
VIP logos and links to each college’s transfer page appear all over the Campus News site: 120,000 impressions.
We’ll boost your story on Facebook to your feeder schools, with our branding behind it: 10,000 impressions.
Our digital PDF edi%on not only includes your print ad/link but also a video component: 10,000 impressions.
VIP ads go in all edi%ons – New York, New England, New Jersey and where ever we may expand to!
Run of Website Video Links
Social Media
Free Ad Pickup
VIP adver'sers not only get prime placement in the popular, proven newspaper. They also partner with Campus News on all of the above. Space is limited! Deadline: June 1.
Contact us! www.campus-news.org | ads@cccn.us | 518-879-0965