Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Increases Mail Budget
THANKS TO A multimillion-dollar database investment in 2000, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will shift resources from telemarketing to direct mail this year and try to do a better job of targeting in both channels.
The paper has boosted its mail budget by 50% and expects to send out 470,000 acquisition pieces, compared with roughly 200,000 last year. But the drops will be smaller and more segmented than those the paper has been mailing in recent years.
In 2001, for example, the Journal Sentinel conducted one 70,000-piece mailing during the first quarter. This year, it mailed 130,000 pieces in five separate efforts, each targeting a special reader group.
One of these, a 20,000-piece drop, went to a list of golfers obtained from customer data services firm Acxiom Corp., and to golf contest entrants and participants in First Tee, a children’s golf program. These prospects were offered tickets to a Wisconsin golf show as an incentive for ordering 26 weeks of seven-day delivery.
The pieces touted the paper’s increased golf coverage
