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Discover Mid-America — February 2005

That distribution thing
by Bruce Rodgers, Editor/Publisher

Occasionally, I get questions about how and where Discover Mid-America is distributed within our eight-state network.

We get DMA out the door and into the hands of our advertisers and readers through a number of ways. Around 500 copies or so are shipped directly from our printer in St. Joseph, MO to our ad rep Vera McGhee in Oklahoma and to our subscribers scattered around the Midwest. The rest are shipped down to our offices in the historic River Market area in Kansas City, MO.

From there, we use a local newspaper distributor for KC area drops, and then we FedEx the bulk of the issue to towns and cities to areas beyond. Each month, Al Hedrick, our senior ad rep, and myself hit the road, also. Al goes mostly north and northwest of KC; I roam from the Richmond/Lexington, MO area on the east, to Harrisonville, MO south and on to Topeka, KS west on my delivery journeys. Delivering DMA gives me that proverbial “face time” with advertisers —something I enjoy even given the time constraints of delivering the issue.

One afternoon in Lawrence, KS, Dennis Oakley wanted to know if he could get more papers to distribute in his Antique Bazaars downtown mall. I agreed but, admittedly, we went through a little exchange about the number of papers an advertiser should get. A day later, I went through a similar discussion with Larry Dilley, owner of Those Were the Days antique mall in Warrensburg, MO.

It's indicative of DMA's success that we get requests for more papers, and we try to comply, particularly —as in the case of Dennis and Larry —when I'm being told that by mid-month Discover Mid-America is gone while their customers continue to request it.

Contrary to what other publishers think, I believe that in the free newspaper business, it's not how many copies you spread across an area, it's how many of your papers are picked up and used. For Discover Mid-America, the return rate (of undistributed papers) exceeds industry standards. That's the whole point —for our advertisers' ads to be seen and our readers getting the information they want.

To help our advertisers increase foot traffic, we distribute to places that don't advertise. Readers can find DMA at many highway/interstate tourist information centers in the Midwest —sometimes a fee is charged to us to have them there —and through various chamber of commerce offices, museums, historic sites, B&Bs and a few hotel/motels. We bear the cost of that distribution, also.

It's all part of our commitment to our advertisers and readers.

Contact Bruce Rodgers at
publisher@discoverypub.com

> Editor’s Notebook Archive — past columns