Read All About It!

The ins and outs of publishing a show daily

By Patrick Quinn

From a generation which pioneered overnight couriers and fax machines, the popularity of daily newspapers published at industry expositions should not be surprising. In an arena where people have come together for the purpose of exchanging information, the show daily is an immediate communication vehicle precisely tailored to the attendees' needs.

"The reasons one publishes a trade show daily are the same as the reasons for publishing a daily newspaper in any town," says Wayne Atwood, President of Atwood Convention Publishing in Overland Park, KS, which specializes in publishing show dailies. "A show is a temporary community, and the paper serves the communication needs of that community."

Typically published each day of the show, the newspapers are generally tabloid size, and range from eight to 32 pages. While some associations produce full-color, magazine-style books, most show dailies are printed on paper a few grades higher than newsprint, with color reserved for ads and cover pages.

Although producing a show daily is an arduous task, experienced show managers cite a variety of benefits that can justify the effort. A newspaper can enhance specific segments of a show which historically have poor attendance. It can increase awareness of the exhibitors and their products. It is often an effective membership-recruitment tool when used to highlight the association or organization sponsoring the event. And, most importantly to many, a show daily generates revenue.

"That's a spin-off benefit," says Rick Dobson, CEM, Vice-President of Exhibits and Associate Membership at the National Association of Broadcasters. "The paper first has to stand on its own, irrespective of any profits. Once it does that, profit is a nice secondary benefit -- in our case, a fairly substantial secondary benefit."

Although most show managers claim that potential profit is among the chief reasons for publishing a paper, the magnitude of that profit can vary greatly based on everything from the size of the paper to the effectiveness of advertising sales efforts. Atwood also cautions show managers against relying too heavily on profit estimations derived from show managers in other industries. "Individual marketplaces are too diverse," he says. "Even the city in which you're publishing can affect your profit."

According to Ross Helter, Publisher of CustomNEWS, a trade show daily publisher in Bethesda, MD, "A typical, moderately successful, small show daily will consist of three 16-page issues. If you assume that you receive $3,000 per ad page, that you sell some four-color advertising and that your average ad agency commission is 10 percent, those three issues should generate a total gross income of about $30,000. Your cost -- including the services of a company like ours -- will be around $25,000. So you're looking at a profit in the neighborhood of $5,000."

Although many associations do utilize the services of companies such as Atwood and CustomNEWS, still more have learned that with careful planning and diligent organization show dailies can be successfully published in-house.

Advance planning
For associations considering show dailies, the first step is to determine whether a paper is actually needed. Myriad factors affect this decision including the number of hotels being utilized, the amount of activities taking place on and off the show floor and the number of attendees and exhibitors. Although the reception a show daily receives will differ from show to show, most experts agree that shows with less than 1,000 attendees, housed in one hotel, with few extraneous activities, probably do not need a daily paper.

Veteran publishers also warn show managers not to write-off dailies simply because their associations already produce monthly magazines and show directories. "So many things go on at one of our shows that don't fit into a conventional program," says Elissa Myers, Publisher of Association Management magazine at the American Society of Association Executives. "On a Saturday night there might be more than 30 committee, task force and board meetings going on. And things occur spontaneously. A daily gives you the ability to inform attendees of those things at a glance."

The size of a show daily will be governed in a large part by the resources available to show management. As the number of pages increase, so do the number of hours needed to sell ads and write copy. A basic guide used by many show managers is to establish realistic estimates on the number of ad pages they can sell, and then increase the page count by 40 percent for editorial. Few show managers will allow editorial coverage to drop below 40 percent since they want the paper taken seriously, and not thought of as simply an advertising vehicle. Total page counts should be divisible by eight or 16 so that papers can be printed in press "signatures."

Staffing for a show daily is a major organizational hurdle for most associations. An editor is needed, along with writers, a photographer, production staff and runners. For those organizations already publishing a monthly magazine, the in-house staff can usually run the entire operation. For those associations relying on show management to produce the daily, staff can be supplemented with local freelancers hired well in advance of show dates. Since most of the daily production steps take place after the show closes, and well into the night, most show managers are involved only in a supervisory capacity.

Content
The content of each day's paper is planned well in advance of the onsite operations. In fact, many articles are completely written before leaving the office, and others are story "shells" needing only a few quotes to complete them. "All our ads and about 40 percent of our copy is generated beforehand," explains Bill Leonard, an Associate Editor with the Society for Human Resource Managers. His staff contacts major speakers before the show to obtain photographs and abstracts of their presentations so that preview stories can be prepared prior to the event.

Other articles which can be written in advance include issues facing the industry, special announcements to be made on-site, an annual recap of association accomplishments, trends to prepare for in the coming year and general business articles on topics such as financial management and personnel recruitment.

Many show managers recommend keeping the daily focussed on the show floor. "The whole reason you create a show daily is to help increase awareness of the show and the exhibitors," says Atwood. "The daily is going to be a more meaningful communication vehicle when it's centered on the exhibitors and their products."

Exhibitors can be encouraged to hold demonstrations in their booths which can be outlined in a schedule in the paper. Exhibitor announcements can be heralded along with "new products on the show floor." An advisory article on "getting the most from your trade show visit," can help attendees "work" the show floor. And an explanation of the show's lead system can help not only attendees but exhibitors as well.

Local information is a staple of most show dailies including a list of area restaurants, special attractions to visit, maps outlining shuttle bus routes, a list of headquarter hotels with phone numbers and a schedule of hospitality suite locations and "open" times.

To help enhance the "immediate" nature of the show daily, the bulk of the editorial space is generally reserved for recapping yesterday's events and highlighting today's. Award presentations, schedule changes and educational programs are usually given top billing. In fact, many show managers use exciting "preview" articles to help increase attendance at typically small events such as late afternoon sessions.

Selling ads
Although some show managers fear that selling trade show daily advertising to exhibitors conflicts with efforts to sell advertising in the association magazine or show directory, Elissa Myers believes that the two vehicles are significantly different. "The daily is a different buy," she says. "Exhibiting at a show is an effective way to generate interest and visibility. The daily allows exhibitors to run different ads specifically designed to create traffic at the booth."

In addition to offering an opportunily for booth-specific advertising, the daily offers what many publishers think is a more immediate "hit" on show attendees. The combination of live editorial, daily distribution and smaller bulk, means the daily is likely to remain in attendees' hands over the course of the day. The fact that the daily is significantly smaller than the show issue of the magazine also makes it more likely that attendees will read the entire publication while on site.

"The key to convincing advertisers that both the daily and the program or show magazine are worthwhile buys lies in the quality, knowledge and understanding of your salespeople," says Rick Dobson. "The two media aren't competing pieces. A show program is a 'keeper.' In many cases, attendees don't even really look at it until they get home. A daily is read every morning at the show, and then usually thrown away. That's what your salespeople have to communicate. Our program advertising didn't really drop when we began publishing dailies."

In some cases, publishers offer discounted package advertising buys that encompass both the show issue of the magazine and the daily paper. Such an arrangement offers the advertiser both a reduced rate and the opportunity to present attendees with two different types of print ads, each with a different shelf life.

Experienced daily publishers suggest minimizing the effort expended on attracting site-specific local advertisers such as restaurants, nightclubs and tourist attractions. "Those people put their advertising dollars into their local daily paper, tourist guidebooks and hotel media," says Ross Heller. "A trade show daily is probably too expensive for them."

Dobson however, thinks show managers can often find success pursuing national advertising. "Go after credit card companies and airlines," he urges. "It's not inconceivable that a corporation like American Express will underwrite the entire cost of a publication in return for exclusive advertising rights in the paper. Don't exclude anybody."

Production
For Bill Leonard, pre-press work for the society's show daily begins four months before the show when he sends bid solicitation letters to printers in the host city. That's followed by a four-day trip to evaluate each printer's facilities and quality of work. He also finds a one-hour photo processing lab near the show center and establishes a charge account.

Leonard and his staff use Pagemaker, a popular desktop publishing program on IBM-clone PCs. The equipment is set up on-site in a press room. Local freelance photographers are given event schedules and deadlines to ensure adequate coverage for the paper, and two members of Leonard's staff act as live reporters on the show floor.

Copy is typed on a word processor in the press room and transferred to the desktop publishing program for layout by the paper's editor. "We take that layout on disk to the printer, and he can print it out directly as a negative," says Leonard. "If we hand him the disk at 7:30 at night, he'll have us on the press at midnight. Printing takes two to three hours, then the papers are boxed and off to the hotels by 4:30. They're delivered to the bellmen, who have them outside the attendees' doors by 7:00 in the morning."

Associations without desktop technology must rely on their printer or a local type house for typesetting and paste-up services. These additional production steps can add as much as four hours to the printing process, which means that daily deadlines must be adjusted.

The distribution process can be expensive since virtually all hotels charge show management a fee for delivering papers to attendees' doors. These fees can range from fifty cents to $1.50 per room and should be negotiated with the hotel during regular contract talks.

Getting assistance
Show managers unable to invest the staff resources necessary to selfpublish a trade show daily are limited to two options. They can contract with local freelance editorial services to provide copy and photographs over the course of the show, or they can turn to companies like Atwood Convention Publishing and CustomNEWS for contract assistance. The National Association of Broadcasters, which draws as many as 50,000 attendees to its show, uses Atwood.

"A good show daily publisher can basically require nothing from you," Dobson says. "If you want them to do absolutely everything, they will. All the client is required to do is review the copy before it's set, bless it and sign off. We have one person on our staff who deals with the daily in addition to other responsibilities, and it isn't a burden."

Atwood offers a wide range of options from advertising sales to production consulting. "We can assist with things like dealing with local printers, photographers and suppliers," says Atwood. "We can limit our role to selling advertising for the paper. Or we can sell the advertising, provide writers and editors, produce a camera-ready publication and then distribute it."

Show managers may also discover that the publishers of trade magazines within their industry may wish to bid on trade show daily production. Publishing industry insiders report that trade magazine publishers are aggressively pursuing the show daily market, but are achieving little success in obtaining contracts from associations. This is generally attributed to the fact that the nature of monthly magazine publishing differs significantly from that of daily newspaper publishing.

Although contracting trade show daily newspaper production to an outside company can ease the burden on show management, Elissa Myers will never do it. "One benefit I see from all the intensity and effort that goes into this job is the sense of camaraderie it creates in the staff," she says. "There's almost a war-zone atmosphere in the press room, and that really builds team spirit and a sense of mutual commitment. It's a major, major job, but I see it as a grand adventure."