Eliminating

waste,

increasing

efficiency

SITUATION:
The Hour is a newspaper publishing company located in Norwalk, CT that publishes several local newspapers including The Norwalk Hour, Stamford Times and Wilton Villager. The process of invoicing their subscribers was becoming cumbersome. The Hour would order various continuous multiple-part forms for each publication, store, print and mail them weekly. Besides the extra workload, the ability to make changes or add marketing information was difficult or not an option. Hygrade recommended they consider outsourcing this function to enhance versatility.

WHAT WE PROVIDED:
Hygrade worked with The Hour to design a new 4-color laser form to be used for all publications. The new design was easier to read and allowed for additional marketing messages to be added as needed. They also now have the capability to send additional inserts announcing other services the paper offers. These inserts can be sold to their advertisers as a means of delivering marketing messages to the paper’s subscribers. Through our ez.processing platform, the messages and inserts can be tailored to a specific demographic segment or sent to all subscribers. The invoices are distributed weekly within 24 hours of receipt of files posted to our FTP site.

RESULTS:
The Hour's process for getting their invoices to the subscribers was not efficient. The forms they were using were expensive to produce, and difficult to print, burst and mail. They also received numerous complaints from customers who had difficulty reading the carbon imaged information on the forms. By outsourcing this to Hygrade, the publisher provided a cleaner-looking invoice form that resulted in fewer customer payment errors and complaints, which improved cash flow. It also gave them the flexibility to advertise or sell additional insert advertising, thereby reducing their overall costs. Finally, we were able to offer them additional savings in postage. Overall, this has allowed The Hour to concentrate on their core business, selling newspapers.