I hope I've heard this correctly.
For the Thanksgiving holiday/weekend, 2.6 million inserts will be added to the local newspaper.
Having worked at the Vindicator for 22 years most of the time when the downtown was full of stores I saw some pritty thick Thanksgiving Day papers full of supplements (ads) but nothing even coming close to 2.6 million. There simply aren't that many stores in the valley to run supplements. A thick paper full of ads yes, that happens every year but not 2.6 million. My goodness, the paper would have to use semi's just to deliver the papers to the stores and larger trucks for home delivery.
As it is, more often than not the Sunday and holiday editions are delivered in two deliveries leaving the stores to put them together Sunday morning.
Jay, I took a look at the Vindicator circulation numbers, and if the figure of 2.6 million represents all the inserts they would boil down to the following::
Daily....................62,100 with 42 inserts
Sunday................87,000 with 30 inserts
Given that many inserts are single sheet, 4 pages and 8 pages that should come down to an average Thanksgiving paper
From the Sunday, November 20, newspaper, page A2
Todd Franko writes
"All tolled, nearly 2.7 million shopping inserts will be processed in our place just for the Thanksgiving newspaper"
He goes on the ask viewers to watch the WFMJ Today Show on Wednesday morning to see how much work is involved in the process of inserting the ads into the newspaper.
Jay: Again, when the paperboy delivers the Thanksgiving paper to your door, there will not be 2.7 million inserts in it. Did you read the whole article?
Franko also said this: "First is our largest newspaper of the year Thursday with 53 shopping inserts that will be available around midnight Wednesday."
Now I admit that is thick, and I will look forward to reading each and every insert from cover to cover over a hot mug of hot chocolate.
After I finish Thanksgiving dinner of:
Thanksgiving Menu
Turkey and Dressing
Mash Potatioe and gravey
Zucchini Pancake
Cranberry Saue
Artachoke hearts
Olives
Pickled Beets
Fried Peppers
Oysters
Shrimp
Celery Sticks
Rolls
Vegetable Juice
Coffee
Peaches
Pumkin Pie
After dinner treat:
Hot Chocolate
Bon Bon's
Later in the evening:
Egg Nog
Crackers and assorted cheese cubes
What is the newspaper's real daily circulation?
The math doesn't seem right for 2.7 million total inserts at 53 inserts per newspaper.
All newspapers are audited and have to report the actual press run to the Audit Bureau, and can get into very deep legal trouble if they pad their press run. No newspaper is going to print more papers than are called for in their subscription list plus sales at stores and newspaper vending machines. All unsold papers are returned to the newspaper so that they know exactly how many papers were unsold, and in subsequent press runs the number of newspapers printed is adjusted.
The official Audit Bureau numbers are:
62,100 daily
87,000 Sunday
As to Editor Franko's numbers, since he is the Managing Editor, I'm sure that he knows the number of inserts that will be going into the paper, but if you question his numbers you might give a call to the papers Advertizing Manager who knows the exact number.
One thing that may account for any discrepency could be the number of papers that might be printed over and above the normal press run since it is a holiday paper. It's not unheard of for a newspaper to print extra holiday papers.
Jay: If you are interested the information about the Vindicator circulation, you can find it in the publication: Standard Rates and Data - Newspaper Edition at the Library. Besides the paper's ad rate card, the circulation figures are published along with other technical data.
So how much did all those inserts weigh?
Our newspaper today wasn't very impressive in size. I've seen bigger Sunday issues.
Then I went to buy some coffee because our coffee maker died and lo and behold, the papers there are easily 50% thicker in the store. My wife then called the Vindy and was told that home delivery papers don't contain the same inserts as store bought issues.
My wife was on hold while I posted the previous post. When cust service returned they determined that we were, in fact, missing a big chunk of ads, Target and Best Buy to name a couple. They said that these were in a seperate bundle that we must not have received and they would send a truck out.
My wife then spoke to her mother who lives around the corner and told her that her paper was laying at the base of her paperbox and a big bundle of ads was in the paperbox.
Sure enough, I went down to my box, and there it was. I didn't look in there the first time because my paper was a good 10 - 12 feet up my driveway and I got nowhere near the paperbox to begin with.
A second call to the Vindy canceled the truck and all is well.
FWIW, I believe that the second bundle is about as thick as the paper in the store whick means the home editions are probably thicker.
The total weight of the paper is 4 pounds 6 ounces provided you received one each of all the inserts that you were suposed to get.