Denise Robbins
VP and Group Circulation Director, NewBay Media
Robbins has assembled a team of “go-getters” whose goals are to maintain control of customer data, take ownership of revenue and hunt for new opportunities.
When Denise Robbins joined NewBay Media in 2006, her peers thought she was crazy for taking the job. The company, whose properties were acquired from CMP and IMAS Publishing, had a lot of organizing to do.
“I had no staff in the beginning,” Robbins says. “I had just one person helping me to convert 22 titles from five different [fulfillment] vendors. Plus, I wanted to integrate all of the products into one database because otherwise it would have been pointless to have all of this data.”
As much work as it took—NewBay now has 38 print titles, nine events and 46 ancillary products—Robbins says that it definitely paid off to not have to depend on outsiders to handle customer data. “We just have this enormous flexibility,” she says. “We would be in a terrible position now if we had to work with and pay for multiple vendors.”
Although it’s difficult to quantify the total amount the company has saved since 2007, Robbins believes it’s in the tens of thousands. “For instance, we realized that we could save $16,000 this year by pulling the quarterly updates to our list manager manually and posting it their FTP site,” she says. “Previously, we were reliant on our fulfillment house for this. It has been such an integral part of how we’re doing business now, I can’t even remember how we ran our business before.”
Robbins is also proud that NewBay has become a champion in the arena of digital editions. Her team was able to convert over 10 percent of its overall subscriber bases to digital for all of the controlled titles through requests as well as increase Tech & Learning’s circulation by 20 percent last year by serving digital editions to subscribers that gave out their email addresses to NewBay and replacing them with new print subscribers, raising the rate base from 80,500 to 100,000.
Robbins says she’s also in favor of including non-request digital circulation in audit statements. “Digital editions may be just a steppingstone to another medium, but I’m flabbergasted by those who are so opposed to it,” she says. “Publishers have to figure out how their readers want to receive their information, and then give it them.”
Robbins also credits her team’s success to not being a bunch of “pencil pushers.” To her, this means taking ownership of revenue and finding new opportunities for leverage. “I think sometimes publishers don’t look at subscribers as revenue and they’re busy chasing rate base,” she says. “You need to stake your claim and don’t get minimized. If you are not taking responsibility, you’re not a part of the conversation.”
VITAL STATS
Robbins’ team is using digital editions to increase the circulation of its titles—the company increased Tech & Learning’s circ by 20 percent last year using digital editions.
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