Volume 9, No. 3 September 2010

INSIDE:Page 1:Publisher’s PerspectiveNew Vision

Page 2:Mission StatementVision Statement

Page 3:Tower and ChronicleFloors Refurbished

Consumer MarketingDepartment Changes

Page 4:Back-To-School DriveSuccess

Health Care ReformInformation

September, October,November Anniversaries

Page 5:Calendar of Events

Promotions & Transfers

Page 6:Employee GiftSubscriptions

The Spokesman-Review recentlyannounced its newmission and visionstatement in a seriesof companywidemeetings. The newmission and visionstatement is a productof a strategic planningprocess which started

as an exercise to examine our strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and threats(SWOTs) and evolved into a full examinationof our assumptions about our business and are-think on how we want to define it. Agroup of 18 managers worked to draft and re-draft these statements last month. The missiondescribes what we’re doing now and thevision describes what we are committed tomaking happen over the next five years.Subject to feedback from the broader commu-nity of employees and customers, we thinkthese statements capture several significantchanges in how we plan to do business goingforward:◆ We will extend our products and presence

to as many digital formats, tools anddevices as possible.

◆ We will shift our focus from householdsand front porches to individuals and theircomputer, tablet and phone screens.

◆ We will not only produce news and infor-mation but aggregate it from othersources.

◆ Our business will depend on maintainingtrust with our audiences and using whatwe know about them to better connectthem to news and information they want.

◆ We will capitalize on digital technology toallow transactions and feedback with cus-tomers 24/7.

The SWOT exercise yielded 438 ideas toconsider which consolidated into 12 maintopics. We plan to assign many of these tocross-departmental task forces. Among the

Stacey Cowles – Publisher

See the New Mission and Vision Statement on Page 2

New Vision Focuses on Digital andDirect Marketing

first addressed will be communication, train-ing and digital strategy. Our goal is haveplans set in these areas soon enough to incor-porate them into our 2011 budget. The bigchallenge continues to be how to find capitalto invest in new projects when our revenuescontinue to decline.

As you may know, newspaper advertisingrevenues are on track to drop another 10% vs.last year in Northwest markets including ours.Expense cuts from last year and lower thanexpected paper prices have enabled us to getthrough this year without mid-year adjust-ments. Senior managers begin budget plan-ning this month and we should know by lateSeptember what workforce and deliverychanges we’ll need to implement for the com-ing year.

Newspapers across the country are lookingat markets like Detroit as the ultimate modelshould daily newspapers continue to lose rev-enue. In Detroit (where former S-R circulationmanager Janet Hasson now manages circula-tion), analysis found that 75% of the papers’ad revenue was earned on three days of theweek. They kept home delivery on those daysand cut back to a reduced-size single copypaper on the other days, with web and PDFversions available every day. Their uniquecost structure, the collapse of the domestic carindustry and customer feedback drove thatsolution. Our market circumstances are differ-ent, so the timing and the specifics will be dif-ferent; but prudence dictates we begin to lookat comparable scenarios.

The good news is, our revenue slide hasslowed from the 30% decline we suffered lastyear! Digital ad revenues continue to grow inexcess of 15% a year. And readership is hold-ing steady, if not growing. In March,Scarborough Research showed that our com-bined online and in-print readership grew10% year over year, the 4th fastest rate in thecountry. We just have to keep finding newways to monetize those eyeballs.

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The Spokesman-Review: Our MissionTo be the most trusted and most used source of news, information

and social networking in and about Spokane and the Inland Northwest.

To connect daily with every reader in our region through anarray of digital and print platforms.

To foster informed public discussion in the interest ofgood governance, prosperity and quality of life.

To be our region’s No.1 business connection, helping our customers reach theircustomers with our advertising, consumer databases and media-planning skills.

To connect the shared interests of our ownership, management and employees tocreate a workplace noted for innovation, openness, energy, and respect.

To act ethically in all we do.

To provide competitive return to shareholders, competitive compensation toemployees and reinvestment to assure our ongoing success.

The Spokesman-Review: VisionIn five years. . .

The Spokesman-Review fosters prosperity, civic pride, and governmentaccountability by providing the information and forums for discussion

that form the basis of sound decision-making.As the largest, most used and most trusted producer and aggregator of

local news and information, we offer an array of timely, accurateand balanced news reports, data, analysis and

commentary about Spokane and the Inland Northwest. We distribute ourwork over the range of digital and print formats demanded by our customers.

We create social-media opportunities that connect us to our readers and our readersto each other, helping them manage the digital-media aspects of their lives.

We are the No.1 local provider of marketing solutions. Retailers look to ourmarketing pros for help in connecting with their customers, growing their revenues

and minimizing their costs. We help them target their e-messages, channeltheir direct mail, and direct their ads only to individuals and groups

who match desired customer profiles.

Private-party sellers gain from our ad-targeting skills, and, in Spokane, our“free” site is as popular as similar national sites. Moreover, our databasesallow us to send targeted news, information and public service notices

to some 400,000 residents who visit our digital sites orprovide us with a personal profile.

Technology lets us to do business and collect feedback 24/7/365. We embraceinnovation, new technology and workforce training. We welcome change,

support collaborative innovation and reward nimble response to consumer needs.

Revenues and profits are up. We will sustain them with ongoing developmentof good products and focused reinvestment.

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Thanks to Bill Hardin and our night side janitorial crew, the marblefloors in both the Review Tower and the Chronicle building were refur-bished recently and they look marvelous!

To remove the 20-year-wax build up the crew used a strong chemicalstripping product and then had to buff the marble all the way down tothe raw marble stage. Once buffed down, the crews began applyingcoats of wax – one layer at a time, over the next 4 nights.The results exceeded Bill’s expectations.“After 20 years the layers of wax were very difficult to remove,” he said“But the results were worth the effort.” “And,” he added “We won’t waitanother 20 years to do this again!”

Tower and Chronicle Floors Refurbished

By Dan Johnson, Director of Distribution & Audience Development

The Consumer Marketing Department has been going through some changes! A year ago, many customers calling into theConsumer Marketing Department were experiencing long wait times. On average, around 15% of our customers would justgive up and “abandon” the call by hanging up.

In an effort to improve efficiency and to make it easier for our customers to do business with The Spokesman-Review, theconsumer marketing department has upgraded and implemented several new enhancements with more to come! Theseenhancements include:• A complete staffing review and realignment of schedules that ensure that we have more employees on the phones during

busier times of the day.• In addition to calling, customers now have the option to manage their subscription accounts through www.spokesman.com.

Customers can pay their bill, lodge a complaint or put their subscription on vacation hold without ever picking up thephone.

• A new reader board that displays the number of customers on hold, the longest wait time and the status of each cus-tomer service representative. This has raised awareness and urgency within the department and has given our consumermarketing supervisor and leads a tool to better manage call volume.

• A phone system upgrade that improved our ability to prioritize calls and will eventually give customers the capability tocommunicate with The Spokesman-Review via live chat and real-time email. The phone system upgrade will also enableour outbound retention department to work on the same phone system as our consumer marketing representatives,which means they will be able to take inbound calls if need be.

• In May, we began sending some of the easier customer calls (i.e. vacation stops and account payments) to a third-partycall center during busy times of the day.

• This fall we will install an Interactive Voice Response unit that will enable customers to manage their accounts over thephone without speaking to a representative.

• We are also working on providing self-service for private party classified ads.The changes have already had an impact. In July, 2010 our abandonment rate was under 4% (our goal is to be under 2%)

and wait times were averaging less than 30 seconds.

Consumer Marketing Department Changes

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Thank you to all who donated supplies for our 7th annual“Back-To-School-Drive”

Our employees once again rallied around the cause whichhelps low-income students in our community prepare for the newschool year.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Family Center appreciated your gen-erous donations!

Back-To-School Drive Success

By: Paul Belles, Principal, Moloney & O’Neill

Health Care Reform – What does that mean for Cowles ben-efit plans? The Health Care Reform package called “thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act” or PPACA forshort was passed in March of 2010. The law is over 2,000pages and is the largest piece of legislation since 1965 whenMedicare began. The goal of the law is to extend healthinsurance coverage to approximately 32 million Americanswho are currently uninsured, making insurance available toan estimated 95% of non-elderly citizens by 2019. The lawis complicated and will continue to evolve as guidance isprovided by regulators. There is also a possibility that cer-tain elements of the plan will change or even be repealed inyears to come. As the law is written today, health carereform requirements will be phased in year over yearthrough 2018.

As plans renew beginning October 1, 2010, all groupsponsored programs will be required to make certain benefitmodifications to the plan. For example, dependents must be

offered coverage until age 26 and employers that offer cov-erage must include minimum benefit levels called “essentialbenefits” as defined by the law.

Additional plan design changes will be mandated if insur-ance programs lose their “Grandfathered” status. A plan willnot be considered Grandfathered if benefit or contributionlevels change more than allowed amounts as specified bythe law.

The health care reform package does not require individu-als to have insurance coverage; rather coverage is promotedthrough the use of financial penalties that will be assessed ifinsurance is not obtained. A number of key provisions suchas the financial penalties described above go into effect in2014.

Rather than going into detail about these provisions thatare a number of years away, please know that in the shortterm there will be some minor changes to our plan as aresult of health care reform and the Cowles HR departmentwill provide updates as we get closer to our renewal thattakes effect February 1, 2011.

Health Care Reform Information

30 yearsLarry Muxlow, pressman, Pressroom ( 9/2/80)Ken Johnson, district manager, Valley Circulation (10/3/80)Regina Kennedy, circ sales & marketing coordinator,

Circulation Sales (10/27/80)Timothy Werre, mailer, Packaging Center (11/22/80)

20 yearsMargie Bensching, rate development specialist,

Display Advertising (9/19/90)Roger Cunningham, pressman, Pressroom (10/26/90)Eugene Warrington, mailer, Packaging Center (11/10/90)Chris Derrick, copy editor, Editorial Sports (11/18/90)

15 yearsBob Luttrell, electronic technical lead, Production Support

(10/02/95)Jeff Finke, copy editor extra board, Editorial Sports(11/13/95)

10 yearsAlan Kazemba, lead truck driver, Transportation & Delivery

(9/3/00)Shawn Crippen, shipping & receiving clerk,

Shipping & Receiving (9/13/00)Angela Gebhart, support assistant, Wfs Insurance (10/2/00)John Stucke, reporter, Editorial City Desk (10/25/00)Don Hanlon, security coordinator, Security (11/14/00)

5 yearsBob Darcy, single copy vending collector, Single Copy(9/1/05)Mike McGarr, copy editor, Editorial Copy Desk (10/6/05)Ma Lo, trucker inserter, Packaging Center (10/11/05)Marite Castner, trucker inserter, Packaging Center 10/27/05Michael Ot, trucker inserter, Packaging Center 11/30/05Rosie Hause, accounting asst/cashier, Accounting 11/30/05

September, October, November Anniversaries

SeptemberUW Leadership Giving LuncheonWednesday, September 8thPavilion12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Late Night with HR:Wednesday, September 15th5th Floor, Human Resources5:00 pm – 9:00pm

United Way 2010 Campaign:• Luncheon Ticket Pre-salesFriday, September 3th – Monday,September 13thSee your department United Way rep-resentative

• Online AuctionTuesday, September 7th – Friday,September 17th

• Root beer Float SalesTuesday, September 14th in theLobby, 2pm – 4pmThursday, September 16th in theLunchroom, 2pm – 4pm

• UW Luncheon ExtravaganzaWednesday, September 15thPavillion, 11:30am -1:30pm

• UW Pledge Forms DueThursday, September 30th

October:Fall Blood Drive: Tuesday, October 5th2:00 pm- 5:00 pmMain Lobby

Late Night with HR:Wednesday, October 20th5th Floor, Human Resources Office5:00 pm – 9:00pmFlu Vaccinations:Wednesday, October 13th7th Floor, MastheadBy Appointment Only

Holiday Gift Selection Cards insertedin paychecksFriday, October 22rd(Return Deadline: November 5th)

November:Holiday Gift Card Selections Due toHRFriday, November 5th to HumanResources

Winter Blanket Drive:November 8th – 30thDonate new or gently used blanketsto The Hope House Women’s Shelter.Bring your donation to HumanResources

Late Night with HR:Wednesday, November 17th5th Floor, Human Resources Office5:00 pm – 9:00pm

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connieb@spokesman.com

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ElizabethH@spokesman.com

HUMAN RESOURCES CONTACTS

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Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5210

Promotions & Transfers MARKETINGMike Dixon has been promoted from major accounts sales manager to advertis-ing director. Mike has been with the company since September 1983.

Rolanda Webb has been promoted to marketing budget, training & compensa-tion manager. She was formerly customer services administration manager andhas been with the company since February 1989.

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