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> History & Awards > Archive Issues of TIP August 2007 - March 2008 > Member Profile: Art Hall, Herald Newspapers, Rio Grande, NJ, February 2008
Member Profile: Art Hall, Herald Newspapers, Rio Grande, NJ, February 2008
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ART HALL
HERALD NEWSPAPERS, RIO GRANDE, NJ
BY DWIGHT BITIKOFER
Cape May County is a peninsula at the southern bulge of New Jersey between the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay. Tourists and vacationers flock to its 30 miles of pristine sand beaches. They dine on seafood harvested fresh each day by the fishermen who bring their catch to the East Coast's second largest fishing port.
Woods and wetlands and lakes make oases of quiet among sleepy towns set in from the winter winds of the coast. It is a place far from the noisy bustle of urban northern New Jersey and so much more obscure than the neon glow and silver jingle of Atlantic City.
In the little town of Rio Grande in the middle of the peninsula, Art Hall has published a newspaper since 1979.
Hall believes he caught the wave of change at the right time. The little 8,000-distribution free paper he bought has grown into the respected Cape May County Herald.
The Herald publishes each Wednesday and is rack-distributed throughout Cape May County. Population varies with the season and so does distribution, running from a winter low of 25,000 to a summer high of 45,000. An additional 20,000 are added for the On Deck magazine published each summer.
Summer tourist season page counts run 80 to 90. Off-season papers are 48 to 64 pages. The Cape May County Herald runs about 60 percent advertising and 40 percent editorial, and the paper is a consistent winner of editorial prizes in IFPA competitions: Among the Herald's 35 employees are a full-time newsroom a dozen strong.
Art Hall is betting success on a new wave, too. The Cape May County Herald has invested heavily in an Internet presence that catches the attention of anyone keyboarding its way: capemaycountyherald.com.
"The Internet has my attention extremely strongly," said Hall. "We have the relationships with readers and advertisers in our local communities that are worth billions of dollars to online advertisers. Together we can build ever-better websites that keep our communities coming to us and bring the needed revenue."
"If we take small steps as we are going down the road, we can have both the print and online business locked in," predicted Hall.
Hall cited a MediaPost Online story by Dave Morgan that claims online media buyers like Digitas and Publicis agencies were willing to spend $10 billion online in 2006, but they could only spend $3 billion. Hall said this is because there were no operational uniformities for managing insertion orders, billing and reconciliation, and it was because there was lack of uniform, credible measurements for online advertising. Furthermore, said Hall, the industry currently has a shortage of the creative talent needed to make it all work. Hall has put money into a plan to address this and capture a market share for the independent publishing industry.
Together with his son Benjamin, Hall has begun the Digital Press Consortium (DPC). The purpose of the DPC is to work with free and paid paper associations so advertisers can place ads with one order to reach multiple websites. To make that happen, a standardized website platform needs to be created. Associations need the expertise to train the staffs of their members.
This ambitious operation is headquartered far, far, far, down the Atlantic coastline - in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Art Hall said it is cheaper to hire people in Argentina; DPC currently has 11 employees. Buenos Aries was chosen because Benjamin Hall learned to know people there while earning his masters' in business.
Benjamin Hall brings a software background and an understanding of the family print publishing business, said his father.
"If we can marry these two strengths -- paper and digital -- we can have these billions," said Art Hall. "But we have to make it easy for them. Or lose it."
Hall said that DPC is offering papers its website technology and training with ongoing consulting services.
Art Hall, 60, has reached the season of life when his wisdom is sought by others in the industry. In fact, this year, he is the first free paper publisher to be named president of the New Jersey Press Association.
Son Dennis Hall, who is assistant publisher of The Herald, is on the board of the Suburban Newspaper Association.
In addition to its fluid and ever-changing website, complete with daily news updates and video footages, the Halls have plugged the Cape May County Herald into other Internet revenue streams. One they call the New Marketplace Initiative where an online product like a Yellow Pages is offered. Each of 6,000 businesses in Cape May County gets a free listing. The Herald upsells for enhanced listings, links and a paper directory.
One of the big Herald projects has been its annual dining and entertaining book. Art Hall said sales had been flat for several years. This year they raised the price and put it on the web as well. There were more advertisers and significantly more money, said Hall.
Art Hall began his career in the information business as a young man in his home town of Las Cruces, N.M. He worked at the Las Cruces Sun-News, a daily paper, and eventually became its circulation manager. A career move took the Hall family east to Florence, Ala., where Art was an assistant to the publisher at The Florence Times. He left in the mid-70s, wanting a paper of his own. but he couldn't afford a paid paper.
"I bought what I could afford," said Hall of his purchase at the southern tip of New Jersey. "It wasn't much, but I built it up."
A fire in 1988 destroyed the office one weekend. Together with then-general manager Gary Rudy, they quickly cobbled together space in several vacant storefronts.
"The following Wednesday we published the largest issue we had ever published," recalled Hall. "Gary was the one who made that all happen." Rudy, now IFPA's executive director, was general manager of The Herald. He left retailing to join The Herald and stayed for about 20 years.
The Herald was the first paper with 100 percent rack delivery that was accepted for membership in IFPA.
Hall enjoys his publisher role of being at the center of his community. He calls it "interesting work" that keeps him in contact with the entire community. His civic activities include being an active member of his Methodist church.
"I like working with people," Hall said. "I hold old-fashioned values and I like to help young people build firm foundations upon which they can build their lives right."
For all his orientation toward cutting edge technology, Hall holds a deep affinity for history.
"I love to read history," said Art . "Right now I am reading the annual State of the Union Addresses and other writings of each of the U.S. presidents. I'm up to Lincoln. Before that, I read "A History of Civilization'."
Hall owns the paper with his wife, Patricia, who works about a half day a week. Art and Patricia have been married for nearly 40 years. In addition to sons Benjamin and Dennis, daughters Anna and Meredith contribute ideas and services to The Herald from their homes in Virginia and Colorado.
Art Hall is bullish on the synergy that occurs when publishers get together and share ideas. He is looking forward to attending the IFPA Publishers Summit in Orlando in February.
"I draw from your power and experience and together we can make it work," Hall said of the challenges of the ever-changing face of the free paper business. "At my age, I'm not going to sit and watch a big wave come and take us out!"
Writer Dwight Bitikofer publishes the Webster-Kirkwood Times in St. Louis and is an IFPA director.
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