SMI will be using the Adpoint system to streamline ad operations and integrate segments of their sales cycle that were previously separate or siloed.
Founded in 2011, SMI is a media company dedicated to “preserving quality local journalism in the North Bay Area” of California. The company owns multiple publications, including North Bay’s largest circulating daily newspaper The Press Democrat and winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting. Other SMI publications include Sonoma Magazine, the North Bay Business Journal, Petaluma Argus Courier and the Sonoma Index-Tribune.
For several years, says Lineup Systems, SMI had been looking for a media sales solution to replace antiquated booking and billing systems for Retail, Classified and Digital as well as support new innovative sales channels and overall advertising sales process.
The business wanted a single system to manage and optimize the entire sales cycle, including CRM, contract fulfillment, forecasting, multi-channel order and product management, billing, and reporting. In addition, SMI wanted the freedom to integrate several of its existing complementary systems into the one system.
“What attracted us to Lineup Systems was that it was both a provider of solutions and an integrator of other solutions,” said Dennis Sheely, SMI Classified Advertising Director and Project Leader for the Adpoint installation. “We really liked the adaptability this offered. We needed something that could integrate easily with our broader publishing IT eco-system and that offered a single interface solution for employees that would make their lives much easier.”
According to Sheely, The Press Democrat was using “a smorgasbord of different vendors” for different parts of the sales and publishing process, inherited from the days of when The Press Democrat was part of the New York Times and Halifax Media Group. With Adpoint, SMI will be replacing three systems in total, while creating seamless integration with a dozen existing systems including customer self-service (iPublish), print copy (AdWatch), page planning (Newsycle) and various other functions.
This centralization of SMI’s multi-channel advertising sales process will simplify the ad operations side of the business and cut down on IT costs. Adpoint will also make it easier for SMI to monitor the performance of their publications and increase revenues across their media footprint.
“With Adpoint we’ll be able to identify market share opportunities and with their tools our employees can consult and convert them into client relationships,” Sheely said. “It’s going to be a totally different way of doing business for us, internally, by being able to do our jobs from a single screen – the Adpoint interface.”
