Clarification about newspaper articles

On the Aging Life Care Association? listserve I posted yesterday about clients who have licensed our family caregiver newsletter content for publication in local newspapers. (Afterall, older adults may be the remaining few who still read newspapers!)

This has been a very successful strategy, particularly if the paper is weekly, or you can get your family caregiver column posted someplace like the TV Guide section where the paper knocks around for a week and is referenced several times a day.

Do a trade with the publisher

Typically the newspaper will be willing to do a trade. They reliably get a high-quality article once a week without having to pay an author. In exchange, you get the byline (author attribution) and a pitch at the end about your company. (See the graphic to the right.)

Name recognition/Brand loyalty

One client told me that if the newspaper slips up and forgets to publish their column one week, they get calls from subscribers who want to be sure they are still in business. Talk about name recognition and brand loyalty! These care managers have DEFINITELY cultivated a reputation as THE local experts in family caregiving.

Protecting your exclusive (and that of others)

There was some confusion with my clients about my ALCA posting about newspaper columns because the licensing of our newsletters is by territory and the publishing rights are typically digital—just for their websites, social media and email accounts.

Expanding publishing rights to a local newspaper is an add-on feature of the newsletter.

If you have licensed our family caregiver content, you pick the periodical and we’ll research their circulation. (Fair is fair and we need to be sure that your content will not infringe on a neighboring client’s exclusive territory.) If all checks out, then for an additional (very modest) fee, your publishing rights can be extended and we will send you the weekly articles and graphics to be forwarded to the publisher.

For existing clients, I hope this helps to clarify your publishing rights. My apologies for any confusion.

Check to see if your market is available

If you are not already a client of ours and would like to have a weekly family caregiver column or blog in a local periodical, fill out the form at ElderPagesOnline.com to see if your market is still available. Or by all means contact me: [email protected] or 707-477-0700, Pacific. Once we know that the territory is available, we just need to research the publication to be sure there are no conflicts with another client.