Newspapers Canada hosts its final two webinars in the spring 2013 training season next month with two free presentations on newspaper excellence.

On June 4, the finalists from the Newspaper Marketing and Promotion category at this year’s Great Idea Awards will lead an inspiring webinar covering unique and creative ways to promote your newspaper.

On June 25, Newspapers Canada’s Suzanne Raitt will offer a masterclass in newspapers across all platforms with her presentation titled Newspapers 101: Cross-Media Studies. Based on Raitt’s annual industry presentation, the webinar will give an A+ overview of the latest research and innovative ads from Canada and around the world.

Newspapers Canada's five-part sales-focused webinar series concludes on Tuesday, May 21 with a presentation on Excelling at Corporate Sales.

Marketing consultant Peter Lamb will cover a variety of different topics of interest for reps who sell to larger corporate and national accounts. He will instruct attendees on preparation, research, metrics and analytics, and leveraging your manager and support team.

In the article below, Winnipeg Free Press publisher Bob Cox highlights some of the issues surrounding government advertising in Canada.

What if you didn’t just read your printed newspaper, but truly experienced it?

Publications enhanced with augmented reality are now allowing newspaper readers to experience print in exciting new ways; to look past the ink-on-paper surface and access deeper, richer content from their newspapers.

During a recent INK+BEYOND session on Layar technology, Alvin Brouwer, Glacier Media’s president of lower mainland publishing and digital, described newspapers as the world’s first truly interactive media. “They exist across multiple platforms, offering print, audio, video, digital, broadcasting, social and ecommerce services to its increasingly diverse audiences.” Brouwer was joined by Nigel Newton from Layar, the world’s leading augmented reality brand, to show delegates how this new technology can help newspapers to increase engagement, improve utility, generate new revenue and tell a better story.

Real Time Bidding (RTB) has received a lot of hype over the past year, but is it deserving of all the attention? Raymond Reid, managing director of Neo@ogilvy Canada, and Andrew Casale, vice-president of Casale Media, spoke about this rapidly growing digital sales model at the INK+BEYOND newspaper conference in Ottawa on May 2.

“The model is evolving, it’s forcing a change in the sales organization but people are still trying to figure out what it means,” said Reid. “The marketplace is changing quite a bit; people feared initially that RTB would cannibalize the direct sales organizations, but it’s actually complimentary to the direct sales approach.”

The mood for the 2013 Great Idea Awards luncheon was established immediately by the ceremony’s emcee Candy Hodson, Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing at Black Press.

“Even though this is a luncheon, I really feel this should be special so can we lower the lights?” Using two flashlights, she created makeshift searchlights in front of the crowd. “Is everybody feeling it?”

The annual luncheon event was held on May 2 in Ottawa during Newspapers Canada’s INK+BEYOND conference and trade show.

“If you’re not optimized for mobile you’re missing the boat.”

Instead of being stranded on shore clinging to your print platform as a life raft, newspapers need to jump on board the ever-growing online and mobile vessels where ad revenue and audience diversity promise to keep a paper afloat.

At least that’s what Kirk Allen believes.

The Reshift Media co-founder and former Postmedia executive spoke to a room of attentive delegates on May 2 at the INK+BEYOND newspaper conference, where he discussed the necessity of multi-platform advertising strategies as both a tool to grow sales, and to engage new audiences.

The Extra Awards celebrate the finest advertising in newspapers across all media: print, online, tablet, mobile, twitter and more!

Newspapers Canada’s webinar series returns on Tuesday, May 14 with the fourth installment of our sales series: Excelling at Classified Sales. Strategic marketing consultant Peter Lamb will guide this hour-long presentation on opening the sales conversation and offer his advice on how to master the art of questioning, listening and presenting.

Lamb will also provide strategies for overcoming objections and provide examples of best practices from successful reps.

This session is ideal for classified advertising sales coordinators and representatives.