Arkansas Press Association Publisher Weekly

and State Since 1873

APA Advertising Conference keynote speaker Grogan says Arkansas newspapers need to "tell their story" to readers

By Wesley Brown

Newspapers are great at sharing stories that move local communities, but they often fail in the storytelling department regarding their own bona fide.

That is the part of the message that Marianne Grogan will to share at the upcoming 2023 APA Advertising Conference. Grogan, president of Coda Ventures Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, will be the keynote speaker at the first inperson ad conference since 2020.

Fast-growing Coda is a data-driven marketing consulting firm that primarily works with newspapers to deliver high quality, innovative audience and strategic research to help grow and sustain revenue.

According to Coda’s website, the Tennessee firm quantifies the reach and engagement of media audiences across all platforms — print, broadcast, web, social, apps, video and more. In addition, Coda documents the buying power of media consumers to help clients increase advertising revenue and turn customer research data into dividends that pay off in increased market share.

Founded in 2015, Grogan said she and her business partner originally built a business that was focused on the magazine industry. They soon transitioned into providing key insights to the newspaper industry on a more responsive and costeffective basis amid industry consolidation as readers migrated to other media, most notably digital.

Coda Ventures also saw an opportunity very few others did.

“The more research we did, the more we realized where everything was moving (toward) local news,” said Grogan. “We positioned this company to focus squarely on local markets and specifically newspapers.”

Although consolidation was causing local newspapers to focus on their “survival strategies” during those difficult times, Coda’s research showed there were strong advocates for newspapers in local communities across the United States

In her upcoming APA conference discussion, Grogan will take participants through the results of the statewide study commissioned by APA in 2022. The study will demonstrate how the data can be used by newspapers for successful sales conversations, she said.

“We are going to be sharing the data with conference attendees. Our favorite quote is from W.E. Deming back in the 1960s. He said, ‘In God we trust, but all others must bring data,’” Grogan said jokingly. “We are going to remind everybody that was true in 1960, but more so in 2023. And they need to have a data-driven conversation.”

In releasing the APA-backed study, Grogan said her team will share data that can help newspapers in Arkansas remain viable through strong sales. “We are going to talk to them about how we can support them with sales materials to A – get them in the door, and B – have a meaningful conversation,” she said.

“The most meaningful part of our work is when we work with the small dailies and weeklies to bring this kind of data to them and to their sales force. It kind of gets them energized about going out and having these kinds of conversations,” said

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