Brian Sumner

Nino, whether you are gathering information on a specific television/radio station or newspaper, your sales rep is probably going to send you more information than you really need. Their job is to sell their station or paper to you, so they're going to provide as much information on their station/paper that highlights them in a positive manner. When it comes to collecting data on a specific television station, you need to get an updated program schedule with current rates. It's also important to have them send over a coverage map. I prefer to have these sent via e-mail. That way you can put them in a specific folder in your e-mail and always have a copy. For radio, make sure you're having rankers sent over for the demographics that you are trying to reach. You can refer to the course content on what types of rankers to obtain. Also, have the radio station send over a playlist (this will provide an idea of the type of station they are), current rates and sponsorship & remote information. As for newspaper, it's important to have a full copy of the paper sent to you. Sunday is usually the largest circulation day, so have them send over a full copy (ads included) of the Sunday paper and another copy of one of the weekday editions. In addition to them sending over a copy of the paper, have your rep send over the rate card, history of the paper (including circulation and readership) and any information on inserts.