Shameless Plug —

There’s a commercial that shows a company bringing up its new web site. It comes on line and they get a few orders, then a few more, then a hundred more, and boy are they excited. Then they get a thousand, and then 10 thousand, well beyond their production capabilities. Boy are they in panic.

Here at PT we are having similar experience, but there is no panic. We reached out to potential subscribers last week and so far have received over 450 new subscriptions. These were all on line, and all self generated, ie we didn’t call them and ask.

There are two numbers that are important to us.  Those to whom we send the magazine, and those who actually asked us for it. Parking Today is a controlled circulation publication. We decide who gets it.  We find lists from various sources and send the magazine unsolicited to those who would have an interest in parking. We then follow up and ask if they want the magazine.  When they say yes, and give us their names and contact information, they become subscribers, and increase the value of PT’s circulation to our advertisers.

We mail just under 15,000 every month. That seems like a goodly number, but if half or so of them were just sent blindly to people we ‘think’ want to read PT, the true circulation is not so great.  The key is the number that tell us they want PT. It is also true, with all controlled circulation publications, that duplicates creep in to the list. We send a copy to “Parking Manager, city of Podunk” and then the Manager in Podunk goes on line and subscribes.  He is now getting two.

Circulation Manager Kelley has been working hard finding those duplicates and removing them. She has also been reaching out to companies and asking them to ‘clean’ up their lists and has been getting a large number of “no longer with us” or “replace Mary with Joe” responses.

All this has begun to make a tremendous difference in the quality of PT’s circulation. As of today we have 17871 names in our database of which 13389 have requested the magazine. I might also note that over 1000 have visited our website in the past month to check our PT’s on line version. Its the same as the one you get in the mail, but does get out about three weeks sooner that the copy delivered by the USPS.

I have to say that this response to PT is gratifying and a tad frightening. It means that we are read, and we have to keep doing a good job at providing information about parking that people want to read.

Thanks, subscribers. We are here for you. Let me know if we get anything wrong, or stories you would like covered.

JVH