Solving the circulation puzzle - marketing Crossword magazine - Brief Article

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb 1, 1993 by Lorraine Calvacca

Attention circulation directors! Forget fancy four-color direct-mail packages and pricey premiums, and get a clue from Bellmore, New York-based Crossword editor and publisher J. Baxter Newgate. He recently hired temps to leaflet commuters' cars at upscale railroad stations throughout Long Island with a photocopied 8 1/2 x 11-inch subscription plea for the 5,000-circulation national publication. "The 800-number response has been fantastic," says Newgate, who reasoned that in-transit types are potentially captive crossworders. Not only that, he adds, but he's saving big on postage.

Newgate's admittedly "unorthodox" method was developed after The New York Times would no longer guarantee ad placement on the paper's crossword page.

The cryptographically oriented publisher is planning to expand his direct-auto approach by hiring leafleteers across the country on a "no-risk incentive" basis. Distributors will be paid only if new subscriptions result from their efforts. Anybody know a five-letter word for parsimonious?