The Republican-American in Waterbury, Connecticut upsells most recruitment ads by placing them in niche networks supplied via a partnership with AfterCollege. Here's how the initiative works, including how pricing was set, revenue share for the program, impact on sales team, and results. more

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has published a series of popular e-books, including reporter Curt Brown's true life history about the U.S./Dakota War, In the Footsteps of Little Crow, and a cook book, The Cookie Book: 10 Years of Winning Recipes from our Holiday Baking Contest. The latest book, Giving Up the Ghost, by a local novelist was first serialized in the paper. Here is their step-by-step strategy to publishing a serialized novel and ebook, from selecting the right author to promotion and distribution channels. more

Creating a "Best Of" deals store is considered best practice for media companies that already have a deals program. Here are two successful case studies from the Miami Herald and The St. Louis Dispatch that show exactly how to put a "Best of" store together on the Second Street platform. Included are key tips that make the store work, deal criteria and mix, number of deals required, promotions, and a simply, sure-fire go-to-market strategy. more

Video contests are often difficult to do because they require editing and extra technology. But this high school lip dub contest has the right formula to attract major sponsors, school support—and participants. Here's a step-by-step how-to, with the FAQ sheet and recommendations. more

Buffalo News boosted digital sales by $600,000 with a new CRM and incentive contest. This case study shows how the initiative worked, including the CRM vendor, launch strategy, ongoing tactics and results. more

The Oklahoman, owned by OPUBCO, is reaping six to seven figure increases from its new CRM system, SalesTouch by AdMall. The system has also been adopted by the Southbend Tribune, Reminder Media, The Kansas City Star, Denver Post and WKEF-WRGT-TV. The case study shows how the system works, key concepts, pricing and revenue metrics. Required reading for LocalMediaInsider members. This vendor is an editor's pick. more

Red Wing Publishing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, publishes 10 community newspapers. Its new full-service agency model, Big Fish Digital, has put together a winning team of vendors. Learn from their experience of hiring the key executive, selecting the vendor mix, the pricing and packaging strategies, and products that have highest need and are most profitable. The full case study is below. more

Public radio station KBIA, licensed by the University of Missouri, is using drones to cover environmental and agricultural stories. Scott Pham, content director of KBIA Missouri, acquired a grant to experiment with using drones. Here's the results, including equipment needed and costs, links to how the coverage was incorporated in stories, and lessons learned. more

After launching a new digital subscription paywall in the fall of 2011, the editorial staff at the York Daily Record wanted to increase and improve online coverage. YDR decided test whether iPads for newsroom reporters, in addition to iPhones which they already had, would make a difference, and how much. The results have been astounding: 50% more video is being uploaded by reporters to the site, and the team has transitioned into multi-media journalists. Here's their iPad launch strategy, keys to success, results, and best practices in the field. more

A key initiative for the New Orleans monthly OffBeat Magazine was revamping a weekly email newsletter, which now yields an estimated $52,000 annually. Here's how the company put the program together. more