Three of the sweetest words in the advertising business, right? In case you missed it, Borrell & Associates just released its annual survey of 7,500+ businesses that details among other things, what local merchants are saying brings them the most new customers. Right after word of mouth ... they said that their website and social media ranked second and third as their top sources of new customers.

Think about it. Merchants are telling us loud and clear how we can help them. While some of them "have a guy or a gal for that," many of them are struggling to maintain a strong digital presence, lacking the time and/or skills to do it right. They are looking for someone they can trust to help them ... ideally someone they've known for years with a strong reputation in their local market. (Remind you of anyone?)

Improve your paper's email strategy by running welcome emails, drip campaigns, event invitations and more.

Follow these three steps to create a plan to turn the biggest retail season of the year into your biggest revenue season yet.

Implementing a year-long strategy can help increase attendance at every event on your calendar.

Three RJI Research Scholars spent the past year studying the effectiveness and sustainability of long-form digital journalism. This is the first in a five-part series based on 53 interviews with millennials to gauge this audience's reception to long-form journalism delivered on mobile platforms.

Tracy Clark, a 2015-2016 RJI Fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute, believes newspapers with editor-selected email newsletters would have better engagement rates if the content were personalized to each user’s interest. She is in the midst of a pilot study with a large U.S. newspaper, which is simultaneously publishing two email newsletters: one includes editor-selected news content, the other features reader-selected stories. The personalized newsletters are based on Clark’s Reportory platform.

Tap into this massive football audience with a combination of personality, trivia and match-up quizzes.

Osteen Publishing Company (Sumter, S.C.) has created the new Iris Digital Agency to help local businesses reinvigorate their digital strategy and meet the growing needs in the tri-county area that the newspaper serves. The agency is helping local merchants leverage their digital products to improve their presence through their website and social media.

Jack Osteen, editor and publisher of The Sumter Item, owned by Osteen Publishing, said that while the newspaper continues to serve as a strong marketing tool for local businesses and services, the newspaper wants to expand its services by serving as a one-stop shop for all its customers' marketing needs.

"We've always been very focused on producing results for our clients," he said. "The launch of Iris Digital ensures we'll be able to extend that tradition with a full suite of digital products that current and future clients really need."

New publishing platform will let subscribers choose the content they receive in newsletters and alerts from Stephens Media publications.

Four major changes have been announced at The Pilot: publishing frequency, new and improved websites, a paid subscription model and a building renovation.