The Post and Courier is always looking for innovative ways to reach new audiences to deliver the news that matters most to South Carolinians. With an ever-evolving digital transformation and rapid expansion across the state, we’re leading the charge in several ways.
First, The Post and Courier is investing in reporters to expand coverage across current markets in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg, North Augusta, Myrtle Beach, and Hilton Head, as well as new markets in Florence and Rock Hill. In addition, The Post and Courier is building a new state-of-the-art printing facility that offers modern and efficient printing to serve our readers and commercial print customers. But behind the scenes, as a versatile multi-media company, we’ve also been investing in our marketing to ensure quality journalism and to meet the needs of local businesses that want to reach our valued audiences.
“Most people might consider The Post and Courier as a legacy media company that has covered Charleston for 200+ years, but really as we transform toward a future in digital and grow our audiences across the state, we really consider ourselves as a 200+-year-old start-up,” said Chris Zoeller, Chief Opportunity and Marketing Officer.
“And to achieve these efforts, we know we need to invest in building a team that can focus on a variety of marketing initiatives to grow and retain our audience. Our readers trust our journalism and advertisers want to be aligned with our readers.”
Paid Digital and Print Audience Growth
As part of the strategy, Claire Linney, a long-time The Post and Courier employee, was named Audience Director, where her main responsibility is to grow paid digital and print audiences.
“I love being a part of our creative and fun team! We are a fast-paced, idea-generating group and it’s a great culture to be a part of,” said Linney. “I find it rewarding to be a part of a team that is collectively working together to support our community with impactful news.”
Previously, as Associate Director of Audience Growth and Acquisition, Linney focused on a growth plan for print subscriptions and adequately used the resources available to her. For example, Linney and her team were able to sell over 100 print subscriptions at Summerville’s annual Flowertown Festival, which shows there are several new opportunities for subscriber growth.
“I am looking forward to being a part of our overall subscription growth, we are on a positive trajectory, and looking forward to being a part of the growth to come,” said Linney.
Also a part of the acquisition team is Digital Marketing Manager, Kelly Krammes. Krammes comes to The Post and Courier from the TV news side of the industry and has over a decade of experience marketing to local audiences and sharing the important work journalists are doing in these areas.
“The Post and Courier is a storied brand with an excellent reputation in South Carolina and beyond,” said Krammes. “I’m a passionate consumer of news and am proud to work for a brand that is well-known in the industry for providing impactful journalism.”
“It’s our responsibility to make data-driven decisions to best serve the readers and subscribers who invite The Post and Courier into their homes via our digital and print products, while also reaching new audiences. I’m thrilled to join this team of collaborative marketers as we continue to make strategic decisions by honing in on the information we have about our consumers, and news consumers in general, to keep our digital marketing approach agile and relevant.”
Subscriber Acquisition and Retention
But what happens after a new subscriber is acquired? Retention Marketing Manager, Mary Fox, comes in to help onboard and retain new subscribers to make sure they are getting all of the content and benefits of being a Post and Courier subscriber.
In her former role as Subscriber and Donor Engagement Specialist, Fox worked closely with the rest of the digital marketing team to acquire subscribers but saw a gap where new subscribers did not receive the same attention as potential subscribers.
“My strengths are experimenting with different tools and resources to build engagement—and therefore, retention—through messaging our subscribers as well as fundraising campaigns,” Fox said. “I’m happiest trying new things or trying things in a new way to build our retention efforts. I like researching what other companies are doing outside of media/newspapers to see how we can implement that at The Post and Courier. I also am super driven to achieve the goals of keeping subscribers engaged and building our fundraising to benefit future special reporting projects.”
This growth in acquisition and retention extends to the rest of the team as well, with a complete team of seven marketing professionals in the Digital Marketing Department, including Linney, Krammes, Fox, two Newsletter Editors, a Subscriber and Donor Engagement Specialist, and Marketing Coordinator.
Each of these professionals has several ideas for data-driven, creative campaigns to continue branding and marketing The Post and Courier across the state, and to continue to reach new audiences with the quality journalism that is known to come from the reporters at The Post and Courier.
About Our Team
Claire Linney, Audience Director
Audience Director, Claire Linney, has been with The Post and Courier for nearly a decade and through this experience has a strong grasp on the holistic approach of the paper in acquisition and retention. Linney enjoys looking at the big picture and the overall goal of the business, and in this position works closely with the digital marketing team to reach their goals.
Kelly Krammes, Digital Marketing Manager
Digital Marketing Manager, Kelly Krammes, comes to The Post and Courier with a decade of experience in news marketing, working at 11Alive News, the NBC affiliate in Atlanta. Her main goals in this position are to create avenues to reach new audiences to be able to share The Post and Courier with these audiences.
Mary Fox, Retention Marketing Manager
Retention Marketing Manager, Mary Fox, has been with The Post and Courier for almost two years and in that time has created and refined several acquisition and retention campaigns for subscribers and donors to the organization. In this role, Fox has created several retention strategies, including an onboarding series for new subscribers, subscriber-only contests and events, and reaching out to these audiences whenever there is breaking news.