I need some input on an upcoming Special Edition of USA Today.

[elocs]

I have a USA Today motor route and periodically they put out a Special Edition on heavier newsprint that sells for $4.95 a copy. Most often they are about sports, the NFL fantasy football or season preview. To be honest none of them really sell well because for most the buck they spend on buying a daily copy of the USA Today is an extra item that they could do without.

Here is one from last year:

Yes, the 50th anniversary of Ali winning the golden gloves at the Olympics, a collectible encased in plastic.

How many hardcore boxing fans are there anymore (who is the current heavyweight champ? because once upon a time nearly everyone knew) and how many knew that Ali won the golden gloves? As a demographic you are pretty much looking at people in their 50s or older. Certainly most people know Ali and mostly as an historic figure, but not many are that familiar with the boxing and few wanted to plunk down the $4.95. In fact, somebody at USA Today probably lost their job over that fiasco.

In a few weeks they will be coming out with a JFK special about his election in 1960. Yes, here we are hardcore Democrats and we love JFK, but I'm 58 and that election occurred when I was in the 3rd grade. Like Ali, most know about JFK, but mostly from an historic perspective. It may as well be a special edition about FDR or Lincoln.

I am going to be looking at distributing hundreds of these issues and most likely having to collect most of them 6 weeks later. I will also be faced with store managers who will be pissed about their precious shelf space being taken up by an item that does not sell (some stores only have spots for 12 papers with USA Today taking up 3 or 4 of them). So should I just dispense with the pretense that these will sell and just put out the minimum in places with the space for them?

(My sales have been bad this past summer and it seems to me to be a reflection of the state of the economy. A USA Today or the Special Editions simply are not must have items. Right now I have out a fantasy football issue that was supposed to be the biggest seller of the year. It has Aaron Rogers, qb of the Packers on the cover, and this is Wisconsin. I put out 350 copies and I'm sure I will be collecting well over 200 unsold after 6 weeks.

[HopeHoops]

1. Okay, first of all, that isn't a news source. It is a supermarket tabloid.

On the plus side, it is more of a news source than FOX, but that's like saying a Koi is more of a mammal than a dog turd.

[elocs]

2. Well, I have to admit that USA Today gets quoted quite regularly here at DU.

Perhaps you've missed it. Thanks for the intelligent response though.

[HopeHoops]

3. Unfortunately, so does FOX. Doonsbury had it right from the beginning.

Right after USA Today came out, Trudeau had strips with graphs showing unrelated things (number of jobs, hamburgers, farts, etc.) to poke fun at it. He was SO on the money.