Agenda - Council Work Session - 05/14/2019

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CC Work Session 2. 3. Meeting Date: 05/14/2019 Information Title: Discussion Regarding the Possibility of Outsourcing the Ramsey Resident Newsletter Purpose/Background: The purpose of this discussion is to consider outsourcing the Ramsey Resident to a third party, PRIME Advertising, to make the process more efficient and cost-effective. The City Charter requires the City to publish a minimum of six Newsletters per calendar year. (Sec. 12.13) Currently, the City publishes six, bi-monthly issues of the Ramsey Resident as well as one or two Ramsey Recyclers per year. These newsletters are bulk mailed to every address in Ramsey, including all businesses, for a total of approximately 10,600 addresses. The newsletter is currently printed by Countryside Printing with ads being sold by Scott Robinson of Universal Apparel. History The City first started publishing the Ramsey Resident in 1973. From '73-'82 the newsletter was mailed out using only black ink on colored paper. In 1983 we converted to newsprint. In 1984 and '85 we had a "tri-city" newsletter with the cities of Andover and Anoka. In '86 we converted back to one -color newspaper fold. In 1991, Ramsey mailed a traditional, one -color newsletter and it remained that way until a redesign in 2005. At that time, we used the services of Audra Leonard Design to design a two-color newsletter. In 2009, after another redesign by Audra Leonard Design, we converted to a full -color glossy newsletter with ads. These ads were outsourced by Scott Robinson. In 2013, we converted two issues to black and white to save on postage by including them with resident utility bills. In 2016, the City contracted Red Leaf to do a City-wide rebrand project. Part of this project included redesigning the Ramsey Resident using our new marketing package. Advantages Some of the advantages of PRIME taking over the Ramsey Resident are: 1. Advanced electronic issue 2. Addition of Community Resource Guide to be used as a City of Ramsey/Economic Development marketing tool 3. Freshen design as needed; up to the City's discretion 4. Strengthen community branding 5. City Finance Department will no longer need to process invoicing for advertisements 6. Layout, printing, distribution and advertising is all integrated by one entity 7. Free up Administrative Clerk staff time to be utilized for records retention and other administrative duties Advertising Under the City's current model, advertisement sales are handled by Scott Robinson, an outside sales agent with the billing/invoicing for ads being done by the City's Finance Department. Proceeds for these ads are split 50/50 between Scott Robinson and the City of Ramsey. PRIME has indicated that they do not handle advertising exclusively.