Last year, we introduced FirstPage Plus (FP+) and answered a question we often hear from publishers: “What tools can help us convert small businesses into new digital advertisers?”
Today, we’re sharing a couple of success stories on how publishers are putting that answer into action.
From extending the reach of a print ad to creating new digital revenue streams, FP+ was designed from the ground up to save your team time while opening additional classified revenue channels. Here’s how three publishers are using it to support their sales goals without a strain on resources and budget.
The goal: Increase local home services advertising revenue.
The Seattle Times’ advertising team had strong print sales, but driving immediate growth to home services revenue would require more opportunities and tactics to sell.
Kelly Hulin, advertising sales director, and Shawn Kingma, advertising business manager, saw how FirstPage Plus could expand their offerings without placing additional production demands on their team.
Their strategy: Include a complimentary Basic or Standard online listing with print advertising, giving businesses added exposure beyond the printed page. Then offer Featured listings as an upgrade and introduce digital-only packages to attract new advertisers.
The approach gives the sales team multiple paths toward its revenue goal: add value to print, create digital upsells and bring new businesses into the mix.
HomePro Directory quickly launched a full featured online directory with an aggressive value proposition to increase print sales and boost digital revenue.
“In 2026, Seattle Times Media Solutions set out to provide cost-effective advertising solutions that help local home-services businesses reach more homeowners. FirstPage Plus has been a strong partner in bringing that vision to life through our Home Pro program. The flexible platform enabled us to create a useful, searchable directory while pairing business profiles with meaningful promotional opportunities across SeattleTimes.com. Since launching in May, Home Pro has built steady momentum increasing in page views and advertiser impressions each month, while featured businesses benefit from additional visibility through prominent placements across our site,” Kelly Hulin said.
One of the features that stood out was the advertiser reports. Seattle knew they had the eyeballs and unique visitors to make this a success. Being able to show attribution on the reach and exposure across digital was a big factor. Each advertiser receives a report that shows not only impressions and click-through rates, but also includes details on the clicks and activity on their listing page.
The opportunity: Turn a parked domain and vision into a new multi-level digital advertising channel.
A couple of years ago, InsideNoVa Publisher Bruce Potter envisioned a local summer camp guide and purchased NovaSummerCamps.com. The domain sat unused until Potter saw a FirstPage Plus presentation.
Wehaa helped bring the idea to life by prepopulating the guide with summer camp listings. With that foundation in place, Potter used all three listing levels [basic, standard, featured] to create packages for print advertisers and digital-only participants.
After years of thinking through the concept, Potter found the tools and flexibility needed in FirstPage Plus. One feature proved especially valuable midway through the summer, when camp advertisers began calling and emailing with requests to update photos on their listing pages.
Potter reached out to Wehaa for help managing the requests. The solution was already built in: FP+’s self-service feature lets advertisers edit their own listings, including uploading new photos.
“We really appreciated the Wehaa team working with us to use their Firstpage Plus technology to build our Summer Camp Guide. The guide was very successful in its first year, with over 130 camps listed, more than 20 of which bought featured listings. The Wehaa team continued to improve the product throughout the year, and we now have self-service functionality, among other things. We’re looking forward to growing this product in future years, thanks to the support of Firstpage Plus,” Bruce Potter said.
Potter quickly assigned advertiser logins, and the system automatically notified participants. Advertisers could then make their own updates, saving his production team several hours of work.
The strategy: Combine print relationships with new digital opportunities.
Local sales teams have more ways to package advertiser exposure, introduce digital upgrades and reach businesses that may not currently buy print. Wehaa technology makes it easy for large publishing companies to roll-out and tailor to each market.
During recent discussions with advertising sales leaders, a frequent challenge involves articulating the tangible value of digital listing products. Below are a couple of value propositions that seem to resonate during our presentations and how newspapers sell it:
Custom digital landing destination
The value proposition: A fully responsive page highlighting branding elements, contact points, social profiles, photo galleries, integrated mapping capabilities and more.
Why publishers sell it: Offers hyper-local, loyal users a central hub to evaluate the merchant and initiate contact seamlessly.
Search-optimized business profiles
The value proposition: Targeted key terms, tailored metadata and descriptive copy combine with your page rank to drive discoverability across search platforms and generative AI search engines.
Why publishers sell it: Ensures modern search engines accurately categorize the business during relevant regional queries. Layman terms, advertisers will be showing up on Google and Chat search.
Continuous online visibility
The value proposition: Client directory pages maintain an active digital presence 24/7 throughout the campaign duration.
Why publishers sell it: Extends advertiser impact past static print impressions, reaching active prospects whenever they seek nearby options.
Leveraged publication credibility
The value proposition: Merchant listings are positioned alongside trusted local editorial content and regional news reporting.
Why publishers sell it: Connects the sponsor with a legacy community media brand, building immediate consumer trust.
Flexible revenue tiering
The value proposition: Multi-tiered package structures deliver varying levels of feature sets, positioning and promotional support.
Why publishers sell it: Provides a low-friction entry point for any marketing budget while establishing an easy upsell roadmap over time.
I remember what Bryce Jacobson said before he introduced us to present in front of the NYPA: “This gives you something to own, something that the paper can sell year-round and the local advertisers can benefit from.”
Home services. Summer camps. Best Of winners. Dining guides. Worship. Seasonal special sections. Each creates an opportunity to extend print advertising and open new digital revenue channels. We encourage you to think outside the box and own a directory or community guide that will leverage your newspaper brand equity.
Want to explore what FirstPage Plus could do for your publication? Reach out, and I’ll send you our pitch deck. I’d also welcome the opportunity to give you and your team a presentation tailored to your revenue goals.
Kevin Collins
VP, Sales & Business Development, Wehaa
kevin@wehaa.com
