Esquire Deposition Solutions purchases 23 new ads in JCR at 50% of actual market value of ads

[Bill Parsons]

Just thought it might be of interest to forum readers that Esquire Deposition Solutions bought 23 new ads in the Court Reporter Listing ad section the September issue of the Journal of Court Reporting.

The new Esquire ads are for the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Also in the May issue of JCR Merrill Corporation bought a dozen new ads in the Journal of Court Reporting Court Reporter Listings for Alabama,. California, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Asia.

The NCRA board of directors has said those JCR Court Reporter Listing ads must be sold at 50% of their actual market value or else the advertisers would cancel their ads, and that, after all, the NCRA board of directors giving low ad rates is merely helping NCRA members who are freelance agency owners.

I wish average non-freelance agency owner NCRA members could get some preferential treatment and such a wonderful benefit as is given freelance agency owners, a benefit worth far, far, far more than any dues any freelance agency owners may pay.

I have always said what about the poor average NCRA members who must have their dues raised to cover revenue shortfalls while the NCRA board is discounting ad prices as a special favor to freelance agencies, some of whose owners are NCRA members and some of whose owners are not NCRA members.

Also has anybody checked?

Are Merrill Corporation and Esquire Deposition Solutions freelance members of NCRA entitled to benefit from ads sold at 50% of their actual market value?

Also, isn't it wonderful for Merrill Corporation and Esquire Court Reporting that their ads are not restricted to specific cities in states and that both firms can get statewide listings in ads arranged by seniority and not by city.

Bill Parsons

[Bill Parsons]

Monti,

Below in this post are the advertising rules for the JCR Magazine. Did NCRA specify which particular condition your ad did not meet?

Also, one of the NCRA conditions to advertise in the JCR Court Reporter Listings is that a majority of employees of a freelance agency be NCRA members.

We know Runfola Reporters uses a lot of electronic reporters. Do a majority of the Runfola employees hold NCRA membership?

Has any JCR Court Reporter Listing advertiser ever submitted a roster of its reporters to prove the firm meets the NCRA advertising rules for having a majority of their members being NCRA members, thus making the firm eligible to purchase the ads at 47% of the actual value of the ads?

Also, it is my understanding that the main purpose of the JCR Court Reporter Listings is not a section that NCRA members read, but it is a reference section for job referrals exactly as is the case with the NCRA Source Book ads.

Below are the rules for purchasing JCR Court Reporter Listing ads:

"A. No advertisement submitted for publication in any NCRA publication may be false,
misleading, deceptive, in poor taste or contrary to the purposes and objectives of NCRA.
NCRA has the right to refuse advertising from any vendor whose activities are contrary to
the purpose and objectives of NCRA.

"B. Although the NCRA certifi cations and their abbreviations are personal certifications, the
phrase “includes RPRs” or “includes Registered Professional Reporters” may be used by
a court reporting entity in its advertisements, if a majority of the reporters employed by or
independently contracted for by said firm or entity hold said certification. This policy shall
equally apply to other NCRA designations.

"C. Only designations currently conferred by NCRA, as well as designations for a court reporter
that are offi cially recognized by the state in which the court reporter is licensed to practice,
may be used to refer to the services or skills of a court reporter in an advertisement
appearing in an NCRA publication. This Advertising Policy is not intended to prohibit or
restrict the use of academic degrees or other professional designation unrelated to court
reporting skills or services in advertisements appearing in NCRA publications.

"D. A reporting firm may advertise its freelance shorthand reporting services in any NCRA
publication if a majority of the reporters employed by the firm or with whom the firm
contracts for reporting services are members in good standing of NCRA and are actively
engaged in shorthand reporting.

"E. A copy of this Advertising Policy shall be given to each person or entity that submits an
advertisement for publication in an NCRA publication. The person or firm submitting
the advertisement must (1) certify that such advertisement complies with the above
requirements; and (2) agree to provide, upon request, satisfactory proof that the above
requirements are satisfied.

"F. NCRA retains the right to reject any advertisement submitted for publication in an NCRA
publication if, in its judgment, such advertisement does not meet all the requirements
specifi ed in this Advertising Policy."

Bill

[Phil]

As much as it irks you, isn't that just normal business practice, to give a discount to advertisers who take out multiple ads in the magazine? If Joe Blow is only having one ad and Esquire is ordering 20 ads, shouldn't they get a volume discount? As much as I'm not incredibly in love with NCRA, it doesn't seem out of the ordinary to do this.

[Bill Parsons]

No, Phil, this is not deposition land giving big discounts for 23 depositions by a law firm.

Magazine "frequency discounts" as they are called do not correlate to large discounts given to a law firm for hiring a court reporting firm to take a large number of depositions. You are talking apples and oranges.

At a later time I may sit down and take you through magazine discounts for multiple ads. That would involve me getting magazine rate cards and calculating the percentages of discounts given for various quantities of multiple ads.

Monti, the JCR Court Reporter Listings are very, very beneficial and valuable to advertisers because for years court reporter firms have utilized the ad section to locate firms to refer out of state jobs to.

Likewise, the NCRA Source Book has hundreds of such ads.

Also, Jere West, a former president of NCRA, used to charge other freelance agency owners hundreds of dollars to sit down with him for a few hours and for him to share his expertise in the freelance field, and Jere West has had a JCR Court Reporting Listing for over 30 years.

Watch what the experts do in business, and you will find their techniques.

As I said, Jere West has had a JCR Court Reporter Listing for over 30 years. He's the acknowledged expert who sold his advice in running successful court reporting agencies for hundreds of dollars.

Best Regards, Bill Parsons

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Mary, Bill,
Thank you for your concern (sorry for taking long to reply) but we tried to advertise with them 2 years ago.
We are at a point where we do not need them and frankly we are so turned off by them that even if we did need them we would rather find other routs (which we did)

Thanks!

[Bill Parsons]

Hi Monti,

NCRA refused me permission to purchase a classified ad about twenty years ago, and that began a one-year successful campaign to overturn the NCRA ban on what NCRA negatively refered to as "vender" ads.

Then it was another five years to lead the effort to overturn the NCRA ban on classified employment ads.

Now, it's about twenty years fighting NCRA to serve their members excellently by changing the policies of the JCR Court Reporter Listing ad section, a section which the NCRA officials have run into the ground due to a leadership so poor that it can be called incompetent and corrupt.

Best Regards, Bil

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Well, I sent out an email to Marilyn @ [e-mail] to inquire about advertising on their home page.
We shall see what happens this time around.

Monti

[Bill Parsons]

Monti,

If a staff person at NCRA again turns down your request to purchase an ad, I am sure there are a lot of people who will petition the NCRA board of directors to rectify the situation.

Please keep us posted so that we may help to see that you are treated fairly, equally and excellently as you are entitled to be treated and deserving of such treatment.

Also, if you get the ad on the NCRA home page, please let us know so that we can visit the NCRA home page and view the ad.

Best Regards, Bill

[Mary Ann Payonk]

Monti, please keep us posted, especially as to the "why" if ... if ... you are turned down.

M.A.

[Judy]

Yes, definitely keep us informed. Especially since page 14 of their latest edition has your competitor proudly displayed, right next to Mark Golden's "ad."

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Sure thing guys, I am hoping to hear back from them this week.
Thanks!

[Phil]

If I were running a magazine, and someone was offering to place 30 ads on a regular basis I'd have no problem giving a volume discount. You may think it is apples and oranges. I beg to differ. It is business. Where I would have a problem is if this volume discount also prevented people from placing an ad in the JCR. So if the small firm were being denied a seat at the table so to speak, I'd have a big problem with that. This is no different that an insurance company buying drugs and getting a discount the little guys cannot get. I'm no big fan of NCRA, but I really don't see what all the fuss is about.

[Bill Parsons]

Thanks for your comments, Phil, but you are misunderstanding something. All firms receive a discount of over 50% of the actual market value of their ads.

Esquire Depositions Solutions didn't receive a special bulk discount ad rate.

As you say, you don't see what the fuss is about. Let me leave the subject as it stands.

If anyone has gained anything from my posts, that's fine. If no one has gained anything from my posts, that's fine.

Hopefully something good has come from the posts in that the ad policies of NCRA have been discussed and Monti might finally end up getting an ad.

Bill