NCRA loses over $200,000 per year

[Bill Parsons]

I am a facts and statistics nerd, and I study advertising.

 

NCRA has not raised its JCR Court Reporter Listing ad rates in 21 years, thus incurring  incurring a yearly loss of over $200,000 per year in revenue.

 

The explanation of over $200,000 yearly loss to NCRA is as follows:

 

We compare the growth of other ad rates in JCR Magazine to the non-growth of the JCR Court Reporter Listing ad rates.

In 1989 the JCR Court Reporter Listing ads were selling for $100 (3-time ad rate) as compared to a 1989 1/6 page ad selling for $180.

Thus,  the 1/12 page Court Reporter Listing ads were selling for .555 of the cost of the 1/6 page ad in 1989.

In 2011 a 10-time 1/6 page display ad in JCR Magazine sells for $378, and the JCR Court Reporter Listing ads still sell for the 1998 $100  ad rate (3-time ad rate)  in 2011.

In 2011 a JCR Court Reporter Listing ad is selling for .265 the cost of a 2011 1/6 page 10-time ad.

Why in the world would anyone allow the percentage of a 1/6 page ad to drop from .555 in 1989 to .265 in 2011?

Based on the 1989 .555 percentage of a 1/6 page ad cost of $378 in 2011, those 2011 JCR Court Reporter Listing ads should be selling for $209.79 each.

There is no rhyme or reason for the JCR Court Reporter Listings to have been managed so as to allow the .555 percentage of a 1/6 page display ad to drop to .265.

 

Explanation of $212,992.60 yearly loss:

A loss of $109.79 for each of 194 ads in the September issue of JCR represents a monthly loss to NCRA of $21,299.26 per issue or a loss of $212,992.60 per year at 10 issues per year.

If NCRA had been receiving that $212,992.60 per year that it let go, that money would be enough to lower 20,000 members dues $10.65  each which is a 4% reduction in dues.

 

NCRA has responded to the criticism of not raising ad rates in 21 years as follows:

 

"The current cost is as high as members are willing to pay, and quite honestly we want to ensure that this form of advertising remains affordable to NCRA members."

 

Thank God no court reporters came up with such a response as the NCRA when it comes to court reporter transcript rates.

 

 Thank good ness no court reporters didn't increase their ad rates in 21 years and , “We couldn’t raise the transcript rates in 21 years because no one would have been able to afford to buy a transcript.”

 

Average NCRA members have seen 21 years of dues increases up to $260 per year while NCRA tells its dues paying members that the NCRA magazine  ad rates couldn’t be raised because the advertisers couldn’t afford a single penny increase  in 21 years.

 

Bill Parsons

 

[Bill Parsons]

No other Journal of Court Reporting advertisers besides freelance agencies were offered low cost ads as a special service to that segment of NCRA members.

Check out the NCRA classified ads. JCR classified advertisers pay more for their classified ad space than the freelance agencies pay for their JCR Court Reporter Listing ad space.

 

 I personally bought a classified ad that cost more than a JCR Court Reporter Listing ad comparing the space taken up by my classified ad against the space taken up by a 1/12 page JCR Court Reporter Listing ad. 

 

Actually classified ads are always the cheapest form of advertising in a magazine and in all magazines besides JCR magazine those classified ads never cost more than 1/12 page ad.

It's a "Wow Bargain" to be able to advertise in the JCR Magazine Court Reporter Listings in a national magazine for a cost of $20 bucks a week, the cost of a nice meal in a restaurant.

That 20 bucks a week figure is because there are only 10 issues of JCR Magazine per year, and 10 issues at $100 per ad is a $1,000 per year cost for an agency to keep its ad in front of 21,000 magazine readers which breaks down to 20 bucks a week.

I also understand the good publicity advertisers receive in the JCR Court Reporter Listings gives national prominence to the advertising firms so that starting-out reporters know about those firms and that some of those starting-out reporters sign on as employees of the JCR Court Reporter Listing advertisers.

It's definitely a "Wow Bargain" terrific benefit to freelance agency members of NCRA to be able to advertise for 20 bucks a week year round.

Bill Parsons

[Martha R]

I would think there are less readers of the JCR magazine than there were 20 years ago because the membership in NCRA has gone done over the years, so these ads are reaching less people.  Just a thought.

[Bill Parsons]

Hi Martha,

 

Thanks for the thought.  Actually the value of the ads to the ad buyers doesn't change with the number of readers because regardless of the number of people reading the magazine,  there is total coverage of the profession in all 50 states and foreign countries.

 

The ads are used for out of state and out of country job referrals. 

 

The magazine ads are actually better than NCRA Source Book ads or the NCRA on-line Professional Services Locator because 21,000 court reporters read the magazine every month vs. the Source Book which has a very limited number of people who order those Source Books and use them and and vs. the NCRA PSL which is another method, but the fact is that it's easier to refer jobs by just looking at the ads at the end of a magazine vs. going on the internet and searching.

 

Magazine advertising has proven itself far superior to internet ads and is one of the very best methods of advertising and far superior to internet ads.

 

I've got some recent articles on the great, great value of magazine ads vs. internet ads.  If you were interested in the articles on the great, great value of magazine ads, just drop me an e-mail and I'll send you the articles.

 

Best Regards, Bill

[Bill Parsons]

It's probably worth sharing the tremendous promo NCRA gives to its JCR Magazine.

 

So NCRA really pushes its JCR ads as  being the best thing money can buy.

 

The following is from the NCRA website:

 

"Today, our membership base is more than 21,000 strong

and includes official and freelance court reporters, broadcast captioners, CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) providers and webcasters.

 

"Our members are the leaders in the industry and spend tens of millions of dollars each year on products and services just like yours.

 

"When you advertise with NCRA you connect your company’s name with the largest and most respected association of court reporters in the world.

 

"Feel confident in the knowledge that by supporting NCRA you are joining forces with members who work daily to ensure the highest standard of excellence in the court reporting industry.

 

"Connect with registered professional reporters, agency owners and other leaders in the legal community when you advertise in the official publications of NCRA."

 

Bill

 

[Bill Parsons]

While mentioning ways NCRA is losing 100's of thousands of dollars from failed ad policies,

NCRA is also losing 100's of thousands of dollars from non-enforcement of the NCRA bylaws provisions that say people have to be actually retired before being allowed to switch over to free lifetime retiree status.

 

NCRA loses of hundreds of thousands of dollars of NCRA revenue due to no enforcement of retiree rules.

Below are the 2009 and 2011 NCRA Source Book numbers of retirees listed in the Source Book:

2009 Source Book Retirees: 798

2011 Source Book Retirees: 849

For an association of just over 14,500 working reporters to support free lifetime subscriptions to JCR Magazine for 849 retirees is quite a burden to the members of NCRA.

Many of the 849 NCRA retirees are working court reporters who have opted out of paying dues by switching over to free lifetime retiree status after 30 years of membership.

A great idea to prevent non-retired court reporters from opting out of paying dues after 30 years of membership is to have a 65 year age requirement for NCRA retiree status.

That 65 year age requirement would weed out a lot of those non-retired court reporters who work fulltime and claim retiree status for the no-dues retiree status for as long as they live.

Unless they were 65 years old, a member who reaches 30 years of NCRA membership at age 52 couldn’t look forward to 13 years of free membership between age 52 and age 65 and continuing lifetime retiree membership thereafter.

Anyone can check the NCRA Source Book retiree listings and see the large numbers of working court reporters who have opted to take a retiree status even though they are working and at the peak of their earning careers.

Please note the addresses of the Source Book retirees having their JCR Magazines sent to their courthouse offices and freelance agency offices.

Myself and other members are correct in saying that NCRA bylaws are being violated when non-retired people who are working fulltime are opting to be put on retiree status.

Non-retired court reporters taking retiree status is against the provisions of the NCRA bylaws and causes big, big losses in revenue to NCRA.

The NCRA bylaws say a person may request retiree status when they retire.

We have dozens and dozens of non-retired court reporters taking free lifetime retiree status which they are not entitled to. This means that young starting-out court reporters have to pay for NCRA'S expenses for those high earning court reporters who have opted to pay no dues against the provisions of the NCRA bylaws.

Article 3 of the NCRA bylaws, Section 8–Retired Lifetime Members states:

"a) Any Participating or Registered Member in good standing who has paid Participating or Registered Member dues for a period of thirty (30) consecutive years [twenty (20) consecutive years for those Retired Lifetime Memberships approved prior to July 21, 1993] and is no longer engaged in verbatim stenographic reporting shall be eligible to become a Retired Lifetime Member.

"b) Retired Lifetime Members shall not pay dues."

Also at the NCRA website it lists that being "actually retired" as a prerequisite to receiving free lifetime retiree member status.

The following is from the NCRA website:

“I’m retiring from reporting, is there a retired status?

“Reporter members who have been reporter members for thirty consecutive years are eligible for free lifetime retired status.”

Perhaps NCRA members should ask NCRA board members why those board members have looked the other way while NCRA bylaws are being disregarded and causing NCRA to lose 100’s of thousands of dollars in lost dues revenue over a course of many years.

Bill Parsons