Additional revenue to NCRA is waiting to be tapped into if the NCRA Board will direct its staff to contact 99 freelance agency Source Book advertisers and ask them to purchase JCR Court Reporter Listing ads.
There has been eleven years of losing advertisers in the JCR Court Reporter Listings because of the NCRA board accepting totally false premises put forth by Mr. John Prout.
I quote an e-mailed I received from Mr. John Prout in 1998 as follows:
"Date: March 19, 1998
"From: John Prout
"To: Bill Parsons
"Staff and I both believe that online reporter search services, such as that found on the Verbatim Reporters Center and elsewhere on the World Wide Web, will eventually replace paper-based directories.
"In the interim, we will continue to offer advertising in the magazine to members who operate reporting agencies."
I just counted up the California freelance agency ads in the 2009 NCRA Source Book and found there were 147 freelance agency ads.
I just counted up the California freelance agency ads in the 1998 NCRA Source Book and found there were 99 freelance agency ads.
So in the last eleven years there has been about a 150% increase in the number of ads in NCRA Source Book, a paper-based paper directory that Mr. Prout and the NCRA staff predicted would be replaced by ads "such as that found on the Verbatim Reporters Center and elsewhere on the World Wide Web."
I just counted up the actual California ads in the 2008 on-line NCRA Professional Services Locator, and I counted up 59 ads.
It certainly doesn't seem the NCRA on-line Professional Services Locator is anywhere near replacing the paper-based directory NCRA Source Book.
Now I counted up the California ads in the October 2009 JCR Court Reporter Listings, and there were 17 California ads.
I am wondering why the 99 Source Book freelance agency advertisers haven't been called to ask them to purchase JCR Court Reporter Listing ads.
You might have difficulty in selling the 99 Source Book advertisers on buying ads in the JCR Court Reporter Listing ad section when you tell them their new ads would be added by seniority to the end of the list of California ads. Those 99 Source Book advertisers have been accustomed to receiving fair, equal and excellent service in the NCRA Source Book where their ads are listed in geographic order by city.
It seem NCRA's total apathy and disinterest in increasing the number of JCR Source Book ads has contributed to that section losing 21 California advertisers since the peak of those ads in 1998 with 38 ads.
The NCRA board of directors has based its disinterest in the JCR Court Reporter Listings on the premise those JCR Court Reporter Listing ads and the paper based Source Book ads were going to replaced by on-line ads.
We know the premise upon which the NCRA board based its disinterest and non-concern was based on a false premise that paper directories were going to be replaced.
If the NCRA board of directors desired to increase incoming revenue, the NCRA board would instruct its staff to call the 99 Source Book advertisers and offer them JCR Court Reporter Listing ads listed geographically by city, and then the board might look forward to great increases in the number of JCR Court Reporter Listing advertisers.
Also, you only have 17 present advertisers in the JCR Court Reporter Listing ad section.
It would appear that with such a small number of advertisers NCRA could incrementally increase its advertising rates to the going market rate for those ads which is $235 per ad versus the present $100 per ad.
Of course, if the NCRA board wants to continue its disinterest and apathy awaiting the replacement of its magazine ads, the NCRA does so at the peril of its members who are losing great income because an NCRA board bases policies on false premises which have done great, great damage in causing the loss of 45% of the 38 advertisers in the 1998 JCR Court Reporter Listing California ads.
Submitted by Bill Parsons