Sponsor (Apr-June 1960)

Id PRINTING EQUIPMENT is manned by production team (I to r) ■k ■ Al Ritchie, Ron Smith and Bob O'Connor, who process final forms for t the seven-person traffic staff in New York. Multilith processing can jj ; be completed within one hour, entire buyer request within three TIME-SAVING CONCEPT c executive; is supervised by hin service supervisor. At end of status on availabilities, progra iginated with Otto Ohland, account and assistant Marjorie Jerome, sales day, each tv station gives updated 1 and contract changes, rate changes turns to the WJIM-TV file and sees at a glance which flags are "up" — marking slots available — in the time segments requested by the buyer. The salesman then pulls from the file the pre-printed Vis-Avail form. This is a four-page folder with complete hour-by-hour, day-by-day program information which has been multilithed to include all new information. His next step is to correlate a preprinted rating sheet (one for Nielsen, one for ARB, depending on which service is standard with the agency) by entering the program rating and the number of homes reached for each availability in which the buyer is interested. This matched set of (a) program listings of times requested by the buyer and (b) the rating and home information is then sent to the multilithing typist, who prepares the master copy from which the final VisAvail is printed. The entire job — pinpointed to the specific request of the buyer — can be compiled, printed, and delivered within three hours. The buyer, at a single glance, can see the announcements which are available. The fourth page of the Vis-Avail form includes all rate information for the station, as well as the frequency discounts possi ble with any of several "package" plans. The rating sheets are compiled for each station as Nielsen and ARB release new reports. A sufficient quantity of the rating sheets, as well as the basic program listing, is maintained for use of the 45 tv salesmen in all 11 offices. But as soon as new information comes in, new sheets are printed and the old ones thrown out. The sales service department handles the flow of information with eight girls in addition to a teletypist. (Blair estimates the teletype operator handled 15,000 twx's or 150,000 yards of twx paper on the three machines last year just detailing changes.) The processing of availabilities has been a mounting problem as gains in spot tv billings have been recorded. Martin Katz, sales development director for the company, notes that last vear 53 national spot tv representative firms transacted $605.6 million in business. And Ralph Klapperich of Knox-Reeves estimates that by 1962 spot tv billings will reach SI billion. The simplified system, says Mr. Ohland, "releases salesmen for servicing and for selling, and removes them from the clerical functions with which they were swamped!" ^ STATION INFO is transferred to cellophane files, one per station, with sign-on to signoff listing for weekdays and weekends. Different colors denote network shows, local shows sold, local shows available. Overlapping cards are easy to see, flagged with colors TIME AND MONEY are saved by cutting twx communication, supervised by Joan Fulton, and by simplifying paper work. Salesmen were spending much time as clerks doing paperwork, are now able to give better service to buyers and to have more selling time SPONSOR • 4 JUNE 1960