LIVE! blows the doors off its first audit

March 31, 2007
By Joe Hyde
Special to LIVE!

Receivership is the statistical summary of how many people say they received Southwest Texas LIVE! in print. Margin for error is +/- 2.5% (Graphic of data compiled by CVCaudit.com) (click image to enlarge)

“Can you confirm how long you have been publishing Southwest Texas LIVE! Magazine?” Tim Bingaman, President & CEO of the Circulation Verification Council (CVC) asked as he presented the rough draft of the audit his company performed over the second half of 2006. I replied, six months. And he replied, “Your receivership and readership ratings are off the charts for a six-month-old general audience publication like yours,” he said.

Bingaman’s company has been the preferred auditing firm for thousands of community newspapers, shoppers and magazines around the country since 1992 and has a combined audited circulation of 63 million. “You have a good thing going down there,” Bingaman assured me. “I have never seen a six-month-old publication rate as high as yours,” he said. But there is more: “Overall, you are definitely within the top ten percent of our audited publications in regards to receivership and readership,” he said.

A seasoned publisher in this industry introduced me to CVC when we were first starting LIVE! in June 2006. According to my associate, CVC has a strong reputation because they simply report the facts. Their stringent methodology and experienced staff ensure that the numbers we report offer a true picture of a publication, its readers and its market. These high standards benefit publishers and advertising decision makers alike.

Readership is the percentage of people who receive Southwest Texas LIVE! in print and read or look through it regularly. (graphic of data compiled by CVCaudit.com) (click image to enlarge)

We have found CVC to be a strategic business partner who provides valuable, objective information on Southwest Texas LIVE! What is more, regional and national advertising decision makers know CVC is an impartial and trusted source for information on an ever-changing industry.

The first audit of LIVE! revealed that of a convenience sample of 388 telephone interviews across all zip codes in our 8-county circulation area 96.6% of respondents said they regularly receive a copy of LIVE! in the mail or pick one up at a convenience store or restaurant. This is the “receivership” rating.

Of those 96.6% of recipients, 81.6% revealed that they regularly read or thumb through each monthly copy of LIVE! This is the “readership” ranking. Simply put, we blew the doors off the audit. We couldn’t have done that without the loyal support from our reading audience and our advertisers. Back in the beginning, in May 2006, when I was trolling the streets, pitching the concept of LIVE! many forward-thinking businesses stepped forward because they saw the value in our concept: To de-fragment a fragmented media marketplace. Our value-proposition was to build a wall of advertising with convergence. That is, to converge the reach of direct mail with the frequency of the Internet. This audit proves the concept is sound and successful.

Buyership is the number of people who receive Southwest Texas LIVE! in print and indicate that they have purchased a product or service advertised in the publication. (Graphic of data compiled by CVCAudit.com) (click image to enlarge)

On the Internet, we measure our success daily using a Web site statistics program called AwStats. Visitor traffic has grown from a little over 600 visitors per day in June 2006 to well over 2,500 visitors per day in March 2007. Our repeat Web visitor traffic is quite large, sometimes exceeding two or three times per day per visitor. This month, we will exceed 61,000 total visitors to swtexaslive.com. Those visitors will generate 3 million hits and consume 20 Gigabytes of Internet bandwidth.

Southwest Texas LIVE! Magazine is published twelve times per year and direct mailed to 24,000 households in an eight-county radius of Del Rio, Texas. Our circulation blankets the area from Eagle Pass, to Del Rio, to Sonora; and from Sanderson to Rocksprings to Brackettville and Quemado. Our companion Web site swtexaslive.com is published daily with updates to our features in print and new articles with a regional interest. For a media kit and an in person presentation of the CVC Audit data, as well as a presentation of ideas of how we can help you get closer to your customer, please email me at joe.hyde at aaggregate.com .

Income distribution of readers of Southwest Texas LIVE! This publication owns the market for higher incomes in the region. These are the consumer leaders-- the ones that have credit and income to drive the local economy. (Graphic of compiled data by CVCAudit.com) (click image to enlarge)

Longgevity is a measure of how long a single issue of Southwest Texas LIVE! in print is kept around the home or business before discarding (compiled data by CVCAudit.com) (click image to enlarge)

These are the March 2007 statistics of readership on swtexaslive.com. The second column, after the date, is how many unique visits there were on each day of the month. The next column is how many pages were viewed each day. The next columm, "Hits," is how many files were download. A Web page with images and banner ads may have 20 "hits," one for each item downloaded from our server to display the page. The last column is the amount of bandwidth consumed serving Web pages to our readers. The data for March 31 is incomplete since this was generated before the day of the 31st of over. (Graphic generated with AWStats on March 30, 2007. AWStats is our Web Statistics and monitoring program) (click image to enlarge)

Over the past three months, we've been asking you what you think of LIVE! Here are some of your comments:

Let us submit photo's for your review/posted in our forum topics...Pictures are worth allot....Outstanding news media. Mr Sontag should be Knighted...

This is the ONLY eletronic/print media for accurate and dependable information in the region. It puts cable access, radio, and other print forums to shame. It serves both the sproadic and substained readership who desire consistent and cohesive information.

You are producing an excellent paper...we received the first couple of issues in the mail, but we apparently do not meet your new demographics for receiving your paper through the mail...my husband is retired and we live on a fixed income...it would be really nice to once again get your paper in the mail...maybe you could offer this option through the website???

Objectivity in reporting could be instituted for all articles. It apears some reports are designed to instigate responses, which mostly are anonymous, thus eliminating accountability and responsability.

I think that interactive news is the way of the future. Keep it up and possibly think about requiring people to register before being able to post.

i am thrilled with the local information. i have learned more about Del Rio and surrounding areas with Del Rio Live or now called swtexaslive, then i have in the 26 years i have lived here. the local activiites and whats going on in this town (good and bad) is what i want to read. All the hunting info and bass tournaments, the downtown restoration, the local elections, etc , etc. are great. I would like to hear more about our schools. I think things are going on there that are kept swept under the rug and i think we need to know what going on so we can work on correcting things that need correcting. i would also like to know more about the crime in this town. Its seems like everything is kept hush hush. all the new building, and business coming to town is great news. it seems like more is going on in Eagle Pass then here . Keep up the good work. Oh i would like to see something like investigating reporting to make sure our elected officals and government and city agencies are doing what is right, example: I think it was the Housing Director in San Antonio that was paying for her daughter in laws house or something like that.

I am looking forward to a future issue that might contain stories about the housing boom on Lake Amistad.

Your doing great!! Keep up the good work! Way to Go Joe! Way to go Bill!

thanks for the pictures of the of the 1941 [San Felipe High School] Mustangs. I didn't realize that my uncle played football.

I want to congratulate on the coverage that you do about news from my hometown Eagle Pass and all of the southwest region. Compared to The Local media in Eagle Pass the only website that I get some news from besides the Piedras Negras El Zocalo newspaper website where I daily get news from Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras.

Great website. I'm interested in that part of Texas but live up in Maryland. I've found this website to be very informative and have been able to find several different places I'd like to visit when I'm in the area.

Great local business news, I am a business student at Park University LAFB Campus and the local news has served well to know what is going on in my community.

I love all of the editions and topics in the magazines. Love to explore and take a day trips because of the articles. Would love to have someone rate ther current movies and rentals. So enjoyed the Coffee Now article and especially enjoy the Mocha made with white chocolate and sugar free. MMMgood. Missed the magazine last month as it was late due to the snow and other obstacles and was very happy to finally receive it. Keep up the great works.

This communication was e-mailed to me. Prior to this, I knew nothing about your site. So a big-time thanks! George Paul, the nephew of the deceased George Paul and the son of the recently-deceased Lee Paul, is a close friend of our family, as we were next-door neighbors for years after we first moved to Dull Rio over 33 years ago. The article and the pics were TERRIFIC!! I used your option to forward it on to my sons, who will hopefully send it on to George, in case he hasn't already seen it. ( don't have his e-mail address.) Thanks a bunch for sending this!! P.S. George the Younger is a really super kid--still a "kid" to me, even tho' he is knocking on 40. P.S. George Paul is a really neat kid (He's still a "kid" to me, even tho' he's knocking on 40).

I would like to thank Mr.Sontag for his professionalism and giving these kids the exposure they so much deserve. I as a parent enjoyed the event and hope there is more coverage with organizations such as the boy and girl scouts. Promotion and exposure may help get the word out to other kids that may want to join. Great job Mr. Sontag.

I really enjoy your articles they are the best well explained articles I have read in all of south texas and a tip of the hat to you guys keep up the good work. One thing I would like you guys to do is that when you write about a person if you could please give that person's background for example on the EP Chamber Cityizen of the year person the Border Patrolwoman it didn't say where she is from and where she grew up!

Thank God we still have FREE PRESS!!!!

Joe, Thank you for your excellent reporting.

Watch out for extra long sentences. Modern Americans have short attention spans. LOVED this story. Found you by a link from WorldNetDaily 'cause I've given up on the Mainstream Media (MSM). Keep up this good work!

I was born in Del Rio, the daughter of an air force pilot. About 3 months after my birth my father was transfered and we moved away. I have never been back but have always been interested in learing more about the area. This article was a big surprise first because it is about my church and second because it is about the people in the place I was born. Thank you so much for a little insight into my place of birth.

you are doing a great job. it keeps me informed of del rio when i'm not there.

I look forward to viewing LIVE online in the future and intend to use it as a source of news for the work I do on Care2. Since the news media (newspapers and broadcast) provide very little "actual" news, I rely on internet organizations, newsletters, and on-line news sources to keep abreast of what is happening around the country and world.

You are the Southwest Texas' greatest news carrier and information Web site I have seen in this area. Very well written!

I live in El Paso, Tx. Thank you so much for the EXCELLENT article in the Del Rio paper regarding El Paso's new recycling program! The new director in charge of El Paso's new program is doing a fantastic job and has only been on the job as of January 2007. It's too bad and a shame that our own newspaper, The El Paso Times, doesn't have the quality of reporting that Del Rio does. The El Paso Times, is a SAD excuse of a newspaper. Why don't you contact them and inform them of negative reports on their "newspaper"? Suggest that they might want to engage in some "creative and excellent" networking on "how to run and produce a quality newspaper"!

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I don't see not "How to

Submitted by Fouche on Thu, 04/05/2007 - 7:34am.

I don't see not "How to contact us" button or link from your website.
How does one e-mail or contact you regarding a story or advertising?

Our office phone number in

Submitted by Bill Sontag on Thu, 04/05/2007 - 7:37am.

Our office phone number in Del Rio is 469-4054. For stories you can contact me at 768-1493 or 719-2756. For advertising, contact Rowland Garza at 734-6397.

Bill Sontag
Feature Writer
Southwest Texas LIVE!