[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1490},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-\u002Fblog\u002Ffake-brains-software-continually-develops":3,"blog-posts-all":164},{"id":4,"title":5,"archive":6,"author":7,"body":8,"category":127,"date":128,"description":129,"extension":130,"faq":131,"featured":132,"image":133,"imageAlt":133,"imageCaption":133,"legacyUrls":134,"meta":136,"navigation":6,"noindex":132,"path":137,"related":138,"seo":151,"stem":153,"summary":154,"supersededBy":155,"tags":158,"updated":133,"__hash__":163},"blogPosts\u002Fblog\u002Ffake-brains-software-continually-develops.md","Fake Brains software continually develops",true,"Fake Brains",{"type":9,"value":10,"toc":114},"minimark",[11,15,22,25,30,33,38,41,44,47,51,54,57,61,68,71,75,78,85,88,92,95,99,102,108,111],[12,13,14],"p",{},"The best part of working at Fake Brains is the pride the team takes in AccountScout. It is handcrafted, made in-house, and built with quality and efficiency in mind.",[12,16,17,18],{},"The world keeps changing, so we should too. All of us are trying to find more efficient ways to work, and the software people use every day either enables that or gets in the way. ",[19,20,21],"strong",{},"Software should increase productivity, not frustration.",[12,23,24],{},"AccountScout is the nerve centre for newspapers and media companies, and we all take pride in the quality of what we ship.",[26,27,29],"h2",{"id":28},"so-what-was-new","So what was new?",[12,31,32],{},"The 2018 release went out to every customer on an active service contract or SaaS plan, at no additional charge. Four things stood out.",[34,35,37],"h3",{"id":36},"the-activity-manager","The activity manager",[12,39,40],{},"Typically used by a manager, or whoever is responsible for productivity, but equally useful to an individual tracking their own work.",[12,42,43],{},"It shows all activities by any user in the system. Managers can assign tasks — daily, weekly, monthly, annual — and follow progress. It tracks open and closed activities and shows percentage complete by user, which gives a fast read on how the operation is running and where work is piling up.",[12,45,46],{},"As with the rest of AccountScout, the reports and pages behind it are customisable, so the view can match how you actually manage.",[34,48,50],{"id":49},"append-timestamp","Append timestamp",[12,52,53],{},"Lets a user add multiple layered notes inside a single activity.",[12,55,56],{},"The problem it solves is a familiar one: somebody creates three separate activities to record three things that happened on the same task, because there was nowhere to put the second and third. Now the history of what happened, and when, lives on the activity itself.",[34,58,60],{"id":59},"the-retail-manifest-report","The retail manifest report",[12,62,63,64,67],{},"Shows changes made ",[19,65,66],{},"after"," deadline — amendments or changes since a selected date, or a specific time of day, for ads placed in any issue, before and after deadline.",[12,69,70],{},"If you have ever tried to reconstruct who changed what between the deadline and the press run, this is the report for that argument.",[34,72,74],{"id":73},"search-by-email-address","Search by email address",[12,76,77],{},"A small change with a large effect: clients can be found by email address, searching both contact and advertiser addresses. Requested by customers, which is where most of this list comes from.",[12,79,80,81,84],{},"Also in this release: ",[19,82,83],{},"Report 4.3.12, the Classified Deadline Summary."," It estimates page counts by classification along with their parent classifications — useful at deadline for high-volume classified output, where seeing the space required helps maximise the page plan and cut waste.",[12,86,87],{},"We also added the ability to print Retail Ad Copy in other image formats such as JPG and PNG, where previously printing from within AccountScout was limited to PDF.",[26,89,91],{"id":90},"on-learning-it","On learning it",[12,93,94],{},"New features can feel like a lot at once. That is what the support team is for, and there is a video library covering most of it.",[26,96,98],{"id":97},"why-we-do-it-this-way","Why we do it this way",[12,100,101],{},"Our founder and lead developer, Pat Pfeifer, put it plainly at the time:",[103,104,105],"blockquote",{},[12,106,107],{},"We are a fun, engaging team always looking for ways to be more efficient. I want AccountScout to reflect that productivity and efficiency. We have given hundreds of upgrades to our customers because we believe in helping them create sustainable success.",[12,109,110],{},"That is a fair summary of what it is like here. We work together to find new ways to be productive, and when you are a customer you are part of that — we want to help you build something that lasts.",[12,112,113],{},"AccountScout is the nerve centre for newspaper publishers: sales, production, billing, retail, classified, and legal.",{"title":115,"searchDepth":116,"depth":116,"links":117},"",2,[118,125,126],{"id":28,"depth":116,"text":29,"children":119},[120,122,123,124],{"id":36,"depth":121,"text":37},3,{"id":49,"depth":121,"text":50},{"id":59,"depth":121,"text":60},{"id":73,"depth":121,"text":74},{"id":90,"depth":116,"text":91},{"id":97,"depth":116,"text":98},"Product notes","2020-06-10","Why AccountScout is handcrafted in-house, and what the 2018 release added: the activity manager, append timestamps on activities, the retail manifest report, and search by email address.","md",[],false,null,[135],"\u002Ffake-brains-software-continually-develops\u002F",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Ffake-brains-software-continually-develops",[139,143,147],{"title":140,"description":141,"href":142},"Newspaper advertising software","The current platform, and how one advertiser record ties sales, production, and billing together.","\u002Fproducts\u002Faccountscout",{"title":144,"description":145,"href":146},"About Fake Brains","Founder-owned since 1991, built in-house in Colorado, and not part of a roll-up.","\u002Fabout",{"title":148,"description":149,"href":150},"For management","Pipeline visibility, operational reporting, and accountability across departments.","\u002Froles\u002Fmanagement",{"title":152,"description":129},"Why We Build AccountScout In-House | Fake Brains","blog\u002Ffake-brains-software-continually-develops","Software should increase productivity, not frustration. A note from 2018 on what we shipped that year and why we build every line of it ourselves.",{"label":156,"href":142,"note":157},"AccountScout","This post describes a release from 2018 and is kept for the record. For what ships today, see",[159,160,161,162],"release notes","reporting","activities","in-house","JMWtugFOxvAxU6gX0H4BBCTEq382-dYieo8rM36utiQ",[165,303,404,642,725,858,1027,1294],{"id":166,"title":167,"archive":132,"author":7,"body":168,"category":263,"date":128,"description":264,"extension":130,"faq":265,"featured":6,"image":133,"imageAlt":133,"imageCaption":133,"legacyUrls":275,"meta":277,"navigation":6,"noindex":132,"path":278,"related":279,"seo":289,"stem":295,"summary":296,"supersededBy":133,"tags":297,"updated":301,"__hash__":302},"blogPosts\u002Fblog\u002Fa-few-successful-traits-of-growing-newspapers.md","A few traits that growing newspapers share",{"type":9,"value":169,"toc":258},[170,173,176,180,183,186,189,192,196,199,202,205,208,211,215,218,225,228,240,246,249,252,255],[12,171,172],{},"People have been predicting the end of the newspaper industry for a long time. The industry has changed enormously — nobody sensible argues otherwise — but \"changed\" and \"finished\" are different words. Saying newspapers are done is close to saying news is done.",[12,174,175],{},"We build software for newspaper and media publishers, which means we get a look inside a lot of operations. Some are shrinking. Some are growing. The ones that are growing tend to share three things.",[26,177,179],{"id":178},"_1-communication-between-departments-is-deliberate","1. Communication between departments is deliberate",[12,181,182],{},"The single clearest pattern: in growing publications, an ad order moves from sales to production to billing without being re-handled at each stop.",[12,184,185],{},"That sounds obvious. In practice, it is where most of the waste lives. An order gets taken on paper, re-typed into a layout tool, emailed to a designer, described again in a message to the bookkeeper, and finally invoiced from a fourth system. Each handoff is a chance to introduce an error, and each error costs more to fix than the original entry cost to make.",[12,187,188],{},"The publishers who grow have squeezed the handling count down. They can answer \"what is the status of this ad?\" without three phone calls. When we ask them why they set something up a particular way, they have an answer — they have asked themselves \"why do we do it like this?\" recently enough to remember.",[12,190,191],{},"That question is the whole exercise. Pick the repeatable task your staff complains about most and ask why it works the way it does. The answer is frequently \"because that is how the old system made us do it,\" which is not a reason.",[26,193,195],{"id":194},"_2-there-is-a-specialty-product-alongside-the-main-title","2. There is a specialty product alongside the main title",[12,197,198],{},"The second pattern is a supplement, a niche title, or some other specialty product sitting next to the flagship.",[12,200,201],{},"Multiple products diversify the portfolio, and the specialty product usually carries a better margin than the main title. For a lot of publishers, it is where the profit actually comes from.",[12,203,204],{},"The economics are favourable because the hard part is already paid for. Distribution exists. The sales relationships exist. Adding a product on top of infrastructure you already run is a very different proposition from starting one from scratch.",[12,206,207],{},"If you are weighing one up, start from the reader rather than the ad rate. What is your reader already interested in? What would genuinely add something for them? A supplement that answers a real reader question tends to find advertisers; one designed backwards from a rate card tends not to.",[12,209,210],{},"Worth noting: specialty products often pull in advertisers who would never buy the main title. A niche annual can be the first order from a business that has ignored your flagship for a decade.",[26,212,214],{"id":213},"_3-the-software-is-genuinely-mission-critical","3. The software is genuinely mission-critical",[12,216,217],{},"Top-performing publications almost always run on software their day depends on. Not software they tolerate — software that lets them do things they could not do otherwise.",[12,219,220,221,224],{},"That is the test, and it cuts both ways. ",[19,222,223],{},"If you could do more without your software than with it, the software is the problem."," Staff keeping private spreadsheets alongside the system is the tell. So is re-keying the same order twice. So is waiting on someone else to run a report.",[12,226,227],{},"Two areas are worth looking at specifically.",[12,229,230,233,234,239],{},[19,231,232],{},"Sales."," Sales are the lifeline, and reps are an asset you can invest in directly. A ",[235,236,238],"a",{"href":237},"\u002Fproducts\u002Fsalescout","newspaper CRM"," that works away from the desk means a rep can see account history, current balance, run history, and what an advertiser last bought while standing in that advertiser's shop. Reps who can answer questions on the spot close more, and reps who close more tend to stay.",[12,241,242,245],{},[19,243,244],{},"Reporting."," Reports are how you find out what is actually happening. When you evaluate them, look at customisation, the date ranges you can ask for, how long a report takes to generate, and how many exist before someone has to write one for you. You should be able to pinpoint when an advertiser dropped off, or list everyone expiring next month, in under two minutes. If that takes a support ticket, it is not a reporting system.",[12,247,248],{},"Reports are also a staff tool, not just a management one. Do not underestimate how much friction disappears when the person who needs a number can just get it.",[250,251],"hr",{},[12,253,254],{},"Find software your business could not run without, and which makes the business bigger because it is there. Those two conditions are not the same, and both matter.",[12,256,257],{},"Newspapers will keep changing shape. The newspaper of tomorrow will not look like the newspaper of yesterday. But people are going to keep needing them.",{"title":115,"searchDepth":116,"depth":116,"links":259},[260,261,262],{"id":178,"depth":116,"text":179},{"id":194,"depth":116,"text":195},{"id":213,"depth":116,"text":214},"Publisher field notes","Three patterns we see again and again in publications that are growing: clean internal communication, a specialty product alongside the main title, and mission-critical software that earns its place.",[266,269,272],{"question":267,"answer":268},"What do growing community newspapers have in common?","In our experience, three things: an internal process that moves an ad order between departments without re-handling it, at least one specialty product alongside the main title, and software their daily operation genuinely depends on. None of the three is about headcount.",{"question":270,"answer":271},"Is a supplement or specialty product worth launching?","Often, yes. Distribution is already paid for, margins tend to be better than the flagship, and supplements frequently attract advertisers who would never buy space in the main title. Start by asking what your existing reader actually wants more of.",{"question":273,"answer":274},"How do I know if my publishing software is holding the operation back?","Ask whether you could do more without it. If staff maintain spreadsheets alongside the system, re-key the same order into two places, or wait days for a report, the software is a tax rather than an asset.",[276],"\u002Fa-few-successful-traits-of-growing-newspapers\u002F",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fa-few-successful-traits-of-growing-newspapers",[280,282,285],{"title":140,"description":281,"href":142},"The ad order entry, production, and billing workflow that keeps a single order from being re-typed four times.",{"title":283,"description":284,"href":237},"Ad sales CRM","SalesScout gives reps account history, balances, and run history from anywhere.",{"title":286,"description":287,"href":288},"Software for community newspapers","How weekly and free papers run ad operations without a dedicated IT department.","\u002Findustries\u002Fcommunity-newspapers",{"title":290,"keyFacts":291,"description":264},"Traits That Growing Newspapers Share | Fake Brains",[292,293,294],"Publications that grow tend to minimise the number of times a single ad order is re-handled between departments.","A specialty product or supplement often carries a higher margin than the main title and can attract advertisers who never buy the flagship.","AccountScout by Fake Brains has been built in-house in Colorado since 1991 and ships with 300+ built-in reports.","blog\u002Fa-few-successful-traits-of-growing-newspapers","We build software for newspaper and media publishers, which means we get a look inside a lot of operations. The ones that are growing tend to share three things.",[298,299,300,160],"growth","operations","supplements","2026-09-06","q9HeG0clh83Q4cDOTqWC-9bKntBIYw5824OiyBUFb5c",{"id":304,"title":305,"archive":6,"author":7,"body":306,"category":127,"date":128,"description":371,"extension":130,"faq":372,"featured":132,"image":373,"imageAlt":374,"imageCaption":375,"legacyUrls":376,"meta":378,"navigation":6,"noindex":132,"path":379,"related":380,"seo":390,"stem":393,"summary":394,"supersededBy":395,"tags":398,"updated":133,"__hash__":403},"blogPosts\u002Fblog\u002Faccountscout-mobile.md","AccountScout Mobile: selling from the field",{"type":9,"value":307,"toc":366},[308,311,314,317,321,324,327,330,334,337,340,348,351,354,357,360,363],[12,309,310],{},"AccountScout Mobile was designed to keep sales reps in the field and close more deals.",[12,312,313],{},"The premise was simple: a rep should not have to drive back to the office to answer a question. The app connected to the same database as the desktop product every other department used, so a rep could pull up an advertiser and see the contact, recent activities, up-to-the-minute balances, recent ad runs, ad scheduling, advertiser metrics, expiring retail orders — and the actual ad copy of the ads.",[12,315,316],{},"Nearly everything visible at a desk, visible in a pocket, against live data rather than a nightly export.",[26,318,320],{"id":319},"why-a-crm-at-all","Why a CRM at all",[12,322,323],{},"It is fair to say most publishers understand the importance of their reps. The question is what you hand them.",[12,325,326],{},"A CRM is how reps nurture prospects and keep customers. When you are choosing publishing software, it is easy to weigh the needs of billing and production — the departments that shout — and underweight the reps, who are usually out of the building when the decision gets made.",[12,328,329],{},"Our view then, and now: the most useful CRM for a publisher is the one that keeps reps in the field longer, gives them the data each conversation actually needs, and helps them close. It is not a separate system that someone has to reconcile later.",[26,331,333],{"id":332},"a-story-about-bob","A story about Bob",[12,335,336],{},"Bob is a rep working past customers.",[12,338,339],{},"At this point Bob does not have AccountScout — he has a generic CRM on his phone. He knows the contact, he knows the advertiser, he knows they have bought before. He walks into the local pizza place and does what Bob does best: he sells an ad. A rerun of what they ran last time.",[12,341,342,343,347],{},"Back at the office, Bob enters the order and discovers he has just sold the same ad to the same business at a ",[344,345,346],"em",{},"lower"," rate than they paid last time.",[12,349,350],{},"Now rewrite it. Bob is sitting outside with the app open, wondering who to call on. He taps \"expiring retail orders\" and sees a pizza place nearby with an ad about to lapse. He opens the advertiser and sees what he would see at his desk — the expiring ad, the price they paid, the contact, the account history, and, most usefully, the artwork currently running.",[12,352,353],{},"Bob still does what Bob does best. But this time he sells a larger ad at a higher rate, because he could see what they last bought and what they paid for it. Then he reruns the order from the app and moves on to the next expiring advertiser without going back to the office.",[12,355,356],{},"The difference between the two versions of that afternoon is not effort. It is information, at the moment it was needed.",[26,358,144],{"id":359},"about-fake-brains",[12,361,362],{},"Fake Brains has built software for newspaper and media publishers since 1991, and we write all of it in-house in Colorado. Everything we make is for this industry — every upgrade is meant to help publishers get more done and make more money.",[12,364,365],{},"Some of you love our name. Some of you do not. Either way, we enjoy helping newspaper communities, and we are the artificial intelligence behind your data.",{"title":115,"searchDepth":116,"depth":116,"links":367},[368,369,370],{"id":319,"depth":116,"text":320},{"id":332,"depth":116,"text":333},{"id":359,"depth":116,"text":144},"A 2020 look at AccountScout Mobile, the app that put advertiser records, balances, run history, and ad copy in a rep's pocket. The product is now SalesScout.",[],"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Faccountscout-mobile-2020.png","AccountScout Mobile advertiser screen on a phone, showing account details and recent activity","AccountScout Mobile as it looked in 2020. The product is now SalesScout and the interface has changed considerably.",[377],"\u002Faccountscout-mobile\u002F",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Faccountscout-mobile",[381,384,388],{"title":382,"description":383,"href":237},"SalesScout — the ad sales CRM this became","The current product: the full CRM in a browser on any device, included with AccountScout.",{"title":385,"description":386,"href":387},"For sales teams","What the day looks like for a rep working accounts away from the office.","\u002Froles\u002Fsales",{"title":140,"description":389,"href":142},"The platform behind it: one advertiser record shared by sales, production, and billing.",{"title":391,"description":392},"AccountScout Mobile, Now SalesScout | Fake Brains","A 2020 post on AccountScout Mobile — advertiser records, balances, run history, and ad copy in a rep's pocket. The product is now called SalesScout.","blog\u002Faccountscout-mobile","Why we put the full advertiser record — balances, run history, expiring orders, and the actual ad artwork — on a phone. This product is now SalesScout.",{"label":396,"href":237,"note":397},"SalesScout","The product described here is now SalesScout, and it runs in a browser on any device rather than as a separate app. The thinking below still holds; for what ships today, see",[399,400,401,402],"salescout","crm","mobile","sales","3Ubd2jmHs7KcVPI1LnXbXx1_NJRPDePNiJEzZp1HW8c",{"id":405,"title":406,"archive":132,"author":7,"body":407,"category":601,"date":128,"description":602,"extension":130,"faq":603,"featured":132,"image":133,"imageAlt":133,"imageCaption":133,"legacyUrls":616,"meta":618,"navigation":6,"noindex":132,"path":619,"related":620,"seo":628,"stem":634,"summary":635,"supersededBy":133,"tags":636,"updated":301,"__hash__":641},"blogPosts\u002Fblog\u002Femail-marketing-basics.md","Email marketing basics for publishers",{"type":9,"value":408,"toc":593},[409,412,415,419,425,431,441,447,460,466,475,478,484,495,498,503,507,511,514,537,541,561,565,571,574,582,585],[12,410,411],{},"Emailing your advertisers and prospects is one of the most direct ways to stay their media expert rather than just their ad rep. You can remind, sell, notify, or simply be useful.",[12,413,414],{},"Most publishers we work with are somewhere on the spectrum between \"we send a newsletter when someone remembers\" and \"we run segmented campaigns off the advertiser record.\" Wherever you are on it, the vocabulary is the first barrier, so start there.",[26,416,418],{"id":417},"the-terminology-plainly","The terminology, plainly",[12,420,421,424],{},[19,422,423],{},"Sent."," Every email that left the outbox.",[12,426,427,430],{},[19,428,429],{},"Delivered."," Every email accepted by the recipient's mail server. Note that \"delivered\" covers the inbox, the spam folder, and whatever promotional tab the provider files it under — it does not mean \"seen.\"",[12,432,433,436,437],{},[19,434,435],{},"Bounced."," Emails the receiving domain refused. Usually the address does not exist.\n",[438,439,440],"code",{},"Bounce rate = 1 − (delivered ÷ sent)",[12,442,443,446],{},[19,444,445],{},"Opens."," Every time a delivered email was opened, including the same person opening it four times.",[12,448,449,452,453,456,457],{},[19,450,451],{},"Unique opens."," The number of ",[344,454,455],{},"recipients"," who opened. Each person counts once.\n",[438,458,459],{},"Open rate = unique opens ÷ delivered",[12,461,462,465],{},[19,463,464],{},"Clicks."," Recipients who opened and clicked anything linked.",[12,467,468,471,472],{},[19,469,470],{},"Unique clicks."," The number of recipients who clicked, counted once each.\n",[438,473,474],{},"Click-through rate = unique clicks ÷ delivered",[12,476,477],{},"Some teams also track click-to-open rate (unique clicks ÷ unique opens), which tells you how compelling the message was to the people who actually saw it.",[12,479,480,483],{},[19,481,482],{},"Unsubscribed."," Recipients who asked to come off the list.",[12,485,486,487,490,491,494],{},"That last one is worth dwelling on, because people work hard to avoid it and should not. ",[19,488,489],{},"An unsubscribe is a far better outcome than a spam complaint."," Unsubscribes do not blacklist you; they just shorten a list that was not going to convert anyway. But if you bury the unsubscribe link or make it hard to click, some of those people will hit \"mark as spam\" instead — and that damages your domain's ability to reach ",[344,492,493],{},"every"," future inbox, including the advertisers who do want to hear from you.",[12,496,497],{},"One caveat on opens specifically: open tracking has become materially less reliable since these metrics were first standardised, because several mail clients now load tracking images on the recipient's behalf whether or not anyone read the message. Treat opens as a directional trend and put more weight on clicks.",[103,499,500],{},[12,501,502],{},"Benchmarks move, so treat published averages as orders of magnitude rather than targets. When this post was first written, cross-industry averages sat near a 23% open rate, a 3.8% click-through rate, a 0.2% unsubscribe rate, and a 0.02% spam rate. Your own trend line against your own list is the more useful comparison.",[26,504,506],{"id":505},"the-two-things-that-actually-matter","The two things that actually matter",[34,508,510],{"id":509},"reaching-the-inbox","Reaching the inbox",[12,512,513],{},"Everything else is downstream of this.",[515,516,517,525,528,531,534],"ul",{},[518,519,520,521,524],"li",{},"Send from a real person at your own domain — ",[438,522,523],{},"name@yourpaper.com",", not a generic no-reply.",[518,526,527],{},"Never buy lists.",[518,529,530],{},"Clean the list regularly. When an address bounces, take it out.",[518,532,533],{},"Write like a person. Avoid all caps, keep subject lines short.",[518,535,536],{},"Watch the ratio of links to text. A wall of links reads as spam to filters and to humans.",[34,538,540],{"id":539},"writing-something-worth-opening","Writing something worth opening",[515,542,543,549,555],{},[518,544,545,548],{},[19,546,547],{},"Make it personal."," Send from a name, not a company. Personalise the greeting and, where it makes sense, the subject line.",[518,550,551,554],{},[19,552,553],{},"Give people something to engage with."," Images and video outperform a wall of text; formatted email outperforms plain text for most publisher sends.",[518,556,557,560],{},[19,558,559],{},"Make the subject line do work."," Action-oriented language earns the open; a subject line that describes the email rarely does.",[26,562,564],{"id":563},"where-this-connects-to-the-rest-of-your-operation","Where this connects to the rest of your operation",[12,566,567,568,570],{},"The part publishers usually underestimate is what happens ",[344,569,66],{}," the send.",[12,572,573],{},"Composing the email is the easy half. The hard half is building the right list and getting the results somewhere useful. Typically the person who sent the campaign checks the numbers every few days, and there is a gap between what they see and what the sales team knows — so the advertiser who clicked three times never gets a call.",[12,575,576,577,581],{},"That gap is the reason ",[235,578,580],{"href":579},"\u002Fproducts\u002Faccountscout\u002Femail-marketing","AccountScout's email marketing"," works off the advertiser record rather than beside it. Lists are segmented from data you already maintain — dormant advertisers, past advertisers in a category, prospects by industry — and campaign results come back into the same record, so a rep can see engagement without learning a second system. Personal Email Tracking covers the one-to-one sends reps make themselves.",[12,583,584],{},"Tools like Mailchimp remain a good place to design and send. The integration exists precisely so you can keep using them without maintaining the same list in two places.",[12,586,587,588,592],{},"If you would like help getting set up, call us on ",[235,589,591],{"href":590},"tel:+13037913301","303-791-3301",".",{"title":115,"searchDepth":116,"depth":116,"links":594},[595,596,600],{"id":417,"depth":116,"text":418},{"id":505,"depth":116,"text":506,"children":597},[598,599],{"id":509,"depth":121,"text":510},{"id":539,"depth":121,"text":540},{"id":563,"depth":116,"text":564},"Operational deep-dives","The vocabulary and the fundamentals of publisher email marketing: what opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes actually measure, how to stay out of the spam folder, and how campaign results get back to your sales team.",[604,607,610,613],{"question":605,"answer":606},"How is email open rate calculated?","Unique opens divided by delivered emails. Unique opens count each recipient once no matter how many times they open. Note that open tracking has become less reliable as mail clients pre-fetch images on the recipient's behalf, so treat opens as a trend rather than a precise count, and weight clicks more heavily.",{"question":608,"answer":609},"Why does an unsubscribe matter less than a spam complaint?","An unsubscribe just removes someone from your list and costs you nothing beyond that address. A spam complaint damages your sending domain's reputation, which reduces the chance every future email you send reaches anyone's inbox. Hiding the unsubscribe link converts the cheap outcome into the expensive one.",{"question":611,"answer":612},"How do publishers keep advertiser emails out of the spam folder?","Send from a real person at your own domain rather than a generic address, never buy lists, remove bounced addresses promptly, keep subject lines short and avoid all caps, and keep the ratio of links to text sensible. Consistent list hygiene matters more than any single message.",{"question":614,"answer":615},"How do email campaign results reach the sales team?","In AccountScout, campaign segments are built from the advertiser record and results are read back into the same record, so a rep sees who engaged without logging into a separate marketing platform. Personal Email Tracking covers individual one-to-one sends.",[617],"\u002Femail-marketing-basics\u002F",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Femail-marketing-basics",[621,624,626],{"title":622,"description":623,"href":579},"Email marketing built into AccountScout","Advertiser outreach tied to the account record, with Personal Email Tracking on individual sends.",{"title":283,"description":625,"href":237},"Where the follow-up happens after somebody clicks: SalesScout, on any device.",{"title":140,"description":627,"href":142},"How the advertiser record ties prospecting, orders, production, and billing together.",{"title":629,"keyFacts":630,"description":602},"Email Marketing Basics for Publishers | Fake Brains",[631,632,633],"Open rate is unique opens divided by delivered emails; click-through rate is unique clicks divided by delivered emails.","An unsubscribe is a better outcome than a spam complaint, because spam complaints damage the sending domain's ability to reach every future inbox.","AccountScout by Fake Brains segments advertiser lists from the account record and reads campaign results back in, so sales reps see engagement without opening a separate marketing tool.","blog\u002Femail-marketing-basics","Selling to advertisers by email is straightforward once the vocabulary stops getting in the way. Here is what each metric actually measures, and the two things that matter more than any of them.",[637,638,639,640],"email marketing","advertisers","prospecting","mailchimp","pubA2dK2njQ0QhLi8i7lFp81Imx9KDv7TZZoppe6J_4",{"id":4,"title":5,"archive":6,"author":7,"body":643,"category":127,"date":128,"description":129,"extension":130,"faq":715,"featured":132,"image":133,"imageAlt":133,"imageCaption":133,"legacyUrls":716,"meta":717,"navigation":6,"noindex":132,"path":137,"related":718,"seo":722,"stem":153,"summary":154,"supersededBy":723,"tags":724,"updated":133,"__hash__":163},{"type":9,"value":644,"toc":705},[645,647,651,653,655,657,659,661,663,665,667,669,671,673,677,679,681,683,687,689,691,693,695,697,701,703],[12,646,14],{},[12,648,17,649],{},[19,650,21],{},[12,652,24],{},[26,654,29],{"id":28},[12,656,32],{},[34,658,37],{"id":36},[12,660,40],{},[12,662,43],{},[12,664,46],{},[34,666,50],{"id":49},[12,668,53],{},[12,670,56],{},[34,672,60],{"id":59},[12,674,63,675,67],{},[19,676,66],{},[12,678,70],{},[34,680,74],{"id":73},[12,682,77],{},[12,684,80,685,84],{},[19,686,83],{},[12,688,87],{},[26,690,91],{"id":90},[12,692,94],{},[26,694,98],{"id":97},[12,696,101],{},[103,698,699],{},[12,700,107],{},[12,702,110],{},[12,704,113],{},{"title":115,"searchDepth":116,"depth":116,"links":706},[707,713,714],{"id":28,"depth":116,"text":29,"children":708},[709,710,711,712],{"id":36,"depth":121,"text":37},{"id":49,"depth":121,"text":50},{"id":59,"depth":121,"text":60},{"id":73,"depth":121,"text":74},{"id":90,"depth":116,"text":91},{"id":97,"depth":116,"text":98},[],[135],{},[719,720,721],{"title":140,"description":141,"href":142},{"title":144,"description":145,"href":146},{"title":148,"description":149,"href":150},{"title":152,"description":129},{"label":156,"href":142,"note":157},[159,160,161,162],{"id":726,"title":727,"archive":132,"author":7,"body":728,"category":822,"date":128,"description":823,"extension":130,"faq":824,"featured":132,"image":133,"imageAlt":133,"imageCaption":133,"legacyUrls":834,"meta":836,"navigation":6,"noindex":132,"path":837,"related":838,"seo":845,"stem":851,"summary":852,"supersededBy":133,"tags":853,"updated":301,"__hash__":857},"blogPosts\u002Fblog\u002Fis-your-software-holding-you-back.md","Is your software holding you back?",{"type":9,"value":729,"toc":816},[730,733,741,744,748,751,754,757,760,766,770,773,776,780,783,786,789,795,798,802,805,810,813],[12,731,732],{},"We run Fake Brains on AccountScout.",[12,734,735,736,740],{},"Not as a demo, and not partially. Our billing and accounts receivable live in it. So does our CRM. So does our advertiser email. Our own customers pay us through the same ",[235,737,739],{"href":738},"\u002Fproducts\u002Fadvertiser-portal","Advertiser Portal"," we sell to publishers as an add-on. QuickBooks handles payroll, accounts payable, and the general ledger alongside it.",[12,742,743],{},"That is not a marketing position. It is the most reliable way we have found to discover what is wrong with our own product, because we hit the problems on the same afternoon our customers do.",[26,745,747],{"id":746},"the-tell-is-always-a-workaround","The tell is always a workaround",[12,749,750],{},"A while back one of us walked past a colleague's desk and found them holding a phone up to their monitor.",[12,752,753],{},"They had photographed a completed vendor bill so they could see it on the phone screen while typing a nearly identical one into the accounting software. The software only allowed one window at a time, and comparing two records meant either memorising the first or leaving the screen. So they solved it the way people always solve it — with equipment the software could not take away from them.",[12,755,756],{},"Nobody had filed a complaint about this. There was no ticket. It had simply been absorbed into the job.",[12,758,759],{},"That is what makes workarounds worth hunting for. People are resourceful, and resourcefulness hides cost. The photographed screen, the private spreadsheet, the sticky note taped to the monitor, the printout someone keeps \"just in case\" — each one is a person paying, in their own time, for something the software should have done.",[12,761,762,765],{},[19,763,764],{},"Go looking for them."," Walk the office and ask what people do that the system does not know about. You will find more than you expect, and you will find the real backlog.",[26,767,769],{"id":768},"what-we-changed-because-of-it","What we changed because of it",[12,771,772],{},"In AccountScout, virtually every screen can be opened multiple times at once — the same invoice, the same advertiser, the same order, the same report, side by side. That capability exists because comparing two records is not an edge case. It is Tuesday.",[12,774,775],{},"It sounds like a small thing. It is the difference between a task taking twenty seconds and a task requiring a second device.",[26,777,779],{"id":778},"the-second-gap-results-that-never-reach-anyone","The second gap: results that never reach anyone",[12,781,782],{},"The other thing running our own business surfaced was email.",[12,784,785],{},"Like a lot of publishers, we send to prospects and advertisers, and we use a dedicated tool to design and send. The composing is genuinely the easy part. The hard parts are building the right list and getting the results somewhere they matter.",[12,787,788],{},"Without an integration, that means exporting a CSV, uploading it, and then — the expensive bit — leaving the results inside the marketing tool. Someone checks the numbers every few days. There is a gap between what that person sees and what the sales team knows. The advertiser who opened the campaign three times and clicked twice never gets a call, because nobody whose job it is to call them ever saw it.",[12,790,791,792,794],{},"So we built the integration into ",[235,793,580],{"href":579}," rather than beside it. Lists get segmented directly from the advertiser record — dormant accounts, past advertisers in a category, prospects by industry — without maintaining the same data in two places. Campaign results come back into the same record, so a rep sees engagement on the account they are about to call.",[12,796,797],{},"We wanted that because we needed it ourselves. That is usually how it goes.",[26,799,801],{"id":800},"the-question-worth-asking","The question worth asking",[12,803,804],{},"The test we keep coming back to is not \"does the software have the features?\" It is:",[12,806,807],{},[19,808,809],{},"Could we do more without it than with it?",[12,811,812],{},"If any part of your operation would move faster if the system disappeared tomorrow, that part of the system is a tax rather than an asset. Look for the workarounds; they will tell you which part.",[12,814,815],{},"If your current publishing software cannot talk to the tools your team already relies on, it is probably limiting more than you have measured. We would rather you found that out by walking your own office than by reading a vendor's blog — but the walk is worth taking either way.",{"title":115,"searchDepth":116,"depth":116,"links":817},[818,819,820,821],{"id":746,"depth":116,"text":747},{"id":768,"depth":116,"text":769},{"id":778,"depth":116,"text":779},{"id":800,"depth":116,"text":801},"Workflow patterns","We run Fake Brains itself on AccountScout — billing, receivables, CRM, and advertiser email. Running your own business on your own software is the fastest way to find out where it gets in the way.",[825,828,831],{"question":826,"answer":827},"Does Fake Brains use its own software?","Yes. Billing, accounts receivable, CRM, and advertiser email marketing all run inside AccountScout, and our own customers pay invoices through the Advertiser Portal we sell as an add-on. Payroll, accounts payable, and the general ledger run in QuickBooks alongside it.",{"question":829,"answer":830},"Why does it matter if software only opens one window at a time?","Because comparing two records is a routine task. If the software cannot show an existing invoice while you create a similar one, staff invent workarounds — a second device, a printout, a photograph of the screen. Every workaround is unpaid time and a chance to introduce an error.",{"question":832,"answer":833},"Should publisher software integrate with email marketing tools?","It should, if you want campaign results to reach the people who can act on them. Without an integration, lists get exported by hand and results stay in the marketing tool, so the advertiser who clicked three times never gets a follow-up call.",[835],"\u002Fis-your-software-holding-you-back\u002F",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fis-your-software-holding-you-back",[839,841,843],{"title":140,"description":840,"href":142},"The platform we run our own company on: CRM, orders, production, billing, and reporting in one place.",{"title":622,"description":842,"href":579},"Segment advertiser lists from the account record and read campaign results back into it.",{"title":739,"description":844,"href":738},"The self-service portal our own advertisers use to pay invoices — the same add-on we sell.",{"title":846,"keyFacts":847,"description":823},"Is Your Software Holding You Back? | Fake Brains",[848,849,850],"Fake Brains runs its own billing, receivables, CRM, and advertiser email inside AccountScout, the same product it sells to publishers.","AccountScout allows the same screen — an invoice, an advertiser, an order, a report — to be opened multiple times at once so records can be compared side by side.","AccountScout segments email campaign lists from the advertiser record and reads campaign results back into it, so sales staff see engagement without opening a separate marketing tool.","blog\u002Fis-your-software-holding-you-back","The clearest sign software is costing you is a person inventing a workaround for it. We found one at the desk down the hall, and it changed what we built next.",[854,855,856,637],"dogfooding","workflow","integrations","n760qy-Nw1KdqXjNmJ2Qf_QUol4FEAyp-PQsb9ZMbOY",{"id":859,"title":860,"archive":6,"author":7,"body":861,"category":601,"date":128,"description":1006,"extension":130,"faq":1007,"featured":132,"image":133,"imageAlt":133,"imageCaption":133,"legacyUrls":1008,"meta":1010,"navigation":6,"noindex":132,"path":1011,"related":1012,"seo":1018,"stem":1020,"summary":1021,"supersededBy":1022,"tags":1025,"updated":301,"__hash__":1026},"blogPosts\u002Fblog\u002Fmailchimp-campaigns.md","Running Mailchimp campaigns from AccountScout",{"type":9,"value":862,"toc":999},[863,878,881,884,910,913,916,919,925,928,931,934,948,952,955,958,965,968,972,985,988],[12,864,865,866,869,870,873,874,877],{},"A Mailchimp campaign is made of three parts: the ",[19,867,868],{},"setup",", the ",[19,871,872],{},"audience",", and the ",[19,875,876],{},"design",". Understanding which of those AccountScout owns and which Mailchimp owns is most of what you need.",[26,879,880],{"id":868},"Setup",[12,882,883],{},"The setup is the envelope around the message:",[515,885,886,892,898,904],{},[518,887,888,891],{},[19,889,890],{},"Campaign name"," — an internal label, so you can find it later. Nobody outside sees it.",[518,893,894,897],{},[19,895,896],{},"Subject line"," — the thing that earns the open.",[518,899,900,903],{},[19,901,902],{},"Preview text"," — the line that follows the subject in the inbox. Usually a snippet of what is inside; better used as a second subject line.",[518,905,906,909],{},[19,907,908],{},"From name and address"," — what appears in the inbox. Send from a person at your own domain, not a generic address.",[26,911,912],{"id":872},"Audience",[12,914,915],{},"The audience is the group receiving the email, and this is the part AccountScout handles.",[12,917,918],{},"Rather than exporting a spreadsheet and uploading it, lists are built from the advertiser data you already maintain and pushed into Mailchimp as a subscriber list or segment. Because the data comes from the account record, you can slice it the way a publisher actually thinks: past advertisers in a category, dormant accounts, prospects by industry, advertisers with expiring orders.",[12,920,921,924],{},[19,922,923],{},"Tags are worth the discipline."," A tag narrows an audience into a subgroup you can actually speak to — past advertisers, service industry, retail, medical. The value is not the tag itself; it is that a smaller, better-understood group lets you write something specific, and specific messages perform. Mailchimp prices on subscriber count, so keeping the list intentional has a direct cost benefit as well.",[26,926,927],{"id":876},"Design",[12,929,930],{},"The design is the email itself, and this is Mailchimp's job. Blocks get dragged onto a template to build the content; a separate design layer handles the header, footer, colours, and background that sit behind it.",[12,932,933],{},"Two habits save time:",[515,935,936,942],{},[518,937,938,941],{},[19,939,940],{},"Save your designs as templates."," Once you have a header, footer, and layout you like, saving it means every future campaign starts from it and stays editable.",[518,943,944,947],{},[19,945,946],{},"Use test sends for internal review."," Send a test to colleagues before the real send. Comments come back in the design view, for internal use only.",[26,949,951],{"id":950},"reports-the-part-that-usually-gets-dropped","Reports — the part that usually gets dropped",[12,953,954],{},"Once setup, audience, and design are ready, you send or schedule.",[12,956,957],{},"The failure mode is what happens next. Someone checks the results in the marketing tool every few days, and the sales team never sees them. The advertiser who clicked three times does not get a call, because nobody whose job it is to call them knew.",[12,959,960,961,964],{},"So results come back into AccountScout. Clicks and opens are visible to the whole team on the account record, without anyone logging into Mailchimp. In the version current when this post was written, that lived under ",[19,962,963],{},"Tools → Marketing Campaign Tool → Show Campaign Results",", selected by campaign from a dropdown.",[12,966,967],{},"Beyond campaigns, Mailchimp's own content library holds the images, files, and logos you have uploaded across past sends, which is worth knowing about when you are hunting for last year's artwork.",[26,969,971],{"id":970},"the-short-version","The short version",[515,973,974,979],{},[518,975,976,977,592],{},"Exporting subscribers, creating tags and audiences, and viewing results — ",[19,978,156],{},[518,980,981,982,592],{},"Designing the email and sending it — ",[19,983,984],{},"Mailchimp",[12,986,987],{},"That split is deliberate. You keep one list, maintained where the rest of your advertiser data already lives, and your reps see the outcome where they already work.",[12,989,990,991,995,996,998],{},"Questions about the integration? Email ",[235,992,994],{"href":993},"mailto:support@fakebrains.com","support@fakebrains.com"," or call ",[235,997,591],{"href":590}," — we are happy to help you get it running.",{"title":115,"searchDepth":116,"depth":116,"links":1000},[1001,1002,1003,1004,1005],{"id":868,"depth":116,"text":880},{"id":872,"depth":116,"text":912},{"id":876,"depth":116,"text":927},{"id":950,"depth":116,"text":951},{"id":970,"depth":116,"text":971},"How a Mailchimp campaign is put together — setup, audience, and design — and how AccountScout's Marketing Campaign Tool builds the audience and reads results back into the advertiser record.",[],[1009],"\u002Fmailchimp-campaigns\u002F",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fmailchimp-campaigns",[1013,1014,1016],{"title":622,"description":842,"href":579},{"title":406,"description":1015,"href":619},"What opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes actually measure — and the two things that matter more.",{"title":140,"description":1017,"href":142},"The advertiser record everything here is segmented from.",{"title":1019,"description":1006},"Mailchimp Campaigns from AccountScout | Fake Brains","blog\u002Fmailchimp-campaigns","A campaign is three things: the setup, the audience, and the design. AccountScout owns the audience and the results; Mailchimp owns the design and the send.",{"label":1023,"href":579,"note":1024},"Email marketing in AccountScout","This post was written in 2020 and its original step-by-step screenshots have been removed, because Mailchimp's interface has changed substantially since. The division of labour it describes still holds. For what ships today, see",[637,640,856,638],"LFNAHbi-pav6-EKgTLCvTd3FJQbpSgm1ZtHpjuR6gfI",{"id":1028,"title":1029,"archive":132,"author":7,"body":1030,"category":1250,"date":128,"description":1251,"extension":130,"faq":1252,"featured":132,"image":133,"imageAlt":133,"imageCaption":133,"legacyUrls":1265,"meta":1267,"navigation":6,"noindex":132,"path":1268,"related":1269,"seo":1279,"stem":1286,"summary":1287,"supersededBy":133,"tags":1288,"updated":301,"__hash__":1293},"blogPosts\u002Fblog\u002Ften-tips-for-choosing-newspaper-and-media-mission-critical-software.md","Ten questions to ask before you buy mission-critical publishing software",{"type":9,"value":1031,"toc":1238},[1032,1035,1043,1047,1050,1061,1065,1068,1071,1074,1078,1081,1084,1088,1091,1094,1098,1101,1112,1119,1123,1126,1129,1132,1135,1139,1142,1148,1154,1160,1164,1167,1170,1173,1177,1180,1183,1197,1200,1204,1207,1210,1230,1233,1235],[12,1033,1034],{},"Choosing the system your publication runs on is not a features-and-price decision, even though features and price are what almost every comparison ends up measuring. Those two things are easy to put in a spreadsheet and poor at predicting whether the choice works out three years later.",[12,1036,1037,1038,1042],{},"This is the shorter, opinionated version. If you want the long form — criteria, demo questions, and what \"good\" looks like for a community publisher — read our guide on ",[235,1039,1041],{"href":1040},"\u002Fresources\u002Fhow-to-choose-newspaper-advertising-software","how to choose newspaper advertising software",". We are obviously not a neutral party here, so weigh it accordingly; every point below is one you can put to any vendor, us included.",[26,1044,1046],{"id":1045},"_1-treat-it-as-mission-critical-because-it-is","1. Treat it as mission-critical, because it is",[12,1048,1049],{},"Do not assume all software in a category does roughly the same thing. It does not.",[515,1051,1052,1055,1058],{},[518,1053,1054],{},"Evaluate it with the people who will actually live in it every day, not just the person signing.",[518,1056,1057],{},"Do not get lost in small missing features. If a vendor is receptive to change, a small gap may be in the next release. A structural gap will never close.",[518,1059,1060],{},"Be careful of scoring only on features and price — most of what determines success is in the rest of this list.",[26,1062,1064],{"id":1063},"_2-ask-for-the-upgrade-history","2. Ask for the upgrade history",[12,1066,1067],{},"Ask how often the product has genuinely improved, and get specifics.",[12,1069,1070],{},"Products quietly reach end of life when the vendor's attention moves to something newer. The new thing looks shiny; the mission-critical thing you actually bought stops keeping up with an industry that does not stop changing.",[12,1072,1073],{},"Watch the definition of \"upgrade\" too. Some vendors count bug fixes as upgrades and bill separately for anything that adds capability. Ask which of the last few releases added function, and which were repairs.",[26,1075,1077],{"id":1076},"_3-look-at-what-it-is-built-on","3. Look at what it is built on",[12,1079,1080],{},"Ask what language the product is written in and which databases it supports, then spend ten minutes searching the answers.",[12,1082,1083],{},"Periodically every vendor has to rewrite to keep up with platform and database changes. Tools that make an application fast to build are often not intended for software that will be sold and maintained for decades. The foundation determines whether the vendor can keep developing, or eventually has to start over and take you with them.",[26,1085,1087],{"id":1086},"_4-take-the-user-experience-seriously","4. Take the user experience seriously",[12,1089,1090],{},"Your staff will spend most of their working day in this software.",[12,1092,1093],{},"Browser-only products can be easier for a vendor to deliver as a cloud service and more frustrating to work in. Clicking back and forth is a poor substitute for putting two invoices side by side. Check specifically whether multiple advertiser and order screens can be open at once — it sounds small and it is not.",[26,1095,1097],{"id":1096},"_5-push-hard-on-reporting","5. Push hard on reporting",[12,1099,1100],{},"Reporting is a large part of why you are buying accounting and operational software at all.",[515,1102,1103,1106,1109],{},[518,1104,1105],{},"Invoices and statements are reports, and they go to your customers.",[518,1107,1108],{},"Management decisions run on sales data and expected revenue.",[518,1110,1111],{},"Every department needs to get at what is in the database without asking someone else.",[12,1113,1114,1115,1118],{},"You should be able to find when an advertiser dropped off, or list everyone expiring next month, in about two minutes. Also check that the product restricts not only which reports a user can open but ",[19,1116,1117],{},"which data appears on them",". A rep needs their own advertisers and their own order history — not the whole book.",[26,1120,1122],{"id":1121},"_6-understand-what-you-are-buying-ownership-or-access","6. Understand what you are buying: ownership or access",[12,1124,1125],{},"The industry moved from buying software outright to renting it by subscription. Both models have real advantages.",[12,1127,1128],{},"Ask whether the vendor supports both, and — more usefully — whether you can move between them later. Wanting to subscribe for six months to see how the software performs before committing is a reasonable request.",[12,1130,1131],{},"Check the contract term as well. A three-to-five-year commitment is a long time to be wrong. Shorter terms limit the damage; longer terms may lock a price. It is fair to ask for a short commitment with a longer price guarantee.",[12,1133,1134],{},"On the pricing model itself, the question that matters operationally is whether you are charged for every name on the staff list. If you are, you will end up rationing access to the system that runs your business, and the people who need occasional visibility will not have it.",[26,1136,1138],{"id":1137},"_7-evaluate-the-people-not-just-the-product","7. Evaluate the people, not just the product",[12,1140,1141],{},"The product is only as good as the training, the development team, and the service team behind it.",[12,1143,1144,1147],{},[19,1145,1146],{},"Ask where development sits."," Communication between support, sales, training, and development is hard enough when everyone is in one building. Across languages and time zones it gets harder, and you feel it every time you report a defect.",[12,1149,1150,1153],{},[19,1151,1152],{},"Ask how training is delivered."," Personalised sessions in small increments, remotely, tend to beat multi-day marathons. Producing the paper does not stop for a rollout, and frequent contact with a trainer while your team is actually using the system is worth more than a firehose in week one.",[12,1155,1156,1159],{},[19,1157,1158],{},"Ask what happens when someone picks up the phone."," If a user cannot get help with a phone call — if the only route is a ticket and a callback days later — they will stop asking, and they will use a fraction of what you bought. Ask whether cloud support extends to the printer and browser problems that stop someone working, or stops at the edge of the application.",[26,1161,1163],{"id":1162},"_8-cloud-or-on-premise-and-can-you-change-your-mind","8. Cloud or on-premise — and can you change your mind?",[12,1165,1166],{},"Most software has moved to a hosted model where it runs on the vendor's servers.",[12,1168,1169],{},"The advantage is real: less of your IT budget goes to backups, upgrade installs, and server maintenance. The trade is that hosting is a permanent operating cost, usually tied to a subscription, and you are exposed to the vendor's pricing decisions and to how their servers perform under load.",[12,1171,1172],{},"The question worth asking is not \"which is better\" but \"can I move between them later without changing products?\"",[26,1174,1176],{"id":1175},"_9-price-is-not-cost","9. Price is not cost",[12,1178,1179],{},"Think about how long you have run your current process. Unless you are brand new, it is probably a decade or more.",[12,1181,1182],{},"So compare vendors on total cost across the realistic life of the system, not the monthly figure. Then add the parts that never appear on the quote:",[515,1184,1185,1188,1191,1194],{},[518,1186,1187],{},"Expected annual increases — ask for the history of the last few years.",[518,1189,1190],{},"New modules the vendor has announced: included in your upgrade path, or billed separately?",[518,1192,1193],{},"Whether phone support, new-employee training, and upgrades are in the service contract.",[518,1195,1196],{},"The staff time to train and migrate, which for mission-critical software is substantial.",[12,1198,1199],{},"Choosing the cheapest option and discovering in month four that the vendor cannot meet your needs means doing the whole migration again, with a team that now has opinions about migrations.",[26,1201,1203],{"id":1202},"_10-check-references-then-check-more","10. Check references, then check more",[12,1205,1206],{},"You are effectively partnering with this vendor, so interview them the way you would a hire.",[12,1208,1209],{},"Ask for references, then ask for a few more — ideally including recent customers. Then ask those references:",[515,1211,1212,1215,1218,1221,1224,1227],{},[518,1213,1214],{},"How long does a call back take? Can you call at all, or is it ticket-only?",[518,1216,1217],{},"Have you requested a change? Did any of it ship?",[518,1219,1220],{},"How did training and rollout go — did the vendor have your back?",[518,1222,1223],{},"How often do upgrades arrive, and is training on new features charged?",[518,1225,1226],{},"You reported a defect. What happened?",[518,1228,1229],{},"What do you like, and what would you change?",[12,1231,1232],{},"Then take the criticisms to the vendor and watch the response. You might even check back with the reference a few days later to see whether the vendor reached out about it.",[250,1234],{},[12,1236,1237],{},"No product and no vendor is perfect; what one customer calls essential another calls clutter. What actually separates vendors is how they handle the gap — whether support is real, and whether anything changes in the software as a result.",{"title":115,"searchDepth":116,"depth":116,"links":1239},[1240,1241,1242,1243,1244,1245,1246,1247,1248,1249],{"id":1045,"depth":116,"text":1046},{"id":1063,"depth":116,"text":1064},{"id":1076,"depth":116,"text":1077},{"id":1086,"depth":116,"text":1087},{"id":1096,"depth":116,"text":1097},{"id":1121,"depth":116,"text":1122},{"id":1137,"depth":116,"text":1138},{"id":1162,"depth":116,"text":1163},{"id":1175,"depth":116,"text":1176},{"id":1202,"depth":116,"text":1203},"Choosing software","Ten things to check before you sign with a software vendor: upgrade history, reporting depth, the team behind the product, cloud vs on-premise, total cost rather than monthly price, and references.",[1253,1256,1259,1262],{"question":1254,"answer":1255},"What should I look for when choosing newspaper advertising software?","Look past the feature list at four things: how often the vendor ships real upgrades, how deep and self-serve the reporting is, who actually builds and supports the product, and the total cost over the life of the system rather than the monthly price. Our full criteria-led guide walks each one in order.",{"question":1257,"answer":1258},"Is cloud or on-premise better for a newspaper?","Neither is universally better. Cloud reduces your IT burden for backups, upgrades, and server maintenance but is an ongoing cost. On-premise gives you more control and a different cost curve. The question worth asking a vendor is whether you can move between the two later without changing products.",{"question":1260,"answer":1261},"What questions should I ask a software vendor's references?","Ask how long it takes to get a call back from support, whether they can phone at all or must file a ticket, whether any feature they requested actually shipped, how the rollout and training went, and what they would change. Then tell the vendor the criticisms and watch how they respond.",{"question":1263,"answer":1264},"How do I compare the cost of publishing software, not just the price?","Extend the monthly price across the realistic life of the system — most publishers run mission-critical software for a decade or more — and add the staff time to train and migrate. Then ask what is included in the service contract versus billed separately: phone support, new-employee training, and upgrades.",[1266],"\u002Ften-tips-for-choosing-newspaper-and-media-mission-critical-software\u002F",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Ften-tips-for-choosing-newspaper-and-media-mission-critical-software",[1270,1273,1275],{"title":1271,"description":1272,"href":1040},"How to choose newspaper advertising software","The full criteria-led buyer's guide: what to ask, all-in-one vs point tools, and what to probe during a demo.",{"title":140,"description":1274,"href":142},"What AccountScout covers, from first sales touch through to the paid invoice.",{"title":1276,"description":1277,"href":1278},"Support from the team that builds it","How support actually works here: phone and email, no call centre, no ticket-only gate.","\u002Fsupport",{"title":1280,"description":1281,"keyFacts":1282},"Ten Questions to Ask a Publishing Software Vendor","Ten checks before you buy mission-critical publishing software: upgrade history, reporting depth, who builds it, cloud vs on-premise, total cost of ownership, and references.",[1283,1284,1285],"Evaluate publishing software on upgrade history, reporting depth, support responsiveness, and total cost of ownership rather than on feature counts and monthly price.","Ask where a vendor's development team sits; distance between the people who build the software and the people who answer the phone shows up in how fast defects get fixed.","Fake Brains has written 100% of AccountScout in-house in Colorado since 1991, and the team that builds it answers the support line.","blog\u002Ften-tips-for-choosing-newspaper-and-media-mission-critical-software","Features and price are the two things every buyer compares, and the two least likely to predict whether the decision works out. Here is what we would check instead.",[1289,1290,1291,160,1292],"buying","vendor evaluation","cloud","support","dMHHgKUfWSJV3Vwct4MEwgzMWdHhMO88A0IYX3or6v0",{"id":1295,"title":1296,"archive":6,"author":7,"body":1297,"category":127,"date":128,"description":1460,"extension":130,"faq":1461,"featured":132,"image":1462,"imageAlt":1463,"imageCaption":1464,"legacyUrls":1465,"meta":1467,"navigation":6,"noindex":132,"path":1468,"related":1469,"seo":1480,"stem":1482,"summary":1483,"supersededBy":1484,"tags":1486,"updated":133,"__hash__":1489},"blogPosts\u002Fblog\u002Fwhats-new-2018-1.md","What's new in AccountScout 2018.1",{"type":9,"value":1298,"toc":1451},[1299,1302,1306,1312,1318,1328,1332,1335,1339,1342,1384,1388,1412,1416,1419,1423,1439,1443,1446,1448],[12,1300,1301],{},"Three significant changes shipped in AccountScout 2018.1. As always, customers on an active service contract or a SaaS plan received the upgrade at no additional charge.",[26,1303,1305],{"id":1304},"the-headline-changes","The headline changes",[12,1307,1308,1311],{},[19,1309,1310],{},"Merge Advertiser tool."," Consolidates two advertiser records into one, so duplicate accounts stop being a permanent tax on your data. Everything attached to the record moves across — contacts, activities, orders, payments — onto whichever advertiser you mark \"To Keep.\"",[12,1313,1314,1317],{},[19,1315,1316],{},"Digital asset manager integration."," A hook was added to the Retail Order screen. Whenever a retail order is saved, the DAM is notified to create, update, or mark the associated order for deletion. The point is real-time communication with the composing team: design work reflects orders as they are entered or changed, rather than after somebody sends an email about it.",[12,1319,1320,1323,1324,1327],{},[19,1321,1322],{},"Save Layout on every ribbon bar."," By request, screen layouts no longer save automatically when you close a screen. A ",[19,1325,1326],{},"Save Layout"," button was added to every ribbon bar, so a layout changes only when you deliberately change it. If you rearrange the Retail Order, Advertiser, Classified\u002FLegal Order, or Payments screen and want to keep it, click Save Layout before closing the window.",[26,1329,1331],{"id":1330},"upgrade-notes","Upgrade notes",[12,1333,1334],{},"This release upgrades the database. The .NET framework used by AccountScout, the AccountScout Mobile app service, and the Classified Order Entry service moved to version 4.6.1.",[26,1336,1338],{"id":1337},"accounting-changes","Accounting changes",[12,1340,1341],{},"Worth forwarding to whoever handles your books.",[515,1343,1344,1350,1356,1366,1372,1378],{},[518,1345,1346,1349],{},[19,1347,1348],{},"Merge Advertiser tool"," — as above. Account balances and everything related consolidate onto one record, which matters most when you spot the duplicate mid-invoice run or while chasing a statement.",[518,1351,1352,1355],{},[19,1353,1354],{},"Invoice screen"," — payments and advertiser credits applied to an invoice now display on the invoice and open with a double click, rather than requiring a separate trip to the Payments screen.",[518,1357,1358,1361,1362,1365],{},[19,1359,1360],{},"Invoice and Refund screens"," — an ",[19,1363,1364],{},"Unapply Credits"," button was added to the ribbon bar. It detaches applied credits from the loaded invoice or refund, so the invoice is no longer marked paid; the credit itself stays on the account.",[518,1367,1368,1371],{},[19,1369,1370],{},"Invoice batch"," — running Undo Generate now automatically unapplies any credits on an invoice being deleted. Previously those applied credits blocked the deletion.",[518,1373,1374,1377],{},[19,1375,1376],{},"Interest batch"," — the same change, for un-generated interest batches.",[518,1379,1380,1383],{},[19,1381,1382],{},"Credit card payments"," — an authorised credit card charge can no longer simply be deleted. Attempting it now explains the correct path: void the charge if it has not settled, or refund the card if it has and create an offsetting refund. If the charge can be voided, the payment can then be deleted.",[26,1385,1387],{"id":1386},"composing-design-and-production-changes","Composing, design, and production changes",[515,1389,1390,1396,1406],{},[518,1391,1392,1395],{},[19,1393,1394],{},"Digital asset manager"," — as above, on the Retail Order screen. If you have not set up an asset manager integration, it is worth a call; it is straightforward and it removes a lot of back-and-forth between departments.",[518,1397,1398,1401,1402,1405],{},[19,1399,1400],{},"Define Sales Types"," — a new checkbox, ",[344,1403,1404],{},"\"Do not export retail runs having this Sales Type to the Digital Asset Manager.\""," Useful for circulars, house ads, space, and subscriptions — things commonly entered as retail orders that the design team does not need.",[518,1407,1408,1411],{},[19,1409,1410],{},"Digital Asset Manager Export tool"," — gained a Sales Type column, and now skips retail orders whose sales type is marked to exclude.",[26,1413,1415],{"id":1414},"retail-order-changes","Retail order changes",[12,1417,1418],{},"The Ad Copy pane gained an option for PDF documents to zoom to fit the width of the ad into the available window.",[26,1420,1422],{"id":1421},"permissions","Permissions",[515,1424,1425,1432],{},[518,1426,1427,1428,1431],{},"A permission was added for the ",[19,1429,1430],{},"Merge Advertisers tool",". Roles that already had permission for the Assign Sales Reps tool were granted it automatically during the database upgrade.",[518,1433,1434,1435,1438],{},"The same applies to the ",[19,1436,1437],{},"Activity Manager tool",", introduced shortly before this release.",[26,1440,1442],{"id":1441},"everything-else","Everything else",[12,1444,1445],{},"The mobile app and Classified Order Entry web services now require .NET 4.6.1. A handful of smaller changes are listed in the full What's New document, available from the AccountScout Help menu.",[250,1447],{},[12,1449,1450],{},"It is worth staying current. Most of what ships comes from customer requests, and each release is meant to make a specific job faster.",{"title":115,"searchDepth":116,"depth":116,"links":1452},[1453,1454,1455,1456,1457,1458,1459],{"id":1304,"depth":116,"text":1305},{"id":1330,"depth":116,"text":1331},{"id":1337,"depth":116,"text":1338},{"id":1386,"depth":116,"text":1387},{"id":1414,"depth":116,"text":1415},{"id":1421,"depth":116,"text":1422},{"id":1441,"depth":116,"text":1442},"Release notes for AccountScout 2018.1: the Merge Advertiser tool, digital asset manager integration on retail orders, and an explicit Save Layout button on every ribbon bar.",[],"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmerge-advertiser-tool-2018.png","The AccountScout Merge Advertisers tool, showing two advertiser records selected for consolidation","The Merge Advertiser tool as introduced in AccountScout 2018.1.",[1466],"\u002Fwhats-new-2018-1\u002F",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhats-new-2018-1",[1470,1472,1476],{"title":140,"description":1471,"href":142},"The current platform these notes describe an early version of.",{"title":1473,"description":1474,"href":1475},"Billing and collections","Where invoices, credits, statements, and receivables live today.","\u002Fproducts\u002Faccountscout\u002Fbilling",{"title":1477,"description":1478,"href":1479},"Production Suite","ProofScout, AdScout, PageScout, and the digital asset manager referenced below.","\u002Fproducts\u002Faccountscout\u002Fproduction-suite",{"title":1481,"description":1460},"AccountScout 2018.1 Release Notes | Fake Brains","blog\u002Fwhats-new-2018-1","Three changes shipped in this release: merging duplicate advertisers, a digital asset manager hook on retail orders, and screen layouts that only save when you say so.",{"label":156,"href":142,"note":1485},"These are release notes for a version from 2018, kept for the record. Much of what they describe has since been rebuilt or superseded. For what ships today, see",[159,1487,1488,1421],"billing","production","UlWs9Obq6uLETZZzDhBdE1n2KVAP9zyTv_xVAbcL724",1791331547447]