Many years ago when Bill Veeck was operating a woeful Chicago White Sox team that was losing way more games than it was winning, he decided to “start the season over.”

He made this announcement after the mid-season All-Star break. “It’s a brand new season for the White Sox,” he declared. “We’ll play better.”

It was a bold marketing move that probably resulted in selling a few more tickets to diehard fans who actually believed him that things would be different. But, the players didn’t seem to get the message and the results were predictably the same.

That confirms the cliché that the “definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

However, I have to admit I thought of using the Veeck marketing strategy recently when I returned from our annual trek to the summer management conference of the Alliance of Area Business Publications (AABP).

AABP is the trade association for our industry. This year we met in Denver and had more than 300 newspaper managers registered—record attendance, which indicates both that things are going pretty well in our industry and that people like to go to the Rocky Mountains in the summer time.

This meeting comes at a good time for us, halfway through the calendar/fiscal year. Unlike the White Sox of old (or more recent vintage for that matter), we did not have a bad first half of this year. Of course, it could always be better.

In our case, it’s an opportunity to implement new strategies for the next six months and beyond. There is always a better way to do things and fortunately our industry openly shares its successes with each other.

I’m sure many of you reading this column also attend your industry association’s meetings. Each year, in advance of the meeting, I find myself trying to justify the cost of attending, the cost of taking other people on our staff, and the time commitment.

I’m not sure why I feel I have to do that. Every trip we come back with more ideas about how to better run our company than I can count. It’s true that one good idea pays for the entire trip many times over.

If there was an underlying theme to this year’s meeting, I would have to say that many local business newspapers are finally beginning to successfully integrate their traditional print products with their on-line products and making money at both.

For at least a decade now, we have been told over and over that “print is dead.” At the same time, our online products were “loss leaders.” But, in fact, what appears to be happening is that print products are getting stronger along with the online products.

One survey that was cited at the conference stated that the cherished 18-34-year-old age group has actually shown an increase in its acceptance of print products for purchasing information. “Print is cool,” the survey concluded.

I had a personal experience recently that may confirm that. One of my daughter’s friends stayed at our vacation house. He is in his late 20s. I was stunned when he asked me where he could go buy a newspaper.

“Gotta have it,” he said. Given that attitude, I willingly drove the four miles to the convenience store to get him a paper.

It’s true that some daily newspapers have taken a shellacking in recent years when it comes to circulation loss. But, that has primarily occurred in highly competitive markets such as Chicago where there are so many other information sources available.

If you go to a smaller market, such as Kalamazoo, Mich., you’ll find that circulation numbers have remained relatively steady.

Also, niche publications such as The Business Ledger have not suffered all that much from the development of the Internet. In fact, it’s allowed us and others in our industry to create online products, many serving a new, distinct and separate audience that gets its news and information through several sources online and in print.

When I look at the Web pages of other business publications, and that of The Business Ledger (www.thebusinessledger.com), and compare them to just a few years ago, the improvement is remarkable. In addition, most of our publications have created online newsletters such as our own “The Business Edge” which provides breaking news before we can get it into print.

These products provide additional advertising and marketing opportunities for our clients who want to reach as many people as they can with information about their business-to-business products and services.

We have lots of new ideas to implement in the next six months in editorial, the Internet, events, marketing and advertising. It makes business fun. Just like Bill Veeck, I’ve decided to re-start our season.

Contact publisher Jim Elsener at jelsener@thebusinessledger.com or at 630-428-8788.