Farewell to Real Estate Weekly

By Marqué Bressler
CBR Director of Communication

In May, the Columbus Board of REALTORS ® leadership made the decision to discontinue producing its homes publication -- the Real Estate Weekly. The last issue will be published July 19, 2006.

The Real Estate Weekly was created in 1995 as a service to members. Its purpose was to provide a cost effective advertising vehicle for members to promote their listings and to populate the market with REALTOR®-friendly editorial.

Real Estate Weekly was successfully published in house by Steve Collins and Jim Campbell. In 2000, the decision was made to outsource publication of REW to The Columbus Dispatch.

We would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank The Columbus Dispatch for their considerable efforts over the last 6+ years to market and distribute the Real Estate Weekly. We have had the pleasure of working with many Dispatch representatives who have done an excellent job of promoting and enhancing the publication as well as adding an online presence. Our partnership with The Columbus Dispatch has been nothing short of excellent from start to finish.

The decision to discontinue publishing the Real Estate Weekly is due simply to steadily declining use of the publication by members. Although several factors have likely contributed to the decrease in use, increased internet usage and the additional of more print advertising options are most apparent.

Due to the significant growth of internet home search activity by the buying and selling public, agents and companies alike are (and should be) dedicating increased marketing dollars toward generating and/or enhancing their online presence to capture those clients.

In addition, several additional print options have been added to the market since Real Estate Weekly's inception, including company owned homes publications.

It was the consensus of the Real Estate Weekly Publishing Board that there exists today multiple viable options for advertising listings in our market. And as the Real Estate Weekly was never intended to compete for member advertising dollars or to generate any significant net income for the Board, the decision was made to discontinue this publication.

We apologize to those members who have relied on the REW for advertising and hope you will be able to find a similarly effective print option.

However, one important benefit members will be missing is that the Real Estate Weekly included REALTOR®-friendly copy every other week all year long. Articles promoting the expertise of the REALTOR®, the professionalism of the REALTOR® and the critical need to use a REALTOR® when buying and selling property, were a significant benefit to each and every member.

Fortunately, we have the public image campaign commercials running regularly in our market through the National Association of REALTORS®.

FYI - At the last NAR meeting, national directors voted to maintain your national dues at $64, but to increase the special assessment for the public awareness campaign from $20 per member to $30 per member effective in 2007. (There is talk that a proposal will be introduced to increase the assessment to $40 per member in 2008-2010, but that discussion has yet to take place.)

Understand that this special assessment is used solely for the national advertising campaign (TV, radio and print ads). The increase will be used to maintain the current level of advertising (due to increased ad costs) and to expand the time frame to encompass a year-round advertising schedule.

This ongoing ad campaign is even more critical to central Ohio REALTORS® now that we're eliminating those REALTOR®-friendly articles regularly published in the Real Estate Weekly.

Again, the last issue of Real Estate Weekly will be published July 19, 2006. The REW boxes are scheduled to be removed by August 4 so as to provide adequate shelf life for the last issue. If your box is not removed by that date, please contact me at (614) 475-4000 x236.