The Republican American newspaper in Waterbury, Connecticut sells more prints – consistently – than many of our papers twice their size. We talked with Assistant Managing Editor Bob Falcetti last week to find out how they do that.

The thing that stood out to us right away was the consistency of their approach. Turns out that’s no accident.

A few things we learned from Bob that might help you:

1) Every single photo they run – even in the multimedia presentations – ends up in their reprint galleries. Every single photo they run has a link to their reprint website. That link is built into all of their web templates.

2) They gave their page designers section-specific house ads (for their reprint site) to use as filler on inside pages, which keeps their URL in front of their readers all the time. Brilliant.

3) Their photographers carry business cards with the website address.

4) Their customer service people can take and place orders for walk-in customers. Visible merchandise and photography in the lobby doesn’t hurt either, especially slide slows on big-screen televisions.

Check out http://www.rep-am.com/ – there are two links to the reprint site on their front door. That’s a small thing, yes, but making it easy for people really does help.

We know that every community is different – and what works for one client may “not play in Peoria, “ but we do think that the Rep-Am’s consistent approach is what makes them successful. Thanks for the advice, Bob.