SSA Ventures Into Publishing

Boat Line Management Develops Plans for Advertising Displays on
Water and in Terminals; Considers New Magazine

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Slick advertising contracts with retailers like J. Crew and the
Black Dog. Display advertising on ferries and inside boat line
terminals. A four-color glossy "in-float" magazine on board
ferries.

These are the harbingers for the coming year at the Steamship
Authority, where plans are now in the works to boost revenues through
new marketing and publishing ventures.

Exactly how much money can be made from these ventures remains to be
seen - especially during what is widely acknowledged to be a down
market for advertising sales - but senior managers at the boat
line said this week they want to give it a whirl.

"We think there is some potential there for some modest
revenue," said SSA chief executive officer Fred C. Raskin this
week. "Every little thing counts," he added.

Earlier this year the boat line signed a three-year contract with
Carroll Advertising in Boston to help launch a new marketing program.

The program includes plans for selling space for display advertising
inside boat line terminals and also on the ferries. The boat line also
plans to begin charging fees for the right to place publications on the
ferries and in the terminals.

There have already been a couple of false starts - a plan to
allow J. Crew to drop gifts on the seats of the ferry to Nantucket was
abandoned at the last minute, as was a plan that called for allowing the
Black Dog to place a banner in the Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven
terminals this weekend announcing its end of summer sale.

Black Dog managers said this week that they decided not to do the
banner because the cost was too high.

But the plan to launch a high-end magazine is still on track. The
magazine will be given away free on the ferries that ply the routes
between Cape Cod and the Islands.

The Boston advertising firm Pierce-Cote is doing the design work and
Regan Communications will be responsible for the editorial content,
according to Paula Peters, the recently hired director of marketing and
public relations for the boat line.

"This is a very exciting venture," said Ms. Peters, who
was formerly a reporter for the Cape Cod Times.

She said a name has not been chosen yet for the magazine, which is
being described as an "in-float" publication.

Ms. Peters said original plans called for publishing a boat line
newsletter, but she said the plans quickly changed to a glossy high-end
magazine aimed at generating revenue from advertising sales. She said
the editorial content of the magazine will be aimed at travelers to the
Cape and Islands. "These people need information and we should be
providing them with the information they need," she said.

An April launch date is planned for the new magazine.

Ms. Peters and Mr. Raskin both said the boat line has not yet
calculated how much money can be generated through advertising sales,
and they said the startup costs for the new magazine are still
incomplete. They said they will be happy if the magazine breaks even at
first.

"This is going to take some time and we're not going to
rush into it; we are going to do things gradually," Mr. Raskin
said.

Money for the magazine and other new marketing ventures will be
included in the preliminary budget due to come before boat line
governors at their monthly meeting next week in New Bedford. Mr. Raskin
said the advertising budget will go up this year, but he could not say
how much. The advertising budget last year was about $300,000, Mr.
Raskin said.

He defended the decision by the boat line to compete with other
publications in the region who depend on advertising sales for revenue.

"Why is that wrong - it's not competition, we
don't have shareholders," Mr. Raskin said. "Whatever
we do that succeeds, it succeeds to the end of lowering or slowing the
increase of fares. If it is in fact competition with local merchants, so
what? The field of publications on the Cape and Islands is deep, and
this is going to be one more," he added.

The plan to jump into the magazine market drew a quick blast
yesterday from one seasoned publishing executive on Cape Cod.

"That's astonishing - everyone else is cutting
their budgets and the Steamship Authority is going to stick its neck
out? They're not going to make money, they're not publishers
and they're not marketers. They're going to lose money
- I guarantee it," said Walter Brooks, who is chief
executive officer of Best Read Guide, the company that conceived the
popular pocket guides for tourists that are distributed throughout the
country. Mr. Brooks also owns Cape Cod Today, an online magazine.

Mr. Brooks said it is an understatement to call the advertising
market on the Cape and Islands saturated. "It's more than
saturated - it's gone down. Most people are down 20 per cent
this year - I have just come back from a trip to Maine, Vermont
and New Hampshire and I can tell you for a fact that tourism is down 20
per cent all over New England. Rather than startups, there are going to
be a few people pulling the plug [on magazines] this year," he
said.

Mr. Brooks was highly critical of the idea that the public boat line
would decide to get into the media business.

"It's foolhardy for a state-supported, Vineyard and Cape
Cod-supported agency to get into a business that competes with people
who pay the taxes and the fares that support them. It's
unconscionable," he said.

He also said the boat line will confront a new cleanup headache.

"The magazines are going to be left all over the boats and all
over the terminals," he said, concluding:

"The last time I checked on Cape Cod there was one daily, 15
weeklies, half a dozen magazines - all those people are
professionals and they are all taxpayers and the Steamship Authority is
now going to take money away from them - what do you think that is
going to do to their attitude about the Steamship Authority?"

Mr. Raskin had another view.

"Some might say that all we should be doing is driving a boat
back and forth five or six miles - but I think we can make things
more enjoyable," he said.