PAGE Cooperative selects Creative Circle as a preferred vendor

Best practices meet discounted purchasing power as Creative Circle joins industry’s largest buying cooperative

Posted

PROVIDENCE, R.I.  –  It’s good to be preferred.

Longtime clients of Creative Circle Media Solutions will tell you the industry’s most innovative consulting, training and software company is a top choice, of course. But now Creative Circle has joined the PAGE Cooperative, a not-for-profit, member-owned cooperative buying association that spotlights preferred providers who offer the best products and prices.

“From our inception, we’ve tried to make excellence affordable and our acceptance into the PAGE program brings that goal ever closer to reality,” said Bill Ostendorf, president and founder of Creative Circle. 

PAGE logoSince 1984, PAGE Cooperative has been helping member newspapers pool their purchases so they can boost their purchasing power and negotiate better prices. So members save money on the supplies they need, and suppliers can sell to the largest purchasing group in the industry.

“While we have worked with some of the largest media companies in the world, our main focus has been helping smaller and family owned media companies thrive in print and online,” said Ostendorf. “And the PAGE membership includes a lot of our existing clients and a lot of newspapers like them who may not have even heard of us before.”

Suppliers go through a rigorous application process, said Steve Schroeder, director of membership development and technical services at PAGE Cooperative. “By the time a supplier has been approved, probably at least 30+ PAGE members have reviewed the process.”

The aim is to negotiate long-term, win-win relationships. After a screening process by the PAGE vendor selection committee, the full board approved Creative Circle’s application Feb. 25.

“Creative Circle Media Solutions offers services — such as print and web design — that no other PAGE Preferred supplier currently offers,” Schroeder said. “In addition, their other services involving training, software and outsourcing can be a great benefit to the membership.”

Other PAGE vendors offer native advertising solutions, but Schroeder adds that Creative Circle’s offering is “unique, a different way to get there. It’s kind of cool, actually.”

If you’re already a member of PAGE Cooperative, look for news about Creative Circle on the website at pagecooperative.com, the newsletter or the app, which is available in the Apple app store. You’ll find success stories, white papers, press releases and product literature that’s up to the minute as Creative Circle rolls out more software solutions, production tools and revenue strategies. You’ll also find product reviews from vendors who have already found great success with Creative Circle training, products and services.

If you’re not already a member of PAGE Cooperative, think about inquiring into the ways you can save money when you can pool your resources with other media companies. The cooperative includes members in all 50 states, about 600 daily newspapers and about 1,100 non-daily news outlets. That represents about three-quarters of privately owned daily newspapers in the United States.  

The PAGE announcement came just as Creative Circle released a new version of mediasiteQ, a web content management system that gives editors, publishers and ad directors unprecedented flexibility in presenting their news and advertising content online. “In just a few clicks, anyone can dynamically change any web page with no technical training or knowledge,” said Ostendorf. “We were the first CMS provider to offer flexible templates. But this goes far beyond anything available in the industry.”

When combined with Creative Circle’s other great software platforms, mediasiteQ becomes the most flexible, non-technical, well-designed web software suite in the industry, including:

  • an equally dynamic, self-service digital ad, video, audio, coupon and classified platform in QuickAds.
  • four ways to integrate native advertising in NativeNewsQ.
  • the industry’s first and most flexible pay wall in paywallQ.
  • easy and powerful newsletter and e-blast capabilities with newsletterQ.
  • upgradable directories, print display ads and classifieds display with marketplaceQ.
  • lots of content options with aggregateQ.
  • a leadership in local giving with charityQ.
  • interactive and user-contributed content through communityQ.
  • new opportunities to sell products using e-commerceQ.

Creative Circle is spotlighted as PAGE Cooperative’s first print and digital design company but also as an editorial training company, which Ostendorf says plays to his company’s great strengths. Originally a print-oriented training, consulting and redesign firm, Creative Circle brings more than 30 years of experience and knowledge about media operations, content creation and high-end flexible design which it brings to its software development work.

“We’ve navigated the complex shift from a print-oriented editorial consulting firm to a leading software development partner developing CMS and new revenue concepts years ahead of other vendors,” said Ostendorf. “While we have entirely new businesses today, our original business is still alive and well. It was a difficult process, but our experience puts us in an ideal position to help newspapers manage the challenges of balancing their print and digital priorities while creating new revenue channels as well.”