School District strikes deal for newsletter distribution

Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.

The Clark County School District's annual Back to School Reporter newsletter will arrive in the mail later this month in new packaging: tucked inside Nevada Family Magazine.

In exchange for a mailing list of 220,000 households, the district was given editorial control over the magazine's content, district spokeswoman Pat Nelson said Tuesday.

While the deal raises questions about the ethics of the district handing over its mailing list to an outside company, Nelson said there are safeguards in place.

There is a legal agreement that Nevada Family Magazine's publisher, Mach One Media, will not use the mailing list for any purpose other than sending out quarterly issues of the magazine and its Spanish-language version La Familia, Nelson said.

The district spent $68,000 last year printing and mailing out the Back to School Reporter, Nelson said. Mach One Media has agreed to do the job for $25,000, Nelson said. The remaining issues will be distributed at no cost to the district.

Created in June 2003, Nevada Family Magazine's circulation has been about 35,000, said Mach One Media publisher Scott Brown. Under the terms of the agreement with the district the magazine will go from monthly to bi-monthly beginning in January, Brown said. The district will be allocated eight to 10 pages for content submissions with the printing and distribution costs to covered by Mach One Media.

Brown confirmed that the district's mailing list would be protected.

"We have a signed agreement with our printer, who is also our mailhouse, that the list will be used for nothing else but distributing the magazine," Brown said.

To make sure that deal is honored, dummy names will be added to the list "just to make sure nothing else is ever sent to homes," Brown said.

"It was the district's idea," Brown said. "We've never had any problems in the past but it's a clever way to test the system."

A one-year subscription of Nevada Family Magazine cost $14 before the partnership. Under the new agreement with the district, the magazine will be mailed every other month to all households on the district's mailing list at no cost to the recipients. The June issue included summer reading recommendations, tips for choosing sunscreens and an article suggesting children "interview Dad" for Father's Day.

The new version of Nevada Family Magazine will also include an advertising section for school-related activities, programs and services, Nelson said. The district has been bombarded with requests to distribute everything from fliers advertising tutoring services to karate classes, Nelson said.

"Many of those requests are for very worthwhile activities, but we're not an advertising agency. We can't send out those fliers and we can't ask schools to distribute them," Nelson said. "From now on when we receive those calls we can refer them to the magazine."

The district also has veto power over any advertisement, Nelson said.

The contract with Mach One Media is for two years, but the district plans to re-evaluate the deal at the end of one year, Nelson said.

Mach One Media also publishes Architecture Las Vegas, the official publication of the Las Vegas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.