Why is the IPAS changing its commission at a time when advertising is down at a lot of newspapers?
A. In many cases, the commission structure does not represent a significant change. For some, it will because different newspapers were paying different commissions. The new structure is an attempt to treat everyone fairly and to put the IPAS on a level playing field with other advertising agencies and state press associations. With these changes, the IPAS plans to aggressively sell more and send you more money each month, and this new structure will allow us to do that. Additionally, the commission structure has not been changed for 12 years. Since then, a lot has changed in advertising and at the IPA. There are more products to sell, such as online advertising and sticky notes, which were not available to us 12 years ago. On the association side, we’ve made the legal hotline and a public notice Web site free for our members.
