Circulation modelling:

Q: What is the difference between The Weaver Publishing Model and The Weaver Subscription Lifetime Value Model?
A: The Weaver Subscription Lifetime Value Model is a software tool for calculating the financial returns from new subscription promotion campaigns. The Weaver Publishing Model, on the other hand, quantifies the overall financial effects of different circulation development strategies, including newsstand sales, new subscriptions and renewals

Q: Do you use the two models together or separately?
A: Either way, but we designed the two models so the output from The Weaver Subscription Lifetime Value Model (ie new sub starts and promotion costs by source group) can provide one of the data inputs for The Weaver Publishing Model

Q: Why did you develop The Weaver Publishing Model?
A: We were European partners of Lighthouse Publishing Services and we installed and supported The Lighthouse Publishing Model for many years. When Lighthouse was sold in the mid 1990s we didn’t want to work with other US circulation modelling suppliers and chose to develop our own circulation model instead

Q: Why are there several versions of The Weaver Publishing Model and The Weaver Subscription Lifetime Value Model?
A: We developed separate versions to appeal to different types of publishers - small circulation magazines and newsletters would use the introductory level models, large international publishers with complex subscription offers would use the sophisticated models, and so on

Q: How long does a typical circulation modelling project take to implement?
A: Getting data from your fulfilment system or service bureau, in the right format, is the most time-consuming part of most circulation modelling projects. Typically, it takes two to six months before circulation development scenarios can be created using automatic data loads from fulfilment systems

Q: What information do you need from subscription fulfilment systems or service bureaux, and how do you get it?
A: We provide a full specification of information needs -  the main categories are future expires by month, by payment status, by payment method, by sensitivity and by source group; future revenue release from deferred income by month, by payment status and by payment method; and renewal rates by month, by payment method, by sensitivity and by source group. We ask fulfilment suppliers to provide CSV flat files of subscriber information and we have created a series of Excel pivot table reports to analyse this data. Automatic routines have been developed for data supplied by CDS, Dovetail, Quadrant and RED

Q: What IT systems do you need to run the Weaver Publishing Model?
A: Although our models run under all versions of Microsoft Excel, you will need Excel 2003 or above for PCs, or Excel 2004 for Macs to analyse future expires using pivot tables.  Ideally, your PC would have at least 1Gb RAM.  

Training:

Q: Can you organise and deliver in-house seminars in different countries?
A: Yes, we’ve run in-house seminars throughout Europe, in the USA and South East Asia

Consultancy advice:

Q: How do we prevent confidential information from being disclosed to other publishers?
A: We work under the codes of practice of The Institute of Management Consultancy, The Chartered Institute of Marketing and The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which prohibit the disclosure of confidential information, and we sign confidentiality agreements with our clients