The Pitch from Public Utilities.(marketing newspapers)(Brief Article)

The Los Angeles Times was looking for aggressive new ways to sell more newspapers a few years back, when one of the paper's executives proposed a simple plan: Pay public utilities to sell subscriptions to residents who call for electric or gas service.

It's a no-brainer: The paper "gets a demographic with a high probability of buying a newspaper," explains Jack Fulcher, an analyst with the Public Utilities Commission, the government agency that regulates utilities. And by having the utilities pitch the Times to people who want gas or electric hook-ups, the paper gets a