2004 Media Highlights

by Lisa Gunggoll February 1, 2005

NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS  

The Today Show  
On December 29, 2004, the Today Show on NBC aired a
4-minute piece on “Today’s Home” segment featuring the importance of
home inspections and choosing the right home inspector. Consumer
reporter Janice Lieberman did an exposé using ASHI Inspector Joe
Pasaturo as the “expert” inspector and compared his report to three
others who conducted inspections while on hidden camera. ASHI was
mentioned more than once, and at the end of the report, Lieberman
recommended that consumers first talk to ASHI when seeking out a home
inspector. This single placement spurred many other interview requests
from around the country that were fulfilled the day the segment aired.
There’s also an ASHI mention on the MSNBC/Today Show Web site and a
posting of the streaming video version of the piece.

TODAY SHOW AUDIENCE:  6,000,000    

TODAY SHOW HIT MEDIA VALUE:  $36,602

CNN   Since November (2004), CNN has been airing a “Tip of the Day”
segment exclusively directing consumers to go to ASHI.org to locate a
home inspector. This spot has aired on CNN and CNN weekend edition.

CNN SEGMENT AUDIENCE (est.):  1,100,000    

CNN SEGMENT MEDIA VALUE (est.):  $32,500

PRINT

Major print publications that printed ASHI press releases or news articles mentioning ASHI in 2004:

Better Homes and Gardens
Chicago Tribune
Consumer Reports
Crain’s Residential Real Estate Guide
Do! Magazine
Living Without Magazine
Los Angeles Times
Money Magazine
National Mortgage News
Newsweek
New York Times (multiple placements)
New York Post
Popular Mechanics
Reader’s Digest
Real Simple Magazine
Remodeling Magazine
Smart Homeowner Magazine
Smart Money Magazine
This Old House Magazine  (multiple  placements)
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times (multiple  placements)
Where to Retire Magazine

TOTAL CIRCULATION FOR ALL PRINT MEDIA IN 2004: 130,746,250

HIGHLIGHT:  The “Home Front” section of The Wall Street Journal ran an item on May 14, 2004, as a result of our 2004 New York Media Tour in support of The ASHI Experience brand launch and the Virtual Home Inspection Tour. Circulation for the U.S. print edition is 1,888,621.  

WEB

Web sites that posted ASHI press releases or news articles (partial list):

AOL Business
Bankrate.com      
Building Online     
Business Wire Newstream
Business.com    
CBSMarketwatch
CNNMoney (multiple placements))
Deadlinenews.com
eBuild.com
EPA.gov (official site of the EPA)    
Finance Canada
Google     
HGTV.com
HomeGain.com
Hoovers Online
Inman News         
Lycos  
Money.com
MSN House & Home  
NewsAlert     
Real Estate Journal.com (part of the Wall Street Journal online)
Realtor.org (official site of the NAR)
RealtyTimes.com
Remodeling Online
RentalProp.com      
ThisOldHouse.com   
Wallstreet-Online.com    
Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo.com
(Plus dozens of sites for local papers and television stations that ran ASHI info during 2004)    

HIGHLIGHT:  Currently, more than 13,500 Web sites link to either ASHI.org or ASHI.com.

TELEVISION

Television Broadcast  outlets that aired  Video News Release (VNR)

CNN
CNN Headline News  
CNN Financial News  
WBTW-TV CBS Florence, SC
WCIV-TV ABC Charleston, SC
WCPX-TV Pax Chicago
WGGS-TV (Independent)  Greenville, SC
WSAW-TV CBS Wausau, WI
WUXP-TV UPN Nashville
KYW-TV, CBS Philadelphia*
KTVI-TV, FOX St. Louis*
KUSA-TV, NBC Denver*
KBLR-TV, Telemundo Las Vegas
WPVI, ABC Philadelphia
TOTAL VNR AUDIENCE:  2,745,175    
VNR MEDIA VALUE: $122,616
*These outlets also posted complete articles on their respective Web sites directing consumers to use ASHI home inspectors and/or visit the Virtual Home Inspection on ASHI.org.
 
HIGHLIGHT:  On June 23, 2004, ASHI was featured in a more than
3-minute home inspection segment on CNN’  “5 Tips” with Geri Willis. The segment appeared on CNN, CNN Headline News and CNN Financial Network, with a total combined audience of just over 1.5 million. The complete article and streaming video was also posted to the CNN Money Magazine Web site with links to ASHI.org.

MEDIA QUOTES 

“Bidding wars erupted in some markets and it wasn’t uncommon for some shoppers to waive the usual inspection. Our opinion? Big mistake. To find a knowledgeable inspector in your area, check out the American Society of Home Inspectors Web site at www.ashi.org. You can find one by simply typing in your zip code. Members of ASHI have 250 paid inspections under their belts.”
— Gerri Willis, CNN/Money contributing columnist

“The only standards that exist for home inspections are those established by the professional association of the industry, namely, the American Society of Home Inspectors® (ASHI).”
— Report on ABC7 News in Washington, DC

“Those who want to know everything that can go wrong in a home but were afraid to ask can now visit the American Society of Home Inspector’s (ASHI) Web site at www.ashi.org for a “Virtual Home Inspection Tour.” Users click on an image of a house, then on different rooms, to get an idea of what goes into an ASHI-approved inspection.”
— Danielle Reed, “Home Front” columnist for The Wall Street Journal

“Home inspections are an important step when buying a home. There is now a new tool to help take some of the stress out of the process.  The American Society of Home Inspectors has launched a Web site at www.ashi.org, where buyers can go through a virtual home inspection. A standard pre-purchase inspection should be done by a qualified home inspector who will go over the house from top to bottom.”
— Report on KYW-TV in Philadelphia
(appeared online and during news broadcast)

STATES where the ASHI Public Service Announcement aired in 2004:

Alaska
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Washington, D.C.
Florida
Iowa
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Maryland
Maine
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Montana
North Carolina
New Jersey
Nevada
New York
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Virgin Islands
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin
West Virginia

2004 OVERVIEW

RESULTS:  In a comparison of public relation “hits” from 2003 to 2004, per-clip circulation was up by 4,782. This statistic is determined by dividing the total circulation by the number of clips, and it shows that ASHI is now appearing in broader and more widely circulated publications, which was the goal.

(Editor’s note: A clip is the appearance of an ASHI story in print.)

DOLLAR VALUE:  For every $1 spent on PR in 2004, ASHI has received more than $6 in advertising equivalency as a return on investment.

(Editor’s note: In other words, it’s estimated that if ASHI had
purchased advertising space equal to the free mentions received in the media, it would have had to pay six times what it paid to the public relations consultants.)


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