RFI-SH24-001 City Magazine.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

RFI-SH24-001

STERLING HEIGHTS MAGAZINE REDESIGN

CITY OF STERLING HEIGHTS

40555 UTICA ROAD

STERLING HEIGHTS, MI 48313

CONTACT PERSON: ERIK SKURDA, PURCHASING MANAGER

PHONE: 586-446-2741, FAX: 586-276-4062, E-MAIL: shpurchasing@sterlingheights.gov

The City of Sterling Heights Community Relations Department is interested in a REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) regarding the feasibility to redesign and modernize the City Magazine. All printing/publishing/media companies are encouraged to respond. It is anticipated that the discussion will identify best management practices for the city to transition to a modern, full-color “lifestyle” type magazine.

Sterling Heights is a City with an estimated population of 134,605 having approximately 55,000 addresses that receive the current newspaper print City magazine three times each year. An example can be found here: Sterling Heights Magazine.

The City magazine is consistently listed by residents as one of the top channels they use to get important information and updates from the City. We are looking to move to a more frequent distribution as well as move from a newsprint to a more “modern,” full-color publication that looks and feels like a lifestyle magazine inclusive of featured profiles and storytelling components, employs the use of infographics, tables/charts and QR codes that lead to important city information.

The City will need to understand anticipated costs and challenges associated with increasing frequency and improving design/paper as well as explore methods to offset those costs such as advertising sales, mailing permit restrictions or opportunities, among others.

The City is open to exploring contracting out individual pieces of the magazine (writing, photography, design, sales, printing, distribution) up to and including turn-key operations that can manage the entire magazine production at recommended or agreed upon intervals.

https://www.calameo.com/read/000388887301ccb3e80e7 https://www.calameo.com/read/000388887301ccb3e80e7

Respondents to the RFI will be contacted by the Office of Purchasing to schedule interviews to discuss your submittal of the following responses:

Please answer the following questions and be prepared to discuss once contacted:

1. Pros and cons of:

a. 4 larger issues vs. 6 smaller issues

b. Information in print vs. QR codes linking to additional information

c. Infographics and charts vs. Narrative/text

d. Creating a “templated” design vs. designing new each month

2. What is to be expected during a magazine redesign?

a. When would be the best timing to move from the existing design to the new design.

b. How long would the process to re-design take?

c. What length/lead time would we need for every issue if we move to 4x a year? 6x?

d. Are there any sub-contractor considerations that might cause disruptions?

e. Campaign to get residents involved (submitting content or content ideas, submitting photos, etc.) What strategies have been successfully used?

f. What can we expect in terms of advertising sales and net costs?

3. The city currently mails a copy to every business and household. Do you have experience with managing a subscription-based publication and how this might benefit us as we move to share the stories of our community outside our borders? Maybe ex-community stakeholders would want to subscribe to keep up to date on exciting people and things happening in our community?

4. The city is looking to provide advertisement opportunities for businesses and organizations.

Are advertisement sales a possible service we could include in the package and what commission may be expected from a third party?

5. What factors will affect pricing? We DO NOT want pricing, just factors that will affect pricing. Are there any considerations that will impact pricing that we haven’t already outlined above?

*These questions are of current interest to the City in order to fully understand providers capabilities and the best way to implement the Sterling Heights Magazine redesign. These questions are not intended to be all inclusive; further questions may arise throughout the interview process.

RFI SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

RFI Submission Deadline: Tuesday, June 4th 2024 before 2:30 P.M.

Electronic Submission via the MITN system as described below is the only submittal option.

Call the Purchasing Office at 586-446-2740 if you have any questions and we will assist.

Electronic Submission Only The vendor / Contractor will need to complete, scan and upload your response through the MITN system. All responses will be submitted directly into a secured MITN “vault” that cannot be opened until the submission deadline date and time.

Please note that this is NOT a BID, but instructions for submitting your response to the RFI- SH24-001 - Request for Information.

Vendor / Contractor Submittal Procedure:

Login to the MITN website using your previously registered credentials at http://www.mitn.info.

Locate and enter the Sterling Heights Solicitation you have prepared a bid for.

Click on the “Place Bid” button on the upper right side of the page.

In the “Place a Bid” window, select “Place a new Bid” or “Place a No Bid” (Depending on your response). Select the “Continue” button .

On the next page, in the “Documents” tab, select “Add File” or “Import Zip file”

(Depending on your file type). Complete all required actions and click the “Next” button.

This will bring you to the “Pricing” tab. There you will see a reminder to “Don’t forget to attach your pricing in the ‘Documents’ section”. Select the “Next” button.

On the following screen, in the “Exceptions” section, select “No” or “Yes” (depending on your response). In the “Bidder Compliance & Authentication” section, you will enter your full name and password where prompted. Click the “Submit Bid” button.

In the “Bid Submission Confirmation” window, select “No” or “Yes” (depending on your response).

Finally, the next screen will confirm your bid submission. Here you will receive a confirmation number and will be able to download a PDF version of the confirmation for your records.

Important: The mitn.info system locks at 2:30 pm (Sterling Heights, Michigan Time) on the due date, and responses can not be downloaded after that time. Responses must be downloaded and accepted by the mitn.info downloading portal before 2:30 pm. Do not wait until the last minute to submit your response; internet connections, computer systems failures on the submitter’s part could cause a problem from downloading your response into mitn.info system. The system locks at 2:30 p.m.

If you have questions with the electronic submission procedures, please contact the MITN Vendor Support Department at (800) 835-4603, option #2 or email: e-procurementsupport@bidnet.com http://www.mitn.info/ mailto:e-procurementsupport@bidnet.com

The City of Sterling Heights officially distributes RFI, RFP, and bid documents through the Michigan Inter-governmental Trade Network (MITN). Copies of bid, RFI and RFP documents obtained from any other source are not considered official copies. Bids or notification of bids issued by members of MITN are to be posted, in whole or in part, ONLY on the MITN system. Any other use is prohibited.

Only those vendors who obtain bid documents from the MITN system are guaranteed access to receive addendum information if such information is issued. The City of Sterling Heights cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information not obtained from the MITN website and is not responsible for any errors contained by information received from alternate sources.

The City reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to allow a bidder to resubmit a copy of a response that was otherwise submitted via the mitn.info system before the bid due date and time, when the response document submitted via the mitn.info system is corrupt or otherwise not readable / downloadable by the City, and when in the opinion of the City, the fault was not that of the bidder.

If you received this document from a source other than the sources indicated, please notify us. It is recommended that all vendors register on the MITN website at www.mitn.info to obtain an official copy. All future bids, proposals, quotes, requests for information and any addenda and tabulations will be posted on the MITN website.

PUBLIC OPENING: A public opening will be conducted via conference call, 30 minutes after the above posted due date and time, all interested participants must call 586-446-2663, (enter Conference ID Code 4462740 when prompted) 30 minutes after the date / time of the response due date / deadline listed. A Purchasing Department representative will read the name of firms submitting responses as they are downloaded and made available. Please be patient as the process may take a few minutes before a representative is on the line to moderate the opening.