Almost as swiftly as it plummeted last fall, AAN CAN revenue has surged back to new heights in the last few weeks, posting more than $77,000 in revenue in May.

The increase in business is “due to amplified sales participation from member newspapers, an improving business climate, and special selling incentives — all of which helped us make May 2003 our highest revenue generating month since the record-breaking month we had last July,” says AAN Director of Sales Roxanne Cooper.

New and lapsed ads sold by Independent Weekly, Cincinnati CityBeat, Pacific Sun, Tucson Weekly, Baltimore City Paper, Easy Reader, Phoenix New Times, San Diego Reader and Metro San Jose, as well as ads sold by the national office, helped drive revenue 16 percent over budget and more than 50 percent over April.

Robby Robbins, Independent Weekly classified manager and AAN classified advertising chair, attributes his paper’s success in selling AAN CAN to making it part of his staff’s routine selling activity. “We automatically pitch all agencies that call in. They love this low rate, bump their rate to their clients and make a fortune,” says Robbins.

New AAN CAN Assistant Chris Mudrack has a more succinct AAN CAN selling philosophy: “Four words: ‘Do you advertise nationally?’ can net your paper $300 in commission. That’s $75 a word. How easy is that?”