Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Flash: Newspaper Ads Still Perform
News of the death of newspapers is greatly exaggerated.


As one of the earlier adopters of web advertising (which is no doubt wonderful for its ability to deliver a targeted message) we’d like to be among the first to proclaim newspaper print advertising still lives because it still hits home and gets results.


We’ve recently seen New York Times print ads result in more than a million dollars in new donations for one of the charities we represent. A mix of newspaper print ads, banners and engaging notices catapulted one of our performing arts accounts to their sales goal — in the height of the Great Recession, mind you.


When my daughter’s wedding was announced in the Sunday Times I was amazed at how many had seen it. Each time the inimitable Arthur Lubow writes an article in the New York Times Magazine, I don’t hear the end of it. (Thanks to newsprint, he’s really making a name for us!)


In an ever more fragmented media world, newspaper advertising still represents one of the last communal communication experiences because, in contrast to a rotated banner ad or TV spot lost in the swirling surf of a thousand channels, a print ad is found in one place for all to uniformly see. Anyone who has witnessed a newspaper strike can envision the sad scenario of a major city without a serious paper. During the last shutdown in New York, theatre, book, real estate, culture, movie and retail sales all sympathetically tanked when newspaper ink went dry and the City was cut off from the voice of its daily commerce.


And use this measure when judging newsprint. How many times have you heard the word “annoying” to describe:

a) Internet banners

b) TV and radio commercials

c) Print ads


Which of the following do people actually purchase in order to find and read the ads:

a) Newspapers

b) Websites

c) TV and radio shows


Print advertising, in general, works best when it doesn’t fight with editorial material. Look at The New Yorker’s longstanding formula— where most of the content is words and the print ads provide visual refreshment. Look at the Vogue fashion issue where the ads are the principal content. A fortune will go to the genius who stages as clever a format online.


Though it may be hazardous to the health of a media buyer’s quarterly evaluation to hop off the bandwagon of the latest, trendy tweet, it should be noted that new media rarely ever fully replace the old. Television was supposed to mean the demise of radio; but it didn’t — the two have coexisted for years.


Newspapers —though no longer black & white— are still read all over. About 115 million adults read a printed newspaper on an average Sunday. By comparison, 94 million people watch the Super Bowl; and 64 million watch the late local TV news. And when you combine newspaper web and print platforms, newspaper readership in most cities has never been higher. A recent study showed 45 percent of all active Internet users visited newspaper websites. That’s huge.


Nonetheless, we’ve found that internet banner advertising is no replacement for print; it’s a supplement. The sooner newspaper publishers realize this and begin encouraging the complementary use of print and internet advertising through combo deals, affordable package pricing and more innovative formatting, the better for advertisers and the better, in turn, for news-papers and news-screens alike.


—Arthur Lubow

2 Comments:
At September 9, 2009 at 4:43 PM , Blogger Ron Culp said...
As an avid newspaper reader, I think and hope you're right. However, with the exception perhaps of New York, I believe other cities will only be able to support one printed newspaper.  
At September 14, 2009 at 6:55 AM , Blogger James Gillmore from FaceySpacey.com said...
Mr. Lubow, I love the 2 polls you posted. As a 20 something year old 2.0 social media junkie, I'm usually the first to proclaim that with the price of everything on the internet approaching free that print is dead, but for those 2 crucial points, Print definitely is the winner.

I will say that it's impossible to beat the metrics the web brings, specifically in its ability to track user/customer/visitor actions from initial interest to a completed sale. Before the web, only large corporations could make sound marketing investments--because it required extremely expensive campaigns to be able to ball-park an expected result. Now small businesses can predict exactly how much they'll make out of spending a couple hundred dollars with various online ad networks.
 

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