Sunday, February 28, 2010
"YouTube - I Just Can't Live (Without My Daily Snailpaper)"
This is great fun! More of the background here.
"In a Country of Monopoly Newspapers, Palo Alto Is Awash in Competition" - NYTimes.com
Note the print-only Daily Post!
"We aim to preserve value of print newspaper" - The Indianapolis Star
Well said as a snapshot of where so many newspapers are in their thinking.
"Let s teach news literacy" - Herald-Sun
Imagine a daily run-down of errors, ommissions, mileading content, etc in the web as it affects a printed newspaper's market?
Print offers a huge advantage, I think, to be the error-corrector of the internet as it affects the newspaper's market.
What else should be able to challenge a newspaper to be the authoritative source of truth? That assumes that the newspaper is doing its job in the first place!
Print offers a huge advantage, I think, to be the error-corrector of the internet as it affects the newspaper's market.
What else should be able to challenge a newspaper to be the authoritative source of truth? That assumes that the newspaper is doing its job in the first place!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
"Shortcuts - The Paralyzing Problem of Too Many Choices" - NYTimes.com
This is an excellent article and tells a great story.
It seems to me that this presents newspapers with a tremendous opportunity to help people at least tread water in a rising sea of choices - in terms of both news and information and products and services.
The printed newspaper can organize those parts of our lives that we choose to ask it to do for us, and do so in a very orderly manner.
Communicating with customers about this could be a great first step, and quickly offering some initial organizing content to customers as a test. This does not even have to be personalized to start. Imagine, for example, the newspaper's recommendations of three choices - in priority order - for what a reader might watch on television this evening and tomorrow morning? That's the sort of thing that is so much easier to use during the day without having to fire up a device, although it surely could be presented electronically as well.
It seems to me that this presents newspapers with a tremendous opportunity to help people at least tread water in a rising sea of choices - in terms of both news and information and products and services.
The printed newspaper can organize those parts of our lives that we choose to ask it to do for us, and do so in a very orderly manner.
Communicating with customers about this could be a great first step, and quickly offering some initial organizing content to customers as a test. This does not even have to be personalized to start. Imagine, for example, the newspaper's recommendations of three choices - in priority order - for what a reader might watch on television this evening and tomorrow morning? That's the sort of thing that is so much easier to use during the day without having to fire up a device, although it surely could be presented electronically as well.
"How do i print newspaper text onto another surface?" - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers
Lots of people want to print newspapers!
"Cellphone Applications Let Shoppers Point, Click and Buy" - NYTimes.com
Why isn't this happening with newspapers as well? In other words, why not "point, click and purchase" by using your device with something printed a newspaper page?
Friday, February 26, 2010
"Newspaper earns top honors for printing quality" - Standard Speaker
This is quite an impressive story about ciruclation gains....
"Ace Hardware Stores"
This hardware retailer is a significant printed newspaper advertiser in many US newspaper markets.
I am including it here because of an observation of what I saw both here on its principle website and in its printed materials, both brochures and in local newspapers.
The firm includes - now as standard practice apparently - a suggestion (with appropriate logos) to go to the firm's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages to "find us" or "stay connected".
What's wrong with this picture from a newspaper's perspective, I ask?
There is no suggestion in print or online that the local newspaper is a part of its store-with-customer relationship. There is no suggestion to go to dailybugle.com and to do anything there that advances the shared customer's interest.
If there ever was a missed opportunity for newspaper as digital services explode, this is it. Insert yourselves with powerful printed products and digital services into the lives of your customers as they relate to whatever it is that you give them - from Ace Hardware advertising and catalogues to humanitarian assistance to the people of Haiti.
I am including it here because of an observation of what I saw both here on its principle website and in its printed materials, both brochures and in local newspapers.
The firm includes - now as standard practice apparently - a suggestion (with appropriate logos) to go to the firm's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages to "find us" or "stay connected".
What's wrong with this picture from a newspaper's perspective, I ask?
There is no suggestion in print or online that the local newspaper is a part of its store-with-customer relationship. There is no suggestion to go to dailybugle.com and to do anything there that advances the shared customer's interest.
If there ever was a missed opportunity for newspaper as digital services explode, this is it. Insert yourselves with powerful printed products and digital services into the lives of your customers as they relate to whatever it is that you give them - from Ace Hardware advertising and catalogues to humanitarian assistance to the people of Haiti.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Daily guide to (audio) book reviews and much more
The printed version of a newspaper is headed - if newspapers can see through too much of their own fog - toward becoming a market/community organizer. For dailies, that means a kind of daily guide to life in that market. Some of that is simply a reference to what's going on, but to win a greater share of customers' time and attention, a huge portion of it needs to be offerings that come from newspapers.
Just one example: The Economist has just launched a podcast service offering book reviews. How did they tell me as a customer about this? In the printed "newspaper". (The New York Times does the same thing, apparently, but I learned about it on the newspaper's website.)
Alas, there are endless potential examples and very few that newspapers are actually doing. It's big hole that newspapers need to fill.....very quickly.
Just one example: The Economist has just launched a podcast service offering book reviews. How did they tell me as a customer about this? In the printed "newspaper". (The New York Times does the same thing, apparently, but I learned about it on the newspaper's website.)
Alas, there are endless potential examples and very few that newspapers are actually doing. It's big hole that newspapers need to fill.....very quickly.
"Pakistani Newspaper Attributes Mystical Powers to Diplomat" - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com
The world would be quite a different place without great newspapers, right?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
"Threat to Web Freedom Seen in Italian Google Case" - NYTimes.com
The core problem here is that Google's business plan cannot possibly support prior review of everything that is posted.
Newspapers - the printed kind - have always distinguished themselves by doing just that - reviewing what is published before it is published. With some exceptions, newspapers are fully responsible for everything they publish in print.
What's so bad about insisting that entities like Google do the same?
All of a sudden, the value of what newspapers have always done might become much more apparent to many.
And the world could escape much of the garbage that now gets added to the internet because no one is intervening.
Imagine an array of print and internet-based services which really have editors doing well what editos are professionally supposed to do - edit (i.e, choose, modify, reject, etc.).
Here's another good discussion of the case.
Both of the links from this post are to media that have real editors. That makes me a lot more confident in passing them on here.....
When was the last time you saw a printed newspaper talk about this difference?
Newspapers - the printed kind - have always distinguished themselves by doing just that - reviewing what is published before it is published. With some exceptions, newspapers are fully responsible for everything they publish in print.
What's so bad about insisting that entities like Google do the same?
All of a sudden, the value of what newspapers have always done might become much more apparent to many.
And the world could escape much of the garbage that now gets added to the internet because no one is intervening.
Imagine an array of print and internet-based services which really have editors doing well what editos are professionally supposed to do - edit (i.e, choose, modify, reject, etc.).
Here's another good discussion of the case.
Both of the links from this post are to media that have real editors. That makes me a lot more confident in passing them on here.....
When was the last time you saw a printed newspaper talk about this difference?
information.dk
This is the front page of the printed newspaper, Information, in Denmark on 22 February 2010. More on the subject here.
"Despite Small Numbers, Magazines Are Big on Bar Codes" - Advertising Age
Why aren't newspapers more active experimenters here? Too many burned fingers?
"Reflections of a Newsosaur: Don’t know about Aardvark? You should."
This actually goes to my point about newspapers providing "help" to their customers.
Why have newspapers allowed this role to be usurped first by the local librarian and now by Google? It's a mystery to me.
Imagine, tho, the print opportunity to include selected questions and answers from Aardvark that seem relevant to the core interests and needs of any newspaper's print customers. After all, knowing those core interests and needs is quite central to what a great newspaper should be, no?
Why have newspapers allowed this role to be usurped first by the local librarian and now by Google? It's a mystery to me.
Imagine, tho, the print opportunity to include selected questions and answers from Aardvark that seem relevant to the core interests and needs of any newspaper's print customers. After all, knowing those core interests and needs is quite central to what a great newspaper should be, no?
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
"TV Ratings Rise, Maybe With Internet’s Help" - NYTimes.com
When was the last time you saw a newspaper promoting the idea of watching TV or even using the Internet generally while reading a printed newspaper. I do it all the time, but nobody ever encouraged me to do so. Wouldn't newspapers be wise to think about how they can recognize reality and push customers not to change their reality but to add printed newspapers back into it?
A localized daily printed weather map
Suppose that a newspaper set up its printing and/or distribution operation such that each copy had inserted into it a localized weather forecast for the 24 hours following the printing of the forecast. And imagine further that the principal art in the forecast was a maps maps with the point of delivery or point of sale at the center of it.
Buy a newspaper at a kiosque and you'd get a weather map localized to the geography around that kiosque.
Receive a newspaper delivered to your home or business and you get a weather map localized to the geography around that delivery point.
Surely, a creative marketing and sales team at the newspaper could sell advertising into that weather report that ought to make it profitable on its own.
More certainly, it adds something new and utilitarian to the newspaper's printed content.
Has any newspaper done this?
Buy a newspaper at a kiosque and you'd get a weather map localized to the geography around that kiosque.
Receive a newspaper delivered to your home or business and you get a weather map localized to the geography around that delivery point.
Surely, a creative marketing and sales team at the newspaper could sell advertising into that weather report that ought to make it profitable on its own.
More certainly, it adds something new and utilitarian to the newspaper's printed content.
Has any newspaper done this?
"The New York Times Store: Gemstone Globe Paperweights - Copper Amber"
Sometimes I wonder if anyone else is paying any attention to the frontier between the printed and electronic newspapers.
Consider this paperweight.
Today's printed The New York Times contains a small house display ad for the paperweight. It caught my eye. I wanted to know more. So I went to the site, searched on paperweights and found it.
However, in the printed paper today, it says that it comes in four colors. When I go online, it tells me I can have any color I like as long as I pick "copper amber"! Surely, the others did not all sell out this morning......
Newspapers need people focused on this and they don't seem to care.
Consider this paperweight.
Today's printed The New York Times contains a small house display ad for the paperweight. It caught my eye. I wanted to know more. So I went to the site, searched on paperweights and found it.
However, in the printed paper today, it says that it comes in four colors. When I go online, it tells me I can have any color I like as long as I pick "copper amber"! Surely, the others did not all sell out this morning......
Newspapers need people focused on this and they don't seem to care.
Advertising - North Face Campaign Sends Texts When Shoppers Near Stores - NYTimes.com
There is a lot of attention focused on maps that we can generate online. Whether it be Google, or another, there are lots of ways that we can use that technology to find places, most often, or - if ambitious enough - to create maps with various locations noted on them.
Seeing the map here - and it is in black and white print in the printed The New York Times today - makes me wonder if printed newspapers are not missing the map boat.
Why not, for example, run a map of all of the newspaper's advertisers today that are promoting special offers in their print ads?
Or, a map of all of the music events either mentioned or advertised in today's paper for this evening?
Or a news map of the local area showing where any stories that have geographical points in them are connected?
I don't recall seeing that, or at least seeing it such that I took note.
There are many more possibilities. I realize that occasionally a newspaper will run a map with a story. That's good and often very helpful.
But how about something that brings more of the paper together, reinforcing what's valuable and how much of it today's paper contains.
Tearing out the local maps to pursue items reported or businesses advertised could become a new way to make full use of the printed newspaper.
Seeing the map here - and it is in black and white print in the printed The New York Times today - makes me wonder if printed newspapers are not missing the map boat.
Why not, for example, run a map of all of the newspaper's advertisers today that are promoting special offers in their print ads?
Or, a map of all of the music events either mentioned or advertised in today's paper for this evening?
Or a news map of the local area showing where any stories that have geographical points in them are connected?
I don't recall seeing that, or at least seeing it such that I took note.
There are many more possibilities. I realize that occasionally a newspaper will run a map with a story. That's good and often very helpful.
But how about something that brings more of the paper together, reinforcing what's valuable and how much of it today's paper contains.
Tearing out the local maps to pursue items reported or businesses advertised could become a new way to make full use of the printed newspaper.
Stagnant print advertising
When an advertiser buys space in a newspaper, the advertiser gets to use it to say pretty much whatever the advertiser chooses. Sure, there are some limits imposed by law and by the publisher, but basically the advertiser can use that space to communicate whatever the advertiser wishes.
Two things haunt me about how that works.
One is that so much of newspaper advertising in so many newspapers is so unimaginative. Compared to what we often see in magazines and online, newspaper display ads are more often boring.
The second probably is related to the first. I have been looking at some small display ads in one of our local newspapers for restaurants. The ads for the same handful of restaurants run regularly and they seldom change in any way. What a lost opportunity this is for all three involved in this proces - the ad becomes uninteresting for me the customer because there is no point in simply reading the same copy all over again; the ad therefore does not work for the advertiser; and, the ad does not add value other than revenue - for however long it may last - to the newspaper. Each of us has a stake in making this better.
Who is working on these?
Two things haunt me about how that works.
One is that so much of newspaper advertising in so many newspapers is so unimaginative. Compared to what we often see in magazines and online, newspaper display ads are more often boring.
The second probably is related to the first. I have been looking at some small display ads in one of our local newspapers for restaurants. The ads for the same handful of restaurants run regularly and they seldom change in any way. What a lost opportunity this is for all three involved in this proces - the ad becomes uninteresting for me the customer because there is no point in simply reading the same copy all over again; the ad therefore does not work for the advertiser; and, the ad does not add value other than revenue - for however long it may last - to the newspaper. Each of us has a stake in making this better.
Who is working on these?
Print newspaper help desk
One of the things that I don't think any newspapers - of which I am aware - have gotten right is the issue of the help that reader customers might need in connection with the printed newspaper.
Usually, this help - if provided at all - is doneso in the context of a circulation sales promotion or simply servicing a subscriber's subscription.
That's fine and important.
But think for a moment about the sorts of help you might need on any day in reading a newspaper. It might be facts not included in a story. It might be a link to more resources. It might be help of some sort with an advertisement. The list is quite long.
I think newspapers - printed et al - need to do a far better job of recognizing that help or more means a lot more than just checking on whether a check for a subscription renewal has been received. The analysis and the service ought to start with everything imaginable and at least put a human being in the position of saying, if absolutely necessary, that's not a question or need to which we can respond. Even in that case, I would hope that the newspaper would be able to recommend a next step.
Imagine.
Usually, this help - if provided at all - is doneso in the context of a circulation sales promotion or simply servicing a subscriber's subscription.
That's fine and important.
But think for a moment about the sorts of help you might need on any day in reading a newspaper. It might be facts not included in a story. It might be a link to more resources. It might be help of some sort with an advertisement. The list is quite long.
I think newspapers - printed et al - need to do a far better job of recognizing that help or more means a lot more than just checking on whether a check for a subscription renewal has been received. The analysis and the service ought to start with everything imaginable and at least put a human being in the position of saying, if absolutely necessary, that's not a question or need to which we can respond. Even in that case, I would hope that the newspaper would be able to recommend a next step.
Imagine.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Announcing the printed version electronically
When was the last time you saw something pop up on newspaper website or arrive in your e-mail box or some electronic device announcing what is in the the printed newspaper that just started printing?
I have often advocated things ranging from a general e-mail from the editor when the press button gets pushed sent to those who ask for it to a database driven system that would shoot out an alert in some form whenever someone's person hot issue button gets pushed in the newspaper that has just gone to press.
Perhaps this could even be linked to a service that either delivers the paper immediately to where you are or tells you where the papers that are the hottests off the press are available for purchase. Just how valuable would a customer be who gets in her/his car and drives some distance to pick up a fresh-off-the-press paper? I think the people who judge these things would place a lot of dollar signs on that forehead!
I have often advocated things ranging from a general e-mail from the editor when the press button gets pushed sent to those who ask for it to a database driven system that would shoot out an alert in some form whenever someone's person hot issue button gets pushed in the newspaper that has just gone to press.
Perhaps this could even be linked to a service that either delivers the paper immediately to where you are or tells you where the papers that are the hottests off the press are available for purchase. Just how valuable would a customer be who gets in her/his car and drives some distance to pick up a fresh-off-the-press paper? I think the people who judge these things would place a lot of dollar signs on that forehead!
"$132 in savings inside"
This was the banner on the top of the front page of our local newspaper yesterday. They do this each Sunday to promote the value of the discount coupons that are inserted in the Sunday edition.
It's a positive message and certainly reflects some of the value of that newspaper yesterday.
But the front page is used for painfully little else in coaxing the customer inside.
Think for a moment about all of the editorial and advertising content that could be flagged on the front page without compromising editorial integrity.
It is part of the power of print that it can lead people to places that they might not otherwise reach.
It's a positive message and certainly reflects some of the value of that newspaper yesterday.
But the front page is used for painfully little else in coaxing the customer inside.
Think for a moment about all of the editorial and advertising content that could be flagged on the front page without compromising editorial integrity.
It is part of the power of print that it can lead people to places that they might not otherwise reach.
"A Digital Billboard That Watches You..." - The World Newser
Why not a newspaper vending machine that does the same thing?
"Prototype - Architectural Mailboxes - A Tale of Determination" - NYTimes.com
People who buy, or might buy, printed newspapers need a place to put it, or have it put for them. Too little attention has been devoted to this issue.
Whenever I go outside in the morning here in North Carolina to pick up my newspapers from the driveway, especially when it is raining or is cold, I am reminded of this. My computer does not require a plastic bag to stay dry most mornings!
Whenever I go outside in the morning here in North Carolina to pick up my newspapers from the driveway, especially when it is raining or is cold, I am reminded of this. My computer does not require a plastic bag to stay dry most mornings!
"Digital Domain - The Birth of Cheap Communication (and Junk Mail)" - NYTimes.com
This is fascinating history and I think there is an undeveloped string missing from this piece - dealing with the printed newspaper as a communications medium.
"Macmillan’s DynamicBooks Lets Professors Rewrite E-Textbooks" - NYTimes.com
My vision of this would have a code printed alongside every item in a printed newspaper - from the masthead, through all display and classified advertising, each editorial, every column, all of the news stories, and the information items with calendars, etc.
Accessing the site of the newspaper after finding the item in the printed paper - or online - would allow a customer to see some combination of updated content, links, subsequent offers, more details, references, etc. And it would be set up such that access to the code-linked page and what appears on it would be carefully organized by the newspaper so as to insure as much integrity of the evolving content as possible.
Lots of little issues would have to be addressed, ranging from whether original content would always be one option to what sorts of comments by customers would be permitted and on what terms.
Accessing the site of the newspaper after finding the item in the printed paper - or online - would allow a customer to see some combination of updated content, links, subsequent offers, more details, references, etc. And it would be set up such that access to the code-linked page and what appears on it would be carefully organized by the newspaper so as to insure as much integrity of the evolving content as possible.
Lots of little issues would have to be addressed, ranging from whether original content would always be one option to what sorts of comments by customers would be permitted and on what terms.
"Selling a Celebrity Look With a Photo and a Click" - NYTimes.com
Why wouldn't a variation of this work in print as well?
Saturday, February 20, 2010
"On the Road - Travel Sites or Guidebooks - Why Not Both?" - NYTimes.com
It continues to seem to me that this is the approach newspapers ought to be leading with their customers - the value of using BOTH online and print. That has happened rarely if at all.....
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
"Ping - Google’s New Approach to Courting Small Businesses" - NYTimes.com
If newspapers cannot come up with a creative offer to advertisers - in print -at $25/month, then newspapers ought to hang up their ink barrels. Why do I say this? Look at any daily newspaper anywhere any day and tell me how many of the local businesses and organizations appear as advertisers in that issue. I think you will find the answer to be less than 5%, perhaps even less than 1%. Where are the other 95% going? Google and a lot of others come to mind.
It's a time for creativitiy, for packages of print and online and for putting newspapers in the role they should - bur rarely have gotten there - have occupied all along: as the primary connector of people, businesses, organizations and anything else that resides or works or connects in some way with the geography that the newspaper purports to serve.
It's a time for creativitiy, for packages of print and online and for putting newspapers in the role they should - bur rarely have gotten there - have occupied all along: as the primary connector of people, businesses, organizations and anything else that resides or works or connects in some way with the geography that the newspaper purports to serve.
Friday, February 12, 2010
"Domains - Christiane Amanpour - War Rooms" - NYTimes.com
Scroll down in the profile to see her view of printed newspapers.
"Healthymagination"
This campaign was accompanied by three magnificent four color printed pages in today's (printed) The New York Times.
"A New Plan for a New Year" - Editorials from The Berkeley Daily Planet
Here is the story in The New York Times - PRINTED edition! - that called my attention to this move.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
"Ombudsman Blog - No spike in reader e-mails"
I think this has a lot to say about how much reading people really do in printed pages today and how rarely those printed pages prompt someone to "do" something....like send an e-mail to the reporter. It flags a really big problem in my mind that has little to do with print and everything to do with creativity.
"Kashi Seven Whole Grain Cereal Snacks Entrees"
This company has - for at least the second time - launched a promotion campaign on television and here on their website offering to mail a free sample of their product to anyone who asks.
It is disappointing that I see no mention of this in any printed newspaper that I have read in the last couple of days while the campaign continues on television.
Do you suppose newspapers print advertising was simply not perceived to be good enough for the advertiser?
Did no one from newspapers approach them?
Was there something lacking in a creative and effective way that this campaign could have been advanced in a printed newspaper?
What are the ways in which this might have been very effective in a printed newspaper?
It is disappointing that I see no mention of this in any printed newspaper that I have read in the last couple of days while the campaign continues on television.
Do you suppose newspapers print advertising was simply not perceived to be good enough for the advertiser?
Did no one from newspapers approach them?
Was there something lacking in a creative and effective way that this campaign could have been advanced in a printed newspaper?
What are the ways in which this might have been very effective in a printed newspaper?
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
"Pepsi Refresh Project"
I wonder how many printed newspapers contain information about this project, either paid for by Pepsi or carried as a news or other story?
"North Carolina Classifieds and Display Ads Online, published by NC Press Services"
This strikes me somehow as being almost 19th century in its approach.
Where is the creativity?
The innovation?
Where is the creativity?
The innovation?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
"Cellphone and Entertainment Fees Add Up for Families" - NYTimes.com
I wonder what the statistics would show in terms of overall spending on printed media.
Monday, February 8, 2010
"Adweek Super Bowl XLIV Coverage"
When was the last time, you saw a “special microsite” created showcasing the great advertisements that were published in a newspaper somewhere?
(Hint: Don’t hold your breath while you think of an answer!)
(Hint: Don’t hold your breath while you think of an answer!)
"The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia"
There are lots of differences between a great newspaper and a great newspaper website. I guess the same could be said for a not-so-great newspaper and its website.
One of the differences that surely does not get discussed in lofty journalistic circles is the problem of returning to an advertisement that catches your eye.
Frequently, I see an ad in the NYTimes, for examples - in print - and I remember later when something clicks or happens to make me think of it. If I still have the printed copy, which is most often as I tend to remember these things the same day or shortly after publication and our newspapers only get recycled once/week here -- I can go back to the printed paper and usually find the ad.
If I see an ad on the NYTimes website, and try to return to it, from my experience it is almost never there because of ad rotations and other formulas that fail anticipate that my clicking on the back button may have as much to do with an ad I saw there as an article. And, does the NYTimes or any other newspaper at least provide a list of advertisers that I can access and click on the one that I think might have been the one that just whooshed by me? No, or at least I've not found that list.
What an opportunity to remedy a frustration. Who will be first to do it? And how could this tie back into print?
One of the differences that surely does not get discussed in lofty journalistic circles is the problem of returning to an advertisement that catches your eye.
Frequently, I see an ad in the NYTimes, for examples - in print - and I remember later when something clicks or happens to make me think of it. If I still have the printed copy, which is most often as I tend to remember these things the same day or shortly after publication and our newspapers only get recycled once/week here -- I can go back to the printed paper and usually find the ad.
If I see an ad on the NYTimes website, and try to return to it, from my experience it is almost never there because of ad rotations and other formulas that fail anticipate that my clicking on the back button may have as much to do with an ad I saw there as an article. And, does the NYTimes or any other newspaper at least provide a list of advertisers that I can access and click on the one that I think might have been the one that just whooshed by me? No, or at least I've not found that list.
What an opportunity to remedy a frustration. Who will be first to do it? And how could this tie back into print?
"Magazines’ Newsstand Sales Fall 9.1 Percent" - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com
Any implications for newspapers?
"Media Cache - Free vs. Paid, Murdoch vs. Rusbridger" - NYTimes.com
I wonder what the trend lines would show if combining total newspaper circulation around the world, paid and free, all frequencies of publication and then showing the evolving split between paid and freed? Perhaps WAN-IFRA does this for its trends compendium each year?
With that in hand, do the same for electronic services.
With that in hand, do the same for electronic services.
"More than half of b-to-b magazine subscribers prefer print-only" - BtoB Magazine
Have newspapers done all that they could to maximize their print service to business-to-business advertisers?
Sunday, February 7, 2010
"Pay-for-Inquiry Ad Model Gains Modest Traction at Newspapers" - Advertising Age
This ought to get the creative juices of print newspapers flowing, and if it does not, newspapers are going to lose. Imagine the opportunity this presents to really turn up the power of what an advertisement, creatively designed and impeccably printed and distributed COULD be.
"Print newspapers fight against bill posting legal notices online"
This may seem like an odd issue, especially for those outside the US.
The historic US policy - carried out mostly at the state and local level - has been that when government has something important to communicate to the population, government should pay for a "public notice" advertisement in local newspapers. It's a time-honored tradition that has succeeded, more or less, in keeping the electorate informed, or at least giving them a relatively easy means to become informed if they choose to do so.
What this debate brings to a head is a very simple question. If government has something important to say, what is the best way that they can get that to the largest percentage of the population? The public policy pendulum clearly has swung toward the internet on this one, but maybe it is the right time to ask anew which route - the internet or a printed newspaper - is likely to achieve the real goal of this policy. That goal is an informed and involved electorate.
If newspapers could only be more creative about this, I bet there is a combination of print and electronic service that both governments and reader customers that could be offered that would be better than what exists now and even better than a website-only solution. Alas, I think newspapers are stuck in the status quo, defending what has been and is and not thinking anywhere near as much as they could about what could be.
It is very sad.
The historic US policy - carried out mostly at the state and local level - has been that when government has something important to communicate to the population, government should pay for a "public notice" advertisement in local newspapers. It's a time-honored tradition that has succeeded, more or less, in keeping the electorate informed, or at least giving them a relatively easy means to become informed if they choose to do so.
What this debate brings to a head is a very simple question. If government has something important to say, what is the best way that they can get that to the largest percentage of the population? The public policy pendulum clearly has swung toward the internet on this one, but maybe it is the right time to ask anew which route - the internet or a printed newspaper - is likely to achieve the real goal of this policy. That goal is an informed and involved electorate.
If newspapers could only be more creative about this, I bet there is a combination of print and electronic service that both governments and reader customers that could be offered that would be better than what exists now and even better than a website-only solution. Alas, I think newspapers are stuck in the status quo, defending what has been and is and not thinking anywhere near as much as they could about what could be.
It is very sad.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
"The Columbian newspaper exits bankruptcy" - Portland Business Journal:
We see many stories like this in the US. One can only hope that the owner will succeed.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Tropicana Juicy Rewards
Here in the US, there was a televisoin promotion of this today on at least one of the commercial networks. I did not see any advertising in the printed newspapers that I saw today.
Is there not room, however, for this sort of idea - where the customer looks up a number (in this case, having bought the product) and gets a potential reward for doing so? Might a creative newspaper and a creative advertiser not work together to do the same sort of get their attention in print and send them to a website process initiated for me today on television? Shouldn't newspapers be at least as good as a television commerical in sending people to a website? How much newspaper creative marketing time gets spent thinking about such things today? I suspect woefully little.
Is there not room, however, for this sort of idea - where the customer looks up a number (in this case, having bought the product) and gets a potential reward for doing so? Might a creative newspaper and a creative advertiser not work together to do the same sort of get their attention in print and send them to a website process initiated for me today on television? Shouldn't newspapers be at least as good as a television commerical in sending people to a website? How much newspaper creative marketing time gets spent thinking about such things today? I suspect woefully little.
Is a three month calendar the best The New York Times can offer?
Today's printed The New York Times newspaper contains a house advertisement, as it often does, for a three month wall calendar, measuring about one foot by three feet.
That's fine, but was that best use of the space on that page of the Times?
Is this the most creative printed item that the newspaper can offer us? What about a print and electronic calendar offering geared to dates submitted by advertisers, readers and reporters? Send it out in print, once a month with real value added to it?
Where is the imagination?
That's fine, but was that best use of the space on that page of the Times?
Is this the most creative printed item that the newspaper can offer us? What about a print and electronic calendar offering geared to dates submitted by advertisers, readers and reporters? Send it out in print, once a month with real value added to it?
Where is the imagination?
Newspaper version of television set feature?
I was reminded today that some of the newest flat screen television sets are set up to automatically turn down the volume of commercial messages when they appear.
That's good for consumers and probably not all that bothersome for advertisers, at least the responsible ones.
Is there some version of this - thinking outside the box - that might apply to advertising in a printed newspaper, and how could we make it better for all concerned?
That's good for consumers and probably not all that bothersome for advertisers, at least the responsible ones.
Is there some version of this - thinking outside the box - that might apply to advertising in a printed newspaper, and how could we make it better for all concerned?
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
"Pearson Beefs Up FT Offering With MGA Buy" - WSJ.com
What are the printing opportunites open to newspapers as a mean of replacing some portion of lost advertising and circulation revenues?
Using their facilities to print newspapers for advertisers or other organizations, .e.g.?
Using their facilities to print newspapers for advertisers or other organizations, .e.g.?
Monday, February 1, 2010
"Bargain Hunters Start With Newspaper and Magazine Ads" - MedaPost Publicaitons
I don't think most of all of this advertising is in print.
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