"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.