Maybe not.
The folks at Bovine Comedy conducted a random survey of pages A8 and A9 in 3 newspapers (The KC Star, the WSJ, and the NYT) and noted the Kansas City Star was overloaded with ads . Way, way overloaded.
Check out the photo below.
In the upper left hand corner of A8 is the only news item on both pages. The photo makes the Star look like an ad insert, not a newspaper.Money quote:
"... Find all the advertisers you want, Mr. Zieman, but eventually they’ll realize that they’re paying to advertise in something no one has any interest in reading..."
Photo credit: Bovine Comedy
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9 comments:
Back in the day, there was a mathematical formula as to when you should be considered an advertising supplement rather than a newspaper.
Zieman's having a sale. 1/8 page ads 2 for 9.95.
Years ago, a publisher I worked for boldly but correctly said at a meeting that newspapers were now advertising vehicles, not *news*papers anymore. Given that you can get news *today* via the Internet that will appear in the paper *tomorrow*, I agree. And if I'm not looking to buy something, then why do I need a mess of ads?
Advertising is also information that many readers want. They look for bargains and compare pricing.
7:11 PM, yes, but an older generation that is dying off uses newspapers to do that. Keep deluding yourself that newspapers will continue to serve that purpose.
True, 9:08.
The older generation does not spend like young adults. Advertisers know that. The "back to school" ad season just did not happen this year.
The Thanksgiving Day boost won't happen as well.
8:29 AM - I remember when my old newspaper had to work for months to prep for the Thanksgiving Day paper. That started dying about years ago. Now you can get Black Friday sales a week or two early on a dozen Web sites. No need to leaf through the newspaper.
As fewer people read newspapers, fewer eyeballs are reading those inserts and display ads. Smart advertisers are getting that little factoid. Dumb ones are still shelling out big bucks for less bang.
The Star-Telegram's A section has been decimated on Mondays and Tuesdays. Take out the op-ed/weather pages, front-page full of indexes, and briefs and you're lucky if there are even 10 stories in the world/national section and mostly ads. So many pages were cut of the paper those days that it's like not publishing a paper one day of the week. Another great way to dmiminish the product and lose readers, courtesy of publisher Gary "Hatchet Man" Woretel and editor Jim "Oops" Witt.
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