Okay, I’ll admit it, I am (or was, tear) a huge Game of Thrones fan. I was one of the 17 million plus people eagerly awaiting the premiere of the series’ eighth and final season. When the day finally arrived a friend came over with something I was not expecting… Oreos. Don’t get me wrong, I like to dunk, but I honestly hadn’t eaten one in about a decade.

It’s no surprise that brands are eager to tie into GOT’s massive audience. The show has been utilizing cross-promotion for years to off-set massively expensive production costs (including a reported $20 million dollar marketing campaign for the final season). Along with Oreo, Johnnie Walker, Bud Light, Urban Decay, and Mountain Dew (to name a few) have all jumped on the Thrones bandwagon.

Sponsors were not the only ones trying to grab a piece of the pie. What are brands with limited advertising budgets to do? Take to Twitter. Practically any brand with a Twitter account was trying to get in on the action. Social media has made audience engagement easier than ever but, it has also made filling up a year’s worth of quality content a difficult task for marketers. Newsjacking and leveraging pop culture are ways to keep a brand relevant while engaging audiences in a meaningful and entertaining way. Let’s face it, an endless stream of product descriptions is not going to keep people visiting a brand’s social media page or attract new customers. Cultural phenomena such as Thrones give brands a relatively risk-free way to join an international conversation. Sure, there are plenty of people who I’m positive were annoyed and even disgusted by all the blatant commodification but at least it was something fun and different that brought people together. Even if that unity was ultimately in shared disappointment.

Personally, I think the big winner in the all of the season 8 Thrones hype would have to be Starbucks. The infamous coffee cup left in episode 4 “The Last of the Starks” resulted in an estimated $2.3 billion in free advertising. It wasn’t even a Starbucks cup! At first, the coffee house stayed quiet but after being goaded by brands such as Steak-umm, Starbucks used the opportunity to market its new Dragon Drink.

Now, will I go out tomorrow and buy more Oreos? Not likely. But, I do have to say, the childhood favorite is now back on my radar. Wasn’t that the point?

References

Bradley, D. (2019). 5 million tweets and counting: A Twitter VP’s top takeaways from ‘Game of Thrones’ mania. PRWEEK. Retrieved from https://www.prweek.com/article/1582283/5-million-tweets-counting-twitter-vps-top-takeaways-game-thrones-mania

Czarnecki, S. (2019). Steak-umm says Starbucks’ silence on ‘Game of Thrones’ coffee cup matter is ‘deafening.’ PRWEEK. Retrieved from https://www.prweek.com/article/1583769/steak-umm-says-starbucks-silence-game-thrones-coffee-cup-matter-deafening

Ehrenberg, N. (2014). Beyond newsjacking: Pop culture in content marketing with movies, TV and memes. TopRank Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.toprankblog.com/2014/04/pop-culture-content-marketing/

Ellis, E. G. (2019). Game of Thrones marketing is spreading like greyscale. Wired. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/game-of-thrones-marketing/

Jones, L. (2018). Why jumping on the brandwagon doesn’t always pay off. BrandContent. Retrieved from https://brandcontent.co.uk/outfoxed/why-jumping-on-the-brandwagon-doesnt-always-pay-off/

McCarthy, J. (2019). Game of Thrones final season: HBO brand partners get creative. The Drum. Retrieved from https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/04/10/game-thrones-final-season-hbo-brand-partners-get-creative

Millennial is a buzzword many of us marketers are tired of hearing. Of course, it’s important to know and understand every generation of consumer, but honestly, I’m ready for a new challenge. Well, there’s a newer billion dollar generation to learn about. Generation Z, also known as the “digital natives,” are consumers born between 1995 and 2015, making them 4 to 24 years old. Currently, Gen Z has a buying power of $143 billion and by 2020 are expected to make up 40 percent of American consumers.

What Makes Gen Z Different From Millennials?

You may be wondering what factors that separate Gen Z from Millennials will be relevant to brand messaging today? Let’s look at the psychographics.

• Contrary to what many of us may think, Millennials are sharers, Gen Z is a lot more private. Gen Z prefers social media sites such as Snapchat since they disappear after 24 hours unlike alternatives such as Facebook statuses.
• Although Millennials are definitely more connected to the globe than previous generations, Gen Z looks at themselves as global citizens. Instead of just being knowledgable of the cultures and values of the world, the consider themselves a part of it.
• Generation Z is considered to be more realistic after seeing their parents struggle during the recessions, which is opposite of the optimistic millennial mindset.
• Generation Z is more competitive and independent. They prefer to work alone rather than work in collaborative environments, although they prefer face-to-face interaction with coworkers rather than the millennial preference of digital communication tools. This could be due to the fact that Gen Z doesn’t look at digital tools as innovations, they were born into them, while millennials look at them as tools that can help businesses be more efficient.

How Do We Communicate To Gen Z?

So how does this technology-heavy, independent, educated group consume media and how can we leverage this information for our companies?

• One important data point is that Gen Z is a YouTube generation and less of a Facebook generation. They are more interested in visuals rather than written communications, and with their short attention span, it’s important to capture their interest quickly.
• This group is more likely than any before it to use ad blockers. Why is this important to know? This means they do not want to hear what you have to say. Intrusive advertising isn’t going to cut it anymore. The content is important, but how you present it becomes more important each day. Consider the use of influencers, sponsored content, and native advertising rather than PPC and interstitials. 
• Generation Z would rather brands be straightforward with them rather than all frills. Their tendency to be logical rather than optimistic causes them to appreciate brands that get straight to the point.

Summary

Generation Z is often grouped together with the mobile-friendly, super-connected and high-tech consumers of the world. However, they are a unique group of consumers whose buying power continues to increase as time goes on. Understanding this generation and how they prefer to be connected can make you more prepared than the competition.

References

https://blog.ryan-jenkins.com/generation-z-vs-millennials-the-8-differences-you-need-to-know

https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/3-ways-millennials-differ-from-generation-z-in-2019-trends.html

https://www.inc.com/ryan-jenkins/marketing-to-generation-z-heres-what-you-need-to-know.html

https://www.nolamediagroup.com/gen-zs-media-consumption-habits-infographic/

https://www.mambomedia.com/blog/2019-digital-marketing-trends-time-focus-gen-z/

http://www.millennialmarketing.com/2018/03/how-to-connect-to-gen-z-the-post-digital-generation/

https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-us/blog/19-10-16-is-your-business-ready-for-the-rise-of-generation-z

https://www.business2community.com/consumer-marketing/how-generation-z-is-impacting-consumer-marketing-02185722

Touting Trout and the Real American Dream

Children have a place in marketing, a very substantial one. They see a candy bar, burger or cereal box with their favorite sports hero and they begin to develop a deep need to have them. A toy at a friend’s house or in a magazine, a new ride at an amusement park, or the latest movie, concert, or adventure, stays in their mind until they get it or something more desirable replaces it.

Marketing has an impact on all of us. It teases our senses and tries our tendencies and temptations. We can come to believe Coke is “the real thing.” Or we can have an education on the ingredients in a Big Mac with a catchy song that we sing endlessly. A product to be recognized, needs additional help from marketing minds to promote it and to educate consumers on what it is and why we need it….now.

The idea of marketing is much like the minds of children. They see something and begin to imagine it as real in their lives. And they want it as soon as possible, but preferably, now. Marketing uses imagination and creates a sense in us of need and want, it stirs up the curious and desire for something justeven though just moments before we saw the ad or heard about it by word of mouth, it stirs up the curious and desire for something just moments before we knew nothing about it. 

Marketing and advertising study surveys, conduct interviews, focus groups, decide target segments and demographics, write and produce advertising and manipulate through imagination and creativity in ways that will draw us toward what we believe we have to have now.  Of course, there are times when a car or house or travel can wait, but if marketing is effective, it will find a home in our memories and taunt us until it is realized.

I’ve thought about the effect of social media when used to present oneself or share the activities and feelings about daily life. I’ve been thinking, marketing has its place, but when does it ever become real?

Last month, I read an article written by ESPN MLB insider, Jeff Passan. He tells the story of a young 7-year-old boy named Gavin Edelson who idolizes and knows everything about Angels’ superstar baseball player, Mike Trout.  Gavin takes on the challenge to answer any question about Mike Trout.  He also wears Mike Trout athletic wear every day to school.  His parents refer to Gavin’s wardrobe as “troutfits.” 

Gavin didn’t see a commercial.  He watches Trout, heard about him, saw him on baseball cards, and attends the Angels-Orioles game every year with his family.  He lives Mike Trout inside and out. I am including the story in a link here so you can read it in its entirety. Gavin lives in a world saturated with Mike Trout.  Why?

When we are young, we are discovering the realities and lessons of opposition, sorting out what is real and what is not, what is truth, and what is less than. Most of what we discover is through observation and asking, “why.” Sometimes, we learn through watching someone who isn’t an imaginative figure use what is real within them to live a long-awaited and earned dream. Mike Trout is living his dream far beyond expectation, and Gavin is observing him, beginning to form a dream of his own.  But just recently, Gavin’s only dream was to meet Mike Trout.

And in a journey of events, and by holding up a sign that read, “Mike Trout’s #1 Fan,” catching the attention of Mike Trout’s teammates, Gavin’s dream became realized. Recently, Mike Trout made time for Gavin during batting practice. He didn’t just wave. He talked with him, spent time with him, because he knew what it meant to be a boy with a dream and a lot of outfits touting his favorite athlete.

As quoted in Mr. Passan’s article, Gavin describes the experience, “I remember it’s the best day of my life, because I got to hang out with Mike Trout.”

In the same article, Mike Trout shared, “He’s going to live with that forever, and he’s going to tell all his friends.  Any chance you get to make a kid’s day – you don’t know what they’re going through.  I didn’t even know him before that. Just interaction with the guys, bringing him on the field, watching BP, I think it’s special for him.”

Mike Trout is known for being a great baseball player. Some experts are predicting he may become the greatest baseball player of all time. Many also say he doesn’t have much personality and wonder if he is marketable.  Oh, he’s marketable all right. As Mike Trout. The brand is Mike Trout. He hits long home runs, makes great plays and is making his history. His legend is becoming real, and he’s doing it all by himself with the help of young boys like Gavin, who have been observing his greatness and wearing his “troutfits” everywhere.

Mike Trout’s decision to spend time, not just wave, but spend real time with Gavin, made him very real to Gavin and to the rest of us. As Gavin’s father, Jason Edelman put it, “There’s no better way to market Mike Trout than to show what he did that day.”

Mike Trout, the best player in baseball isn’t just the best player in baseball, he’s been in Gavin’s shoes, and it is all coming back to him what it means to be a child with a wish for a dream to come true, now.  No taglines, target audiences or positioning statements. Real people make real dreams come true. And that is the real American dream.

Reference:

Passan, J. (2019). Passan: The inside story of the viral 7-year-old mike trout and his troutfits. ESPN. Retrieved from https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/id/26710156/the-story-viral-7-year-old-mike-trout-fan-troutfits

Photography: Joe Noyes

Link to story http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26710156/the-story-viral-7-year-old-mike-trout-fan-troutfits

It’s of common approach that online marketers employ a strategy of disrupting the online space to garner attention among unexpected viewers. Consider the documentary film Fyre, which debut this holiday season. In the film, social media agency Jerry Media/Fuck Jerry shared their approach towards visualizing the breakdown of the Internet by flooding Instagram with images related to the Fyre logo. The Internet never fails to locate marketing “geniuses” attempting to locate unique approaches towards directing our eyes towards their products. Unfortunately, this year The North Face will join Fyre as a company that somehow found a way to publicly embarrass itself while trying to market itself on the world stage.

For the last few weeks, The Internet has been buzzing about the failed marketing attempt from the outdoor brand. As the month of May came to a close, the brand decided to fool Wikipedia users by swapping out images of popular tourist attractions on Wikipedia with images of its own products. The stunt was an effort to increase the appearance of the company’s brand in online Google searches.

After conducting this stunt, the company marveled in its accomplishment. They boasted about the limited cost or free cost of completing this action. “We hacked the results to reach one of the most difficult places: the top of the world’s largest search engine,” North Face said in the video. In the following days, the company stated that they worked with Wikipedia staff to bring this action to life.

The company did not know how the web would react to this action. Online users were quick to chastise The North Face by clarifying that the online network is run by an online community of editors who volunteer their time to edit each page’s content. On June 5, the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that host Wikipedia, condemned the action stating that act was “unethical” and attuned to vandalism.

The North Face directed their ire towards the branding company Leo Burnett Tailor Made for coming up with the marketing plan of manipulating the Wikipedia page. This is not the first time that Leo Burnett Tailor Made has caused a stir online. The company has received backlash from United States Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for altering her speech. Her video might an early indication of where advertisements might be heading.

Of interest to this course and this program, I’m intrigued by the roles of marketers who are encouraged to push the marketing envelope to break through the online noise. Today, I feel like ads are in two spaces. At times I feel like marketers are trying to be progressive and motivational with a unique idea and points of view with their storytelling. And in other moments, I feel like marketers are trying to find ways to literally break the internet to achieve their desires.  

When I start to think of this approach of trying to outdoing the other, I start to think about the X games sport of Moto X Best Trick. In this competition, the motorbike riders would try to do the next best trick to win gold. These riders, often risk life and limb to achieve victory. After so many years of tricks, we’ve landed at doing variant versions of the front flip. And, let me not trivialize this action it’s a feat to accomplish. In other cases, there are riders that push the envelope often inflicting wounds to themselves. In this long drawn example, I’m not saying marketers should not move forward, but maybe we should slow down. Maybe they should avoid driving 60+ miles down a ramp without thinking about how they are going to land on the other side. We all like seeing the next best thing, but we don’t like seeing our favorite companies being hurt in the aftermath.

References:

Diaz, A. (2019, May 28). The North Face used Wikipedia to climb to the top of Google search results. Retrieved June 9, 2019, from https://adage.com/creativity/work/north-face-top-imagens/2174261

Lee, D. (2019, May 29). North Face tried to scam Wikipedia to get its products to the top of Google search. Retrieved June 9, 2019, from https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/18644158/north-face-wikipedia-hack-leo-burnett-top-imagens

Mervosh, S. (2019, May 31). North Face Edited Wikipedia’s Photos. Wikipedia Wasn’t Happy. Retrieved June 9, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/business/north-face-wikipedia-leo-burnett.html

Now more than ever, consumers and shareholders are expecting major corporations to do their part to protect the environment.  Climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and depletion of natural resources have all been attributed to global economic development.  As a result, global corporations are assumed to be primarily profit driven and environmentally agnostic. 

Media headlines are filled with stories of corporate greenwashing.  Nestle, Volkswagen, Exxon, BP, DuPont, and General Motors are just a few companies who have made substantial investments in creating a perception that they are good corporate citizens and care about the environment.  Upon further investigation, these organizations’ business practices or products were in direct conflict of what is considered “environmentally friendly.”  The misbehavior of a few corporations and the many headlines of corporate greenwashing, not only have negatively impacted organizations’ reputations but has eroded consumer trust of corporations worldwide.  

Not so fast!

Many corporations take environmental sustainability seriously.  Over the last two decades, major corporations have made significant contributions and commitments to the environment and their shareholders.  Corporations who are serious about environmental sustainability, demonstrate that commitment by establishing publicly reported targets to reduce air emissions, water use, waste to landfill, and energy consumption. 

Shareholders are holding these organizations accountable by evaluating their ability to achieve environmental sustainability and hitting company’s where it hurts when they fail.  Corporate environmental sustainability has the attention of shareholders and potential investors and often is a deciding factor for investment.   Companies are answering the hard questions from investors about climate change, water scarcity, air quality, waste, and its’ impact on the environment.  What are these companies doing to make a change?  Do organizations care enough about the environment to make an investment and make a difference? 

Let’s take a closer look at one company stepping up to the plate to make a difference in environmental sustainability. 

Abbott, a global healthcare company with over 80 manufacturing sites around the world, brings life-changing health technologies to customers in over 150 countries.  Here is what Abbott’s CEO Miles White, says about sustainability, “By driving our business to achieve positive economic, social and environmental impact, Abbott is delivering life-changing technologies, creating value in communities worldwide and achieving sustainable growth.” To demonstrate the company’s commitment to the environment, the following information below outlines the goals and achievements of the company. 

While there are many negative stories of corporate misbehavior related to sustainability and greenwashing, there are numerous companies who care about our planet and are actively involved in saving it for the next generation.  Abbott is just one. 

To learn more about Abbott’s sustainability initiatives and reporting, please visit http://www.abbott.com/sustainability

Taylor Swift employs unique marketing strategies like no other celebrity.

According to INC, “If they gave Grammys for salesmanship, Taylor Swift would own the category.”

Even if you are not a Taylor Swift fanatic, you can still learn an abundance from her marketing methods. Swift is an amazing story teller and connects with her fans through her songs, album releases and social media platforms.

Her album releases are phenomenal and strategic. Before her album is released she creates suspense and offers subtle hints. Taylor is known to offer private album release sessions even before the music is released to the public, she only does this for her super fans – the loyal ‘Swifties.’

Taylor Swift is a tease. Similar to other artists, she releases a few songs before the album is released. However, she doesn’t release her best song, she releases the song that will get the most buzz and press. She also encourages her fans to pre-order her album ahead of time in an effort to drive album sales.

Taylor Swift is infamous for writing songs about ex boyfriends and love life. In addition to her songs about personal love, Taylor capitalizes on first releasing songs that revolve around well-known celebrity feuds with Kanye West, Katie Perry, Lady Gaga, Nikki Minaj or Calvin Harris.

For example in 2014, Taylor’s first song off her 1989 album was titled “Bad Blood.”  Rumors revealed that this song was regarding her feud with Katy Perry. In this video, her celebrity posse created an action filled music video competing against each other symbolizing a girl versus girl feud.  Before releasing the video, Taylor teased the public using social media introducing all of the celebrities in this music videos with their bad blood name.

These top actress, singers, and models posted their photos on Instagram before the world release of the song. Her closest gal pals from her notorious “squad” were present in the music video, including as Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Karlie Kloss, Cara Delevingne and Zendaya to name a few.  It was also rumored that Selena Gomez was the representation of Katy Perry in the video. Throughout the music video Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez kept fighting, with the end of the video concluding with Taylor and Selena s about to swing at each other. This song and video was engaging, mysterious and made people question if it was written about Katy Perry.

To add to the drama, Taylor Swift’s music could not be accessed via Spotify… until Katie Perry released her album.  On the day Perry released her first album in four years on Spotify, Taylor Swift granted Spotify access to her albums and music, increasing Swift play’s by 551% that week and was coined the most streamed artist on Spotify. Her 1989 album went back to #1 after a year of release. This marketing tactic most likely reduced Katie Perry’s steaming, downloads and revenue.

Similarly, another one of her song releases “Look What You Made Me Do” surpassed Bad Blood’s records. This song was rumored to be about her longtime feud with Kanye West. That year West released a song “Famous” which talks about Taylor Swift. He uses lines such as, “I made that B%^&* famous” and even displays Taylor nude in bed with other celebrities in his music video.

In rebuttal, Taylor released “Look What You Made Me Do”, She even hints to certain lyrics and subtle innuendos in her songs about Kanye West. Lyrics included phrases such as “I got a list of names and yours is in red underline,” “I don’t like your little games,” “Don’t like your tilted stage,” “The role you made me play.” At the end of the music video she addresses celebrity rumors with multiple personas of Taylor Swifts. In one persona, Taylor Swift is depicted in the same outfit where Kanye West stole her 2009 MTV VMA Album of the Year award off the stage as she was speaking, saying that Beyoncé should have won record of the year. Taylor Swift capitalized on this experience and released this song breaking numerous viewer records.

Inc states, “It doesn’t matter whether the song is actually any good. Swift launched her product on a platform based on feuds and rumors. People bought into it – and bought the music.”

Swift cryptic subliminal messages and hidden clues cause mystery and interest in her new music. This tactic is essential to her brand. She even incorporates these hidden message in her music videos and lyrics. Swifties are trained just like CIA detectives trying to crack the Da Vinci code.

At the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards, Taylor Swift thanked all of her Swifties attention to detail, Swift states “I love your passion. I love your attention to detail. I love how much you care. I love seeing all the things you’re posting online, And I just wanted to let you know when there’s new music, you will be the first to know.”

She even uses social media to “creep” on her own fans, she calls it “taylurking” and saves these photos on her phone.

Taylor Swift is a modern day marketing mogul, from her strategic song releases, accurate timing, engagement with her fans with social media, hidden secret clues, and secret album release party’s… her marketing strategies are as swift as her name.

Sources:

https://www.inc.com/adele-cehrs/taylor-swifts-reputation-roll-out-is-a-masterclass.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/04/17/taylor-swifts-guessing-games-about-her-music-started-off-savvy-now-theyre-essential/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d27306b69bdc

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a12092944/taylor-swift-look-what-you-made-me-do-kanye-references/

https://medium.com/@nexgendynamics/what-marketers-can-learn-from-taylor-swift-about-social-media-engagement-cdf4b659f0d1

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/03/225811/taylor-swift-new-album-rumors-cia-techniques

About 15 years ago, when I worked for a daily newspaper in Northern California, I was in a meeting with my editor and other reporters discussing the type of stories our team should focus on in the coming year. I was a new reporter, and somewhat shy, but after 30 minutes of hearing ideas that seemed designed to compete for journalism awards, I piped up. “Maybe we should think about what our readers want to read?” I said. Dead silence. With a thank you from my editor, we moved on.

That day is frozen in my memory because it speaks, on one level, to where newspapers went wrong and why today the these once-champions of the advertising industry today find themselves in dire straits. After the exceptional coverage of Watergate, and despite studies demonstrating that the story of malfeasance by President Nixon did not generate additional revenue (McChesney, 1987), newspapers, intoxicated by accolades and awards, began to focus on investigative reporting. They lost track of their core customer, the reader, who attracted advertisers, who in turn supplied the profits. Before the digital explosion, newspapers were awash in profits from advertising dollars. Many daily papers held monopolies in their markets, and enjoyed profit margins of 20 percent in the mid-1980s (Jones, 1991). Newspapers were advertising delivery systems. However, the business model could not function without loyal readers who wanted news and subscribed to newspapers.

Fast forward to 2019. The New York Times editor Dean Baquet was quoted as saying “most newspapers in America are going to die in the next five years, except for the ones that have been bought by a local billionaire” (Guthrie Weissman, 2019, para. 3). In 2017, total circulation for U.S. newspapers was 31 million for weekday and 34 million for Sunday, in comparison to 51 million for both weekday and Sunday 10 years earlier in 2007 (Newspapers Fact Sheet, 2018)

In this sea of gloom, The New York Times serves as a beacon of hope. The 167-year-old newspaper has successfully deployed marketing strategies to increase awareness for the importance of news through its “Truth is Hard” campaign (Whiteside, 2019). It has also increased the channels through which it can leverage its brand to attract additional ad dollars.  For example, The New York Times has diversified its portfolio of content delivery by adding a weekday podcast addressing big stories of the day, a soon-to-be launched documentary television series on FX and Hulu platforms, and a virtual reality app that provides viewers with realistic images of stories.

Perhaps more importantly, the newspaper is behaving like Facebook. The paper launched T Brand Studio, which helps advertisers develop and deliver content (Whiteside, 2019). The New York Times Co. offers Readerscope, an artificial intelligence (AI) application that, when launched this fall, will allow the newspaper to delve deeply into readership segmentation and track content chosen by customers (Precourt, 2019). The AI component will help advertisers more precisely target specific audiences. Furthermore, The New York Times scores the sentiment of its content, providing advertisers with the opportunity to align message with the emotion evoked, or absent, in The New York Times’ content (Precourt, 2019). Clearly, the paper is thinking about building its advertising revenues by better understanding the interests and tastes of its readers.

Times editor Baquet recently noted, “The original Innovation Report essentially said we didn’t think about our audience, and it was right. Now we talk about our audience every day in our daily meeting. Does that mean we chase clicks? No. It means we want to understand what people are reading” (World Congress Blog, 2019, para. 32).

As I reflect on the regional newspaper where I launched my career, I ponder whether it is too late for my old workplace. The paper may be one of the local institutions snuffed out, as Baquet predicts, in five years. Then I shift to what The New York Times is doing to save itself. I now turn to you, my reader, and ask, is it enough? Will The New York Times save journalism by remembering that a newspaper is an advertising vehicle that profits by serving its readers?

References

Newspapers Fact Sheet. (2018, June 13). Pew Center for Research. Retrieved from https://www.journalism.org/fact-sheet/newspapers/

Guthrie Weissmann, C. (2019, May 21). NYT editor predicts almost all newspapers will die in 5 years. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/90353613/nyts-dean-baquet-most-local-newspapers-will-die-in-5-years

Jones, A. (1991, January 6) New York Times Archives: Rethinking newspapers. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/06/business/rethinking-newspapers.html

McChesney, F. (1987). Sensationalism, newspaper profits and the marginal value of Watergate. Economic Inquiry, 25(1), 135–144. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.1987.tb00728.x

Precourt, G. (2019, April). NY Times Co: AI offerings drive unprecedented audience insights. Retrieved from https://www-warc-com.libproxy1.usc.edu/content/article/event-reports/ny_times_co_ai_offerings_drive_unprecedented_audience_insights/126890

Whiteside, S. (2019, March). How The New York Times views news and ads in the digital age. Retrieved from https://www-warc-com.libproxy1.usc.edu/content/article/event-reports/how_the_new_york_times_views_news_and_ads_in_the_digital_age/125726