The State of Print (As of this week, anyway)

When I was offered a position to head up the marketing efforts for 8 newspapers and their digital counterparts in West Texas and throughout New Mexico, I almost brushed it aside like a piece of lint you might find in your pocket. After all, coming from the world of television, I was led to believe that print was dying, going the way of the dinosaur. But after asking as many questions as my current employer actually asked me to see if I was the right fit, my opinion has changed; newspapers are not dying, they’re evolving.

And every medium is following suit.

You see, when you think about the digital world and where audiences choose to get their online information, entertainment, scores, etc., we go where there is the most content. So think of the market you live in. Of the major media organizations doing business in your hometown – let’s just say for the sake of argument we’re talking about television, newspaper and radio, here – which of these media companies is best suited to be the most successful in providing the most online content? Nine times out of 10 it’ll be the company that has the most reporters on staff – the newspaper.

Now let’s take this same scenario but apply it to generating revenue. Of the top media companies in your market, which of them has the most sales staff? In our newspaper group, it is our flagship newspaper that has about as many sales personnel (retail, auto, classified, digital, etc.) than any of the television and radio stations combined. 

As of right now, newspapers that have adopted strong digital models, including e-editions, mobile and tablet apps are looking to grow this revenue while sustaining print revenues. Believe it or not, print revenues are still saving the day for newspapers despite smaller circulation numbers. But the tremendous digital numbers – page views, unique visitor, time spent – compared to other media only shows advertisers and agencies that buying with the newspaper (both print and digital) is a smart way to get a message out there. Here are a few newspaper facts that might surprise you:

• Because newspaper.com sites more than likely lead the way in terms of page views and unique visitors within a given market, they are able to leverage this traffic in working with companies like Facebook ad titter. For example, the El Paso Times is a Facebook reseller, able to build pages with extra bells and whistles not available to businesses that have a mere fan page.
• Ever see a local ad on Google or Yahoo? Your newspaper probably created the ad and sold it as a vendor.
• Did you know your newspaper probably has the ability to sell search, targeted newsletters, behavioral targeting through Yahoo, SEO, SEM, and AdTaxi?

When you stop to think about it, the printed newspaper could be considered a calling card in comparison with all of the digital products available for advertisers. And it’s all because newspapers across the country decided to pull up their bootstraps, get leaner and adapt to the changing times. As a result, they are winning the digital game and have more solutions to offer than most companies today!