Newspapers — That Recognized “Opt-in” Promotional

I recently had a person tell me he stayed from newspaper advertising because “This indicates newspapers are on a downward slide and don’t get viewed like they used too.” Ouch!

As someone in the business, that was tough to hear. Luckily, my friends, that isn’t an accurate assessment. Newspapers remain a power house in advertising. Not to say that internet marketing and other technologically driven marketing has not changed just how we spend our advertising budget. However, many marketing plans are seriously lacking by leaving out newspaper advertising all together.

With a huge selection of television channels, a large number of magazines and millions of web sites, channel proliferation has definitely changed just how advertisements are presented. With the endless quantity of “opt-out” options available to viewers, including, DVRs, commercial-free satellite radio, pool result  national “do not call” lists, web firewalls and blockers, etc., getting the advertisements viewed has turned into a bigger challenge than ever before. Newspapers however remain an “opt in” medium, a location where consumers actively search for advertisements as opposed to avoid them. Newspaper advertising remains a destination not a distraction. Actually, newspapers were the past place consumers would choose to eliminate advertising, in accordance with Yankelovich Research, 2004.

Based on NAA’s (Newspaper Associate of America) Business Analysis & Research Department, 48% of adults read a newspaper on a typical weekday. That number increases to 54% on a typical Sunday. Actually in a MORI study of “How America Shops & Spends,” newspaper ads ranked highest as the type of ad that consumers enjoy reading. When is the past time you heard someone claim that about a Pop-Up ad?

Not just do consumers actively look for and enjoy ads in the newspaper, they actually trust them more. Because of the established history of newspapers, people tend to trust newspapers significantly more than some other advertising medium. Gaining the trust of a newspapers’ audience can produce awesome results, especially given the caliber of the audience.

No other media can deliver the prospects that a newspaper can. Newspaper readership increases as both household income and education levels increase. Based on Scarborough Research, 2007 Release 2 (Top 50 Market Report), newspaper readership is greatest in occupations with an increase of job responsibility, such as Management, Business, and Financial Operations.

Newspapers provide contact with people that advertisers want to attain; people that have higher incomes, higher education and those who are ready to buy. Newspapers are constantly impacting buying decisions and product usage. They’ve proved to stay steady in a changing world, and have earned their status because the premier medium for advertisers.

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