Newspaper advertising

[Walrus Gumboot]

We moved to the Winston Salem,NC area back in December,and I'm finally ready to start my business here.

I like to do Newspaper ads ,but I have never dealt with one as large as the one that is here.
The newspaper that we are accustom to sells about 35,000 copies on Sunday.The newspaper we will be in now sells 270,000 copies on Sunday,and 210,000 daily. That's a little intimidating. This is not a large volume paper like the Atlanta Journal or New York Times. The ad won't get lost.

I don't do pricing ads,I prefer specialty type ads for pet odors etc. My ads pull the right kind of customers. No low end price shoppers.

My question is; do any of you do newspaper ads?
All I see is direct mail talk.
Why not the newspaper?

 

[XTREME1]

Most metro newspapers have different ads for different areas. If you wanted to be in a certain area someitmes they can do it. The printers print for different locations earlier additions for further away and so on and so forth. Call an ad rep and ask them.

 

[Kevin]

Most don't do Daily News Papers because it is a one day ad. Inserts in the News paper however get held on to.

 

[Ricky Thurman]

I recently sold my cleaning business and I am now in Radio selling advertising. If I had known many years ago, what I know now, I would have never spent a dime in Newspapers.

Circulation numbers are inflated.....period. Have you ever heard of the "Newspapers for education" program. Corporate sponsors purchase enough copies of the paper for every child in a certain school, grade, etc. to have a copy every day. These numbers got into circulation. How many third graders are going to have their carpets cleaned? NONE!!!
Some have also begun counting website hits as circulation....how bout that!! These are just two of the many ways newspapers are inflating their numbers.

Also, nationwide, newspaper circulation is on the decline and ad revenues are down. You won't read this in the paper, because thats bad for advertisers to see, but layoffs are become regular in the industry.

Also, placing an ad in the newspaper does not mean every subscriber will see it. How many of you read the sports section and how many of your wives read that section. Likewise, how many of your wives reads the lifestyles, and how many of you read the lifestyles? In a study done in our market, only 15% of newspaper subscribers read the entire paper. Only 15% read the front page, only 10% read the sports and only 6% read lifestyles. So where are you putting your ad?

One last thing. In order for any advertising campaign to work, you must have a "frequency of three." What's that? In order for your message to be remembered, it must be heard or seen at least three times in a 7 day period. The average subscriber does not have the chance to read the newspaper EVERY day. According to a newspaper performance report, published by the local newspaper in my market, an advertiser must run an ad at least 4 days per week in order to reach that "frequency of 3."

Can you afford the money that it will take to get a frequency of 3 and still only be achieving that frequency with 15% or less of the total subscribers?


My advice......don't waste your money. Put it somewhere that will give you the reach and frequency thats effective.

 

[Ricky Thurman]

one more thing.....inserts.....only 15% read them.

 

[Gary T]

Newspaper ads simply have a horrible return for the $$$$$. Unless of course you have the budget of a huge corp and can buy a full page, still the return is crap. Newspaper ads are not targeted at all, and as mentioned above circulation #s are inflated.

You are much better off with some form of direct mail. Either post cards where you can mostly control the demographics of where they go, or a bulk mailer like RSVP that goes to higher end homes.

 

[Ricky Thurman]

something to back up my position on Newspaper.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 16, 2008
Filed at 11:08 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. is slashing 1,400 jobs, or 10 percent of its work force, as part of an accelerating drive to cut costs as advertising revenues dwindle, the company announced Monday.
McClatchy also reported a 15.4 percent decline in advertising revenues in the first five months of the year. McClatchy is the No. 3 U.S. newspaper company with 30 dailies, including The Miami Herald and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The cuts come amid a broad retrenchment in the U.S. newspaper industry as the economic downturn combined with competition for classified advertising from online rivals like Craigslist has resulted in a steep slump in advertising revenues.
Many other newspaper publishers have also announced job cuts and layoffs in recent months, but McClatchy's companywide cost-cutting drive marked an unusually broad and deep effort to contain costs.

 

[Walrus Gumboot]

Sorry,but I've had pretty good success with my newspaper ads, and no I don't do price ads.
I agree that newspapers are in their dying days,but what I get is the 45-75 age market that still reads the newspaper. Some still don't shop on line,and never will.

I don't do YP ads,but I guarantee you older folks still grab that book too. Last man there will have a gravy train.

And of course you have to be repetitious. I normally run 2 ads per week.
Saturday and Sunday,or Wednesday and Sunday.


ps. What's your stats on direct mail? And,dare I ask,radio?