I read an article this morning about the woes of newspaper revenues – pretty much the same old thing you see from anyone covering this media space in a one-dimensional fashion. The twist to this article though was that it stated that revenue declines in July of this year, were felt in both the print and online mediums at newspapers. I will side with the article and say that up until now, online verticals at any publishing house usually saw monthly increases and July represents the greatest online revenue slowdown we have seen to date.

• NYTCO – total revenue down 16.2% in July, online revenue up only 0.9%
• Media General – total revenue down 13.8% in July, online revenue up by only 5.3%
• Gannett – total revenue down 16.7%, online revenue up by only 3%

The article then went on to use more written prose to beat the issue of the dismal state of newspapers and their publishers. The reason for the perils in revenue and the slowdown in online is very clear however, and to understand it, you have to understand the traditional publisher mindset. The mindset of gouging print rates, ownership of content, and so on. It seemed that for a while newspaper Web sites were answering the need of failing print revenues, but as this article stated, this is no longer a publishers reality. Even given these dismal reports, new-age publishing pundits, me included, strongly feel that the negative revenue trends can be reversed, if only a few key changes are made at newspaper groups.

What publishers must do:

Get comfortable selling online as a standalone – bundling media, especially print media for a publisher, aids in covering inventory and gaining revenues. However, a forced bundle is not always what your Web savvy advertiser is looking for. With the understanding of new forms of advertising that pure-play online giants can offer, and effectively might I add, advertisers are looking for guided free will with spending their money, not a forced bundled purchase.

Think of your Web site as a standalone product – many publishers view their newspaper sites as an extension of their print product. In some ways this may be true: ads laced with a call to action that directs a consumer online, for example. However, when looking at keeping current and active in the minds of advertisers and the general consumer population, looking at the new and innovative ways your Web site can enable you to interact is key.

Be creative online – the world of online is far different from the static print regiment publishers are accustom to. An online marketplace allows you flexibility, agility, new media inclusion, dynamic platforms, speed to market and all for a low investment if compared to print. Guaranteed, if a publisher used the capabilities an online platform offers, they would find themselves remaining current and in the advertising game a lot longer.

Listen to your readers and targeted consumers – just because we’ve been publishing the product for over 50 years, doesn’t mean that we know best. The most effective way to produce a successful marketplace is to make it one that includes your readers and better yet includes the behaviors of the online consumer.

Flexible pricing - consider moving to pay for performance pricing for your advertisers online. The benefits of this is twofold – advertisers feel that you have partnered with them to ensure their dollars are working in conjunction with the leads and exposure you provide and it keeps your marketing and digital teams focused on the goal of building a thriving marketplace. They should never feel comfortable or content. Reinventing ourselves in this ever-changing e-enabled world is an imperative.

These are just a few of the things that publishers need to consider and or implement to stay current. The risk of not making a change to mind-set is obvious, continued revenue and marketplace declines. As we have said many times on this blog, a newspaper brings with it a lot of advertiser benefits, trust and brand recognition just to mention a few and all that we are suggesting here is that publishers build on these benefits, and do it quickly.

written by Beverly Crandon

Mejier, an American supercenter grocer, has teamed up with the Magazine Publishers of America for a huge circulation campaign.

Mejier will offer shoppers $2 off their next magazine purchase, with the purchase of any two of the magazine titles that they carry. The program is scheduled to run from August 21^st to September 6^th and the findings of the campaign will be both beneficial and interesting to anyone with a print compliment to their business. Will an incentive be enough to encourage further pickup of print products? Will the incentive draw in even those who normally do not purchase print titles? If this campaign can show a positive effect on any of the afore mentioned questions, it could give print retailers and publishers additional circulation advantage in depots where steady declines have already been recognized.

written by Beverly Crandon

The Journal Register Co. has struck a deal (a Forbearance Agreement) to delay interest payments to several banks until the end of October. The JRC has also d-listed its stock (JRCO.PK) as it stands at a rate of four cents per share.

The Journal Register Co. publishes 22 daily newspaper and 300 non-dailies with a concentration in 6 geographic areas: Greater Philadelphia; Michigan; Connecticut; Greater Cleveland; and the Capital-Saratoga and Mid-Hudson regions of New York.

The Journal Register Co. is currently carrying $640 million of debt, which compared to the $463.2 million it made in 2007 seems daunting. What will make rising out of debt even more difficult for JRC is that through the Forbearance Agreement, it cannot gain funding elsewhere to get them out of this bind.

Being so far under the desired revenue goal it is hard to say if the Journal Register Co. will make it.

written by Beverly Crandon

For its 75^th anniversary, Esquire Magazine is planning to feature an electronic cover that will flash the phrase “The 21^st Century Begins Now”. The flashy (literally) cover will be powered by a tiny battery, invented especially for the Esquire Magazine anniversary edition. Only 100,000 of the 720,000 anniversary issued magazines will come with the special cover. David Granger, Esquire’s Editor-In-Chief said, “I hope it will be in the Smithsonian”.

written by Beverly Crandon

Newspaper Web sites have been labeled the equalizer to combat falling circulation rates, but a recent report from the Readership Institute made it clear that in the grand scheme of things, newspaper sites and their penetration have not increased in some very important metric areas, since 2005.

Readership.org, supported by personnel from North Western Education, completed a survey of 3,072 individuals across 100 DMA’s (Designated Market Areas). The survey respondents were asked questions primarily relating to newspaper Web sites and their frequency of usage. The respondents ranged between heavy print newspaper readers, mild print newspaper readers, all the way through to those who have “never read a newspaper”.

When asked about their newspaper Web site visitation, only 21% of respondents said they had visited their local newspaper site, within the past 30 days, this opposed to 15% in 2003, when the Readership Institute first started to conduct this survey annually. The bad news for newspapers however, is that although the numbers of people gravitating to their Web sites have increased, the user engagement levels have not. They have remained the same since 2005. This metric is somewhat disappointing, given the changes to user expectations and general online functionality, even within the past two years much less three. It becomes apparent that for many local newspapers, knowing that they at least have a Web compliment is enough. The success of many pure play sites that dabble in the same type of advertising that the dailies do, should be proof enough that the readership profile, when online, has changed and will continue to change. It is not enough to remain content with just ensuring your print content appears online.

As we’ve stated before on this blog, publishers need to look at their Web property as an extension to their brand. An opportunity to attract a new audience and with that, new advertising dollars.

A full copy of the Readership Institute report could be downloaded here.

written by Beverly Crandon

Traditional print media must really be at an impasse when you see two rival dailies join forces, to aid in leveraging costs. This very act of cooperation is exactly what we’re seeing in the case of two state of New York dailies.

The New York Post, Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News are in negotiations to see if the three publications can combine distribution, printing and back office duties. Both the Post/Journal owner (Rupert Murdoch) and the Daily News owner (Mort Zuckerman) were both said to have had a bid in for the Tribune Co.’s Newsday and had hoped that winning the bid would allow them to optimize and streamline work functions then.

“The request for proposal is an opportunity we are jointly exploring to lower costs, improve efficiency and strengthen our respective newspapers,” said Howard Rubenstein, who handles public relations for News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch.

Publishers, since I can remember, have always been faulted for being territorial and missing the big picture opportunity. If the cooperative deal between Murdoch and Zuckerman goes through, I think it has the ability to change the way in which the print media industry interacts with each other. This finally shows the importance of looking at the big picture of “staying in business” because no longer is the competition in your market, the rival daily down the road, when more and more of your customers are seeking the same information you offer in print, online.

written by Beverly Crandon

The Media Audit recently issued a report on alternative newspaper weeklies and their readership rates. The report revealed definite increases in readership for the weeklies, measured both online (7%) and in print (3%). The document also touched on how an alternative weekly, could help a publishers branch out or reach readers who otherwise wouldn’t have picked up its major daily newspaper. Bob Jordan, President of International Demographics, observes “…. one of the benefits for alternative newsweeklies is the opportunity to reach outside the city where papers are not as readily available… there are a lot of people who come into the city from the suburbs for entertainment and these alternative newspaper websites are positioned as one of the best choices for restaurant, live music, and concert recommendations.”

The Data

Among the highest reaching alternative newsweekly in the country, Madison Wisconsin’s Isthmus has moved to the top of the list, reaching 37.4% of all adults in Madison, compared to 34.6% a year earlier.

• Spokane Washington’s Inlander ranks second in the study, reaching 36.1% of the market
• San Diego Reader (35.6% reach)
• Tucson Weekly (33.2% reach)
• New Haven, Connecticut’s New Haven Advocate (32.4% reach)
• Columbia, South Carolina’s Free Times (30.6% reach)
• Eugene Weekly (29.7% reach)
• Reno News and Review (29.2% reach)
• Madison, Wisconsin’s The Onion (28.7% reach)
• The Austin Chronicle (28.6% reach)

Alternative newspaper websites with the highest market penetration include: Madison Wisconsin’s Isthmus (13.5% of the market), then:

• The Austin Chronicle (11.4%)
• Charleston, Carolina’s Charleston City Paper (10.3%)
• The New Haven Advocate (10%)
• The Memphis Flyer (9.5%)
• Minneapolis City Pages (9.2%)
• Madison, Wisconsin’s The Onion (8.9%)
• New Orleans’ Gambit Newsweekly (8.8%)
• Syracuse New Times (8.3%)
• Washington D.C.’s The Onion (8.2%)

Among the top 10 highest reaching alternatives based on persons 18+ is New York’s Village Voice with over 2.4 million readers across the New York City metro area who read the paper or visited their web site, followed by:

• Time Out New York (1.8 million readers)
• L.A. Weekly (1.7 million readers)
• The Onion in New York City (1.3 million readers)
• Orange County Weekly (1.1 million readers)

written by Beverly Crandon \\ tags: Alternative Newspaper Weeklies, Alternative Weeklies in Print, Alternative Weeklies Online, Madison Wisconsin's Isthmus, Media Audit, New York's Village Voice, Newspaper Weeklies Readerhip

The McClatchy Co. has reported its April financials and the story is unfortunately, a familiar one.  McClatchy  announced that its advertising revenues were down 14.8%, compared to April 2007, and that is largely due to print revenue declines.  The publisher did see a gain in online revenues of 14.3%, but as usual, that gain was not enough to combat print revenue declines.

Year to date McClatchy has seen a 15.2% decline in advertising revenues and that does factor in their 11.6% gain in online.

written by Beverly Crandon \\ tags: MCClatchy, McClatchy Advertising Revenues, Newspaper Revenues

Covering stories from blog.ad-ition.com and other relevant classified media news.

This episode’s covered news bits include a review of the Washington Post Q1′ profit losses, Scarborough Research Newspaper Audience report and social networking and its affect on mobile usage.

 

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written by Beverly Crandon \\ tags: classdified industry podcast, Facebook, Google, Mobile Social Networking, Newspaper audience, Newspaper market share, newspaper podcast, Newspaper Revenues, Washington Post

This is a really neat resource from Scarborough Research.  This 19 page annual Newspaper Audience Ratings report is organized by Designated Market Area and lists newspapers whose websites have at least 1% penetration in their market, as well as a Sunday print edition.  download-here-Scarborough-research-newspaper-ratings-2008

written by Beverly Crandon