DISQUS

drewmack.com: Are Newspapers Being Killed by Accountability?

  • Mike · 10 months ago
    Well Drew as both a reader and advertiser I can see this from both sides.

    First as a reader I enjoy the physical aspect of leafing through the paper. The problem with that is just that, I leaf through the paper. Scanning headlines looking for something interesting does not do well for advertisers nor the environment. Of the total paper I may read 3-5 stories and the comics each day. To be honest if not for the comics I probably would cancel it.

    As an advertiser I can comment that I have had people respond directly to our advertising as well as mentioning that they read about this news or that news about PropertyGuys.com after they have appeared in the paper. The issue is the costs. To place an ad in our local daily it costs us about $2,000 and there is no way to measure it. Advertising on Facebook (as an example) costs me as little as $10 a week and only charges me when people actually click through to my website.

    For $2,000 taken from a one time spend in the paper I can reach and pin-point my audience on specific websites with a large reach and multiple views giving me the ultimate for advertising (salience and repetition).

    Seems like I just talked myself out of any further ads in the paper.....
  • Drew · 10 months ago
    Years ago people looked to newspapers as their primary source for trusted information. Now they turn to the internet including sites like Wikipedia and Google.

    At the same time, newspaper journalism has become more partisan and sensationalist.

    The public has already abandoned newspapers for these reasons and more. Now, advertisers are as well. The fact that newspapers have no accountability for the prices they charge is an accelerant.
  • Jamie Cranford · 10 months ago
    I cannot see the newspaper industry rebounding - the internet has taken over and readership will continue to dwindle. I have gone from 7 days a week subscription to 0. Why? Because the newspaper is old news now, the internet provides us with up-to-the-minute updates, something the papers cannot.

    As an advertiser I see no value in newspaper advertising. The average person spends more time on Facebook that reading a newspaper, so that is where my advertising dollars will go.