I think every media is looking at ways to maximize current revenues and gain market share or profit centers in todays economy so I didn't find it strange that a recent post in the series "New Tricks From Old Dogs (Part4)" from Lindsay Wood Davis breached the subject of the perils of print and how we can take advantage of it in Broadcast....
"Newspaper?s business model was always based on a simple but powerful formula, one we couldn?t beat: 50% of their revenue came from display (that?s the part we?ve competed with) and 50% came from classifieds. The profits from these papers were huge. But then came trouble, in the form of the Internet. First came Auto-Trader, then eBay and finally, the coup de grace, Craigslist. Today, in some markets revenues in the classifieds are down as much 60-70% from decades past. That?s Seven Zero. Go count the number of individual ?used cars for sale? listings in the newspaper and then count those in your local Craigslist. You?ll be stunned at the difference.
Meanwhile, local department stores, long believers in the full-color, big white space, double truck have either gone the way of the dodo or been consolidated away. And newspaper readership below age 35 is almost literally non-existent. Did you know that the much-ballyhooed ?Newspapers in Education? program, supposedly meant to teach elementary and middle school students to read, is actually used to prop up both circulation and demographic numbers for the papers? Really!
Right now, this very day, important advertisers in your markets are trying to figure out their advertising strategies. Many of these strategies have always been based on the primacy of newspapers, but no longer. Those budgets are in play, and you need to make a frontal assault on them. Don?t circle around hoping for scraps or even for your FAIR share; instead, go after the whole Magilla. It may be a reduced pile because of business stress, but when we come out the economic doldrums, you want to be the one protecting the cash, not the one in pursuit. Go for the throat; make the kill."
So how do we go after the whole share of the pie? Develop the content to compete with them by integrated marketing campaigns (big words for combining the "air force" (radio) and "ground force" (internet)) which produce better results for the clients because they speak to how people respond to marketing. 62% still shop Top of Mind (the branding campaigns work and they stick in your memory until they need to be recalled) while 38% shop Price and Item (print was great at this but the internet has taken this over). Use the two mediums together and help your clients grow their business.