Ive spent a lot of time thinking about the Newspaper and Magazine businesses lately. Not because I want to buy a company in either industry. I dont.
Im spending the time because Im looking for the best possible ways to promote the movies we distribute and HDNet programming.
Its expensive to advertise movies or TV shows in either newspapers or magazines. Very expensive Where entertainment is traditionally advertised, you guys know you got us, and it shows in your pricing. The pricing in the Movie and TV sections of print media is outrageous.
Which means that every single company in the entertainment business is looking for a way to never ever have to spend a nickel with you again. Our entire business knows we have to spend money with you now, but we are experimenting with every option possible to pull that money from you and spend it elsewhere.
Each of us is looking for the holy grail of promotion.
A way to leave you as a customer.
How scary is that ? A huge customer of your industry would prefer not to do business with you.
So the Print industry has two choices. You can be proactive or reactive. You can watch movie and TV ads go the way of your classifieds, or you can create a price point or programs that take money away from the net and other media.
I have no problem telling you that the internet is not any better than print. Sure, the net has the unique quality that a consumer can click on an ad and within a few clicks actually buy a ticket to a movie, or a DVD. Thats a huge advantage, but its not insurmountable.
The newspapers have unique qualities as well. Bigger works better in print than online. Localization is still stronger, among other things. But if you dont start to recognize the problem and proactively create programs that make you DEMONSTRATIVELY more cost effective and impactful than other mediums, you will lose, and lose big. Im guessing this wouldnt be a good time for this to happen in your industries.
So its time to buck up. You either squeeze what you can and cry when it happens, or you step up and create cost effective alternatives. The days of a movie review and the ad for the movie wont cut it for much longer.
So those of you in the entertainment sections and sales groups of newspapers and magazines have two choices, come up with new ideas, or a new version of your resume…
Mark, Im a huge Mavs fan and a Huge cubs fan i read in the sun times today that you were considering buying the cubs. That would be awesome you would bring them there 1st title since 1908. Please try to buy them because i want to see a winner in chicago
Comment by Eric -
The opt out doesn’t exist with them! It’s increased our ad rates, which are placed on a regular basis. I’ve gone all the way to management and been shut down.
Comment by Rongp -
Most newspapers are only fit to line the bottom of bird cages.
They are outdated, slow and simply can’t compete with the richness and lushness of data online. Online you have peer reviews and community. You can rapidly read something and get supporting analysis or the converse. It is all a click away. In terms of movies you can access the niche. For example, sites like indiewire.com for independant film, that wasn’t a viable aternative until 2000.
Lastly it is very hard to measure the efficacy of most print. They have been selling the over-priced crap for years because there weren’t many alternatives. Thankfully the alternatives now exist.
Comment by Wayne Porter -
This weekend I saw posters all over the mall advertising for Garfield 2. Now I know that I’ll never go see that movie, but no matter where I looked while I was walking around, I saw an ad for it. I may not know much about the movie business, but for a guaranteed flop to advertise like that, you wouldn’t think it would be much more expensive than magazine or newspaper ads.
Might even be cool to make a deal with a few retailers like Best Buy or Circuit City to show what you’ve got. Believe me, those retailers don’t show nearly enough HD feeds on their displays. If you don’t believe me, take some time and look around. It’s usually a taped feed playing on every TV. I didn’t even KNOW how good HD could actually be until I plugged it into my own TV. Now that’s advertising for you.
Comment by Mark Reynolds -
Mark, I’ll rent you arm space for $500 a month. I’ll have HDNet on one arm and HDNet Movies on the other. Maybe I can even sport an HDNet t-shirt while I walk around the mall, or some other crowded place 😉
Comment by Robert -
Mark, I’ll rent you arm space for $500 a month. I’ll have HDNet on one arm and HDNet Movies on the other. Maybe I can even sport an HDNet t-shirt while I walk around the mall, or some other crowded place 😉
Comment by Robert -
Yes, The internet is the best spot for film reviews because cred is the only thing we have as access is the one thing we lack.
Comment by Bc -
OK, I’m a technical guy and I read lots of technical books…. one thing technical books always do to attract techies to buy them is to print internet links to cool sites or links to sponsors and such in the books. Why don’t newsprints provide free Internet content and links at the same time print links to all sponsors related to articles or movies being printed? Newsprint and Internet are two different means of providing content why not do both at the same time for one price, and mix and marry them together. No print without online content to back it up. This may even be in a one to many architecture to where per print media there are many free Internet services sort of like a package available. I think its time for Internet media and print media to do some mergers and acquisitions.
Comment by Mitchell -
Your comments about killing the golden goose are valid, but some of the advantages that newspapers have over the web and most other technologies is ease of use,portability and quick search. While you may be able to use a PDA or cell phone to do a web search, the screen is so small that you can’t really see any details.
A site that I use when I don’t have a paper in front of me is http://www.cinemaclock.com but it unfortunately does not allow me to complete a simultaneous search on both the movies and cinemas in my area. Newspaper ads allow me to do this quickly with a brief scan.
I guess you could reduce your costs by posting in smaller regional or community based papers. Maybe these periodicals are aimed towards your target markets at HDNet instead of the big commercial papers.
Unfortunately, until the web can simulate the utility of a newspaper, I think that you’ll be stuck paying papers the big bucks.
Good luck though…I really enjoy your blogs
Comment by Blair Carey -
Mark Cuban is the best owner and all of sports not just basketball but and all of sports, and those that dont think so is just hating and can go “STR8 to hell I love the things he do for the Mavs and the fans and the community “Mark Cuban is the best.”
Comment by 2K DRE -
posts #10, and #15 give you what you should be focusing on. I’m getting the drift that peep are moving away from the MSM and are reconnecting with “social circles” with a strong reliance on/flavor of “truth”.
Mark, be bold, help push over the push-overs that are the MSM. If you’d some assistance, feel free to holler.
Sincerely,
Mark E Hoffer.
Comment by Mark E Hoffer -
As a small business owner, the LAST place I’m going to advertise is TV or newspaper. I realize it’s a lot different for a movie and for a company the size of HDNet or Magnolia Pictures, but Mark makes a great point. Expensive is expensive. As much money as those businesses have, they still have to make a profit off of the $10 movie ticket and DVD sales. When you factor in the cost of the movie and operational costs, it becomes tough to pay all that money for ads. As flawed as they may be at this point, things like PPC and even PPA (pay per action, in this case buying a movie ticket) offer several advantages. In addition to being cheaper, you can track your campaigns like you can’t from a magazine. For example, if you are willing to pay $3 to get a customer to buy a $10 ticket and 1/10 clicks gives you a sale, you know that you can afford to pay $.30 for a click. You also have the option of split testing several ads and landing pages, giving you the ability to adjust your campaign on the fly to maximize profitability. Try doing that on TV or in a newspaper.
Comment by Adam -
The only time I read papers is when I either don’t have my computer or when I don’t have the internet. If I had a device that was not too expensive with quality internet service everywhere, I’d never use paper again.
Comment by Stephen Stull -
I think the the Dallas Morning News should run a full page ad for Dirk Nowitski, For FREE. He is the man! (Dirk, would you please mention some of Marks movies in the interview)
Comment by James -
Mav, reading your posts gets me think that you hate both newspaper and magazines, especially newspaper. Your idol is IT. Well, of course it’s a leading industry in our country, but what about other countries? Leading informational industry in the world is newspaper
Comment by Merk -
I believe the rising cost in advertising is due to the lean towards internet/online ads. The sellers tend to believe Newspaper/Print is not reaching the same volume as internet. Therefore, in-print sales are down, costs for print ads rise and people move further away in protest.
I enjoy watching this cycle because it causes deviance, just like Mark Cuban is suggesting– “We’ll find other ways.” Inernet is the fad, the way to be seen right now. But thanks to our pop up blockers, as well as fear of clicking on those bright blinking boxes due to paying for advertising with more free advertisements, it’s going to decline. It’s a nice additive to real media, but cannot/should not be the sole source.
In small town Washington we’ve begun our own revolt against the Peninsula Daily News ad rates. They are adding fees to in-print for internet ads, which we wanted to opt out of. The opt out doesn’t exist with them! It’s increased our ad rates, which are placed on a regular basis. I’ve gone all the way to management and been shut down. The attitude is, “It’s not open for discussion, where else you going to advertise?” So I’ve rounded up local business owners who are joining me in the complaints. Who do these people think they are??? They should not be the boss. They are here to serve us and not control us!
Mark Cuban is SO RIGHT ON!
Comment by Tori -
Mark –
Your post completely misses an opportunity to get the word out on your films and television programs – publicity.
If you have a great publicist you can get more coverage for your movies in areas of the paper that people actually read. It’s a proven fact that people read the editorial matter and glance over the ads. With a good mixture of unit, corporate and talent publicity you can have people frothing at the mouth to see your programs when they premiere. Following that up with good, targeted advertising will be far more effective than, “throwing your ads against the newsprint to see what sticks.”
You give a good publicist a story hook he can pitch? Stand back and watch the newspapers, magazines and television news shows beat a path to your door.
Comment by Bill Cunningham -
The writing of this posting and everyone else’s comments are a waste of time. Traditional advertising as we know it will no longer exist in 10 years (my guess). Newspapers, magazines, TV and especially the internet is becoming so saturated with ads that people are becoming oblivious.
Mark, you’re looking for new, or cheaper, ways to advertise you have to concentrate on word-of-mouth. People are going back to the dark ages of talking to their friends, their neighbors, their co-workers for information on an item. You need to find these special people, these ‘mavens’ as Malcolm Gladwell puts it, that will unconsciously help you spread the word.
Comment by Andy -
Mark,
I read about 3 newspaper every morning on the internet. It is free and I don;t get newsprint on my hands. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years now. It is a little trick I picked up while working the early morning shift in a televison newsroom.
Funny, but the ads don’t seem to have the same impact on screen as they did when I actually held the paper in my hand. Also, the movies ads get completly overlooked, unless I specifically seek that section out. Before, I physically had to page through that section and undoubtly one would always catch my eye.
Newspapers and magazines have to out-think the likes of people like you and the guys at google in order to avoid extinction. It seems to me that they could integrate a system, especially designed for movies, by theme that allows, not a click and go ad but a quick pop up–maybe one liner, quick image and the opening date of the movie, targeted at readers of certain sections of the paper. For instance, a team sport based movie, would appear in the sports page. Your Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room movie, would appear in the business section. Then, movie makers, could bid or auction for the spot.
Newspaper and magazines need to offer more exposure and come up with more clever ideas than the failed attempt to rig newstands to promote Mission Impossible 3. Good try but missed the boat.
And, the news guys need to give the Mavericks a break. I remember back when you bought the MAVS in 2002. I was living in Los Angeles and the Laker Dynasty was in full swing. I never caught on to that team. I though Kobe and the rest of them were exactly the way Raja Bell explained them recently—arrogant and smug. It gave the NBA a bad image—no real sportsmanship being exhibited. Anyway, while all eyes were focused on them, I was looking to the future and so were you. I started to pay attention to the MAVS. They went from 9-23 to 31-19 after you bought the team midseason. And, with Nash and Dirk, on board, they returned some grace and humility to the game. Thank you for having the foresight to see that that is what fans wanted in a team.
Today, the match up between the Suns and the Mavs exemplifies the best in team sports I think—no real attitudes or egos—just sportsman playing a game to their best ability, and making it a hell of a ride for fans to watch.
I love the way you run your organization, I love the MAVS and for all the Laker Fan MAV naysayers that I’ve have fought with over the years in defense of the Mavs, I say “I hope you catch a red snapper—you turncoats—cheering for the CLIPPERS. I saw all of you out there at Game 7 in Phoenix—Jack, and Billy and Penny.
Anyway, this series is like butter for me. Now, that I live in Phoenix, I’ve beein cheering for the home team, so I get to see my two favorite basketball teams, play in the semifinals, and I really think that both teams are deserving. So whoever wins, it is a WIN WIN situation for me. You both are deserving—I’m cheering for the MAVs—but love NASH, too (my old MAV favorite)!! I feel like a mother with two sons playing on opposite teams.
May the best man win!!
Comment by Lisa Willard -
Whoa, strong words from the champ. Let’s look at the sitchy-ation:
Newspapers, while bleeding readership, jack up the cost of advertising so high even a billonaire can’t keep up;
Terrestrial radio is DEAD as a medium, for advertising or otherwise. Satellite radio gains cachet because it DOESN’T offer advertising (yet);
TV… mostly owned and operated by the jackasses that created the system in the first place.
Man, I don’t even have the heart to rip you on this one though I really hope you appreciate the irony. This is what it’s like to fight a SYSTEM. I haven’t given up any more than you have but now you’ve reached a point where you are facing INSTITUTIONS. Ain’t fun is it? Sure you could gamble everything and possibly risk bankruptcy but that wouldn’t be fun now would it? The fact that you are a billionaire and you can’t make a dent in the movie industry should show you that, indeed, there is some legitimacy to the idea of having the odds stacked against you in a near insurmountable way. But I digress. Let me address your blog…
At the root of your problem is TRUST. I sent you a message once before stating that you are trying to use business tactics to solve an EMOTIONAL issue. The fact is, newspapers spent DECADES building trust with the public. Sure it’s eroding rapidly but will HDNet/Magnolia/2929 be around for the collapse? For that matter, what’s going to replace them, as far as an effective advertising vehicle? The Internet, as it stands now, is more suited to the small text snippets pioneered by Google than full-blown HD movie trailers. For that matter, who’s going to host it? The Internet is too fractured for full scale advertising to be effective, not enough outlets that people TRUST. I see why you’ve gone hard with blogs from a business standpoint because, ultimately, what is more effective than word of mouth? The problem is blogs are word of mouth without the SINCERITY, no body language, no vibe to lock in to. Too many voices and the public will only lock onto a few and those will likely just sell out the minute they can, thus perpetuating the problem.
For advertising of the type you are looking, new outlets are going to have to be created that are built on TRUST. They’ll have to provide cost-effective but rich multimedia experiences. Also they’ll have to be able to advertise in a manner that is noticable but not obnoxious. In truth, MySpace is a very early prototype but it lacks the feature-rich capabilities necessary to capitalize (you also get the sense that the underlying technology it’s built on is VERY shaky). The simple fact is the venues that you need for truly effective yet cost-effective advertising truly exist yet.
By the time newspapers and magazines drop the price of advertising to make it cost-effective, they’ll be completely stiff as viable advertising mediums. The thing that made them able to be in the position they are in now is gone and that is INTEGRITY. The media that replaces them will by its very nature offer advertising that is less pervasive but more effective because of TRUST. But will HDNet be around to capitalize?
Comment by James King -
I like how the MAVS kicked the suns ass last night but the suns scared me i think that we have to keep playing diop he gives us the best chance to when and keep Vanhorn ass off the floor unless he is subbing for dirk another thing “WHY DIDN’T NASH PLAY THAT DAM HARD WITH US THAT FUCKED UP”
Comment by 2K DRE -
As a reviewer, and in response to this comment:
reviews of films have truly etched away from ANALYSIS to OPINION.
I’m not sure what to make of that. Why would I analyze a film for you? Isn’t critical thinking up to you, the consumer? My reviews include 5% of the plot and 95% of general comments about the quality of the film, the actors, the music, the innovation – et al. Perhaps I am simply mistaking how you are using the words, but my view is an opinion is exactly what I’m looking for in a review. My complaint is the slippery slope granted with access, generally to print/TV media. The internet is the bastard stepchild with regards to getting into screenings, getting interviews, because the millions of people we reach don’t have a newspaper in their physical hand. Sadly the result of this is flawed reviews because you have reviewers in bed with the studios/directors/actors. The internet is the best spot for film reviews because cred is the only thing we have as access is the one thing we lack.
Kind of a diatribe, but Print/TV/Internet/HDnet/ and the studio system in general has been of great interest to me lately. I’d love to hear what you meant by Analysis and Opinion though.
Comment by Laremy Legel -
I agree with Todd that WORD-OF-MOUTH will be the next, actually in where I live – China – It has been the next. Practitioners such as book sellers or E-business companies in China have long been employing buddies (pimps I would like to address) as their WORD-OF-MOUTH on the internet and promote their products (books, movies, games, etc) on bbs, in chatroom what so ever.
Now I only trust WORD-IN-MOUTH in English, I wish things not going wrong with this language again.
Comment by Urban. Huang -
Coming from the perspective of the consumer I would have to argue that print ads are truly going to become like the Neanderthal man…extinct. For the most part you can not trust critical reviews of films because they have truly etched away from ANALYSIS to OPINION. I personally get most of my movie/tv show/music information from online sources with peer analysis such as IMDB. Print AD’s are simply untrustworthy. With services such as Fandango, cinemark.com, Moviefone, and most importantly WORD-OF-MOUTH I believe that newspaper advertising for the entertainment industry will slowly but surely disappear. It is too expensive and most of the crap printed in papers is either biased or influenced by outside parties. As far as Comcast On-Demand and things of that nature, I believe that will be the future of home movie rental but not advertisment. Entertainment is for the people so the best bet for advertising in the future may be peer-to-peer by word of mouth; look at services and web logs such as mypsace.com, ifilm, facebook, blogspot, etc. A person is more likely to respect their friend’s views than some print AD.
Comment by Todd Johnston -
There is no holy grail. It’s not the internet (yet) and it wasn’t on-screen advertising in-between movies. The only thing that I think has a chance to be the future of advertising is Video On Demand via the cable companies. You can target your demographic based on the cable companies customer information, target the local area, and target similar interests based on what VOD media they choose to watch.
Comment by Keith -
“readership continues to decline… rates continue to climb”
GM car sales decline, yet prices contine to be high or go up
Same thing in many industries… they’d rather keep prices up, to make their stockholders think they will continue to be profitable, than give in to the laws of supply and demand and lower their prices to cause demand to increase.
Comment by Tim -
What would the world look like if industries and companies all decided to innovate as their core value rather then a reaction to becoming instinct.
Comment by Bill Baren -
The problem isn’t just with the entertainment section. The cost for advertising in newspapers is ridculous, especially when you consider it’s effectiveness and the alternatives. While newspaper readership continues to decline, newspaper advertising rates continue to climb. It really does seem like a “Nero fiddling while Rome burns” scenario.
Comment by Lou Mindar -
Great point, really. Everyday you will find articles on how print media is losing advertsing dollars to non traditional media, but nobody seems to challenge the notion that it has to be inevitable.
Comment by Steve Murphy -
I used to read newspapers and magazines often and I even read through the biz ops section where all the scams end up. I read it all so I know people do. But I grew up and so did my taste in receiving my information.
Comment by Brandon Connell | RankRover -
Not really about print media, but I just wanted to say that I’ve been enjoying a lot of the concert/live musical performances on HDNet recently. The quality of these broadcasts is miles beyond the competition out there, especially with MTV losing much of its older demographic to a long string of terrible reality television and lack of music videos.
Comment by Andrew Tseng -
I’m a nice guy so here’s a bunch of free apostrophies.
””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””’
I’ll give you a bulk price once you use them up.
Comment by kissing ass -
From years in the publishing industry I can say that if you’re talking newspapers, inserts, while not really cutting-edge, are more cost-effective than ads and have the added benefit of marketing to specific area codes. They are an oft-overlooked marketing tool and far more effective than many people think.
Comment by Brandon -
They are adding fees to in-print for internet ads, which we wanted to opt out of.
As you know.
Comment by rock -
The news guys need to give the Mavericks a break. I remember back when you bought the MAVS in 2002. I was living in Los Angeles and the Laker Dynasty was in full swing. I never caught on to that team. I though Kobe and the rest of them were exactly the way Raja Bell explained them recently—arrogant and smug.
Comment by runescape money -
I enjoy watching this cycle because it causes deviance, just like Mark Cuban is suggesting– “We’ll find other ways.” Inernet is the fad, the way to be seen right now. But thanks to our pop up blockers, as well as fear of clicking on those bright blinking boxes due to paying for advertising with more free advertisements, it’s going to decline.
Comment by wow powerleveling -
I’m sure that very soon (not more than 1.5 – 2 years)the best advertising will be online and just a few on TV.
Comment by cars -
The main problem is someone will have to take a short term hit for a long term goal.If you are only going to be in your position a year ir two and your whole incentive package is based on the old formula, then you will not take the hit for the company even to save its life.
Comment by mbruce -
Mark
It’s not that complex. Coming from a newspaper world, let me tell you exactly how this works.
Process for setting rates is as follows
1. Newspaper analysts issue a prediction that newspaper earnings will rise 1-2%, and set an earnings target for each publisher.
2. CEO looks at his P&L and with rising newsprint, fuel and other expenses, declining circ and flatlinining advertising revenue figures out his gap to that target.
3. CEO lays off some people, trims back on bulk circ to save newsprint, and looks at his remaining sizeable gap.
4. At the same time, Ad Directors are doing their budgets. Ad director says to the publisher: “It would be foolish to raise rates because my rate base just got cut; so my revenue will be flat at best.
5. Publisher goes to the CEO, and says ad revenue will be flat. CEO kicks publisher out of the office, with the dictum that ad revenue to grow 6%.
6. Publisher instructs Ad Director to raise rates 3% and grow pages 3%.
7. Later in the following year, Ad revenue declines, estimates get revised down, and the circle of “secular decline in the newspaper industry which the industry continue to call cyclical” continues.
So in conclusion, the analyst community is really to blame for your rate issues! 🙂
Comment by ilya cantor -
Thank you for speaking up Mark! I work for a large company in the entertainment business and negotiate newspaper/magazine contracts on a daily basis. Rates have sky rocketed and reps/directors will not budge. We’ve wanted to pull out all together on our newspapers, and maybe (hopefully) that will become a reality soon – at least to send a message to all of them…hell it would relieve the massive headache I have to go through. The problem is there are those few fuddy-duddys who still rely on that info – then you get into customer service complaints. Let’s not even go there.
Comment by J -
Thanx for info!
———————–
http://www.learn-english.ru/
Comment by Learn -
Is print advertising worth it?
Why waste money on pretty pictures, why not just
work with a writer and have a story written up about your products/offerings instead?
I’d take that money and work with a PR agency, not advertising.
Comment by Julie Morin -
there are a lot of strong opinions about how to advertise, and a lot of you bring up valid points. going into my second year of newspaper advertising sales, one not too far away from the aac, i have come up with a few opinions.
the people who want to see your ad will see your ad, regardelss of where you place it. people will turn the page on every ad if they don’t care to see the ad. does that mean stop advertising in the paper? no. people also make a decision to buy the paper.
yes, circualtion is down. however, that is a good thing. most american newspapers are cutting out circualtion from quantity to quality. saying that (insert newspaper here) reaches 1.5 million readers daily doesn’t help anyone. Considering that, let’s take dallas, you have half of the residents reading. then the other half is from places who can’t afford to get HDnet, or don’t go to the movies at all. so, they decided to cut out circulatation to those places. now that you are getting a more quality reader, the rates go up. you can’t look at the circualtion. you have to look at the people who are reading and their buying habits. since dallas, san fran, new york, miami, etc., has such high retail spending you have to look at hitting those people. let’s be honest, getting your ad to people in royse city, tx is not going to boost your company’s profits.
tv advertising is overrated. TiVo and DVR, while amazing, is killing advertising. why watch commercials when i can fast forward through them. i asked my girlfriend if she had seen the new jetta commercials, and she said “no, i have TiVo.” That is a problem.
Now with iPods and satellite radio who are you going to reach on am – fm? while i mainly listen to espn radio, i change the channel during commercials. channel surfing is killing the industry. clear channel is killing the industry. we’re getting all the same commercials anyway, so why listen?
internet seems to be the best place to go, but there’s a little x in top right corner that allows me to make it go away. yes, you have a quicker ROI, and you can track how your ad is doing, but in the next 2 years it’s going to be more expensive than you can imagine. that’s because it’s going to control the advertising medium, and that will affect the cost.
makes you wonder where to advertise, doesn’t it?
i’m a big fan of guerilla advertising. get a team of 10, hit the streets and make it happen. is it illegal? maybe, i don’t know, but it gets the job done. where’s most of the buying come from? downtown. street teams pass out your ads to the people directly into their hand. involve the people, get them motivated, and their purchasing will be redirected to your company. my friends and i promoted our friends new cd in new york, by slapping stickers in cabs, on the metro, and all over the city. we then hit up the tourist areas and handed out fliers and a sample cd for free (think about movie previews on dvd) directly into the customers hands. they now have something to hold on to. her cd sales (just from CDbaby) jumped 40% for the month. This is a perfect way to release a film, or cd, or anything really.
i may or may not be crazy.
Comment by Chris Miller -
I think the best advertising – at the internet resourses…
Comment by Mik -
Did you see the way O.G Dirk went off last night that was the best performance I have ever seen sence M.J, I was so in to that game the way we came back after Tim Thomas did his little thing O.G Dirk went crazy, but we is going to have to really play to put them out Steve Nsh is trying to hurt us Mavs fans and every way. “”””please sign Josh Howard back we really dont need to let him go and get rid of Vanhorn he is making to much money to be sorry. Mavs 4/life
Comment by 2K DRE -
Mark,
I would think the answer would be obvious to you….PR…it’s the best, most effective, relatively inexpensive advertising around. You are a PR guru…why go any other way?
Comment by lucy -
As a Publisher of a Newspaper, Mark is right. Based on what the cost of printing a newspaper, most newspaper companies jack up the price to line there own pocket books. I understand that payroll is involved and the cost of running the company is factored, but the price break is far more that the cost. and in most cases the employees are not recieving the benefits.
Oh wait, thats corporate america!
Comment by Cedric E. Lyons -
As a newspaper company Director of Sales, I would like to point out the advertising options we provide:
full run ads targeted by content section,
innovative ads that breakout of traditional borders,
we have 5 daily zones at reduced rates,
plus 16 weekly micro-zones at reduced rates,
a Hispanic paper,
a daily free tab publication that targets the 18-34 and carries a very affordable rates,
zip-code targeted in paper inserts (we’ll be able to target to the household level in 2008),
a marriage mail product with carrier-route or household specific targeting,
customized promotions (just let us know what you’d like),
a web site with over 2.5 million registered users
and over 900,000 opt-in email addresses,
online demographic targeting,
online behavioral targeting,
all with rich media,
and most recently SMS programs.
All newspaper companies don’t offer these alternatives, but many do, we just don’t market them particularly well.
I’ve called on every category of business in my career, and I can tell you that the reports of the death of newspapers is greatly exaggerated. Is business tough? You bet. But there is real growth in several areas. By the way, I’ll be happy to share movie category research that shows the validity of advertising in paper for anyone who wants to see the data instead of shooting from the hip.
While circulation is down, in most markets, readership is not. When you add online readership, the reach of most newspapers is among the highest it’s ever been. This also means the value is consistent.
Newspapers get their share of advertising budgets because they work, and the best newspapers (and most large ones) have
and are evolving into media companies focused on providing tangible results to customers.
Comment by Jeff -