Is this picture of newspaper boxes kind of how you think of print? …dreary, old, outdated?
C’mon. Be honest. This is a safe space here.
As a media buyer, agency exec or client-side marketer, the way you think about print media has an enormous impact on the newspaper and magazine industry.
There was yet another sour report today about print revenues. First quarter 2016 newspaper and magazine revenues were down another 3.5-4.5% YOY.
I know many of you have moved on to digital and probably haven’t given much thought to print advertising for some time. I know and it’s not entirely your fault. After all, it’s tough to not follow the herd when the stakes and demands are so high. It’s also especially tough, when you may not know better.
By largely turning our backs on print (and instead pouring dollars into digital display) we’ve missed a huge opportunity to be heroes.
This chart shows close rates and the average length of calls for a few of our advertisers that deliver the highest call volumes. To be clear, the decimal point is in the correct place. All of our conversion rates start with TWO numbers before the decimal point.
By comparison, here’s the latest conversion rates for digital display ads.
If you’ve been spending time in digital media, these conversion rates are very familiar and may be the norm. From my perspective, these conversion rates are just north of ”why bother?”
Print advertising is a huge opportunity to deliver real results and value to your clients. If you haven’t already, perhaps it’s time to update your view of print media.
Sincerely,
Jim Jinks
The Print Observer - Newspaper & Magazine Advertising Insights 