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February 2014 Newsletter

Is Print Really Dead? Not so fast!

Last week, the new owners of Newsweek revealed that the famed weekly magazine will return to print after more than a year out of printed circulation. Publishers said the magazine would mainly be supported by subscriber fees, rather than advertising. Clearly they believe that so-called long-form journalism has a place in print. More on that later.
Other publishers are taking a run at print as well. Earlier this year, Meredith Publishing launched a print magazine based on the popular website allrecipes.com. If you don't cook, you may not know that allrecipes.com is one of the dominant recipe sites online (a recent search for chocolate chip cookies, for example, found more than 1,200 recipes). 

Back to the Wheelhouse: Advertising Sales in the Digital Age

It's easy to wax nostalgic about newspapers' heydays, when the selling of ads was as simple as it was to valuate the content, the service, the roles newspapers played in the community. Sales professionals back then need only dangle these carrots to compel an advertiser. It was, indeed, a simpler time. 
ZenithOptimedia published its most recent ad forecast last December 9, optimistically predicting, "Advertising is set to see the strongest sustained period of growth in 10 years." The bright shining star among new-media platforms? Mobile, which the report categorizes as "the main driver of global adspend growth." To leverage this insight, ad sales professionals must understand not only how consumers engage with mobile content, but also how the advertiser's message might resonate there. They're tasked in this way exponentially, based on the number of products and platforms they're selling. 

How Do Millennials Like to Read the News? Very Much Like Their Grandparents 

Attention publishers: For all the attention given to "bold rich multi-media experiences," young mobile news readers still prefer stories the way their great-great-grandparents did: In columns of text.
In the eyes of employers, marketers, and brand gurus, Generation Y tends to be treated like a separate species, forged in the primordial stew of Internet, whose habits are so positively alien to the rest of the country that they've inspired a cottage industry: The How-Do-You-Solve-a-Problem-Like-Millennials? genre.
But a new report from the Pew Research Center (pdf) suggests that, when it comes to reading the news on mobile devices, young people aren't so different. 

Study: Mobile Ad Spending to Hit $42 Billion in 2017, Eclipsing Radio

Mobile advertising, long criticized for its relatively puny size compared to TV and desktop ads, will hit $41.9 billion in 2017, Gartner estimates.
That's still a far cry from the $196.5 billion spent on TV advertising and the $110 billion spent on print in 2013, according to Magna Global. However, it's larger than the $32.5 billion spent on radio advertising, a category that is contracting, not growing. 

Yahoo's Throwing in the Towel on Mobile Banner Ads

Yahoo, the Web portal that rose prominence in part by selling banner ads, is looking to move away from the very format it inflicted on the world as it continues to adapt to the mobile age.
Instead, Yahoo's focus is on Stream ads - Yahoo's name for its native ad placements - for its mobile properties is a response to how media is being presented and consumed on the Internet in general and on mobile specifically. Whether on Instagram, Twitter or Yahoo, Internet users are increasingly consuming media in endless vertical streams. For platforms and publishers, it affords them a chance to move away from selling the beleaguered banner ad and toward ads that are supposed to be more engaging, and, with luck, more valuable. 

Print Takes on a More Active Form

Blippar's print app lets readers of this ad from Maybelline try on virtually every color shade in the Color Show line of eye shadow.
When it comes to the traditional print piece, we are all used to its benefits and flaws. Print gives words and advertisements weight, and is a powerful way to reach an audience. But it is also static, which is at odds with today's on-the-go society, used to content changing and morphing on a regular basis. 
To bridge the gap between traditional print offerings and the digital realm, companies like Blippar have created augmented reality applications that can bring print to life. 

Eye-Tracking Study: How to Beat Display Ad Blindness

Advertisers looking to boost the effectiveness of their digital display ads should be focusing on in-content units, nontraditional placements, contextually relevant creative, and above-the-fold locations, according to recent data from Infolinks.
The report was based on the results of an eye tracking study conducted by EyeTrackShop in 2013. Participants allowed researchers to access their webcams, which were then calibrated to track eye movements as webpages were viewed. Almost all of the respondents were under 40 (76% 18-30; 22% 31-40), and half were male, half female. 

New Pew Poll Finds That E-Books Are Booming but Print Holds Its Own

A new Pew study finds that readers are embracing e-books on a variety of devices but that print is holding its own.
Traditionally (strange word to use in connection with technological change but bear with me), devices that bring us entertainment displace one another. VHS kicks Beta off the island, CDs make cassette tapes obsolete, and so it goes. But according to a Pew Research Center poll released this week, the same does not hold true for the devices Americans use to read.  While the number of people reading e-books continues to climb (17 percent in 2011, 23 percent in 2012, and 28 percent in 2014), the figure for people who read books remained fairly constant for the same period. Even people now reading mostly e-books on tablets, e-readers, and cellphones said they also read print books. 

Borrell: Legacy will lose digital rev share

Legacy media companies will continue to see their digital ad share slip away to digital pureplays over the next five years, with digital revenue at newspaper, TV and radio companies growing less than 5% per year, according to a new report from Borrell Associates.
Media companies operating separate digital divisions are expected to generate more digital revenue than those that view digital as merely a product extension, according to a new report from Borrell Associates Inc. out Wednesday.
Total online spending is expected to rise 28% this year - 42% on the local level - according to Borrell. While three-fourths of all advertising dollars will go to analog media this year, the fast pace of growth represents a challenge for legacy media companies, Borrell says. 

What our customers have to say....

Profitable website from Day 1!

 

I would like to thank Mike and Joe Mathes and their staff for their assistance in getting our website up, running and most importantly, profitable from day one.

 

I was initially skeptical of inviting an "outsider" into my small market that is largely not trusting of salesmen they have not done business with in the past. After a few conversations over the phone, my fears were greatly put to rest. Joe has a soft spoken demeanor and delivery that instantly put my customers at ease and made for a very profitable campaign. 

 

In approximately 18 hours we were able to ink 30k in sales. 

 

Not only did we make money together, I made a friend and business partner. If you are considering Delta Communications, stop considering and do it, you won't regret the decision. If you have questions or would like to talk about this further, give me a call. 

 

Sincerely, 

Dave DeLost 

General Manager 

Pine Cone Press-Citizen

218-363-2002 P.O. Box 401, Longville, MN 56655

 

 

www.pineconepresscitizen.com

 

 
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