NONE: ONLINE ADS>> Cannibalizing print revenues
ONLINE ADS>> Cannibalizing print revenues
Sean Pfister (seanp_at_cnet.com)
Tue, 10 Jun 1997 09:33:29 -0700
>From: Lance Stendal <lstendal_at_futurepages.com>
> we are finding many [community newspapers] are afraid to sell local
>advertising on their sites
>for fear that the advertisers will spend less money on their print
>editions, which they cannot afford to have happen. ... and most of the
>newspaper people we talk to haven't >even been willing to conduct an
>experiment to see if that is the case.
Newpapers and magazines are in a bit of a double-bind when it comes to
selling both print and Web advertising, IMHO. In general, it's incumbent on
the vehicle to demonstrate its utility to advertisers. Typically
subscriber, audience or syndicated research is used to show that "our
readers are volume buyers of widgets" or some equivalent.
For a printed vehicle that also has a Web site, either the Web site
audience is by-and-large the same as the print audience or it's a different
group. If it's the same, then the publisher has to show why the duplication
(readers see the ad in print and on the Web) has some value beyond
print-only or Web-only impressions. If the Web audience is by-and-large
different than the print audience, then the value AND uniqueness of each
group has to be demonstrated--probably by demonstrating that the best way
to reach and sell my print audience is through my print vehicle and my Web
site is best for my Web audience but neither one will work for the other.
At the same time, the publisher has to show that neither audience is
significantly better than the other (or the advertiser will target its
dollars only towards the audience with the best return on media investment.)
It doesn't surprise me that some print publishers haven't "even been
willing to conduct an experiment."
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Sean Pfister
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