And the death march continues. Yet, again, we read about more job cuts and newspapers folding:

• Time Inc. will cut 600 jobs
• Christian Science Monitor quit publishing a weekday paper
• Gannett will cut up to 3,000 people, or 10 percent of its workforce 
• The Tribune Co. will cut the Los Angeles Times newsroom by 75 people
• The Star-Ledger of Newark will cut its editorial staff by 40 percent
  

As The New York Times points out: It’s not an audience problem, but a consumer problem.

It’s not that people have simply stopped reading the news; most have just stopped reading the newspaper.

With the advent of handheld devices, RSS feeds and news alerts, these conveniences have eliminated the need to sit and read the newspaper cover to cover. People can now get news at just about any location and not just from front stoops.

But as more readers find less use for the printed newspaper, publishers have more trouble attracting advertisers — hence job cuts, slimmer papers and even newspaper deaths. And it is going to get tougher.

As emerging technologies become part of everyday life (if they’re not already), newspapers must find a way to create advertising opportunities for each one of these avenues, such as pay-per-click, mobile ads, day-parting, ads targeted at specific user profiles, and more. They must get creative on how they sell ads: Bundle packages that include print, but attract advertisers with technologically advanced advertising streams.

The audience is still there, and advertisers still need to reach it. Newspapers just need to find a way to connect the two.

Related Posts:

Blog Series — The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media

Part 1 — Newspapers without the Paper?

Part 2 — Views from the Mainstream

Part 3 — Print Media Is Losing

Part 4 — Public Relations: The New Fundamentals

Lyndsey Walker is a Consultant for PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. After five years in the journalism field, she is happy to have made the switch to public relations. 

(Part 4 of a 4-part blog series on The Battle for Influence: Online vs. Print Media)

Shrinking newspapers. Rising job cuts. Declining circulation numbers. Shifting advertising dollars. As a PR and marketing consultant, why should I care? It’s simple: mainstream media coverage is the result of the core services I provide to my clients.

How can I offer results for my clients if newspapers and magazines are cutting sections, leaving less room for my press release, and laying off jobs, leaving me with fewer contacts with whom to build relationships and are too busy to take my call?

Listed here are some of the findings from a recent study conducted by journalist Tyler Marshall and the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, based on face-to-face interviews in 250 newsrooms across the country:

• More than half of the editors at larger papers and a third at smaller ones expect more cutbacks in the next year.

• Nearly two-thirds of papers surveyed have cut back on foreign news, more than half have trimmed national news and more than a third have reduced business coverage.

• Forty-eight percent of editors surveyed say they are conflicted by the trade-offs between the speed, depth and interactivity of the Web and what those benefits are costing in terms of accuracy and journalistic standards, while 43 percent think the Web “will be the savior of what we once thought of as newspaper newsrooms.”

Just as mainstream media is struggling to adapt its core services and survive online, the public relations industry must do the same to remain relevant.  

So what fundamental services do PR and marketing consultants require in an inbound marketing toolkit?

1. Search Engine Optimization: Increases a Website’s visibility and value in search engines through On-page Optimization, Keyword Analysis and Off-page Optimization/Link Building.
2. Pay-Per-Click Campaigns: Paid advertising through search-engine results.
3. Social Media: Websites encouraging user participation and user-generated content, including Social Bookmarking (delicious.com) and Social Networking (Linkedin.com) Websites.
4. Content Publishing: Publishing keyword-rich content online, including optimized press releases, eBooks and blogging.
5. Web Analytics: The ability to analyze user activity and measure ROI.
   

In this business — and all businesses, for that matter — adopting the new fundamentals is a key to survival.

Blog Series — The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media

Part 1 — Newspapers without the Paper?

Part 2 — Views from the Mainstream

Part 3 — Print Media Is Losing

Part 4 — Public Relations: The New Fundamentals

(Part 3 of a 4-part blog series on The Battle for Influence: Online vs. Print Media)

“We face the most difficult advertising environment in our history … ,” wrote Terry Egger, publisher of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in a letter to readers after restructuring the paper in June 2008. Major sections of the newspaper now appear online only.

According to Ad Age, the top 100 U.S. advertisers — who account for 41 percent of the total advertising spending — increased measured Internet spending by $1 billion, slashed newspaper spending by $674 million and cut TV budgets by $406 million last year.

It’s true that print media is losing out to the Web. The list goes on:

• Online media companies like Google are enjoying huge advertising revenue increases, while mainstream media outlets are suffering.
• Real estate revenues are shifting online.
  
• Auto ad dollars are shifting online.
• Department stores are shifting ad dollars online.
  

With social media, online forums, blogs and the interactivity of the Web growing and expanding so quickly, newspapers and magazines struggle to compete with the printed version weakening their bottom lines.

The advent of pay-per-click, mobile ads, dayparting, and ads sold by user profiles offer newspapers the ability to master the online monster. Eventually, the print industry will adapt and shift its printed counterpart online entirely — as soon as it integrates these emerging online technologies.

So, where does PR go from here? Less focus in print, more attention to Internet marketing campaigns, pay-per-click services, mobile ads, social networking, social media, blogging and search-engine optimization — the list goes on. The needle is shifting toward inbound marketing.

Blog Series — The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media

Part 1 — Newspapers without the Paper?

Part 2 — Views from the Mainstream

Part 3 —  Print Media is Losing

Part 4 — Public Relations: The New Fundamentals

 

(Part 2 of a 4-part blog series on The Battle for Influence: Online vs. Print Media)

With the explosion of social media — Facebook.com, Youtube.com, MySpace.com — the Internet has in a way given people control over their consumption of news and information. So how is the printed newspaper — a vehicle so used to managing information flow — to survive in this world where consumer decisions drive the proverbial information bus?

I decided to go out into the community to find my answer. George Nemeth, a Cleveland-based blogger, known for brewedfreshdaily.com, and author, and Dan Hanson, a Cleveland-based writer for both printed and electronic publications, offer their insights.

Do you see the day when newspapers completely abandon their print counterpart?

DAN: There are still a whole lot of people who rely on the newspaper for their news.  Maybe they don’t have access or desire for cable TV, Internet or other alternative information sources. Maybe they just like the experience of holding the paper and turning the pages. … Whatever the reasons may be, newspapers would be foolish to abandon this market. They may need to raise the price for consumers but I think the print versions will be around for a while.

GEORGE: As newspaper demographics change, younger readers aren’t reading the paper, so eventually the paper’s advertising revenues won’t support its cost of publication.

So how can the printed newspaper survive?

DAN:  I see a combination of online and print working, but not merely duplicating the printed paper on the Web. Smart companies will use each medium in the way they best serve consumers. Internet news seems more disposable (and less valuable) than a daily newspaper, which, in turn, is more disposable than a glossy magazine. I’d still rather be on the cover of Rolling Stone than on the homepage of rollingstone.com.

GEORGE: Revenue for online advertising is increasing significantly, while revenue from the print side is falling rapidly. I saw figures recently that time spent online is about 80 percent of all media consumption, while most ad buyers spend 20 percent of their budgets online. I don’t think it’ll be very long before buyers correct that disparity. Depending on the market, it may be within the next year or two.

What do you predict for the printed newspaper?

DAN: Publishers will offer bundles. Buy x column in the paper and get your banner ads rotated y times on our Website. Or, spend enough on our Website and we will include your message in our nice 4-color print weekly so you can distribute to customers and hang on the wall.

GEORGE: As soon as someone creates an inexpensive computing device that folds like a newspaper and allows you to play multimedia files, the print vs. online debate will be moot. Who knows what will be possible in the future with nanotechnology.

There seems to be a disparity between the baby boomers and Generation X. Those who grew up holding the newspaper in their hand don’t see, or at least don’t want to admit, the day is coming when that will no longer be an option.

Content is king and will prevail — in whatever form consumers decide. And the numbers don’t lie.

You can check out George Nemeth’s blogs at www.brewedfreshdaily.com, www.optimisticrebel.com and www.radicaltransitions.net, and Dan Hanson’s monthly column in Inside Business magazine at www.ibmag.com.

 

Blog Series — The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media

Part 1 — Newspapers without the Paper?

Part 2 — Views from the Mainstream

Part 3 —  Print Media is Losing

Part 4 — Public Relations: The New Fundamentals

 

(Part 1 of a 4-part blog series on The Battle for Influence: Online vs. Print Media)

A weekend ritual, I woke up mid-morning on a Sunday in June, brewed some fresh Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and plopped down on the couch to read the newspaper — online. As I logged on to Cleveland.com, the Cleveland Plain Dealer online outlet, a letter from the publisher was staring back at me.

“In addition to coping with the cyclical economic realities affecting everyone, our industry is reacting to a revolution in how Americans get their news and information,” wrote Terry Egger, publisher of Ohio’s largest provider of news and information.

Additional content, as well as the full versions of the brief print articles, were to appear online.  

As I read on, I couldn’t help but wonder, is the day when newspapers and magazines will abandon their print versions closer than we think?

Major dailies and other publications are rapidly shrinking, cutting hundreds of jobs and hemorrhaging dollars because of plummeting circulation numbers. The week of Aug. 18, 2008, The Plain Dealer offered buyouts to its non-union workers.

The Plain Dealer is not alone. In fact, the PD’s radical changes reflect a national trend:

• In late April 2008, The Capital Times of Madison, Wis., stopped printing to devote itself to publishing its daily report entirely on the Web.
• The Washington Post plans to merge its Web and Print newsrooms, bringing job-cut fears to Post editors.
• In March 2008, Minneapolis’ The Rake abandoned its printed magazine for the online space.

I am a statistic myself. After working as a journalist for four years, I am now building a career as a public relations and marketing consultant. Based on my experiences, I offer the following blog series, “The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media,” where I will discuss the future of the printed newspaper and what the shifting landscape means to those of us on this side (the PR side) of the fence.

Blog Series — The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media

Part 1 — Newspapers without the Paper?

Part 2 — Views from the Mainstream

Part 3 —  Print Media is Losing

Part 4 — Public Relations: The New Fundamentals