It’s time for newspaper marketing that doesn’t ’suck’
This week, design consultant Ron Reason has been blogging about about how we, as an industry and as individual newspapers, promote ourselves.
Does your newspaper’s marketing suck? Probably.
He recently spoke at a gathering of the Inland Press Association in San Antonio.
When I showed the Inland crowd some campaigns created recently for client papers, the audience perked up. “We do a terrible job of promoting ourselves!” one editor exclaimed. Said another: “And it’s gotten even worse with the tightening of our news holes - we don’t even have space for house ads any more.” (Insert collective sigh here.)
But newspapers should create space for house ads - even small ones that can speak to readers and advertisers about how invaluable your services are. (Aren’t they?) And direct mail pieces. And website destinations that sell your virtues to both audiences.
Ron directed readers to a number of marketing campaigns he’s cooked up during various redesign projects over the years.
Tuesday, the Newspaper Project unveiled a new marketing campaign to help newspapers. Click on each ad for a larger view:
Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution also has contributed two pieces to the campaign. Here’s one of them:
Ron came right back Tuesday and critiqued that marketing initiative.
Nice sentiments, perhaps, but not compelling. A missed opportunity. Symptomatic of how we got into this mess in the first place.
Newspapers have always had this arrogance and felt they were worthy of purchasing, reading, and appreciating because “we’ve always been around.” These ads come nowhere near answering the question, “why, exactly, would it be a national (or local) tragedy if newspapers disappeared?”
Ron suggests a different approach — basically, tell readers specifically what you’ve done for them lately — what stories, compelling and vital to readers’ lives, you’ve run. Lately.
Watergate doesn’t count. Your “pick-the-Oscars” contest (which 5,000 other media outlets covered) doesn’t count. Publishing school lunch menus, helpful as that may be, doesn’t count.
He suggests you run with the idea. He’d like you to send him a PDF afterward, though, so it can be shared with other folks.
As luck would have it, though, you won’t have to wait very long to see good examples of a recent house ad campaign like this. Our pal Scott Griffin of the Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn., has posted a dozen really interesting samples.
A couple (click for a larger view):
Scott wrote Wednesday in the SND Region 1 blog:
The project was created by Anne Karolyi, one of our local section editors, and myself back in the fall.
It’s based on two ideas: 1) Newspapers do matter and we want readers to realize what they’ll miss if they’re gone. So tell them. 2) Our newspaper is its own source of free advertising. Use it.
So, we came up with examples of the Republican-American making a difference in the lives of our readers… We recently ran our second set of six ads.
The ads have told readers about a Macy’s coupon they might have missed; we’ve told them exactly how many fundraisers, fairs, chicken dinners, etc., we wrote about in a three-week stretch; we reminded them of our dedication to covering local sports; and we even shook things up with a photo of a burning flag and the declaration that we’re protecting every citizens’ rights and, therefore, democracy.
Outstanding stuff, Scott. He and Anne even broke out their marketing campaign into a separate web site:
Read more about the Republican-American’s marketing campaign here.
Scott writes:
Another newspaper — the Fosters Daily Democrat in Dover, N.H. — took our idea and ran wild, adding “commercials” on the Web site and going in different formats. It’s been a big hit with staff and readers as well.
A couple of examples of their print ads (again, click for a larger view):
Find the Newspaper Project house ads here. Find Ron Reason’s four tips for better house ads here.
Find the second of Ron’s marketing posts here. and the third installment — in which he looks at a giant doubletruck Chicago Tribune “community report” house ad that ran this week — here.
March 5th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
So glad to read this. I’ve always griped about the marketing (and lack thereof) of newspapers. These need to hit harder! Get the marketing departments to do their jobs instead of asking for sock donations (no joke) and think beyond rack cards.
The only 3 recent attempts at marketing I can think of was from the Guardian (the colors), WSJ (ads with Sheryl Crow) and NYT (everywhere).
Gawker also calls out the Newspaper Project:
Newspaper Ads For Newspapers Accomplish Nothing
http://bit.ly/3SHC
Check this out over at Innovations in Newspapers:
http://bit.ly/32Jhur
I’ve been working on a few posters / marketing ideas myself. Stay tuned. Maybe.
March 5th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Wow, Scott! Very impressive. Of course, anyone who knows you shouldn’t be all that surprised.
We hear griping about the state of newspapers. What we don’t hear are solutions or alternatives. This plan is great. Beyond that, the execution of the ads is brilliant and dead-on. Kudos to you and Anne.
At the very least, this initiative should serve as a lesson and learning experience for all of us. We’re JOURNALISTS — not just designers, reporters and/or editors. Our jobs and responsibilities extend way beyond our nighttime duties and skillsets.
I had the good fortune of working with (and learning from) Scott for a year. He gets the big picture better than anybody I’ve ever worked with or for — including many executives and upper-level editors. Plus, he’s a super-nice, down-to-earth guy who is the best teacher/coach I ever had in my 15 years in newspapers.
March 6th, 2009 at 3:39 am
Exactly right. This is something I have been an advocating since I started at a newspaper. Internal marketing efforts are ridiculous. They lack fundamental things you pick up in a marketing 101 course such as a clear, consistent message. It doesn’t even appear as if the marketing department knows who its audience is. Absolutely stunning to me. And no one wants to hear this. I bring it, I get shot down. Time and time again. And I know for a fact that some day soon someone in the marketing department is going to slip off a toilet seat, hit their head and have this brilliant idea that they should actually do some marketing.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Thanks, Charles.
The coolest thing about this post — other that the exposure of our project, obviously — is that my work shares a page with something by Mike Luckovich from Atlanta. I have a framed poster of a cartoon Mike did back in 1994 that shows the late, great Lewis Grizzard being greeted at the pearly gates by his dog Catfish. It hangs in my office.
March 7th, 2009 at 2:20 am
We expect advertisers to promote themselves in our products but for some reason papers fall short on promoting themselves outside the newsprint. Newspapers need to define themselves with marketing rather than letting the public run wild with negative newspaper talk. I’m pitching a project that will be like nothing done before here. It will change the way the community thinks of our paper and raise the bar on how promote stories. Once it moves closer into development I’ll post some material. It’s very cool.