Effectively immediately, the Indian Head Wolesley has changed from a Saturday publication day to a Friday publication day.
For more information on the Indian Head Wolesley or all other AdWest member publications, please visit AdWest.ca
Michael Lamb, the principal at McKinsey & Company recently addressed the INMA World Congress to shed some light on news consumption not normally considered.
When factoring time spent as opposed to raw audience data, digital platforms account for only 8% of the media consumption pie. Contrast that with 35% of news consumption going to newspapers and magazines, 16% radio and other audio, 41% television, 2% for smart phones and tablets respectively and 4% for desktops/laptops.
It’s quite a different picture, isn’t it?
While this isn’t to deny the importance of digital, it does put into perspective that the measurement of unique monthly visitors and page views may be misconstruing the ‘light engagement’ that is occurring. In other words, when we think of reading the paper we probably agree that we sit back and spend 20 or so minutes with it. While driving to and from work we’re listening to the radio. Our online news consumption is more likely to be quick checks during our workday. And when we’ve returned home from a long day we may just want to plop on the couch and put on the television.
The point here being that one medium isn’t replacing another. Rather human consumption of news is evolving; the different mediums afford us the ability to engage with news in different ways. In my opinion, media planners need to think of the complexity of day-to-day lives and how humans interact with various mediums. To underestimate this is to perhaps miss the mark on a solid media plan.
For more on these findings: http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/business-news/the-biz-blog/212550/new-research-finds-92-percent-of-news-consumption-is-still-on-legacy-platforms/
So having just returned from my annual tour of advertising agencies and government clients based in Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City I’m reminded of the challenges that media planners face in dealing with community media. The lack of a consistent approach taken by our industry in presenting itself as a viable media option continues to be thrown out as the single biggest obstacle for media planners.
In fact a streak of six consecutive meetings in which I was asked ‘…when will I get the rest of the country to do what AdWest does’ was stopped only by the need to get to the airport for a five hour flight home.
The biggest hurdle we have to overcome is providing these clients with the type of uniform research and data that can be used to support their planning decisions. In the age of big data there is simply no way for a traditional ‘sales’ approach to succeed in a meaningful way.
Yet at a time when the media should be coming together on big picture solutions there seems to be this unshakeable belief that the way to increase revenues from national advertisers is to ‘put more feet on the ground’ so that we can ‘close more sales’ for more of OUR titles and to heck with the rest of them. As a result of this ‘epiphany’ we are seeing the type of fragmentation occur within the industry that ultimately does us more harm than good.
Community newspaper associations have long been the custodians of the industry’s marketing effort, tying together the nearly 1,000 titles from coast to coast. We’ve always seen our role to be align our strengths with the needs of the client, using the type of unbiased approach that makes us both more credibility and plannable. Recently -and far too frequently- we’re seeing corporations large and small pull their titles out of the initiatives that have been developed and administered by the associations to keep us relevant, in favour of deploying their own, often mis-aligned, internal strategies. In doing so, the industry is systematically de-constructing one of the key value propositions for media planners and buyers: the tools, services, data and research that allow the media to be bought. The efforts of the associations must continue to be supported and promoted or we risk becoming too burdensome for planners to deal with.
I’ll cite a couple of examples from the tournée de l’agence 2013:
1) When I explained to one of the Media Directors (whose agency is amongst the 10 in Canada with Standing Offers for federal government planning) the reason we don’t see more of a focus on AdWest-like services being offered uniformly across the country is, in my opinion, because there’s a lack of comfort with our ‘un-sales’ approach to selling the media. I told her that even within our own organization that there are still questions about the value of funding an organization that ‘doesn’t close sales.’
After first having to explain to her what ‘close sales’ meant, she, in no uncertain terms informed me that she doesn’t have to be ‘sold’ on the strength of community newspapers, she’s already sold. What she needs is for us to be less of a drain on her resources, time, patience and budget. Translation: close more sales by developing a common approach.
2) When I asked the senior strategists within the advertising and sponsorships department of the federal government what their experience to date had been with various representatives from the community newspapers industry I was told there had been ‘too much of this’ and a mock toting of a briefcase and ‘not enough of this’ pointing to my computer screen.
To place the blame solely at the feet of the corporations would be a huge mistake. In reality, there’s plenty of blame to go around. To wit, for years the provincial associations of which I am a part, have done an exceptional job of portraying their flagship single order placement service as some kind of magic sales spell, that when cast over a media buyer, results in endless streams of insertion orders blowing through on the fax machine at all hours of the day and night.
I admit there was a time when I played the game that way too. I was guilty of concocting some pretty creative scenarios through which massive bookings ended up in my email. Of course all of them connected the dots back to some superlative ‘sales’ work….by me. After all, if it wasn’t for me providing the client with those rates and mechanical specs who would have done it? I ‘SOLD’ that campaign and it looked pretty good on my sales report. The problem is that it’s become perceived as the norm. The person receiving the I/O is the person who ‘closed’ the deal.
Fast-forward to 2013 and my take on what needs to change within the community newspapers industry to address the quantum shifts that have taken place in the media industry…..before it’s too late:
Less investment in regional, corporate, proprietary and otherwise isolated sales and marketing efforts.
More focus on working together harmoniously as an industry so that we can fully leverage our strengths.
Abandon the attempts at convergence and packaging of multiple products.
Embrace the reality that in order to flourish, local community newspapers must be viewed as stand-alone entities whose core strength is an audience that’s hungry for quality local content.
Stop trying so hard to ‘sell’ the media to clients who are for the most part, already sold.
Start aligning with the needs of the client so that the in the age of accountability, the tools exist to allow the media ‘to be bought’ and more importantly, justified chapter and verse.
Forget what worked in the 80’s and 90’s.
Remember that we’re operating in an entirely new landscape with more options than have ever existed and the landscape is fluid. We need to be constantly adapting our approach to stay connected.
Reject the opinion that you will sell more advertising and close more deals by getting more aggressive, more persuasive, more partisan, isolated etc. etc.
Accept the reality that the role of the media department is to plan using available tools, data and research and NOT to ‘get sold.’
Close the book on the days of the single campaign that incorporates 200 titles. They’re gone and not likely to come back.
Open up opportunities for clients to buy 20 titles, 10 times.
I must qualify that these opinions are not based on theory, conjecture or self-preservation but on the thousands of client interactions that have ultimately shaped the current AdWest model. Quite simply, that model does nothing more than recognize that there are a number of steps involved in building a media plan and unless there’s support from the media to work through them, they become obstacles, not ‘objections.’ The type of obstacles that no amount of charm, closing techniques, feet on the street, hockey tickets, edible floral arrangements, compliments, repeat sales calls, shiny briefcases, glossy media kits or convergence strategies will eliminate.
It is what it is.
Jeff
Effectively immediately, the Canmore/Banff Rocky Mountain Outlook has adjusted its column width. It will remain a 6 column paper, but depth will change to 177 agates.
For more information on the Canmore/Banff Rocky Mountain Outlook or any other AdWest publications, please visit AdWest.ca
Effective immediately, the Airdrie City View has changed it’s publication day to Thursday.
This does not have any effect on booking or material deadlines.
For more information on the Airdrie City View or any other AdWest publications, please visit adwest.ca
March/April…my favourite time of year. Show up to work every day, crack open the email only to find out another two or three clients are wanting to renegotiate rates (southward). It seems that everybody but me knows, circulations for newspapers are decreasing and rates should be moving in the same direction to keep pace.
Believe me there are days (for the sake of clarity 4 out of every 5) when I’d love nothing more than to look at the latest audit reports and see nothing but huge decreases in circulation….across the board…..every paper….ridiculous unexplainable massive numbers. Ahhhh, if life were only that easy….
‘You are certainly right sir. Circulation figures are way down and effective tomorrow so are your ratesJ!’
‘10% decrease in rate to offset a 10% decrease in circulation? Seems fair to me….lol!’
‘Say what? You want free colour to justify your continued support of the print media…..? I’m gonna have to run that up the food chain……ah screw it who am I kidding…..free colour for you! Indefinitely no less!’ Yay!!!
…..rather than returning home every night beaten and bruised and frustrated beyond belief, I’m now golfing at noon with my basement renos complete, lawn mowed and hedge trimmed…… and probably a big fat bonus cheque in my pocket for ‘salvaging the business.’
Nope. I just don’t have that kind of luck.
You see in my world, I work in a cubicle of the print industry and a corner of the country where things really don’t change that much. In my world circulations for paid newspapers decrease by ones and twos when old Aunt Nellie over on 1st Street kicks the bucket or when Junior decides to go off to college. The decreases in circulation are larger, but no less beyond the publishers control, for free newspapers and in 9X out of 10 occur as a direct result of increased Canada Post mailing costs.
Of course I have facts!
In 2009 there were 263 total member editions in the AdWest Marketing network. They combined for a circulation of 1,670,849 copies. In 2013, the AdWest network has grown by 8 editions and totals of 271 titles combining for on a circulation of 1,904,332. While I’m arguably not the worlds best mathematician, that feels very much to me like an INCREASE in circulation of nearly 300,000 copies or 14%.
Astute observers would look at those numbers and immediately point to the fact that they don’t consider the composition of the membership 2009 vs 2013. The reason for the increase might be simply explained as small circulation newspapers in 2009 closing only to be replaced by large circulation urban titles in 2013. Those individuals would be correct…..kind of.
If you compare the circulation figures of continuous members only, we’re looking at a total circulation in 2009 of 1,613,456 compared to 1,595,229 today. A drop of 18,227 copies total (73 copies on average per title) or a whopping total of 1.1% overall.
But I don’t give up that easy….
In Winnipeg in 2010 CanStar Community Newspapers launched a new community product to serve the growing southwest area of the city. In carving out a niche for the Sou’Wester, a total of 32,130 in circulation was removed from the continuous members, the Lance and the Metro and given to the non-continuous member, the Sou’Wester.
In 2011 Black Press purchased the Red Deer Express and in order to integrate it into their Red Deer model, dropped the entire rural distribution of the product so not to compete with it’s other weekly product, the Red Deer Life. Another 8,230 copies explained.
For those still doing math, that’s over 40,000 in ‘lost’ circulation stemming not from indifferent readers or cancelled subscriptions….but from logical business decisions. Remove those two examples from the big picture and circulation for 4 year continuous members is up, again. Now what were we saying about those rates again?
Don’t Leave Now….I’m Just Getting Started!
Advertisers expecting decreases in rates commensurate with decreased circulation when it comes as a result of reader indifference or migration to other vehicles aren’t necessarily wrong with their thinking. In fact as I’ve learned in the past year, the metrics are pretty straightforward…less circulation equals a lower percentage reach in the market and therefore the advertising should cost less. But what happens when the changing complexion of the market itself is the catalyst for the decrease (or frankly, increase) in circulation and not cancelled subscriptions?
Of the top 20 continuous AdWest members since 2009, only one of them is a paid circulation newspaper and can reasonably be grouped in with most major market dailies as having lost penetration with their print product in their market. The other 19 (including the 3 examples above) are controlled distribution publications who’ve not necessarily lost any reach % in their markets but have actually had their markets ‘change’ on them. Maybe that community of 200 people, 100 miles up the highway now has a closer Walmart and people don’t travel to shop in our town as much as they used to? Maybe it’s a business decision? With mailing costs approaching .40/copy, cutting a mere 3,000 copies from the weekly distribution adds in excess of $60,000 to the annual bottom line. Gotta find a way to account for those rate decreases somewhere! In either event, the impact of the lost circulation for free distribution newspapers is usually negligible given the differences in geography that are almost exclusively prairie anomalies.
In an era of where targeting at microscopic geographies is the norm how important is the loss of 73 net circulation for the Baldur Gazette (assuming I’m too tired of arguing my Winnipeg and Red Deer points) in some far-flung community in an FSA far far away? Is that really confirmation that print is dead or Aunt Nellie is?
J
Adwest along with the SWNA are pleased to announce the addition of the Swift Current Southwest Booster to our member publications.
For complete publication details, please visit AdWest.ca
