Print media advantages and disadvantages include the disadvantages related to costs, audience, and analytics.

This is the fourth post and completes my series on print media advantages and disadvantages. Prior posts in this series include:

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages For Marketing - Readers

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – 2 More Advantages
Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages - Not Timely or Efficient

Today’s post covers three print media disadvantages that relate to rising costs, falling subscriptions and readership by younger audiences, and the difficulty of tracking analytics with print media.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Disadvantage 3 - Costs

Paper and labor costs have been rising. Thus, print media expenses have increased the costs of, and lowered the number of, subscriptions and advertisements. This results in what journalists call a “shrinking news hole.”

A shrinking news hole occurs when costs go up while sales are going down. The print media entrepreneur has to give advertising a larger percentage of space while simultaneously reducing the total amount of space available. So the hole devoted to news shrinks.

Shrinking news holes lessen publicity opportunities and alter the editorial/advertising ratio for most print media. So there’s less content to attract people to ads.

As subscriber numbers also decrease, advertising space becomes less valuable. Most print media base their advertising rates on their number of subscribers or regular readers. Then advertising rates reflect the cost to reach a thousand of them.

It’s getting more and more difficult for print media to make a profit while keeping cost-per-thousand rates low enough to attract advertisers.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Disadvantage 4 - Audience

Print media doesn’t reach young adults. If you want to reach generations X or X, don’t use print media. These young people don’t trust mass media, and they don’t like to read.

The younger generations don’t trust the media because they’ve experienced media representatives usurping people’s privacy. They don’t trust the media because they see the sensationalism and subjectivity of mass media news.

The younger generations developed learning styles not well supported by print media. They want more than a written message sometimes complimented by art. They want video, audio, animation, and other interactive and sensual content. Just reading leaves them less than captured by a message.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Disadvantage 5 - Analytic

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It’s difficult to track analytics from print media ads. Print media provides no technology to track what pages, and specific content that people read. This makes it difficult to adjust marketing messages and make them more effective.

For example, let’s say you write a news release and submit it to hundreds of print media. How can you learn how effective your message is? Just determining the print media that run your release requires hiring a clipping service. Then you won’t start getting clippings for a week. So by the time you know which media used your release, it’s too late to encourage those who didn’t.

Tracking how many people read your release or were influenced by it is even more difficult. In fact about the only way is to encourage a quick action that’s unique to your news release offer.

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Posted 11-24-08: Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages - Costs, Audience, Analytics

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This third post on print media advantages and disadvantages covers the first two disadvantages.
Print media aren’t as timely or as efficient as other media.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Disadvantage 1 - Timely

Print media don’t get news out as quickly as Internet news sites.

Much content in print media is published online first.

Of course print media hasn’t provided the most urgent news since the advent of radio. It’s instead relied on in-depth articles to flesh out the teaser type news often the fare of broadcast media.

Now readers can get both urgent and in-depth news on newspaper Web sites. The articles are written on computers and can be uploaded to a Web site faster than printed.

But ask yourself if it’s in the print media’s best interest to provide everything online. Unless online advertising income exceeds that of print media advertising, I don’t think so.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Disadvantage 2 - Efficiency

Local newspapers are inefficient

Declining subscriptions – According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, newspaper subscriptions continue to decline. BtoB: The Magazine For Marketing Strategists reported in the Nov 10, 2008 issue that newspaper circulations dropped by 4.64 percent over last year. And last year, circulations dropped 2.6 percent over the year before.

So it’s difficult to reach some target markets at all through print media. Generations X and Y prefer online and other more interactive and more personal media. Although some print media are highly targeted, most newspapers and many magazines are mass media. Their subscribers will usually include many people who aren’t in your target market.

That increases advertising cost. See for yourself. Subtract those not in your target market. Then calculate your advertising spend by dividing it by target market members. I’ll bet you’re paying more per targeted person reached than with a medium that reaches a larger proportion of your target market.

In conclusion, many print media aren’t efficient at reaching the people in your target market.

To discover three more print media disadvantages, click on the link below:

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages - Costs, Audience, Analytics

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Posted 11-21-08: Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages - Not Timely or Efficient

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This series on print media advantages and disadvantages started yesterday when I covered three print media advantages. Today’s post will complete my discussion of print media advantages with two more.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Advantage 4

Print media still provides publicity.

Although increased costs have shrunk news holes and increased the space devoted to advertising, less space is left for press release articles. But as news staffs also shrink, fewer staff members are available to write other types of articles.

Continuing layoffs and downsizing increases the opportunities for well-written press releases that provide newsworthy information. This requires knowing what’s newsworthy and providing it through copy written in Associated Press style, and in objective language.

If your marketing plan includes publicity, print media still provides the opportunity to attract attention.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Advantage 5

Online versions of print media help to keep online advertising affordable.

This is not so much an advantage of print media as the effect of providing print media content online.

Most print media now have an online version or at least a Web site. All the information placed online by print media keeps a constant stream of fresh new content for searchers. It also keeps down the price of advertising to reach those searchers.

Without print media providing their online versions loads of content, advertising space on good content sites would likely be more expensive. Plus many print media businesses will often provide a special discount if you purchase ad space in their print and online versions. This further keeps online web site advertising inexpensive.

This completes my coverage of print media advantages. My next post will start a look at print media disadvantages.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages –A Preview of Disadvantages

As a preview to print media disadvantages, I provide the following main points.

Print media disadvantages include:

1. It speed compared to online,
2. The inefficiency of less than national,
3. High production costs,
4. Inability to reach young adults,
5. Difficult to track and get accountability statistics.

You can get more on these topics in my next post. Just click the link below:

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages - Not Timely or Efficient

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Posted 11-19-08: Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – 2 More Advantages

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Print media advantages and disadvantages influence modern marketing.

Marketers have long used print media as a stable in marketing campaigns. From free publicity to paid advertising, print media (newspapers, newsletters, and magazines) have long been a marketing mainstay.

But in modern marketing that’s changing. Print media has become more expensive and less effective for modern marketing. This series of posts covers print media advantages and disadvantages in today’s marketing environment.

This first post will cover three advantages related to print media readers.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Advantages

Print media advantages derive from two main sources.

The first source is the ability to reach a specific target market whose members read print media. Print media advantages 1-3 relate to readers and are covered in today’s post.

The second source includes changes from today’s marketing environment. Print media advantages 3-4 relate to such changes and will be included in my next post.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Advantage 1

Print media reach older adults.

If your target market is comprised of the WWII and Baby Boomer generations, you can reach them effectively through print media. These generations grew up with print media. Most are more comfortable using print media than online media.

In addition, older Americans like the sensations related to print media. They like the feel of holding and handling the paper. Many like to mark on it and fold it. In fact many will print out information they get from the Internet so they can absorb the information using the sensual learning habits developed when they were in school.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Advantage 2

Community print media reach homeowners and community leaders.

Media research has long found that people who subscribe to community newspapers are far more inclined to own their homes and to be actively involved in their communities than the general population.

If your business is a local one, you may need to maintain positive relationships with homeowners and community leaders. Homeowners comprise the target market for many small businesses. And people who are actively involved in their communities have extended networks and influence many others.

Thus, the ability to reach community print media readers is a definite advantage.

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – Advantage 3

Print media reach business owners.

Business owners read more print media than the general public. To build successful businesses, they need to know what’s happening in the economic and marketing environments.

Print media provides this information for smaller areas than almost any other media. For example, if you have a brick and motor store in a small town, the community newspaper provides the information that most affects your store.

Business owners also keep up on what’s happening in their industries. Most read business related print media, from association newsletters to magazines that concentrate on individual aspects of running a business.

So if you want to reach business owners, especially older business owners, you can through print media.

These three advantages of print media relate to readers. Two more relate to changes in today’s marketing environment and will be included in the next post in this series. You can access it below:

Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages – 2 More Advantages

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Posted 11-17-08: Print Media Advantages And Disadvantages
For Marketing - Readers

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