For papers, online's still a world apart
Media buyers want to see integrated ad packages
By Lisa Snedeker
Jun 25, 2007
For the longest time, newspapers were confused by the web, and frankly annoyed, irked that they were having to post stories for free that print subscribers were having to pay for.
But most publishers have moved a long way in understanding the longer-term strategic value of their web sites.
While they're still not sure how or whether internet advertising will ever make up for losses of print revenue, they know they must invest. They need to build up their online offerings, and they must also integrate them with their print editions, making them that much more attractive to advertisers.
Yet very few papers have yet to pull it off, just a handful. And the fear now is that time is running out.
A new JupiterResearch study on media consumption shows that people are spending more time online but they are doing so at the expense of newspapers. They are going elsewhere. The worry is that advertisers will follow.
The value of integrating print and web is in being able to offer advertisers combo deals that tie them into the paper. That means deals that are flexible, easy to understand, and priced in a way that makes them that much more attractive than anything the competition can come up with.
It's doable. The devil seems to be in the transition. All but a few papers continue to sell print and online separately, through different departments, each with its own rate card.
“I don’t know that newspapers have it 100 percent right yet. They are still trying to figure out structure and price to make those multimedia buys," says Randy Bennett, vice president of audience and new business development for the Newspaper Association of America.
And Bennett allows that there's a real need for it. “From the advertisers’ side, there’s particular interest in trying to change the media mix and moving money online,” he says.
A recent survey by the Newspaper National Network found that 74 percent of their customers felt newspapers should offer integrated packages. NNN sells advertising for more than 1,500 newspapers across the country.
A similar Media Life survey a year ago found much the same thing. Media buyers regarded them a top priority, and a far bigger story, way ahead of the circulation issues that dominate so much of the coverage of newspapers.
The absence of integrated ad deals was a major source of frustration for media buyers.
Little seems to have changed in a year.
“We are not being approached with combo packages as of now,” says Mike Monroe, vice president of media and advertising operations at Macy’s, which advertises in four dozen newspapers and is one of the Los Angeles' largest advertisers. “Frankly, more times than not, we are the ones pushing bundling a print campaign with their (newspapers) online property.”
There are exceptions, of course: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Tampa Tribune are among those cited for offering integrated advertising packages across print and online platforms.
Most newspapers continue to see online as value-added, something to tack onto a print buy. Print is where the big dollars are, and there's where the interest is too.
As Bennett suggests, the problem is working out the details of a truly integrated buy, in which media buyers could move and choose from column A and column B and shift dollars back and forth as plans changed.
That's a lot harder to create than a bundled package with a single price and no flexibility, which is exactly what buyers do not want, says Jason Klein, president and chief executive officer of the Newspaper National Network.
“The print and the online package should not be stapled together but rather built using elastic bands for flexibility," Klein says.
“There is pressure from consumers and the market that newspapers have to be integrated to build that, even if it means they have to retrain their work force,” Klein says. “Change is never easy, but it clearly needs to be done.”
But one buyer at a top agency believes things have improved. She's Jouette Travis, executive vice president and managing director of Dallas-based Carat USA.
“Newspapers are getting better about selling combined print/online packages, and we are responding by having our internal newspaper and online teams make joint evaluations,” she says. "This has resulted in some new programs and begins to pave the way for a migration to the future of newspapers. It's very exciting to see publishers getting into this marketplace."
Showing posts with label on-line. Show all posts
Showing posts with label on-line. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Taking out the Trash: Death of Print edition
Taking out the Trash: Death of Print edition
Media Coverage takes a look at a quintet of stories that show tough times ahead for the game magazine market.
There's a rule of thumb in journalism that it takes three occurrences of something to make a trend. So you could say that these five articles on problems with print gaming journalism might almost constitute almost a double-trend of popular opinion against the medium.
The conventional wisdom that game magazines are being replaced by their online competition is nothing new, of course. But the confluence of chatter around the topic in the last week is notable. Be warned, game magazines – the vultures are circling, and they're hungry.
NP, RIP?
Perhaps the biggest buzz around the print-is-dead issue this week came from an IGN report that the venerable Nintendo Power magazine may be shutting down or restructuring in the wake of massive layoffs planned for September. The report remains an unconfirmed rumor for now, but IGN's Matt Casamassina has shown a talent for breaking Nintendo-related scoops in the past -- see his prediction of Super Paper Mario heading from the GameCube to the Wii, for instance.
The rumor has led many to speculate that the magazine might decide to go completely digital, perhaps being reborn as a downloadable channel on the Wii. It's an intriguing theory, especially in the wake of Sony's decision to shutter the demo-disc-based Official PlayStation Magazine in favor of direct demo downloads to the PS3 and PSP. The possibilities are exciting -- imagine reading a review for a Wii game on your TV and then being able to click a link to download and play a demo immediately.
Frankly, I'd be surprised if either rumor turns out to be true, though. Nintendo's record with online content for the Wii has been spotty at best, and they've shown little to no interest in downloadable game demos thus far. As for the print edition, if Nintendo Power can't survive with its strong brand loyalty, relatively healthy subscriber base, and a marketing subsidy from one of the big three console manufacturers, then what chance does any other game magazine have?
Undercirculation overseas
In overseas death-of-print news, GI.biz reports on a group of game journalists that seemed all too willing to pile on the dead tree medium during a panel at the recent Nordic Game conference. Apparently, the game press market in Norway and Denmark is relatively magazine-free already, and what magazines do exist have a pretty bad reputation. "They're really driven by advertisements, so it seems to me there's a really unhealthy relationship between the PRs and the people who write the magazines," said panel moderator and Denmark journalist Thomas Vigild. "We don't have magazines like in the U.K. where you can say, 'No way, I won't print your PR bulls**t.' That's much harder to do in Denmark because they still need the income from the advertisers."
But the once-proud English print market is also in decline, according to panel member Patrick Garratt of EuroGamer. ""For the unofficial magazine arms race in the U.K., where we had 20 - 30 magazines in massive bags with two discs on the cover and stuff like that - no one cares anymore. It's over." In other words, in England you can lead a consumer to a newsstand full of gaming mags, but you can't make him read.
IDG's advertiser/editor troubles
Speaking of magazines putting up with PR bulls**t, PC World editor-in-chief Harry McCracken decided he'd had enough of it when he resigned his post last week. You might know PC World as the highest-circulation part of IDG, publisher of age-old gaming mag GamePro. McCracken's departure was spurred on by an executive's refusal to run an article critical of Apple, one of the magazine's biggest advertisers.
The article was later run and McCraken reinstated, but the PR damage had already sunk in to an extent. A NeoGAF thread title sums up the opinion succinctly: "Money-hats confirmed at GamePro Publisher."
Accusations of advertiser interference are rampant in the game press, and while both the print and online fields are affected, magazines seem to get the brunt of the "sell out" labeling. Perhaps this is because online outlets are by their nature a bit more transparent and inviting of reader discussion. Perhaps it's because some magazines tend to devote most of their limited space and cover opportunities to heavily advertised games. Whatever the case, these accusations are notoriously hard to prove unless someone makes a principled stand like McCracken did. By the way, if anyone wants to go on the record with insider info, let me know.
Ziff Davis on the down swing
Folio, the magazine about magazines, joins in the fray with a meaty feature on the ailing health of tech mega-publisher Ziff Davis. The piece is full of dreary numbers and quotes, but the most damning bit comes right at the beginning when an Edelman PR rep reveals that his freebie subscription of PC Mag goes right in the trash can. If you can't even give the thing away to PR people, you know you're in trouble.
The article goes on to tell of Ziff's slow but steady transition from print to web, which seems only natural for a tech-savvy audience. Ziff Game Group VP John Davison admits that the publisher's gaming properties were "late to the online world," but 1UP's quick rise to prominence in the online gaming world shows just how much they've made up for lost time.
Disposable Media on disposable magazines
Online magazine Disposable Media rounds out our look at print naysayers this week with an excellent examination of the relative pros and cons of online versus print in the U.K. market. While print magazines take the brunt of the abuse, the feature makes sure to look at the problems with the online game press as well, most notably issues with their reputation. "To be honest, it annoys me that the reputation of games journalism is dragged down by everyone who can afford a domain name," says British freelancer Kieron Gillen. "But when professional ones screw it up on such a regular basis, it seems a little churlish to moan."
Still, the general consensus seems to be that print magazines are having a tough time adjusting to their new position in the order of things. As EuroGamer's Rob Fahey puts it, the people behind print magazines have to "accept that they'll never be the dominant force in games coverage ever again, and I think that might be too painful for a lot of magazine writers to accept just yet."
— —
Media Coverage takes a look at a quintet of stories that show tough times ahead for the game magazine market.
There's a rule of thumb in journalism that it takes three occurrences of something to make a trend. So you could say that these five articles on problems with print gaming journalism might almost constitute almost a double-trend of popular opinion against the medium.
The conventional wisdom that game magazines are being replaced by their online competition is nothing new, of course. But the confluence of chatter around the topic in the last week is notable. Be warned, game magazines – the vultures are circling, and they're hungry.
NP, RIP?
Perhaps the biggest buzz around the print-is-dead issue this week came from an IGN report that the venerable Nintendo Power magazine may be shutting down or restructuring in the wake of massive layoffs planned for September. The report remains an unconfirmed rumor for now, but IGN's Matt Casamassina has shown a talent for breaking Nintendo-related scoops in the past -- see his prediction of Super Paper Mario heading from the GameCube to the Wii, for instance.
The rumor has led many to speculate that the magazine might decide to go completely digital, perhaps being reborn as a downloadable channel on the Wii. It's an intriguing theory, especially in the wake of Sony's decision to shutter the demo-disc-based Official PlayStation Magazine in favor of direct demo downloads to the PS3 and PSP. The possibilities are exciting -- imagine reading a review for a Wii game on your TV and then being able to click a link to download and play a demo immediately.
Frankly, I'd be surprised if either rumor turns out to be true, though. Nintendo's record with online content for the Wii has been spotty at best, and they've shown little to no interest in downloadable game demos thus far. As for the print edition, if Nintendo Power can't survive with its strong brand loyalty, relatively healthy subscriber base, and a marketing subsidy from one of the big three console manufacturers, then what chance does any other game magazine have?
Undercirculation overseas
In overseas death-of-print news, GI.biz reports on a group of game journalists that seemed all too willing to pile on the dead tree medium during a panel at the recent Nordic Game conference. Apparently, the game press market in Norway and Denmark is relatively magazine-free already, and what magazines do exist have a pretty bad reputation. "They're really driven by advertisements, so it seems to me there's a really unhealthy relationship between the PRs and the people who write the magazines," said panel moderator and Denmark journalist Thomas Vigild. "We don't have magazines like in the U.K. where you can say, 'No way, I won't print your PR bulls**t.' That's much harder to do in Denmark because they still need the income from the advertisers."
But the once-proud English print market is also in decline, according to panel member Patrick Garratt of EuroGamer. ""For the unofficial magazine arms race in the U.K., where we had 20 - 30 magazines in massive bags with two discs on the cover and stuff like that - no one cares anymore. It's over." In other words, in England you can lead a consumer to a newsstand full of gaming mags, but you can't make him read.
IDG's advertiser/editor troubles
Speaking of magazines putting up with PR bulls**t, PC World editor-in-chief Harry McCracken decided he'd had enough of it when he resigned his post last week. You might know PC World as the highest-circulation part of IDG, publisher of age-old gaming mag GamePro. McCracken's departure was spurred on by an executive's refusal to run an article critical of Apple, one of the magazine's biggest advertisers.
The article was later run and McCraken reinstated, but the PR damage had already sunk in to an extent. A NeoGAF thread title sums up the opinion succinctly: "Money-hats confirmed at GamePro Publisher."
Accusations of advertiser interference are rampant in the game press, and while both the print and online fields are affected, magazines seem to get the brunt of the "sell out" labeling. Perhaps this is because online outlets are by their nature a bit more transparent and inviting of reader discussion. Perhaps it's because some magazines tend to devote most of their limited space and cover opportunities to heavily advertised games. Whatever the case, these accusations are notoriously hard to prove unless someone makes a principled stand like McCracken did. By the way, if anyone wants to go on the record with insider info, let me know.
Ziff Davis on the down swing
Folio, the magazine about magazines, joins in the fray with a meaty feature on the ailing health of tech mega-publisher Ziff Davis. The piece is full of dreary numbers and quotes, but the most damning bit comes right at the beginning when an Edelman PR rep reveals that his freebie subscription of PC Mag goes right in the trash can. If you can't even give the thing away to PR people, you know you're in trouble.
The article goes on to tell of Ziff's slow but steady transition from print to web, which seems only natural for a tech-savvy audience. Ziff Game Group VP John Davison admits that the publisher's gaming properties were "late to the online world," but 1UP's quick rise to prominence in the online gaming world shows just how much they've made up for lost time.
Disposable Media on disposable magazines
Online magazine Disposable Media rounds out our look at print naysayers this week with an excellent examination of the relative pros and cons of online versus print in the U.K. market. While print magazines take the brunt of the abuse, the feature makes sure to look at the problems with the online game press as well, most notably issues with their reputation. "To be honest, it annoys me that the reputation of games journalism is dragged down by everyone who can afford a domain name," says British freelancer Kieron Gillen. "But when professional ones screw it up on such a regular basis, it seems a little churlish to moan."
Still, the general consensus seems to be that print magazines are having a tough time adjusting to their new position in the order of things. As EuroGamer's Rob Fahey puts it, the people behind print magazines have to "accept that they'll never be the dominant force in games coverage ever again, and I think that might be too painful for a lot of magazine writers to accept just yet."
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