"Agencies and advertisers save time and money by using highly skilled newspaper planning and negotiating companies that can provide media-plan options as well as marketing expertise."

Robert Watson

Media Outlook 2001

From ANA/The Advertiser, March 2001
Reprinted by Permission

It’s the time of year when we are asked to play "Kamak, the Omnipotent." And hone our projections for 2001. We see consumer confidence ebbing, corporate profits suspect, and our industry trying to adjust from eight years of euphoria to the first hiccup since the early 90’s.

Contrary to this guarded outlook, we believe it will be a strong year for national advertising in newspapers. The reasons are twofold. The first is that newspapers are now better positioned to deliver results for national advertisers than at any other time in the past 30 years. Second, the success that new newspaper advertisers have had with the medium has resulted in very strong momentum.

The NAA estimates a 14 percent increase for 2000 over 1999 for all national advertising, and is forecasting a 10 percent bump for 2001. Ad volume at the NNN alone has more than doubled in the last two years.

Characteristics of the newspaper medium ¤ most importantly, reach and impact ¤ have fueled a very strong momentum.

Reach

There is no other mass medium today that can offer advertisers the unduplicated reach of newspapers each and every day in any or every market. Advertisers seeking upscale customers can rely on newspapers to achieve 60 percent or greater reach against this target. Further, this "greater than Super Bowl" reach can be obtained at the lowest cost-per-reach point of any mass medium.

Impact

It is well accepted that as clutter increases, overall advertising effectiveness declines. This is true for a four-color magazine ad that competes with 100 other color ad pages for a reader’s attention. It is also true for a person being exposed to 80 commercials in the average day, or fringe viewing two-hour viewing block. The question is: How good does your ad/commercial have to be to break through? It’s obvious to me that it has to be very good-and relatively few are.

Studies done by NAA and NNN have demonstrated the great strength of color ads in the black³and-white medium of newspapers. Newspapers create advertising impact and a way to break through the clutter of other similar advertising messages with color and/or various ad sizes. There is little doubt that the poster-sized pages of newspapers stand out and truly arrest the reader’s attention. After all, isn’t that what advertising is meant to do? Retailers know that strength.

Flexibility

Newspapers offer exceptional geographic flexibility, enabling clients to pinpoint zip code delivery in most markets, and even carrier route levels in others. There may be no better vehicle for "recency" or immediacy planning. Newspapers allow advertisers to reach and impact prospects closest to the point of purchase. Unlike magazines, which can take a month to cumulate total audience, newspapers deliver exposure that same day. Unlike radio, newspaper advertisers can generate substantial reach levels.

Environment/Receptivity

Select from a wide choice of editorial environments: news, lifestyles, sports, health, business, entertainment, and food. Listeners to radio and viewers of TV are there to be entertained. Magazine readers are generally looking for entertainment and information. Newspaper readers are there for information and to be enlightened. They are also there to shop. A 1999 NAA readership study showed clearly that newspapers are the primary source of product information.

Ease of Planning

Organizations like the NNN have eased the burden of newspaper planning and buying with popular, one-order/one-bill services. Agencies and advertisers save time and money by using highly skilled newspaper planning and negotiating companies that can provide media-plan options as well as marketing expertise.

At NNN, we have professionals who have primarily worked at agencies, client-marketing organizations, and newspapers. We understand how important it is to custom-fit proposals to client needs. The result of this concentrated skill and its compelling benefits are evident merely by newspapers’ expanding list of clients.

The dot.com shakeout, the bizarre nature of the last general election, the teetering economy, the uncertainty of the securities market, the unceasing consolidation in all business (including advertising), are but a few of the issues impacting our advertising budgets and health. We are confident that national ad business in newspapers is trending strongly in a positive direction and can withstand all but the perfect storm.