If anyone knows how to make a good print ad, you’d think it would be someone in the newspaper business. Newspapers are the media of choice for retailers…and no one knows selling like retailers.  I remember working on a piece of retail wireless business and the company could map daily sales based on how far forward they were in the paper. 

So it is with great surprise that I read a print ad by the Newspaper Project which was a complete waste of money. If you have a pulse, you know newspapers are hemorrhaging ad dollars, cutting staff, and closing down at alarming rates. So much so, that it is the news. When I read the ad headline “America’s Favorite Pastime” showing a baseball superimposed with newsprint, I started to twitch. Especially with copy that reads “That’s why more than 100 million Americas rely on their local newspapers and newspaper websites to stay on top of their game.” When the Titanic was going down, do you reckon the captain was announcing how much the ship cost to build or how elegant it was?

The way to get more people reading newspapers is not to crow about the past or volume of readers, it is about giving people more of what they want. More real news stories, better news stories, more timely news stories. Delivered how they want them, when they want them.  That’s how to sell papers and newspaper websites. OMG. Peace!