WHO READS NEWSPAPERS

The simple and truthful answer to “Who reads newspapers?” is “Just about everyone!” Though the trend in newspaper readership is downward, the majority of adult Americans, regardless of income, race, or sex, read either a daily or Sunday newspaper, and many of them read both. Furthermore, they read their paper not only for news and features but according to an Advertising Age study, even more intensely for the paper’s advertising, including the classified section.

General Audience Newspapers As of September 2001, 1,482 newspapers were published in the United States. Of these, 776 were morning papers, 704 were evening papers,1 and 913 published a Sunday edition. The six-month average circulation of the daily newspapers totaled 55,859,000. Approximately 82 percent of this total, or 45million-plus, is made up of morning papers; the remaining 18 percent, or 9 million-plus, are afternoon editions. Sunday papers, published by 913 papers, totaled 62,020,0002 or over 6 million more than the combined morning and evening daily total.

This Sunday total is not as surprising as it might at first appear. Papers sell more copies on Sunday, and the larger-circulation papers are most likely to produce a Sunday edition. (The only papers in the top-100 group not to publish a Sunday edition are The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.) America’s largest 100, make up 50 percent of the circulation of all the dailies published. Weekly papers, which are equally important in many smaller communities, add about 8 million for an overall daily/weekly total of 63 million-plus. More than 85 percent of these papers, are delivered to homes, offices, and businesses. The rest are single-copy issues bought from newsstands, retail shops, and vending machines. While the January 2000 circulation of general daily and Sunday papers has shrunk in the past five years, the opposite is true for target audience publications, which match it in paid circulation and more than triple it when free circulation is included.

Newspaper Readership Although industry statistics on readership are best taken with a grain of salt, long experience in this field indicates that the vast majority of delivered general audience papers—75 percent seems a conservative estimate—go to homes or businesses with at least two adult readers. This gives a probable readership of about 110 million adults who have paid not only for news but also to let advertisers try to sell them their products or services!

Who Advertises in Newspapers . . . and Why Newspaper advertising is, overwhelmingly, used by local businesses targeted at local sales, though a surprisingly large number of these businesses have no formalized media plan. According to Direct Marketing magazine, advertising in all U.S. newspapers, including supplements, totaled over $49 billion in 2000, a 30% increase over the past five years.

WHO READS MAGAZINES If we consider only those magazines that carry advertising, according to Media Research more than 90 percent of all American adults read at least one magazine per month, with the average adult reading two magazines per week and spending about one hour with each. Magazine Categories SRDS, a huge database to be discussed shortly, divides magazines into four broad categories: 1. Consumer 2. Agrimedia 3. Business to Business 4. Professional

Scholarly publications, a category that would add thousands of additional titles to the list, are so specialized and often of such small circulation that only those wanting to advertise to those fields concern themselves with their rates. Unlike “scholarly” magazines, “educational” media are in the business category aimed at the preschool through university market.

HOW TO PICK PRINT MEDIA FOR ADVERTISING The easiest way to pick media is by how well they reach your target audience(s) (TA)—the audience you want to reach. To do this, check on where other advertisers trying to reach the same targeted audience are advertising in a consistent fashion. But don’t just look. Do as you did when new to setting objectives. Telephone advertisers. Explain that you are a novice and ask for anything they might tell you about the success of their ads in specific publications. Next, call advertisers who use a medium only once or a few times and ask the same questions. Ask, too, which media they would recommend that might be more effective. People love to give advice, so be sure to check whether or not they actually do advertise in the places they recommend. Before using the Rule of Two—or any other rule like it—to evaluate a competitor’s advertising schedule, consider the following three points:

1. Response request. Is there any response requested in the ad? If the reader is not urged, or at least asked, to do something, how can you know the ad’s results?

• “1/3-OFF” qualifies as a hint.

• “BRING THIS COUPON TO GET 1/3-OFF TILL WEDNESDAY!” qualifies as a test.

2. How to quantify. Is there an obvious or subtle way to quantify; that is, to know responses to the ad? For instance, is there a coupon or reply card that is coded to each medium and issue, or a telephone extension or name for which to ask?

3. Time to quantify. Before assuming that good results are why the same ad was repeated, check to see whether there was enough time between issues to permit evaluation of results before the next ad was run. In a daily newspaper, that can be as little as three days. In weekly publica tions, rescheduling an ad even a single day after it appears can mean one to five weeks before it will run again. In most monthly magazines, the wait will be two to four months. The Rule of Three (or “Three Hit Theory”) has primary value for longerterm “institutional” advertising targeted at brand recognition rather than the immediate response wanted by many retailers. Note that successful retailers and retail chains—from groceries to computers to autos—often do both kinds of ads.

IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE TO ADVERTISE

For anyone, beginner or longtime media professional, the guides to the full range of options on advertising to a specific audience or in a particular field are the SRDS services. The print editions are in many public libraries and practically all professional advertising media departments, which also have access to the online versions. These huge databases, available online and in paperbound volumes, are frequently updated. They give detailed information, field by field, on practically every medium that accepts advertising. Individual SRDS guide titles,4 as this is written, include the following:

• Consumer Magazine Advertising Source™

• Business Publication Advertising Source® Includes Card Decks,5 Health Care

• SRDS Media Planning System™ A new online media planning solution. Permits seamless budget, schedule, and campaign management, using SRDS consumer and Business data.

• Newspaper Advertising Source®

• Community Publication Advertising Source™

• Circulation In-depth analysis of newspaper circulation

• TV & Cable Source®

• Radio Advertising Source™

• Direct Marketing List Source®

• Interactive Advertising Source™ Web sites that accept advertising

• Out-of-Home Advertising Source™ Twenty-one away-from-home or office media such as billboards, transit, in-flight, and so on

• The Lifestyle Market Analyst®

• SRDS International Media Guides™

• Technology Media Sources™

• Hispanic Media & Market Source™

An additional SRDS service covers the mechanical aspects of production, that is, how to get each kind of ad physically ready for a specific medium. But you are unlikely to need that unless you are responsible for furnishing the materials for the ads to many advertising media. The same information is available on an individual basis from any of the media you decide to use.

Understanding SRDS Print Media Listings

Listings in SRDS follow a consistent format of subject, state, and city, ordered alphabetically within each category. Individual listings begin with brief descriptions of the audience and editorial content of the publication. Then they go through a series of uniformly numbered segments of specific interest to advertisers. Thus, categories 4–7 always explain basic costs, and category 10 covers the availability of premium positions for advertising, such as the page opposite the table of contents. Many advertisers believe that these locations get exceptionally high readership and are willing to pay a premium to have one of their ads appear there. If premium positions are not listed—or present on a rate card—they may be available by request on a “first-come” basis. (One of my greatest advertising coups was to get ads for a single client on all covers of all programs of their industry’s most important trade show by asking and paying for the space 18 months in advance of publication. No one had ever asked before—and a special meeting of furious, and much larger, competitors foreclosed the same option for anyone, including themselves, in the future.)

Reliability of SRDS Data SRDS does not itself research its information but uses data provided by each publication on an issue-by-issue basis. Many of the publishers supply information on circulation in a standard format that is audited by the Advertising Bureau of Circulation (ABC), an agency very much like a CPA firm. Whether or not the information is audited is not necessarily an indication of its reliability. The auditing process is quite expensive and unaffordable by some new publications and publications with a small circulation. Other publications have a long history of satisfied advertisers and feel no need to go through auditing. Auditing is, however, a factor you should consider, especially with publications that have multiple audiences, not all of which are your potential customers. Category 18 gives the basic statistical information about a publication and tells whether or not the information is based on audited data. If the publication is audited, an Internet link to the complete audit statement is provided. Thus, for example, in an August 2002 listing, the audited magazine Art Business News edited for art dealers and framers, tells us its territorial distribution and that of its 29,000-plus circulation, about one-third are retail galleries while the majority of the others are picture framers. If SRDS does not have this type of circulation analysis, request a media kit from the publication itself. Magazines and trade papers that sound right from their title may have substantial parts of their circulation that are not your market. For instance, without the circulation analysis, how would you know that Art Business News is maybe the wrong medium to promote art supplies?

Don’t trust luck. Know before you buy! If your interest does lie in reaching galleries or framers or both, find out whether any other publications reach that audience, including those with unaudited circulation. Before you decide on any of them, however, ask each publication why you should use it to reach your specific audience, and then make your evaluation as you would any other investment—including the possibility that you should switch your promotional effort to direct mail or some other medium. Don’t fall into the trap of advertising just to see your name in print.

HOW TO RESEARCH A SUBJECT

Though even the SRDS services can’t cover every subject, try them first. For online directories, flexible search optons are available. You can search by classification groupings, individual titles, and keyword. You can also narrow your search to just media that are audited. If you still can’t find what you need, phone the SRDS Listing Locator Service at (800) 851-7737 or visit them online at www.SRDS.com. If, as is likely, you do find your category, you can link directly to additional planning information, such as audit statements, online media kits, and media web sites. You can also communicate directly with the right media personnel using e-mail hotlinks within a listing. For printed directories, check the classification groupings near the front. If your subject is not there, turn to the index of individual titles and look for a keyword. Ask a few of your larger competitors, too.

They want to keep their trade media in existence by finding additional advertisers. It is possible that no specific medium exists for your product or service. In that case, consider a more general publication that’s likely to be read by your audience (the Sunday edition of the New York Times by college presidents, for instance, or The Wall Street Journal by wealthy retirees), providing your reaching them that way has at least the potential of being profitable. If, as is likely, you do find your category, contact the appropriate media and ask for a Media Kit information package. Request several copies of each publication to get an idea of its editorial content as a “home” for your message. Each medium’s representative will probably also wish to meet with you. You can arrange that at your convenience.