I read in last week’s Washington Business Journal that the Washington Post Company’s fourth quarter profits more than quadrupled from the same quarter one year ago. However, most of the net profit came from divisions other than the newspaper, which like many print publications around the country is struggling with digital media competition. In fact The Washington Post’s print advertising revenue was down 23 percent in 2009.
Call me old fashioned, but while I am a huge consumer of digital media and a major proponent of social media, I’m also probably part of a dying breed of news junkies who still subscribe to two daily print newspapers (as well as four magazines). Up until about a year ago, it was three prints, but I finally had to cut the Wall Street Journal loose since I just didn’t have the bandwidth to read all three, and could access the WSJ online when needed.
While I enjoy reading the newspaper, I must admit, I don’t fully understand some of the pricing strategies that are used by a few large print publications. One would think that they would be discounting advertising rates to incentivize frequency buying. However, the rates seem to be much higher today than they were a few years ago when there was less competition. I can buy TV and radio combined for less than some newspapers charge. And let’s be honest, why does anyone still use line inches as an ad measurement formula? Seriously!
They also make it more difficult to place your ad where you want it. What ever happened to good old fashioned customer service?
For the past few years, we have been placing regular ads in the classified section of the Washington Post promoting Goodwill’s job training programs. Recently I tried to place an ad and was told that I could no longer place the ad in the job listings page. I had to place it in the "training programs" section. I told them that our research found that many of the applicants for our job training programs discovered us while looking for jobs in the Post jobs section, therefore it was important that our ad continue to be placed there (plus the job training section is difficult to find). People don’t go to the paper looking for job training. They go to the paper looking for a job. Through our ads, they then learn that free training programs are available to them through Goodwill and decide to apply.
While I wasn’t happy about moving our ad, I was willing to give it a try. After all, it seemed I had no choice. The result was a much smaller number of applicants for our programs. Given that the change in ad location is the only variable that could have led to such a drop in applications (especially in today’s tough job market), I see no reason to continue placing ads in the Washington Post. If they can’t give me the placement that is going to generate results, why make the financial investment? I simply don’t understand the strategy behind forcing customers to place ads in areas that won’t benefit them. How is that providing value to the customer and incentivizing them to return?
Hmmm….do you think that might be impacting their ad revenue?
I’m just saying…
