Topic11: Using Print
Newspapers, Magazines and Out-of-Home Advertising
Newspaper is the medium most accessible to the widest range of advertisers due to the low actual cost as well as the geographic specificity. Yearly investments for placement are over $40 billion with top national advertisers ( i.e. IBM, GM, Dow Jones) competing with local advertisers (i.e., Federated, May/Nordstroms, Time-Warner) for space.
National advertisers include many business products and services because a number of national papers are predominately for the business audience (Wall Street Journal).
Specialized newspapers have narrowly defined audiences whereas local papers are dominated by retail advertising as these local papers have tight geographic targeting capabilities. National advertisers use newspaper advertising as part of a multimedia plan whereas local advertisers (though often national companies, i.e. the local McDonald’s) rely on papers as their primary medium.
Though circulation appears to be declining, the number of adults reading a daily paper has plateaued at about 61% (versus 78% in 1970). The loss of patrons to both television and the internet is not as evident in other countries such as Japan, where readers often subscribe to several papers.
Research indicates several reading segments and differences in reading preferences within these segments. Clearly there is a marked decline in “news as entertainment” whereas “news you can use” is rising. Children begin reading at home and this gives them a sense of importance and connection to the world and to the family in that they can participate in newsworthy conversations (i.e., a discussion about sports at the dinner table). At least two-thirds of teenagers read at least one paper a week. They read if what they seek to find is easy to locate and relevant to their lives. Young adults are the prime market for newspapers although they prefer magazines and books 3 to 1 over newspapers.
However young adults are career oriented and want to stay informed about events pertaining to their jobs, career management, leisure options and luxury items. Women below the age of 35 are also a prime segment for advertisers, especially working women.
These women actually read more than men, although like men, they prefer magazines and books. Yet newspapers still devote twice as much space to topics of interest to men.
The advantages of newspapers include the face that they still reach over 50% of US households (which is more than 150 million adults). Geographic selectivity for most local papers allows for specific targeting with zoned editions targeting even more narrowly defined areas within a metro market. The short timeline needed to produce an ad (as it is print, it does not require sound or film) as well as the late deadline (often 4 PM the day prior to printing) and the regularity of production are great advantages over other media. The creative opportunities are expanding (color printing is improving dramatically) however the format is relatively inexpensive compared to television production. And finally, “if it’s in the newspaper it must be true” allows for great credibility for any materials contained within.

The disadvantages of newspapers include the fact that even though there is good geographic selectivity, there is very limited segmentation and targeting an audience is difficult. A broad eco-socio-demo audience reads the papers although certain sections can achieve gender targeting (i.e. men’s health, sports to some extent). There are creative constraints in that the reproduction quality of illustrations or photographs is limited and of course, print is unidimensional hence there are no attention getting visual or sound effects. Newspapers, like most other media, are cluttered with advertising making it difficult for your ad to stand out. Finally, newspapers tend to have a short life – a day, or week – after which, they are disposed of.
The Standard Advertising Unit (SAU) allows national advertisers to purchase newspaper advertising in standard units from one paper to another. There are 57 varieties of these units that are recognized by the industry.
A coop ad is where a national advertiser and a local retail outlet jointly promote an item and share the production and placement costs. So the costs for an ad for Green Giant peas at Pathmark have been jointly shared by the manufacturer and the retail store.
Direct Marketing in Newspapers:
There are over 1,500 daily newspapers with a combined circulation of 60 million providing an excellent opportunity for direct response advertisers. Preprinted materials have been a marketing method in use since the 1950s where these preprints are stuffed as supplemental materials into the papers. In 1965 Time-Life Books began a mail order division and Columbia Record and Tape Club followed. Preprints provide abundant space for detailed listings of items that are available and may also provide a perforated postpaid return card that can easily be mailed by the consumer.
There are syndicated newspaper supplements such as Parade Magazine and USA
Weekend that are carried by many newspapers and can easily reach 75 million. In
Parade, 60% of the advertising carries some kind of coupon that enables the advertiser to measure results. Parade and USA Weekend offer mail order booklets inserted on a regular basis. Often these are a “Dutch door” because they resemble the doors that the
Dutch would have which allowed the top half to open while the bottom remained closed
(and the residents could look outside and converse with their neighbors while still having the bottom closed). These run 12 pages and sometimes are taken over entirely by one advertiser while other times several will participate.
The comic section is a great direct market medium although it is not glamorous or prestigious. Millions of comics are distributed in 400 papers. One comic network is
Metro-Puck comics which is distributed in 250 papers and has a total circulation of more than 46 million. Surprisingly the medium age of the comic reader is 39 years old, which is slightly younger than the overall newspaper median of 40.2 in the US. Statistics indicate that both educated and higher income people do read comics. The ad-in-anenvelope is a good technique for this section. It was used by Seattle Film Works in a massive campaign where the envelope was enclosed and the customer was to send their exposed film in the pre-paid envelope to Seattle for processing whereupon they would

receive a free roll of film along with their developed pictures. The standard charge for a freestanding envelope is $40. per thousand plus the cost to print.
In newspapers, unlike all other print media, the reader is influenced by news events so if a catastrophe or scandal occurs, the reader’s attention will not be focused on the advertising. This is not true with magazines where a reader will put the magazine aside to read during hours not taken up by involvement with local events.
If you are considering running a newspaper ad, it might be prudent to test it first. Try the mail order section of the NY Times Sunday Magazine. This will give you the sense that if the advertising is not successful there, it won’t work anywhere.
Magazines
Magazines were the first form of national advertising in that the railroads could carry them from one point to another. Today with rising costs and a growingly competitive environment coupled with rising postal costs, many magazines fail.
There are over 12,000 magazines published in the US and they are categorized by their target audience: consumer (Ebony, Men’s Health, Vogue); business (Fortune, Forbes,
American Family Physician); and farm (Farm Journal, Successful Farming).
The average reading time for consumer magazines is 52 minutes and studies show that the more educated the reader, the more thoroughly they will read a magazine.
The advantages of the medium magazines include audience selectivity in that magazines target highly selective audiences with their specificity (i.e., Modern Bride,, Scuba
Diving) . Additionally, the audiences are very interested in the merchandising and voluntarily expose themselves to these ads (i.e., Golf Digest provides information about the newest equipment available. Magazines offer good creative opportunities as the pages tend to be glossy and have beautiful reproductions. Another advantage of magazines is that they are saved and even passed along – both of which increases reach.
As with newspapers, magazines offer an aura of credibility in that most consumer magazines are considered authorities in their fields (Road and Track, Fortune).
The disadvantages of magazines include one of the advantages listed above: limited reach and frequency with the specificity of the editorial material. There is much clutter, although less than with newspapers. An average magazine is half editorial and entertainment and half advertising material, but some specialized magazines may contain as much as 80% advertising. Magazines require long lead times with submission requirements as much as 90 days in advance. The absolute cost is far higher than newspapers and may be prohibitive.
Partial run editions are available and some publications offer more than 100 combinations of geographic/demographic editions to choose from. Demographic partial runs are

distributed via zip codes that identify the income within areas. There are also vocational editions that identify readers in terms of careers and geographic partial runs.
Magazine networks are available by which an advertiser can purchase groups of magazines together using one insertion order and one invoice. There are over 100 magazine networks each with dozens of different titles. They fall into two categories: single publisher networks in which a publisher owns several magazines of interest to a particular audience (i.e., Peterson Magazine Network which includes Hot Rod, Motor
Trend, Sport and others) and independent networks made up of different publishers with magazines that appeal to similar audiences. With independent networks, a rep firm contracts with each publisher and sells advertising in the group.
Direct response in magazines
Mail order shopping traffic is high and found in such magazines as TV Guide (think of the Franklin Mint), Family Circle, Good Housekeeping as well as Playboy. Some magazines offer regional editions (The New Yorker, Time) and to place regionally may be an advantage in that the investment is smaller than a full national placement. Some regions are better for mail order than others with the West Coast being the best and New
England being the worst. Buying regionally allows for multiple copy testing within a single issue of a publication. What this means is that you can test two or more versions of the ad within a region to see which pulls more responses. Some magazines offer an
A/B split-run copy test where one piece of copy is tested against a control piece of copy in another edition. Regional sections usually appear in the back pages or in the “well” of several consecutive pages of advertising with no editorial matter to catch the reader.
These sections are considered relatively poor positioning and this could effect the results as much as 50% (making the response that much lower than if the same ad had appeared within the first few pages of the publication).
Bind-in inserts cards allow the reader to easily respond. They have great impact but they do cost more. There is a space charge for the page and the card and sometimes a separate binding charge plus the cost of a black and white page but they may pull four times the response.
Bingo cards are information request cards that make it easy for the reader to request information. Bingo card is a generic term for any form of reply card or printed form on a page on which the publisher prints numbers for specific literature. The reader circles the number (within the magazine there will be the statement “for further information, circle item # X). To be effective, advertisers must respond quickly. There is also the decision as to whether to charge for the literature, which may act as a qualifier (The Spiegel catalogue charges for the magazine but then offers that amount as a discount on the first order).
Response patterns for a mass circulation weekly magazine (TV Guide, Parade) pulls a higher percentage of total response in the first few weeks than a shelter book (House and
Gardens, Better Homes and Gardens) which has slower response curves but keeps pulling

a longer time because the reader keeps the publication for a longer time. Subscription circulation pulls faster than the newsstand because subscribers receive copies within a few days whereas newsstand sales are spread out over the month.