I really didn’t need to read it to know it. I’ve counted various newspapers among my clients since becoming self-employed. When my freelance assignments slow down, I know ad money is down. But the picture painted by an article in Editor & Publisher  is murkier than I thought. E&P says, according to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, “…total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006—the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950.”

The newspaper used to be the best place to get noticed. Now the Web does the trick, and with a seemingly endless variety of options for messaging. Ads on top sites like Problogger and top blog communities like Blog Catalog can match consumer to subject matter with finely tuned precision. Even job seekers often turn to the Web now on sites like Talent Zoo instead of skimming the print classified ads formerly serving as the golden highway taking wannabe to employee.

It’s my personal opinion newspapers are doing one thing that costs dearly. Much of the content on the website for a paper is the same as the content for the print edition. Free community blogs for citizen journalists are big right now, but most of these aren’t going to generate a lot of traffic and most of these are not going to attract a busy reader. Navel gazing is something we can do for ourselves.

Newspapers of yesteryear weren’t a staple brand just because of news. The newspaper was the centerpiece of a community. Weddings, births and deaths were routinely announced. Poetry was part of the newspaper on a regular basis. Recipes and cooking tips also appeared frequently. People felt connected to their hometown paper.

Today, much of what’s on your print front page—in the whole front section really—is  wire service news—you could pick up a daily from any major metro area and get pretty much the same story. The editorial page is dominated by the same national figures, and you can divide them into two groups: left and right. The metro paper here doesn’t, according to what I’ve been told, even have a budget for freelance opinion pieces. Community and local news is sandwiched in 1-2 times per week and revolves largely around schools, churches and nonprofits. By retreating from the community and by trimming in-person coverage of local news to a bare minimum, print newspapers are basically shredding their own paper. The flip side of the coin is of course that much of the messaging is heading to the Web, with 18.8 percent growth last year according to E&P. Whether it’s sustainable is anybody’s guess.

Truth is there’s opportunity in this scenario. It may be time to take a creative hammer to existing print models and transform them into a product offering benefits that can’t be found elsewhere.

Technorati Tags: Newspapers, Advertising, Revenue, media, industry news

Article Tags: Advertising | media | newspapers | revenue
Filed under: Advertising, Industry News, Marketing Trends, Miscellaneous