The Media Professional

Revenue in newspapers is down. Circulation in newspapers is down. Stock prices in newspapers are down. Concern about the future of newspapers is the only thing that is up.

And yet…newspapers are the last of the great, mass media. The story needs to be told.

Look first at newspapers’ two historic competitors. Television gets more fragmented each year with hundreds of outlets now available to most people. Broadcast radio may soon be eclipsed by subscription satellite services to vehicles where most people traditionally listen. Radio and television are mere shadows of their former selves.

But the local newspaper is still ordered and read in more than thirty percent of the homes in most markets.

Are the numbers down? Yes, certainly. Is newspaper out? Certainly not. At this particular time, the daily newspaper is the only medium left that can deliver a high percentage of the homes in a market at a reasonable cost.

It’s the last of the great, mass media.

If you have examined advertising media lately, you have heard a lot about how targeted particular media are. “Our (Magazine, website, channel, bathroom stall message board, etc.) reaches (Name the market) more effectively than anyone else.” Or, “Only people who want to buy your product are reading your message. There is no wasted coverage.”

Such claims are coded messages that their reach is shallow. Many media have so few readers or viewers or visitors that they have to fall back on the old target market argument. It’s really all they have.

Newspapers, on the other hand, are still a mass medium. All of those homes that get the newspaper represent potential customers for whatever is being sold, even if no-one in the home knew the product even existed before the paper landed on the driveway this morning.

The power to influence buying decisions is great, but the power to influence people beyond the limited cluster of folks who have already decided to buy is awesome.

And only a mass medium like newspaper can still do that.

That’s the story that needs to be told. Newspapers are the last of the great, mass media.

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American newspapers, anxious to lower their costs, have outsourced many of their production functions to countries, such as India, where costs are lower. Indians aren’t necessarily better artists than the American artists they replace. Their labor is simply less expensive to purchase…today.

The ready supply of available workers in India allows their costs to be low.

But, as soon as the demand for those production workers outstrips their availability, the price for their labor will rise. In fact, the cost for Indian labor is already rising in response to the changed markets for certain types of labor.

So, when Indian firms, whether newspapers or service bureaus, eventually need to trim their own costs, they may well emulate their American friends and outsource Indian jobs to other countries.

Won’t that be something to watch?

J.David Knepper

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If someone asks about Digital vs. Print Media, I guess we’re all supposed to say that digital is the most environmentally responsible choice for distributing information today.

Actually, it depends upon the communication itself.

Look at companies whose internal communications are converted to digital for environmental reasons. No more paper memos, they say. We’re saving trees. We’re saving thousands of dollars in printing costs at the same time. “We’re Green. We’re Green,” they chant proudly.

Problem is, the electronically-distributed information is still needed on a paper base for portability, markup, and collaboration. Hence, employees simply print the documents at their desks.

Consequently, enterprise-wide, wastebaskets overflow with misprinted materials. Ink jet cartridges are purchased by the pallet, printer paper by the car load. Every employee is a part-time printer.

No study is ever commissioned to measure the environmental damage and increased costs of such ill planned Green efforts.

Same with mass marketing efforts. If your printed communication is so poorly written and designed that nearly every recipient will simply trash it unread, go digital. There are environmental savings whenever someone can hit “Delete” instead of physically putting paper into the waste stream. And you’ll also be able to boast about the trees you’re saving.

However, nothing electronic can replace the texture, feel and effectiveness of well written, carefully designed, and skillfully crafted printed materials.

And once such materials are produced, they can be enjoyed again and again with no adverse effect on the environment.

J.David Knepper

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Newbies left DINFOS as productive team members within a few short weeks from a standing start. I saw Infantrymen and Marines become working Journalists, Airmen and Seamen become functional Broadcasters in the concentrated courses offered. Many graduates of four-year schools would be expected to work as interns before real employment offers could be made. DINFOS graduates were expected to be productive immediately upon graduation.

DINFOS on an applicant’s resumé impresses those of us who attended the school.

We Reservists spent a fair amount of time pitching reporters on the merits of covering what our Citizen Soldiers were doing. We then spent more time trying to get those reporters to cover the events without showing their anti-military biases. Public Relations or Public Affairs? Who cares? We were trying to put forth a positive message about our client, the Army.

The Public Information Office provided very good training for media people, for public relations people, for advertising people, for news people. I’m glad I had the opportunity to serve in the 372nd Public Information Detachment, USAR.

I learned much and use what I learned every day.

J.David Knepper

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Insurance is one of the most commoditized industries on earth. Who stands out? Geico’s Cavemen, maybe? The Gecko? If a small business doesn’t have 550 million dollars to spend promoting its image, it’s going to have to rely on providing something Geico doesn’t.

Serving a niche market won’t make it. A niche simply limits the number of people a small company is willing to serve.

They should consider advertising in mass media. Newspapers, radio, television. Media the ‘experts’ tell them they can’t afford. Proven media that reaches people. They should quit trying all the ways of limiting their marketing to people who searched for them…or opted-in six vendors back…or fit some profile they think wants to hear from them. Instead, they should put their message in front of as many people as they can afford and let the market tell them how it wants to be served.

Small businesses have an advantage that no large company enjoys…they’re nimble. When their market tells them what’s important, they serve them that way. They can change their message on a daily basis if they need to do so. They can zig and zag in and out of service areas in less time than Geico would take to send emails to the various vice presidents needed to appoint a steering committee.

Their way through the clutter is to make their message timely. Make it useful to the reader, viewer, listener. Make it interesting.

By the way, the people who respond to such advertising are calling because the small company is offering what they want, when they want it, in the way they want it. Such respondents make much better customers and clients than folks who call to find the lowest price.

A small business’s carefully-crafted message can make it stand out in the right way.

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Most of the newspaper industry’s wounds are self-inflicted. Here’s another example.

In several instances over the last few years, whole departments in newspapers have streamlined and modernized in order to become more efficient. Operations were centralized between sister papers. Staffing reduced. Procedures revamped. Efficiencies effected.

Employees were given expensive coaching on how to handle change. How to find misplaced cheese. How to sit at the feet of animals to learn values. How to root around in other employees’ silage.

Then, as soon as revamped operational plans were proven, entire departmental functions were sent to Asia. In short, employees who sacrificed and worked to make their companies more efficient and profitable were rewarded, ultimately, with unemployment. Their jobs were not eliminated but simply given to other people on another continent.

If you find a newspaper company that has recently implemented or is currently using what they call ‘quality management principles,’ you may want to look beyond the rhetoric. See if the aim is effecting efficiency or simply reducing costs.

The former, if done well, will accomplish the second as a by-product.

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Making political hay from the difficulties caused by Vioxx and other drugs, Congresswomen Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut, chairwoman of the Drug Administration Appropriations Subcommittee, and Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri introduced the Responsibility in Drug and Device Advertising Act of 2008 (H.R. 6151), to the House of Representatives in May, 2008.

Their own press release, dated May 22, 2008, explains what they want the act to do:

1.Establish a three year moratorium on direct-to-consumer ads for new medicines with a possible waiver if the product is proven to to be of affirmative value to public health;
2.Provide authority to require corrective materials to be distributed if drug companies violate the advertising moratorium;
3.Include strong civil penalties that apply to all violations of the ad provisions or other requirements of the Act;
4.Require the advertising to prominently display information about the potential drug and device side effects;
5.Call for a public education campaign on the risks of certain drugs.

This ill-conceived plan deprives pharmaceutical companies of the chance for a reasonable return on their research and development investments.

Such moratoria, while cynically claimed to protect the public, shorten the period of time that innovative medical products can be marketed before manufacturers lose patent protection.

They allow competitors three years to create products to compete with the innovators.

They keep the innovator from establishing market dominance with a product even if the innovation itself creates the category.

How will American manufacturers be able to continue to lead the world in innovation and development if politicians are allowed to interfere in the marketplace?

Let’s suggest a moratorium on all advertising by incumbent politicians until they prove themselves not to be dangerous to the body politic.

J.David Knepper Audio Version

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The principles of advertising have never changed.

New media explode onto the scene with amazing regularity. New schemes promise new ways of manipulating the behavior of groups. New ideas demand their places in media budgets.

But there are certain constants that must be considered. Groups are made up of individuals. Individuals are not defined by the groups they populate. Individuals act as individuals for individual reasons. They need to be convinced, not manipulated.

Proper advertising convinces individuals reached through a mass medium. The message should outlast the medium.

Why? Because…

…the principles of advertising have never changed.

J.David Knepper

Audio version

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Media offerings currently available to advertisers include:

movie and television show placements,

mobile signs, text messages,

calls to your cell phone at all hours,

outdoor with changing electronic displays,

changing electronic displays on taxis that change messages for different parts of town by GPS,

local magazines of all sorts,

email solicitations,

bathroom advertising,

bar room hustling to create buzz,

gas pump advertising,

buses, blimps, balloons!

Are these media legitimate?

Yes. If advertising is simply putting product names in front of eyeballs, all of these work to one degree or another.

Effective? Maybe. Tell me your message and I’ll tell you whether your advertising will be effective at selling your product or service.

If your message is bland, you can tell it to everyone in the world and no-one will pay any attention.

If your message is compelling, you won’t have trouble finding customers with it.

Don’t believe me?

Buy an ad in the smallest publication you know. Put your ad under a headline legitimately promising “Free Beer” and see what happens. You’ll need a cop to control the traffic. People respond to ads that interest them. And they call to tell their friends about such ads.

You need to develop the proper message to share. Then and only then should you talk about what medium to use to convey it to the public.

It’s not that the medium isn’t important.

It’s just that the message is vastly more important.

J.David Knepper

Audio version

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Is there anything in media sales for which to aspire anymore?

In olden times, a person joined the sales staff of a company and looked forward to a long and fruitful association. Older sales professionals, also known as those who had made the cut time after time, were generally paid more than folks entering the workforce. Young people working with seasoned veterans would learn about the business and see the rewards of working hard and remaining loyal to the company.

That was then. This is now.

Today it’s fashionable for management to design compensation schemes that ‘level the playing field’ or ‘are performance driven’. The problem is that the level playing field is on the lowest level and the performance measured is usually short term.

Hence, a youngster entering the workplace often earns more money than seasoned professionals. Worse than that, the compensation plans actually punish experience and productivity.

For example, goal trending is currently a popular compensation feature. However, it punishes success with higher goals both in the near future and again at the anniversary of the success.

Longevity, client building and strategic planning are clearly not rewarded under many modern sales compensation plans.

Instead, short-sighted management (SSM) will look for schemes that will boost revenue, usually with no consideration of the strategic ramifications.

Many of the ‘new concepts’ in newspaper and television advertising are nothing more than elaborate rate concessions. SSM is seduced by consultants who promise great increases in revenue if only SSM will,

1.Give the consultants control of their sales force for a period of time;
2.Follow the consultants’ instructions to the letter;
3.Give the consultants extensive client contact information;
4.Agree to take responsibility if the plan fails to produce as promised, and, finally,
5.Give the consultants dramatically lower rates than are otherwise available.

The plans often seem to work. Contracts are signed. Revenue projections are made.

Project completed, the consultants high five the SSM and leave for home with pockets stuffed with money. SSM report to their superiors that they have managed yet another successful revenue generating program.

What is overlooked is that for the time that the sales people were working the consultants’ plan, they were not serving their clients and some of those clients became clients of competitors.

Sales people, told to follow the consultants’ instructions to the letter, were often forced to work counter intuitively and against their clients’ interests.

The extraordinarily low rates sold under such plans become the basis for all future negotiations with clients who hear about them.

And it is very hard indeed to show clients such plans without their buying them with money they would have spent anyway.

These unmeasured costs can be huge.

In short, when management chooses to implement a special program offered by outside consultants, the program should be analyzed very carefully to prevent its being misused.

Look at your last project. Can you honestly measure how much revenue was switched from other products and plans? Can you say that you got more business from a consultants’ plan than you would have generated by simply lowering your rates? Can you prove that your clients were truly well-served by the plan? Or that salespeople didn’t learn bad practices from their time on the project?

There are costs to making decisions in business.

The costs that aren’t readily apparent can be the highest costs of all.

For a view of this matter from an executive’s perspective see the article Consultants Hidden Costs.

J.David Knepper
Audio version

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