Why Buying Newspaper Media Makes Sense

Ten Reasons Why Newspapers Deliver for Political Campaigns
Rise of "Permission Advertising" Puts Newspapers Solidly Back in the Political Media Mix
For voters, newspaper websites are where it's @
What's in a number? ...Your margin of victory.
What good are your campaign’s TV ads if voters don’t believe them?
Special Report: Outlook for Campaign Ad Revenue 2008
Campaigning for Ads - How Newspaper Web Sites Can Increase Political Advertising Revenue

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Ten Reasons Why Newspapers Deliver for Political Campaigns

There was a time when political and issue campaigns could buy 1,000 gross rating points per week of television advertising and be done with it. But today's political climate is different. With so many choices for news and information, reaching voters with your message is becoming more and more challenging. A diversified marketplace of ideas demands a targeted mix of media to get your message across efficiently and effectively. Of course, for many campaigns, television is still a vital element for success. But to be successful, consultants also have to employ other time-tested advertising mediums.*

In the 2000 presidential election, 9 out of 10 newspaper readers cast a ballot. In the 2002 mid-term elections, when voting is typically much lighter, newspaper readers still delivered the vote, with more than 8 out of 10 newspaper readers going to the polls.

Voters look to newspapers for the information they need to make up their minds about candidates and issues. Newspapers rank second only to television among voters when it comes to providing the most helpful information about state & local elections. Newspaper advertising gives your campaign an aura of credibility and respectability that's unmatched.

Voters consistently look to newspapers to help make up their minds about how they'll vote. While the perceived usefulness of other media rises and falls as the campaign progresses, newspapers maintain their strength for influencing voter opinion. Voters count on newspapers to deliver the whole story about the candidates and issues, from the earliest moments of the campaign right up until Election Day.

The conventional wisdom among consultants says that only 10-15% of the electorate is typically up for grabs at the end of any campaign. But in reality, that number is much higher. That's because while only 10-15% of voters may be truly undecided, many more are far from certain about their vote. Among those who say they experience some indecision, three out of four are regular newspaper readers. Newspapers can put your message in the hands of this crucial constituency.

Nobody reads the newspaper to escape from reality, as is often the case with television and radio. And unlike annoying telephone calls, people actually enjoy reading newspapers. Newspaper readers seek out in-depth, detailed political information. With newspaper in your media mix, you can be sure your ad dollars have been well spent.

Today's newspapers can deliver your message right to the doorsteps of the voters you need to reach. Most major metropolitan newspapers have established sections based on geographic zones and can target a pre-printed flier or brochure for insertion and delivery within a specific zip code. Many can target delivery down to the census tract, block, or even house by house. You can have your message delivered in a flyer or brochure, on a "Post-it" note placed on the front page, or even on the poly/delivery bag in which the newspaper arrives. Poly/delivery bags are especially useful for getting out the vote on Election Day.

Today's newspapers can deliver your message right to the doorsteps of the voters you need to reach. Most major metropolitan newspapers have established sections based on geographic zones and can target a pre-printed flier or brochure for insertion and delivery within a specific zip code. Many can target delivery down to the census tract, block, or even house by house. You can have your message delivered in a flyer or brochure, on a "Post-it" note placed on the front page, or even on the poly/delivery bag in which the newspaper arrives. Poly/delivery bags are especially useful for getting out the vote on Election Day.

7. Newspapers can provide more information to voters

7. Newspapers can provide more information to voters

Use newspapers to highlight endorsements, issue clarification, and candidate comparisons. Your candidate can also use a compelling newspaper ad to generate interest from the press and garner valuable earned media opportunities.

Placing political ads in newspapers has never been easier. Typically the media buy can be completed with a single order and check. Nearly every state has its own press association that can help you with all of your planning and buying needs. You can always call newspapers directly. Most have their own trained political sales staff.

Voters know newspapers are the place to go to find out what's going on in their communities. They know that unlike television or radio news programs, newspapers cover local issues every day of the week. And they know with a newspaper, they'll get real, in-depth coverage of the local issues most important to them. The same issues that often determine how they'll vote on Election Day.

Broadcast, direct mail, and phone calls are all still important, but you also have to put money into other proven and effective advertising mediums like newspaper. In fact, newspaper ranks second only to television among voters when it comes to providing the most helpful information about state & local elections.

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Rise of "Permission Advertising" Puts Newspapers Solidly Back in the Political Media Mix

Getting over the 30-second Spot. If you are looking for some solid information to help with your political efforts, this is worth the read. Bill Cromer, the article's author, works with the NAA on the Political category from time to time.

The 30-second television spot may not be a dinosaur yet, but its extinction is being anticipated by advertisers, agencies and media analysts alike.  Technologies like TiVo and the Internet (to name just two of many) are empowering viewers to ignore the TV advertisements that have introduced people to countless products, services and politicians for more than four decades. 

Network viewership has been declining for years, ever since cable television expanded beyond delivering broadcast signals to rural areas and reinvented itself as the multiplex of information and entertainment it is today.  But, for all the programming variety that cable has provided, it also began the cascade that has fragmented the audience into smaller and more diverse components.

Life in the 21st century is also more digital and more wireless than ever before.  Jeff Jarvis, president of Advance.net, cites the CNN Crossfire appearance by Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show in his scathing debate with Tucker Carlson.  “That episode got, what, 400,000 viewers on big old powerful CNN?  Well, that same segment was copied onto the Internet where it got at least 5 million views.  So what’s more powerful, the network CNN owns or the network nobody owns?”  Jarvis also contends that, “The most important invention in the history of media was not the Guttenberg Press, it was the remote control.”

While his declaration may be debatable, remote controls and TiVo do allow viewers to turn off and fast forward through commercial breaks.  Nielsen has ratings for programs, but it has no measurements for people who run to the kitchen for a snack, and no measurements for those who check out other channels during breaks in their shows.

As a result, the 30-second spot is delivering fewer and fewer people at an ever-rising cost.  The 30-second spot is increasingly unefficient and ineffective.  Its cost-benefit ratio is heading south.  Unfortunately, there is no real replacement for delivering mass audiences.  At least not yet.

Executives at some of the nation’s biggest advertisers, therefore, are searching for a new marketing model because they can’t rely so heavily on TV ads anymore.  Proctor & Gamble’s Global Marketing Officer, Jim Stengle, “gave the marketing industry a C-minus” in his address to the American Association of Advertising Agencies Media Conference on February 12, 2004.

Political campaigns are facing the same dilemma.  Rising costs for TV ads and greater difficulty reaching targeted voters are equally if not more burdensome to political advertisers.  Ours is the world of the one-day sale and the minimum necessary market share of 50 percent plus one.  Campaigns are usually financially challenged and are always charged with doing more with less, even under the best of circumstances.

What’s a campaign to do?  Obviously, campaigns must reconsider their media mixes and look for alternative opportunities to communicate with voters. 

One of the new models some major advertisers are experimenting with is known as permission advertising.  As its name suggests, this approach gives the consumer/voter more control by acknowledging that people can choose whether or not to pay attention to any given message.  Further, when properly implemented, advertisers seek permission for each transaction – each occasion of delivering a message.  And, to empower the voter/consumer even more, messages must be made available when it is convenient for the receiver to be attentive, not convenient for the sender. All of these elements combine to ensure that the voter/consumer will give their attention voluntarily to the message.

Clearly, politicians and political operatives have neither the time, the training, nor the treasury to develop and test new marketing models.  Political communication has always made use of whatever techniques the private sector has devised.  That isn’t going to change now.  Campaigns need something that already exists instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.

As it happens, an excellent example of permission advertising already exists.  It has also been around for decades, actually, and has always evolved with technological changes, even up to this digitized, Internet age.  It’s the newspaper.

Now, before dismissing the newspaper as a passé, non-electronic medium, there are several factors that should be considered about using newspapers in the media mix.

• Every day, newspaper readers give permission to receive its advertisements as well as its information.

• Newspapers are both convenient and portable, empowering the reader to pick it up at whatever time that suits them.  And it can be made all the more convenient by subscription delivery.

• Most newspapers maintain websites that include not only the current day’s news, but user-friendly archives as well.

• 74 percent of voters who cast ballots in both 2000 and 2002 said they read a paper either daily (55%) or several times a week (19%).

Unlike virtually any other medium, advertising in newspapers is a destination, not a distraction.  Here’s the proof.   According to a nationwide survey of 1200 voters conducted for the Newspaper Association of America in August, 2003 by The Cromer Group, half say they go to their daily newspapers specifically to look for ads.  Specifically.  Of these, 82 percent are looking for ads once a week or more.  The study found that more Late Deciding Voters (55%) go to their newspapers to pointedly look for advertisements – 85 percent more than once a week.  No TiVo, no remote controls. Scissors, maybe.  That’s permission advertising.

The newspaper is the preferred medium for the classes of voters who most frequently cast ballots.

Political advertisements in newspapers are also consistently more believable than ads on either cable or network TV.

The March, 2005 follow-up nationwide study also found that 56 percent of all voters had seen newspaper advertising for local candidates in the 2004 election and that of these, 82 percent found them to be helpful in making their voting decisions (18 percent found them quite helpful).

Newspaper advertising is not going to replace electronic media advertising but it does provide some clear advantages with voters:  it is an excellent form of permission advertising, it is more credible than either network or cable TV advertising, and it is measurably persuasive.

With television’s ability to achieve the reach that it once did being severely diminished, newspapers can – and will – deliver voters while helping make political advertising more effective and more efficient for campaigns.

William Cromer, a Democratic pollster, is a consultant to the Newspaper Association of America, a non-profit organization representing the newspaper industry.  For more information contact jack.brady@naa.org or  visit: www.naa.org/political

Jack Brady, Advertising Director, (571) 366-1044, bradj@naa.org. Disciplines: Movies, Political, Co-op, College Recruiting, NAA Webinars

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For voters, newspaper websites are where it's @

In the most recent elections, one out of three voters turned to the internet for information. Their choice? Newspaper web sites in a landslide. Nearly three times as often as television web sites, four times as often as blogs, and even more frequent than candidate web sites themselves ... voters preferred newspaper web sites for reliable campaign information.1

Poll after poll has proven that advertising in newspaper branded products is a solid way to reach voters. And, now, newspaper web sites have emerged as the clear winner on the internet. So, when it comes to reaching voters, in more ways than one, newspapers deliver for you.

1-Moore Information Survey  "USA Voters Political News"  

The number of voters using the internet as their main source of political news has doubled since the last mid-term elections. And where do most voters go to get their information? Not YouTube. Not Blogs. Not even TV station web sites. Their clear choice is their local newspaper web sites. In fact, more voters get their information from newspaper web sites than from any other single internet source, including candidate web sites.

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What's in a number? ...Your margin of victory.

In the final weeks before an election, undecided voters are the key to victory. And they're easy to find because 3 out 4 of these crucial undecided voters are regular newspaper readers. Not only can you reach them through newspaper ads but they'll find your message more believable than television, radio or direct mail. If it sounds too good to be true don't just take our word for it. Check out the results from the latest survey of Voters and the Media and see for yourself.1 Until now, you may have been "undecided" about using newspapers but the voters that are key to your campaign's victory haven't. Isn't it time you let newspapers deliver for you?

1-Moore Information survey of 800 voters, March 2005.

In most campaigns, half of all eligible voters never make it to the polls. So why waste your critical media dollars on people who don't vote? Voters decide elections. And those voters are not hard to find. It's a fact. Of voters who cast ballots in the 2000 and 2004 elections, on average a staggering 74% read a newspaper daily or several times a week. The impressive statistics don't end there. No less than 82% of voters in the last two elections specifi cally looked for ads in their daily newspaper. When you add it all up, it's a no-brainer. Voters read newspapers and voters read newspaper ads. It's time to let newspapers deliver voters for you.

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What good are your campaign’s TV ads if voters don’t believe them?

When it comes to credibility in political advertising, there's one thing everyone agrees on: newspapers have it. You don't have to take our word for it - research proves it. Results from the latest national survey on Voters and the Media show that voters of all demographic groups fi nd political newspaper ads more believable than television, radio, direct mail or even the internet.1

So, regardless of who your target audience is, forget the old stereotypes, diversify your media mix, and let newspapers deliver voters for you.

1-Moore Information survey of 800 voters, March 2005.

It may seem like a rhetorical question but it's a real world problem for political campaigns. Not only are voters channel surfing and TiVoing around political ads, but even when they do see them they're not inclined to believe them. So what's the answer ... better creative? double the buy? Two national surveys of Voters and the Media (August 2003 and March 2005) suggest something else: add newspaper to your media mix. An incredible 3 out of 4 voters in the last two national elections are regular newspaper readers. More importantly, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents of every age, ethnicity and education level fi nd political ads in newspapers more believable. It's time to let newspapers deliver voters for you.

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Special Report: Outlook for Campaign Ad Revenue 2008

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003686688

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Campaigning for Ads - How Newspaper Web Sites Can Increase Political Advertising Revenue

http://www.naa.org/docs/Digital-Edge/de-political-ads-07.pdf

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