Newspaper Advertising Strategy
Dailies Can Precisely Target Mature Audiences, But Miss Youngsters
Dec 4, 2007
Many advertisers attempt to carefully target their markets by using the Internet, but they may be overlooking one of the most precise targeting media available, the old hometown daily newspapers.
If they are looking for prospects who are elderly, married, Caucasian and own a home (an audience that will grow as the Baby Boomers age) the daily hometown newspaper may be exactly the vehicle they need.
If they are looking for young, unmarried, minority renters, they should probably forget the daily newspaper.
Newspaper Subscribers Easier to Measure than Other Media Audiences
Through 2007 at least, it has been much easier to measure newspaper circulation than it is to monitor radio, television or Internet audiences. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) provides an abundant amount of data on the people who subscribe to daily newspapers.
To its credit, and perhaps in keeping with the mission of its industry, the association publishes its bad news as well as the numbers that promote the merits of newspaper advertising. Unlike many other industry groups, NAA requires neither registration nor passwords to research the circulation data on its website.
NAA Provides Abundant Subscriber Data
The NAA provides ample data for profiling an audience. Here are a few extracts from its 2006 profile of American daily newspaper subscribers:
- 82% own their homes and 13% rent.
- 80% live in single family unattached houses, compared to 7% in apartments, 5% each in townhouses and manufactured houses and 2% in condominums.
- 63% are married; 37% are single, separated, divorced or widowed.
- Half of them have household incomes under $50,000; 16% take in $100,000 or more.
- 43% are 55 or older, including 26% who are 65 or older .Nine percent are 18-to 24 years old and 10% are 25-to-34;
- One fourth have college or post graduate degrees. 36% are high school graduates and 28% completed one-to-three years of college.
Subscribers Can Be Profiled by Age, Home, Marital Status, Income and Education
Those percentages will vary from city to city, depending upon each community’s demographics. However, the NAA data provides fairly tight parameters for deciding whether or not to use newspaper advertising for specific products and services.
The data, for instance, confirms that newspapers are not the medium for selling computer games, or anything else, to young people. Assuming there are other choices, there is no reason to pay for a newspaper’s total circulation to reach just nine percent of its readers.
One goal in target marketing should be to avoid paying for unneeded exposure.
On the other hand, newspapers look like a sure way to reach elderly Caucasian couples who own their own homes. At least eight of 10 subscribers would probably fall into that category.
Advertising Can Also Be Targeted by Community, Time and Reader Interest
After deciding that newspapers are the proper vehicle for advertising a product or service, the advertiser can zero in even tighter on the target audience by determing:
- Which paper or papers provide the best geographic coverage;
- Which day or days of the week are best to advertise?
- Which section of the paper is best suited, and available, for the audience and message
All of the above assumes that the newspaper costs are at least competitive with other media and that newspapers provide a good fit for the text, graphics and emotion required to carry the specific ad message.
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