This week in Chicago, the NAA (Newspaper Association of America) Recruitment Conference was attended by newspapers across the United States. A common theme addressed during presentations, panel discussions, and water cooler talk was: “Are newspapers dead?”
My answer to this question is a resounding No!
Newspapers serve an essential purpose in today’s landscape; however the mode in which information is read has changed. Generation X and Y may not be reading the actual printed publication as their parents or baby boomers have done for years, but they are going to newspapers’ Web sites for local news and information as well as interfacing with the paper through various other online modes such as email alerts and social networks.
No other media can deliver local news and information better then the newspaper and this information is the “gold ticket” that all other media is trying to capture. The papers have never lost this prize piece of content. Their decline has resulted because instead of embracing the online world, newspapers have been fighting it.
In regards to recruitment this philosophy is the same. As my father, Joe Shaker, has stated many times, “the key to recruitment is local” and the owner of the local content is newspapers. The papers just need to continue to change with the times and introduce more products targeting the local masses and not try to force modes of communication that their users do not want.
Recently I have seen many newspapers responding to this challenge and introducing products and services that are valuable to our clients. At the NAA Conference two papers presented how they are adjusting with the times. Can West gave a presentation on how they are interacting with Facebook and creating applications for their readers.
Following that presentation The Chicago Tribune presented their new design of their print classified section as well as their new text messaging product. In addition to these presentations there was also talk about the Yahoo.com partnerships and how the papers have been successful selling behavioral targeting and targeted email campaigns. Here at Shaker we were also happy to announce this week that numerous local papers put aside their competitive differences and launched AtlantaJobs.com.
Times are changing and instead of newspapers just talking about the changing times they are finally realizing they need to get on the bandwagon. My grandfather always said, “Newspapers are like an elephant. They are hard to move but when you get them to move, get out of there way!”
I think the elephants are finally moving!
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October 17th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
The paper will never be dead.
As far as the recruitment industry is concerned they still serve a huge purpose and always will. That is why CareerBuilder and Monster are fighting to partner up with them.
The majority of every employers hiring is done locally, there is no better way to penetrate a local market then through their local paper and the major job boards know this.
I will say that in my experience using both the paper and online advertising they each have better results in different areas. The key is to know when the paper will be more effective vs online.
October 17th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Cheez – Since when did you start publishing self-serving advertorials? Booo!
October 17th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Huh? How is this a “self-serving advertorial”?
October 20th, 2008 at 11:05 am
MultiMedia Recruitment / coming soon, you mention Monster and CB fighting to partner up with newspapers. Really? I thought CB was already owned by newspaper companies, I read on cheezhead about the Gannett buying more of CB. Another question: aren’t Monster and CB local, aren’t all websites considered local? As a recruiter the idea of that newspaper being the only medium that targets local candidates is a myth and if any newspaper rep called and took that angle I’d likely hang up on them.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:31 am
FYI:
In sentence, “No other media can deliver local news and information better then the newspaper …”, “then” should be “than”. :)
October 20th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
This is equivalent of the knight in Monty Python who utters “I’m not quite dead yet” before he is finally killed off. Newspapers share of recruitment ad dollars (and all classified ad dollars) has declined from 80% to 50% and will decline much much further. And that decline was before local sites like Craiglist and Jobbing started taking real share.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:11 am
Pete,
You are right, CareerBuilder is owned by the newspaper companies. However Monster has been following there lead. See this link.
http://www.marketingvox.com/monster-partners-with-newspapers-for-job-sites-listings-025685/
I never said the newspaper was the only way to target a local audience, I’m just saying it is a great way.
I personally would not consider Monster or CareerBuilder a “Local” website. Even though jobseekers can narrow their searches to a specific location there is no local focus. Although I see how someone could disagree with that.
Jobing.com is what I would consider a locally focused job board. They have an individual website for each of their local markets. See this link.
http://phoenix.jobing.com/jobs.asp
I believe that although the way people look for jobs has gone to mostly online, the newspaper will always serve a great purpose in recruiting. Depending on the types of positions you hire for sometimes the paper will have better results than online and vice-versa. The great thing about using an online job board that is part of a newspaper is you get the best of both worlds because your ad will cross post to both online and print.
October 21st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
MultiMedia – If you can narrow it down to a town, city or zip like CB and Mosnter allow, then they are “local”. How is there no lcal focus – CB has the Phoenix AZ Republic and is branded all over their print and website, Monster is all over a paper like the NYT etc – they have consultants in those markets with their ear to the market – what would your definition be MultiMedia?
October 21st, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Newspapers are dead- just look at their stock prices – GCI ( Gannett) has gone from mid $60/shr to now hovering around $10. McClatchy is trading around $3.00 – they don’t have any more capital as their print ad revenue plummetts, and they are heavily in debt – Tribune has almost $12Billion in debt – the way things are going, they may not make it out of 2009 – I for one thought it would be a slow decline through 2020, but the economic factors and age of our population are realling forcing Newspapers hand – they are so slow to react to any new change – Who do you know over the age of 35 that consistently gets the NP in print anymore? No one is sitting their salivating on a Sunday Morning waiting for the paper to be delivered – if they are not using the internet for news, weather, community, search, info, then I would not want them working for me – look how the NP has missed the boat on facebook, linked in etc – Their only chance of survival is to do everything local, local, local and online, online, online. Is it because your firm gets a nice advertsisng fee on adds placed in Newspapers that you don’t want them to go away Joe? If someone places a $2K ad on a Sunday and you get %15, of that, isn’t it better than %15 of the $300 they spend online – is it that you see your revenue stream tied to the NP’s and don’t want them to wither away?
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
MonsterLover
I agree with you that newspapers in regards to print will not come back. I stated “Newspapers serve an essential purpose in today’s landscape; however the mode in which information is read has changed. Generation X and Y may not be reading the actual printed publication as their parents or baby boomers have done for years, but they are going to newspapers’ Web sites for local news and information as well as interfacing with the paper through various other online modes such as email alerts and social networks.”
So I do agree with you that newspaper and their print business is dead. The point that I am making is that newspapers still are the most dominant source of local news and they are finally starting to figure out how to position this content better with the new online media and offering online products that make sense for our clients. This is why I stated newspapers are not dead.