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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