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Newspaper readership decline

Everyone keeps saying it is happening across the country. I used to enjoy the paper on the weekends, and now I see where our local paper, the Post & Courier is acknowledging the fact that due to declining readership, they have decided to do away with the business section of the paper on Sunday's. I believe this trend will continue as more and more people get their news from the internet sites. I read more news there, and see it duplicated in the paper the next day.

That brings me to my next point, if less people are reading the paper, why do we still continue to pour real estate money into them? There are some folks who do look at the ads for Open Houses on the weekend, as I have had several people walk through houses that I had Open and told me that, so it does still occur. As for advertising, I can't see where spending money on newsprint ads will benefit anyone but the newspaper.

If you were going to do any type of print ad, what kind of publications would you place them in? Assuming this would be on a local level. My focus this year will be to be selective with any advertising I do, and beef up my internet presence.

I welcome any suggestions or comments that we can all use as times are changing and we all need to look at what works, rather than what used to work.

Bruce

Posted by Bruce Mullen on 01/06/2008 11:05 AM

Comments (7)

newspaper, advertising, real estate

7 Comments on Newspaper readership decline

JAN

2008

Bruce- my advertising budget for print advertising is ZERO. Due to my area here on Cape Cod being a resort community with the majority of my Buyers coming from 100-300 miles away- it makes no sense for me to advertise locally. My advertising budget is for internet related items only.

Thanks Rick, that is making more sense these days!

I advertise exclusively in cyberspace. I have my listings in about 40 different websites. No newspaper or print ads for me. I tell my clients about the lack of readership of print and tell them how I use the Internet for marketing. They all love it.

Print ad is all but dead, with the net, I use the internedt for marketing.

I concur with the other comments. The interent is the way to go. Our company still runs ads in the local housing magazines but I have wondered their effectiveness these days.

JAN

2008

Well, after reading the other comments, I will be the odd man out. I do advertise in newspapers in other cities and towns, not my own. I try to pinpoint those areas where most of our buyers come from and advertise in paper and on the internet. I try to use any means available to get the word out there. However, I would choose putting the bulk of the money toward internet ads. This year I am seriously going to track each advertising medium to see what is really working and not working. The best I've found so far, no kidding, is blogging on Active Rain.

I used to work at the New York Times. In the 1980's the Real Estate section was 56 pages and we had to turn ad's away. Today it's about 12 pages. Wow. What a difference the internet makes.

And you can't track how many people read your ad. In my Virtual Tour of homes I list, we can track the activity, can't do that with the newspaper. We get a lot more for our dollar. Ken, NYC

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