It's shakeup time for one major Valley newspaper. The East Valley Tribune is blaming the current economic downturn and stagnant Real Estate market for a recent decline in readership. According to an article on azcentral.com, the Trib is cutting 142 positions and pulling out of Scottsdale and Tempe in January. The paper will also scale back to a four day delivery schedule.
By and large, slumping advertising revenues are being blamed for the woes of several local publications. As the market has softened with properties becoming increasingly difficult to sell, Real Estate agents and brokerages have largely spurned such traditional forms of marketing for the cheaper, more effective reach of the internet.
As a working Realtor in the Scottsdale, Phoenix and Paradise Valley area, allow me to interject my 2 cents into their depleted coffers.
I have read and heard many mentions over the course of the past year regarding the hesitancy of agents to plunk down advertising dollars in this treacherous market. It is widely theorized that my fellow entrepreneurs have shied away from the expense due to the diminished likelihood of producing the sale that would justify all of the upfront expense. While the logic is sound, it is of flawed construct.
Now, more than ever, promoting a property is critical to the goal of standing out from the sea of competition. Productive agents know that they must not only employ the tools which have been successful in the recent past, but explore new frontiers in the adapt or perish landscape that dots our profession.
We have adapted, and the periodicals have not. That is why they will continue to perish.
Newspaper advertising has not been a successful medium for marketing property in the 10 years I have been a licensed agent. Forget a measure of "bang for the buck," as there is, and was, virtually no bang. The papers were artificially propped up during the heights of 2004-2006 because agents were making money hand over fist. Knowing that properties were going to sell in a heartbeat, thus negating lengthy marketing expenditures, it was a no-brainer to offer weekly advertising to sellers as an appeasement, even though it was well known to be an ineffective medium. Buyers simply do not go to the morning paper to look for homes anymore. Everything they need is available online, 24 hours a day.
To be sure, the advertising rates in the local rags have become exorbinant to the point of hilarity, but it is not the price tag that has driven Realtors away. It's the value. There is none. Quarter pages, full color pages ... we've tried them all. None make the phone ring. Believe me, agents are always looking for the new mousetrap to catch buyers. While preferably that would entail a medium that doesn't require so much sharp cheddar, I hazard the assertion that my fellow agents and I would shell out even more than the barbaric rates currently charged if the medium proved effective in any way, shape or form.
Buyers want digital pictures. They want virtual tours. They want a fully searchable multiple listing service which allows them to browse at their own leisure. They want maps and tax records. And they want it all in one place. As such, the agents who are truly earning their keeps have pulled their resources out of failed avenues and reallocated expense to the more fruitful virtual world. We engross ourselves in SEO and we churn out post after post to keep ourselves and our properties front and center before the eyes of our intended audience.
Most papers have spawned online versions of their publications. I urge them to pursue this medium fully, and gradually phase out antiquated physical delivery. A recurring internet ad is one which is much more palatable to agents like myself who intend to reach beyond the borders of local readership. Even those ads will remain prohibitively costly until the revenue stops subsidizing the dead medium of the paper version. Streamline operations to make costs more manageable, and the advertising department can bring fees more in line with results. More to the point, the efforts will be geared towards actually reaching buyers where they lurk: online.
We'll spend the money if it produces results.
Especially in a city like Scottsdale, with our high volume of tourism, we need to reach those potential new residents in other parts of the country/world. I've always liked to sit down with the morning paper as part of my ritual, but I finally halted my subscriptions a few days ago. Everything I want to read is free online, and I don't have to murder any more trees unnecessarily. I offer that a radical departure from the fundamental circulation strategy is necessary if periodicals are to survive this 2.0 world into which we have all been dragged.
The papers aren't failing because agents aren't spending any money. The papers are failing because agents aren't spending any money on frivolous, nonproductive means.
Anybody still buying ribbon for their typewriters?
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