• by John Gaffney , August 20, 2002

Getting Real With Newspapers: There’s a lot of conflicting information out there about newspapers these days. Nielsen says newspapers are up 8 percent for the year. The NAA says the uptick is closer to flat. A New York Times article on Tuesday says “the first wave of July results from the newspaper chains shows that national and help-wanted advertising is still sluggish, ensuring that the industry's 18-month decline is not over.” The Times article pointed to its own 6 percent dip for June and USA Today’s 16 percent drop for July. To me, two factors are becoming clear for newspapers. The first is that classified ads work better on the internet. Chalk this up to a change in media technology and a change in consumer behavior. I don’t see that business coming back to its peak, ever. The second is that some of the ad categories are going through cyclical downturns. Stock brokerages, tech ads and other financial services are hurting, but I believe those businesses will come back. If I was after national ads for newspapers I’d make damn sure I had strong pitches for automobiles, movies and pharmaceuticals. Those are still in growth mode. And accept that some categories have changed forever.

Cawfee Tawk: Topic: The New York Times, by the way, is taking a fair amount of heat for its decision to publish notices of same sex marriages. Why not replace lost classified revenue by making all wedding announcements paid? All the bluebloods that get published would pay anyway (probably a good price, too.) And if you’re not a blueblood or you live an alternative lifestyle, all you have to do is write a check to get in. Discuss.

Derailed: I was going to riff about the kind of ad campaign Amtrak should undertake to restore rider confidence. But you know what? You could get Tiger Woods to endorse Amtrak and it still wouldn’t work. You could get Bruce Springsteen to write your jingle and that wouldn’t work. Free tickets wouldn’t work. It’s the impossible project.