• by John Gaffney , August 11, 2002

Local Heroes: This is supposed to be a time of transition in the media business. And the hometown daily newspaper has been portrayed as the loser in this game of targeted demographics, interactivity and new age branding. Well, guess what? Punditry has lost again. The latest Nielsen outlook says local newspapers clocked an eight percent growth rate so far this year, easily outpacing any other media. Two things about this development intrigue me. The first is that I should have known that this newspaper comeback was afoot from the monthly reports delivered by local media powers such as the Tribune Company and Scripps. They have been largely positive lately, even in the face of continuing declines in newspaper readership. Meanwhile national newspapers like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, are still having a tough time with ad revenue. Maybe the change for now, will push newspaper ad revenue back to Main Street dailies in the form of local automotive pages and ads from other retail businesses. Which leads me to my second point. Local newspapers maintain a solid business model: Here it is: “We’ll deliver local information, attract a local audience and give you the best platform to advertise locally.” Very basic; very efficient. And basic and efficient are apparently back in vogue.

Props To Business Week:The Aug. 26 issue of Business Week, “25 Ideas For A Changing World,” is the best single issue of a business magazine I’ve ever read. At a time when its audience is fearful, confused and plain old pissed off, this issue delivered perspective, actionable ideas and a vision for the future. I disagree with a few of the points advocated in it, but I’m pretty sure that’s what the editors were after. I particularly recommend the article “Didja C That Kewl Ad” which will spur a second look at how to market to teens.

Still Downloading: One of Business Week’s theories about the telecom meltdown is that a lack of access to capital will stymie any attempts to advertise broadband, and therefore inhibit broadband growth. Disagree. I have never seen a good marketing campaign for broadband internet services. I have never seen the portrayal of a good reason why a consumer should ditch dialup. That void, not a lack of capital, will continue to hinder broadband expansion.