• by June 16, 2005

IF IT LEADS, AND BLEEDS, THE AD INDUSTRY PLEADS -- Is print valuable of vulnerable? To hear two top ad execs speak about the magazine medium on Thursday, it's a little bit of both. The execs - Association of National Advertisers President-CEO Bob Liodice, and Ford Motor Co. Global Media Manager Mark Kaline - should know. They were presenting a list of ad industry missives during ANA's 2005 Print Advertising Forum in New York, and they were armed with fresh findings from an ANA member survey. The results indicated that 80 percent of advertisers still consider print a cost-effective medium, with strong targeting capabilities, as well as an ability to build and extend reach. That's the valuable part. The vulnerable part is that nearly half - 49 percent - of marketers do not expect to maintain their print media spending levels. Of equal concern, the 51 percent who plan to keep their print spending steady said they would use fewer magazine titles.

Those results are not surprising when you consider the many frustrations advertisers appear to have with the medium, including the long lead times associated with both scheduling magazine ads, as well as the time it takes to get accurate readership data. Another persistent concern among print advertisers is the fact that publishers still charge advertisers extra fees for running ads that "bleed" across an entire page. At one time, such bleeds required special processing, justifying the surcharge. But with digital publishing and modern printing facilities, the bleed charges are just a way to squeeze some extra money out of Madison Avenue.

Similarly, the surcharges levied by local newspapers to national advertisers are also seen as a "very threatening" issue, said the ANA's Liodice, who along with Ford's Kaline summed up a list of 10 "please" to the print industry:

1 - Help marketers understand print's cause/effect contribution to generating results and building brands long-term.

2 - Give us issue specific circulation and cumulative data that shows how an audience builds over time.

3 - Give us reader involvement insights that help us understand the unique connections publications have with readers.

4 - Tap into the creative energy that permeates editorial pages, and give advertisers some new, innovative, branded ways to sponsor publications.

5 - Reduce the long lead times to secure space and submit materials to monthly magazines.

6 - This one's for agencies. Find new, cost efficient ways for us to test print creative - and to test more frequently.

7 - This one's also for agencies. Raise the creative bar. Put some of your senior talent on print advertising. We want intelligent, visually exciting breakthrough print campaigns.

8 - Either justify or end the practice of bleed charges.

9 - Either justify or end the practices of surcharges for national newspaper advertising in local editions.

10 - Get with the digital program. Print media should be the leaders - not the followers - in this exciting realm.