One way to understand the rough times of the newspaper business is to talk with Greg Besson, an executive with Houston's Group 1 Automotive Inc. He says his company's 101 auto dealerships don't use
newspapers like they used to, but increasingly turn to the Internet.
A dealer can spend $2,000 to get on a car shopping Web site that will generate 100 live leads and 10 to 12 buyers. "We can
pretty much measure it--cost per lead," Besson says. "But if you put an ad in the Sunday paper, it will probably cost more than $2,000 and you have no idea who comes through the door because of it.
We've wasted a lot of money that way." Besson's approach is one example of a big shift in the way advertisers think about reaching customers.
Read the whole story at Chicago Tribune via Ledger-Enquirer »