From Marketingcharts.org - full story here

This report should be interesting for newspapers and magazines still determining the best way to sell their digital space.

Online Revenue Better for Local Media Cos. With Digital-Only Reps

January 23, 2012

inShare4

A “one-staff-fits-all” strategy may not be the best approach for local media companies, according to a January 2012 report from Borrell Associates, which finds that sites with dedicated digital account executives (AEs) outperform those without by a factor of 2.5. In fact, gross online revenue per sales representative (online dollars divided by all representatives selling digital products) is roughly $186,000 for sites with digital AEs, compared to $73,300 for those without any dedicated AEs.

Among TV stations the disparity is even greater: those with sales representatives dedicated exclusively to selling online advertising average almost 3 times the gross revenue of those without ($208,200 vs. $70,300).

Online-Only AEs Hiring Down

46% of local media respondents reported having an online-only AE, down from 60% in 2009. Radio sported the lowest average of digital-only sellers, with just 11% of radio companies employing at least one. Only 2 in 5 local TV stations had at least one online-only AE, although the majority of newspapers (55%) did.

Digital AEs Perform Well With Consultative Sales Approach

Overall, sales managers seemed pleased with their representatives’ performance using the consultative approach, with the majority rating their performance good to outstanding. However, there was a clear difference between companies working with dedicated digital AEs and those without: managers with digital AEs reported an excellent to outstanding rank at a rate of 56%, while those without a dedicated digital staff reported that satisfaction level at a rate of 32%.

Similarly, managers whose staff included digital AEs were far more likely than those without to rank their staff’s understanding of digital products as excellent to outstanding (58% vs. 11%).

Other Findings:

• 15% of managers who had no digital-only AEs on staff rated their staff’s motivation to sell digital products as poor.
• Less than half of managers without digital-only AEs said that their sales representatives had a good to outstanding level of understanding of the basic business trends for their advertising customers.

About the Data: Borrell’s analysis was derived from: an online survey of 345 local media sales managers that yielded 230 usable responses, conducted November 2011 to January 2012; Borrell’s database of online revenue and number of dedicated sales representatives at more than 5,100 local media companies in the US and Canada; and a survey of 7,805 local businesses conducted January to December, 2011.

 

 

That need for advertising accountability resulted in magazine publisher Meredith Corp. launching its Engagement Dividend  program, which guarantees that the advertisements in its print magazines will boost the advertiser's sales. The program will compare the buying behavior of a group of panelists who read the magazines with a complementary group that didn't to prove that sales increased as a result of the ads. Kimberly-Clark Corp. said this week that it will be the first “premier advertising partner.”

Meanwhile, Affinity, a marketing and media research company specializing in advertising effectiveness and audience measurement, has been polling reader response to print and digital ads and comparing the effectiveness of tablet advertising vs. print.

"We've measured close to 4,000 digital ads, so we're at the point where we're beginning to develop a normative database: what is the average recall score or action score. We can put them side by side with our print numbers," said Tom Robinson, managing director at Affinity.

The company concluded that compared head to head, the net action scores, which measure effectiveness in terms of response to the ad, are much higher in iPad magazines than in the printed versions.

Tablet ads outpacing traditional print versions

"The ads that appear in iPads and digital tablets seem to be outpacing and outperforming the traditional printed versions of the ads," said Robinson. "The recall is higher but the action scores--to make a purchase, go to a link, click to download an app--are much higher due to the interactivity of the tablet environment," he said. "Digital obviously offers more opportunities to respond with the interactivity, the links built in, the videos, and that is directly reflected in the fact that we're getting higher reader ad effectiveness scores on the digital side," Robinson said.

Affinity also tracks the performance of different types of ads. "It always comes back to the creative," Robinson said. "Ads with 360-degree views (where the reader rotates the tablet to get different views of a car, for example) seem to be pacing at a higher rate of recall for all digital ads, which is also outpacing all print ads. Videos and photo galleries also do well on the action questions we ask," he said.

"The question is, is this a honeymoon effect or is this a trend over time. As tablets become mainstream, will those recall and action scores continue to skew higher?" he said.

Tablets are still far from mainstream, but their influence is growing quickly. Affinity's Fall American Magazine Study reported that the number of Americans accessing magazine-branded content and advertising through smartphones, ereaders, tablets and other mobile devices was up 6.2% from the spring report, to 35 million consumers. Robinson said tablets account for most of that growth.

The Top 25 U.S. Newspapers from September 2011 FAS-FAX

Neal Lulofs, Executive Vice President, Communications and Strategic Planning, and General Manager, ABCi

ABC released the semiannual newspaper FAS-FAX and Audience-FAX report today. This FAS-FAX report includes top-line circulation data for all newspaper members for the six months ending September 30, 2011. Newspapers participating in Audience-FAX have additional print and online readership and website activity data included in the report.

Today’s FAS-FAX report reflects the U.S. newspaper rule changes that went into effect last October. This FAS-FAX report, therefore, has new and redefined categories of circulation. A fact sheet and a list of frequently asked questions about the changes are available here. And as a reminder, ABC recommends not making direct comparisons of September 2011 data to prior audit periods.

Below are a few charts pulled from the FAS-FAX and Audience-FAX report: the top 25 Sunday and weekday U.S. newspapers by circulation and the top 25 U.S. newspapers with digital editions.

Average Circulation at the Top 25 U.S. Daily Newspapers For the Six Months Ending 9/30/11
Preliminary Figures as Filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations – Subject to Audit
State	Newspaper Name	Total Circulation  Excluding Branded Editions	Total Branded Editions	Total Average Circulation
NY	WALL STREET JOURNAL	2,096,169		2,096,169
DC	USA TODAY	1,784,242		1,784,242
NY	NEW YORK TIMES	1,150,589		1,150,589
NY	NEW YORK DAILY NEWS	601,097	4,580	605,677
CA	LOS ANGELES TIMES	572,998		572,998
CA	SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS	184,018	343,550	527,568
NY	NEW YORK POST	512,067		512,067
DC	WASHINGTON POST	507,465		507,465
IL	CHICAGO TRIBUNE	425,370		425,370
TX	DALLAS MORNING NEWS	255,613	154,029	409,642
NY	NEWSDAY	404,542		404,542
IL	CHICAGO SUN-TIMES	236,371	152,982	389,353
TX	HOUSTON CHRONICLE	328,813	40,897	369,710
CO	DENVER POST	343,180	9,935	353,115
PA	PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER	260,375	70,759	331,134
MN	STAR-TRIBUNE	298,147		298,147
AZ	ARIZONA REPUBLIC	292,838		292,838
CA	ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER	172,942	97,867	270,809
OH	CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER	243,299		243,299
WA	SEATTLE TIMES	242,814		242,814
OR	OREGONIAN	242,784		242,784
FL	ST. PETERSBURG TIMES	240,024		240,024
MI	DETROIT FREE PRESS (e)	234,579		234,579
CA	SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE	220,515		220,515
CA	SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE	219,347		219,347

Average Circulation at the Top 25 U.S. Sunday Newspapers For the Six Months Ending 9/30/11
Preliminary Figures as Filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations – Subject to Audit
State	Newspaper Name	Total Circulation  Excluding Branded Editions	Total Branded Editions	Total Average Circulation
NY	NEW YORK TIMES	1,645,152		1,645,152
TX	HOUSTON CHRONICLE	519,155	392,409	911,564
CA	LOS ANGELES TIMES	905,920		905,920
DC	WASHINGTON POST	726,990	119,029	846,019
IL	CHICAGO TRIBUNE	781,128		781,128
NY	NEW YORK DAILY NEWS	666,892	746	667,638
MI	DETROIT FREE PRESS (e)	487,953	151,397	639,350
CA	SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS	219,252	383,314	602,566
MN	STAR TRIBUNE	518,095	25,538	543,633
CO	DENVER POST	495,172	42,961	538,133
PA	PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER	482,457		482,457
NY	NEWSDAY	476,723		476,723
AZ	ARIZONA REPUBLIC	472,200		472,200
GA	ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION	410,022		410,022
OH	CLEVELAND PLAIN-DEALER	344,089	59,856	403,945
FL	ST. PETERSBURG TIMES	403,229		403,229
IL	CHICAGO SUN-TIMES	233,445	167,061	400,506
CA	ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER	283,997	113,767	397,764
NY	NEW YORK POST	379,673		379,673
TX	DALLAS MORNING NEWS	362,134	12,519	374,653
MA	BOSTON GLOBE	360,186		360,186
TX	SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS	246,742	97,378	344,120
WA	SEATTLE TIMES	333,937		333,937
NJ	NEWARK STAR-LEDGER	333,601		333,601
MO	ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH	332,825		332,825

Top 25 U.S. Daily Newspapers with Digital Editions For the Six Months Ending 9/30/11
Preliminary Figures as Filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations — Subject to Audit
State	Newspaper Name	Digital Replica	Digital Nonreplica	Total Digital
NY	WALL STREET JOURNAL		537,469	537,469
NY	NEW YORK TIMES	18,107	361,896	380,003
NY	NEW YORK DAILY NEWS	29,255	136,186	165,441
NY	NEWSDAY	1,103	111,383	112,486
MI	DETROIT FREE PRESS	94,657	1,782	96,439
CO	DENVER POST	37,297	47,007	84,304
NY	NEW YORK POST	11,188	59,678	70,866
TX	HOUSTON CHRONICLE	68,004	1,711	69,715
DC	USA TODAY	33,324	19,072	52,396
MN	STAR TRIBUNE	42,829	8,054	50,883
CA	INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY	45,999	3,048	49,047
MI	DETROIT NEWS	48,698	336	49,034
MN	ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS	48,505		48,505
TX	DALLAS MORNING NEWS	45,922		45,922
CA	SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE	29,859	11,911	41,770
CA	LOS ANGELES TIMES	21,823	16,332	38,155
FL	MIAMI HERALD	34,682	2,581	37,263
PA	PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER	22,754	13,138	35,892
CA	SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS	34,353	1,312	35,665
MO	KANSAS CITY STAR	31,426	717	32,143
UT	SALT LAKE CITY TRIBUNE	29,561	816	30,377
DC	WASHINGTON POST	16,899	10,256	27,155
OH	TOLEDO BLADE	26,959		26,959
NY	WOMENS WEAR DAILY	26,080		26,080
WA	SEATTLE TIMES	24,212	1,662	25,874

Interesting for those of us at newspapers and magazines (print in general)  to see disillusionment in the online world with the holy metric of the the click. Next time an advertiser compares clicks to response from print let them know that comScore says " the digital media industry ‘has come to understand that the click is not a relevant metric of advertising performance’ Full story here

comScore Launches AdEffx Online measurement firm comScore has launched AdEffx™, billed as ‘a complete toolkit for measuring ad effectiveness for any campaign objective with unparalleled accuracy’. The service claims to tackle the problem of accurately accounting for ad delivery against intended targets and measuring the resulting brand and sales lifts on audiences exposed to the campaign. comScore says the digital media industry ‘has come to understand that the click is not a relevant metric of advertising performance’ and that the new service reflects a growing preference for variables such as brand awareness, online site visitation, trademark search and lift in online and offline sales. AdEffx boasts a ‘unified person-centric audience measurement platform’, contrasted with cookie-based measurements which the firm has denigrated in recent announcements, challenging their accuracy in white papers and press comments. The suite currently includes five core services: Campaign Essentials, measuring the actual delivery of every campaign including reach, frequency, GRPs / TRPs and demographics; Action Lift, linking changes in behaviour to viewing of ads; Brand Survey Lift, tracking ‘the lift in consumer attitudes and intentions’ following ad exposure; Online Sales Lift; and Offline Sales Lift. Anne Hunter, the company’s VP of Ad Effectiveness, comments: ‘Other digital ad effectiveness solutions tend to see each client’s campaign as a nail because their only available tool is a hammer. We understand that clients want media accountability and optimized performance, and only comScore AdEffx provides the ability to measure what matters using an integrated measurement platform based on the high quality media planning methods clients have come to trust from comScore.’ Web site: www.comscore.com .

This survey teaches us that people are moving from print to their tablet devices, in this case the IPad to read the news. But what is a little suspicious is that it claims that people are dropping their print subscriptions at an alarming rate- if they spend more than an hour a day reading news on their IPad.  And out of the 1,600 people surveyed they never actually say how many spend an hour a day reading news on their IPad.

From AdWeek. Full story here

Are iPad Apps Killing Newspapers? Survey Says…

Apple tablet–using respondents canceling paper subscriptions at alarming rate

Dec 9, 2010

- Lucia Moses

Are iPad apps the new newspaper killer? A new survey out today showed that print newspaper subscribers who are heavy iPad users are “very likely” to cancel their print subscriptions.
 
The survey by the University of Missouri’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute is one of the first deep dives into how people are consuming news content on the eight-month-old device and its potential impact on print readership.
 
RJI gathered responses from more than 1,600 iPad users online from September to November.
 
The survey showed that 58 percent of respondents who use the Apple tablet at least an hour a day for news are very likely to cancel their subscription in the next six months. One in 10 said they had already done so and have switched to reading digital newspapers on their iPad.
 
A potential positive finding for newspapers as they try to charge people for their digital content is, nine in 10 said they were likely to use newspapers’ apps to get news, rather than using a Web browser to go to the papers’ Web sites, most of which are free.
 
“These findings are encouraging for newspaper publishers who plan to begin charging for subscriptions on their iPad app editions early next year, but our survey also found a potential downside: iPad news apps may diminish newspaper print subscriptions in 2011," said Roger Fidler, RJI’s program director for digital publishing.
 
In a separate survey released today, GfK MRI found about equal amounts of adults reading newspapers and magazines via apps or mobile devices. Four percent of adults reported reading a newspaper via an app in the past 30 days, compared with 3.7 percent of adults reading magazine content this way.

 

If you are involved in the print industry, representing a newspaper or magazine, you have read these types of articles before - the digital age is upon us. Ink is doomed. Whether or not you believe it, there is no denying the trend towards the digital. Josh Bernoff, synopsizes the digital-is-our-future argument well, in his story in this week's AdAge. He might disagree but what I think he is really saying has less to do with how the advertising is presented and in what medium and more to do with the fact that advertisers want results- measurable, verifiable, results. Digital advertising is ready made to measure response. But it can be done in print. At Mediabids, we measure the results of thousands of ads and when measured, newspapers and magazines generate very respectable results, oftentimes outperforming digital from an ROI perspective. So, Bernoff may be wrong about the speed of the gravitational pull toward digital, but he is right about why digital is so appealing to so many advertisers right now.

Here is a portion of Bernoff's story:

In this recession, marketers have learned that interactive marketing is more effective, and advertising less effective, per dollar spent. While budgets for online have decreased, they decreased less than other budgets. Six out of ten marketers we surveyed agreed with the statement "we will increase budget for interactive by shifting money away from traditional marketing." Only 7% said "we have no plans to increase our marketing budget."

Unlike the last recession, digital marketing is no longer experimental. Now it looks more like advertising is inefficient, relative to digital. More than half of the marketers we surveyed said that effectiveness of direct mail, TV, magazines, outdoor, newspapers, and radio would stay the same or decrease within three years. In contrast, well over 70% expected the effectiveness of channels like created social media, online video, and mobile marketing to increase.

The result is that digital, which will be about 12% of overall advertising spend in 2009, is likely to grow to about 21% in five years. Along the way overall advertising budgets won't grow much.