Mediabids is pleased to announce its first Per-Inquiry Print Advertising Challenge, running from April 1 – April 30, 2010. This challenge is open to individual weekly newspapers that participate in their Per-Inquiry Print Advertising program that wish to run a DISH Network print ad in their publication throughout the month of April. Each weekly newspaper will be compensated according to the traditional per-inquiry payout structure for DISH’s Network’s PI Campaign with Mediabids – they will receive $13 for each unique 60-second call generated from the ad in their publication.

The weekly newspaper that generates the most response to the DISH network ad for the month of April will receive a check for $5,000 from Mediabids, in addition to the amount generated by their newspaper. Response will be tracked by a third-party call-tracking service, and results will be updated weekly on the website http://www.mediabids.com/marketing/contest.html Publication’s names will not be revealed but the location and circulation of the top ten publications will be made public. The winner of the contest will be announced May 3, 2010.

For more information, or to enter your publication into the contest, please visit http://www.mediabids.com/marketing/contest.html

From Print In the Mix:

A new National Newspaper Association (NNA) survey finds that 81% of respondents read a local weekly paper each week.  NNA is the national organization for community newspapers (often referred to as "weeklies").

• Nearly half (47%) say they read the newspaper as much for the ads as for the news.

• 73% read "most or all of it," and those readers spend an average of 40 minutes with the paper.

• Readers, on average, share their paper with 2.36 additional readers.

• Nearly 40% keep their community newspaper more than a week.

• Three-quarters of readers read local news "often to very often" in their community newspaper, while 53% say they never read local news online.  Only 12% say they read local news "often to very often" online.
  
  
• Among those going online for local news, 63% find it on the local newspaper's website, compared to 17% for sites such as Google, and 12% from the website of a local TV station.

• 30% of respondents do not have home Internet access.

   Full story here
  

From Media Life Magazine:

Full-year 2009 spending will decline by 14.5 percent, from $189 billion to $161 billion, and that’s excluding the impact of political and Olympic advertising.

During first half alone, ad spending will be off 18 percent.

Though declines will lessen through 2010, with ad revenues declining by 2 percent, any real recovery is still years off. The global media agency predicts a mere 1.0 percent compound annual growth rate through 2014.

Full Story here.