‘Printism’ is alive and kicking

There is bias in media agencies against print, but the pendulum will inevitably swing back in its favour, writes James Wildman

It’s an uncomfortable truth in our industry that there exists, within both media agencies and advertisers, a bias (however unconscious this may be) towards perceived ‘sexier’ media channels at the expense of traditional print newspapers and magazines.

I call this bias ‘printism’, and it’s a topic close to my heart. It’s also one I spoke about at an event held in partnership with Mediatel last month, where the subject du jour was whether newspaper owners have taken their collective eye off their own strengths – a view that’s supported by some recent research we carried out with the agency planning community.

The answer is undoubtedly ‘yes’. While us newsbrands are rightly focused on building a new digital audience in the age of Google and Facebook, it’s imperative that those of us who retain a strong print profile stand up proudly for a channel that has perhaps become perceived as the runt of the media planning litter.

We’ve proven ourselves with digital scale that can’t be argued with – currently 28m UK uniques per month where Trinity Mirror is concerned – but our print titles remain hugely influential to consumers, influencers, and to society as a whole.

As the brilliant Sue Unerman of MediaCom said during the event: “Newspapers are still making TV shows successful; they’re driving the agenda of Downing Street and Westminster. The strength of journalism is as great as it ever was and that generates a level of influence for advertising in newspapers.”

The blame is not ours to shoulder alone, however, and I picked up on three interesting themes revealed by the audience and panel at the Mediatel session that I think go some way to explaining the problem.

Measurability

The rise of digital media has brought with it much focus on measurability which in turn has put print under scrutiny.

But I challenge the suggestion that other media channels have ‘better’ or more reliable data than print does. For example, econometrics for TV advertising were praised at the event – a measure that I’d suggest disproportionately attributes effectiveness to the ‘largest’ channel.

To the same point, despite comprehensive figures from both the ABCs and NRS, print gets called out on its declining circulation but TV viewing isn’t measured by ‘number of set-top boxes’ and radio listening isn’t measured by the amount of radios we own.

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There’s certainly work to be done to give planners and clients more of the data they crave and we’ll deliver improved, cross platform audience measurement with PAMCo, the new audience measurement body that will replace NRS, while a powerful Newsworks’ effectiveness study is due this summer.

But I’d suggest that, for all the increasing noise around ad-blocking and ad fraud online, print does not suffer the same challenges. After all, I’ve never heard of anybody ‘blocking’ a print ad.

Pressure from clients

We’re faced with a generation of media planners who may not read a newspaper and perhaps therefore don’t see the value of print.

Twitter, Facebook and news websites are their primary sources of information and, despite senior agency leaders encouraging planners to leave their prejudices at the door, it’s naïve to think the pendulum doesn’t sometimes sway subconsciously away from print when plans are being drawn up.

Yet our research shows that almost three-quarters of planners remain committed to keeping print on their schedules so all is not lost. However, 79% of respondents said the main reason their print spend is declining is that “clients push to use new channels”.

The age-old ‘tactics versus strategy’ debate has reared its head with the advent of digital media. A lack of strategy and an over-reliance on tactics rather than brand building is a criticism that planners in our survey levelled at some marketing directors who appear too focused on building their own profile.

Such short-term thinking, usually award- and career-led, is not in the best interest of the brand or the consumer.

I know from the brands we work with at Trinity Mirror Solutions that not all clients can be tarred with the same brush – in fact Nick Ashworth, media agency manager at DFS, was in the audience last week.

He said print is still delivering “very strongly for our business, which is why we’ll continue to invest in the medium,” adding that despite concerns about declining numbers print remains a “very powerful medium”.

The question therefore is: Why are agencies not pushing back or challenging clients’ point of view on print? An answer is perhaps the pressure on agencies to drive their own profitability…

Margins

What has been suggested by many as the single most significant driver of printism is the margins agencies make on digital inventory versus print.

I’m not here to bash digital – in fact we’re making great gains in the race – but when agencies make significantly more margin on digital than they would in print, it’s not hard to imagine planners being encouraged to push clients towards the former.

Similarly, they might choose not to argue too vociferously if a marketing director suggests a programmatic approach with the desire of appearing ‘digital first’, a business intention that is perhaps misinterpreted by marketeers to mean ‘digital media first’.

Clearly the media landscape has fragmented and, alongside print sales, TV and other media have also felt the strain as audiences move online. With that in mind, I don’t think print will be the last channel to feel the ‘ism’ – any traditional media channel could quite feasibly suffer a similar fate.

Printism is a phenomenon that’s been around for a while but it’s especially surprising to me having now settled in at Trinity Mirror; at Yahoo I’d have given my right arm for a physical product to sit alongside our digital offering.

I believe the pendulum will inevitably swing back towards print – just like it has for physical book sales, etc – but as an industry we need to remind ourselves of our strengths by tackling the causes of printism head-on. At Trinity Mirror Solutions, we’re committed to doing exactly that.

James Wildman is chief revenue officer at Trinity Mirror Solutions