New York Times offers front page ads
The New York Times has launched a display ad on its front page for the first time, with CBS claiming the first spot, in a bid to counter the advertising downturn.
The title’s decision to sell front page ads comes after a series of trials of ads on some of the front pages of other sections of the paper, which The New York Times claims received “a very positive response from the advertising community”.
Denise Warren, senior vice-president and chief advertising officer of The New York Times Media Group, said: “This high impact placement represents an exciting new opportunity for our advertisers to reach our educated, affluent and influential readers across the country.
“A strip ad on the front page of The New York Times will be highly attractive to advertisers looking for premium real estate for their campaigns,” she added.
The advertising units on The New York Times‘ front page occupy a strip of two and a half inches at the bottom of page A1, which is less noticeable than the ad boxes available on the front of the Wall Street Journal.
However, it is a big move for the paper and one that has been rejected by other US titles such as The Washington Post, which despite its parent company witnessing a 14% fall in its print-ad revenue in the third quarter of last year, the paper still claims it won’t go down the same route as “it cheapens the front page”.
In December, the Wall Street Journal‘s managing editor Robert Thomson said that newspapers and magazines would thrive during the recession, as advertisers are looking for safer options when spending money (see WSJ editor: Newspapers & magazines will thrive during recession).
Thomson said: “Once they show up again, they are seeking to spend money in ways that are proven by decades of experience. People are looking for a safe harbour in times of turbulence.”
However, the global newspaper industry, particularly in the US, has struggled to keep ad revenues up and has seen a number of cutbacks and redundancies as a result of the advertising downturn.
A recent report by media economist Jack Myers predicts that more than $25 billion in advertising revenues will be drained from media companies between January 2008 and December 2010.
Myers also forecasts that total US marketing communication budgets will decline by a staggering $56 billion during the same period – down 2.4% for 2008, -6.7% for 2009 and -2.3%.
“It’s not just economic,” Myers said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. “It’s secular and systemic. It’s like moving from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy. Anyone connected with the advertising business is challenged right now.”
The New York Times Co’s advertising revenue fell by more than 20% in November 2008 alone, which the company said was due to a drop in real estate and jobs classified ads.
The title’s decision to start selling front page ad space is an attempt to innovate in order to beat the recession – “while three years ago the notion of the New York Times serving up front-page ads would have stirred emotions far and wide, today it’s a one-day story,” said a Outsell media analyst.
American television network NBC came up with a similar plan to get advertisers interested again, by selling a single Super Bowl spot to multiple advertisers – Cesario Migliozzi agency was set to buy a single ad spot in the game and divide it into eight mini-spots of a few seconds each.
However, NBC has since rejected the idea due to the “simple economics of pricing”, according to Adweek and AgencySpy.
New York Times: www.nytimes.com