Reflections of a Newsosaur: Why newspaper ad sales are not recovering
Some great analysis of why newspaper ad sales are not recovering from a professional.
The collapse of the auto category at newspapers is an excellent example of how the digital media are disintermediating all sorts of business channels and, thus, disrupting the flow of advertising dollars within them.
Aware that consumers spend someplace between eight and 10 hours researching cars before they contact a dealer, auto markers and dealers are vectoring ever-greater portions of their marketing budgets into intercepting consumers online…
…Because a growing number of well-informed consumers make their decisions before contacting dealers, the point of sale has moved to the web, not the showroom. Dealers don’t need newspapers to remind consumers they are there, because empowered consumers know who the dealers are, know what models are in stock and know how much they should be paying for a car. Because consumers decide when to contact the dealer, spending money on online visibility is cheaper (and tidier) than taking out a half-page ad offering free pony rides for the kids on a Saturday afternoon. Thus, newspaper publishers (and pony wranglers) are pushed out of the buying process.