By the Numbers: Movement in the US and Print Media

Over the next few posts I will examine social movement in the US, how we deal with change and the impact to our marketing efforts. 

• The average American moves 11.7 times in their lifetime.¹
  
• 12 million people move each year – 50% move more than 50 miles (6 million people). ²
  
• 4 million young adults begin college each year. ³
  
• 1.9 million trips were taken in 2005 (the latest data). The top 3 activities were Dining, shopping and entertainment. ⁴
  

How will you reach your demographic?  Let’s look at some channels starting with print.  Newspapers are going out of business at an ever increasing rate.  Here are some that have gone out of business recently⁵:

• Rocky Mountain News
• Baltimore Examiner
• Kentucky Post
• Cincinnati Post
• King County Journal
• Union City Register-Tribune
• Capital Times
• Halifax Daily News
• Albuquerque Tribune
• South Idaho Press
• San Juan Star

It used to be that when you moved to a new area you subscribed to the local paper.  You wanted to get plugged in - local news, sports, sale information and an entertainment guide.  This was the perfect way to reach folks new to the area.  When we moved to our town I subscribed to one of the 3 regional papers plus we received 3 free weekly papers.  In the last year 2 of the weekly papers folded and the last one has become a sales flyer so I throw it away.   Even Google ended it’s newspaper advertising - http://google-tmads.blogspot.com/2009/01/turning-page-on-print-ads.html.

I no longer subscribe to the regional newspaper.  It doesn't cover topics I'm interested in, the news cycles are much faster than they can reasonable handle and I don’t have time to read it.  Usually the papers would pile up in the corner, it might become an art project or I’d recycle it.   I never looked at the ads because they were usually black and white and blended into a wall of words. 

My wife owns a dance studio - JerseyCityDanceAcademy.com.  We used to advertise in the local paper but stopped because readership is down and the ROI is negative.  We used the large regional paper once – but the VERY expensive tiny ad was lost in a sea of paper so no one saw it and we could not target specific areas.  The regional paper is better for broad strokes.  If we had the budget and they could reach our market we could have used:

• a bigger ad
  
• color
  
• multiple ads in the same paper
  
• a series of ads over a few days/weeks  
  

College papers are an option but most companies don’t take advantage of that outlet.  In addition, I haven’t found a single source for all college newspapers and their contact information. Wikipedia's list -

USA - List_of_student_newspapers_in_the_United_States_of_America

Canada - List_of_student_newspapers_in_Canada

I sometimes get USA Today when it is delivered to my hotel room.  Unfortunately, local coverage is non-existent. 

The downside of newspapers are:

• Ad cost and ROI due to declining readership
• PR can be missed by travelers, students and new movers 
  
• Travelers usually don't get the local paper so miss local and regional events
  
• Students live in a psychosocial moratorium so are more likely to stay on campus and ignore local and regional news, events and activities.  
  

Magazines are ceasing publication at a rate of about 1.4 a day.  In 2007, 525 magazines closed shop.⁵  

I still subscribe to a few magazines and read them from cover to cover + I visit their websites for additional information.  But their information is faster and easier to consume online.  I don’t advertise in them because the cost is just too high for my limited budget.   

The downside of newspapers are:

• Are very specialized and charge a permium for that target market - Ad cost can be very high
• Travelers, students and new movers will not see items in a local or regiaonal publication unless they pick it up at the checkout line in the grocery store.
• Students live in a psychosocial moratorium so are more likely to stay on campus and ignore local and regional news, events and activities.  

The printed word needs a new revenue model and delivery method.  Newspapers still has a place for some but I won't be spending my limited budget on this channel.  What do I do to reach all these new bodies?  My next post in this series will focus on the adaptation process to new social situations and what marketers can do to help consumers adapt faster. 

Sources:

1. US Census - http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/geomob.html
2. US Census mobility Study - http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/migrate/cps2007.html
3. US Department of Education - http://nces.ed.gov/fastFacts/display.asp?id=98  , National Center for Education Statistics. (2008). Digest of Education Statistics, 2007 (NCES 2008-022),Table 179.
4. US Travel Association - http://www.tia.org/researchpubs/us_overview_volumes_trends.html
5. MediaFinder.com