New Media Buyers; Alternative Communication Methods

A New PRIMIR Study Focuses On Print As One Choice Among Others In A Growing Media Pie

For decades, print has been the media of choice by media buyers…in fact, they are often called “print buyers” because of the volume of print orders they make. It’s not to say that print is in disfavor today, but there are far more options available to the media buyer coupled with the fact that many are younger and have grown up with computers and electronic alternatives to print.

The concern becomes that these younger buyers have a bias to the electronic alternatives, but why? The primary reason is the rise of the Internet as the method of choice to research almost anything a person or business is trying to purchase or find information about. Other reasons tend to deal with the non-flexibility of print. Once something is printed you can’t revise it without reprinting it resulting in the waste of your inventory. Unlike the Internet, print is difficult for just-in-time worldwide adoption. You have to ship or mail the printed pieces all over the world (push model) whereas with the Internet, people anywhere in the world can instantaneously access your web site (pull model) at their leisure 24/7 and get the information they desire. Still other reasons deal with the cost of printing, especially in cases when the printed matter becomes dated and must be thrown away. So in relation to the flexibility and interactivity of electronic-based communications, print is at some disadvantage.

Obviously, print still has many advantages over electronic communications methods, which is why we are still a massive $165 billion domestic industry today. Most notably, direct mail is the only method to reach every single address in the USA.

When we look at the media pie of today, there are far more options available than there were just 10 years ago. For most of the 20th century, you could choose from Radio, TV or Print and that was pretty much it! Today the media buyer can choose from:

* Magazines
* Newspapers
* Direct mail
* Network Television
* Cable Television
* Satellite Television
* AM/FM Radio
* Satellite Radio
* Internet advertising

But even of more concern is the plethora of electronic technologies that are just beginning to gain traction in the marketplace that will provide several more alternatives in the media pie. To better understand those technologies and where and when they might begin to displace print revenue PRIMIR, the Print Industries Market Information and Research organization commissioned a study entitled “Electronic Displacement of Print” which was completed at the end of 2005. The study identified the following 13 new technologies (not including the Internet) which could have an impact on print:

* Blogs
* Social Networking and social software
* E-books and readers
* E-mail
* Podcasts and iPods
* XBRL
* Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
* Search
* Paper-like electronic displays (E-paper)
* Tablet PCs
* Wikis
* Wireless technologies
* RFID
* Supplemental electronic media

Undoubtedly, some of these are familiar to you today and their impact is obvious. For instance, Google is now a household name, as is Yahoo! Their impact as the leaders of the Search industry is well known but their impact on print may not be so obvious. Google alone represents almost $6 billion per year of advertising revenue… revenue that would have gone to other media only five years ago. The chart at left shows each displacing technology and the print industry segment where they will eventually have an impact.

The new study defines each technology and details the severity of the potential impact . . . too much detail for this article. Available from PRIMIR (www.primir.org), the study provides insightful reading about the environment in which print competes. Suffice it to say that the negative impact from these technologies certainly does not mean that print will “go away,” nor does it mean that print will not grow. Print can continue to grow provided the overall advertising revenue pie of which it is a part continues to grow. A key enabler will also be the role that NPES members play in continuing to develop technologies that minimize the negatives of print discussed early in this article. Finally, we must also better understand print’s dynamic potential within cross-media busi-ness models that are driving many marketing and advertising decisions today. As media buyers are confronted with more choices, it’s more important than ever for our industry to promote the distinct R.O.I. value of print as an advertising and communications vehicle.