| The print media display the greatest diversity
of all, in both ownership and content. They range from daily
to weekly newspapers, from news magazines to a range of special
interest publications. For the purposes of this chapter we are
primarily concerned with newspapers, although many of the observations
and standards might also apply to other types of print media. |
| |
| Even in situations where the state retains
a large stake in broadcasting, the print media are usually in
private hands. The main exceptions are likely to be authoritarian
or dictatorial systems under which free elections are unlikely
to be on the agenda. But there are also countries, such as some
in northern Europe, where a public subsidy is paid to newspapers
to ensure the political diversity of the press. In countries
emerging from dictatorship, aid donors sometimes subsidize private
newspapers with a similar aim. By and large, however, newspapers
derive their income from advertising and sales revenue (with
the former usually much more significant than the latter). |
| |
| The ideal of the "Fourth Estate"
- the media keeping a check over government - is perhaps more
effective in the print media than broadcasting. At least some
newspapers in any country are likely to conduct serious news
investigations and o comment in a reasonably sophisticated manner
on political developments. The same is not always true of broadcasters. |
| |
| NEWSPAPERS When deciding upon a newspaper
in which to advertise, there are three physical criteria to
consider: distribution, size, and audience. Newspapers are either
daily or weekly, come in a standard or tabloid size, and reach
nearly all of the reading public, which is estimated to be around
85-90 percent of the population. Because of the broad demographic
reach of most newspapers it is difficult to target a specific
audience; however, newspapers are effective in increasing awareness
of a business' products and services in a specific geographical
area. |
| |
| Types of ads placed in newspapers include:
display ads, classified ads, public notes, and preprinted inserts.
Newspaper ads have some flexibility in their size. For instance,
some are small boxes that take up only a small portion of a
page, while others might span one or two full pages (the latter,
however, are typically only bought by larger corporations).
Regardless of this flexibility, newspaper ads can only use limited
special effects, such as font size and color. These limitations
lead to advertising "clutter" in newspapers because
all the ads look very similar. Therefore, advertisers must use
original copy and headings to differentiate their ads from their
competitors. The quick turnover of newspapers also allows the
advertiser to adjust ads to meet new market conditions; however,
this turnover means that the same ad may need to be inserted
over a significant period of time in order to reach its target
audience. |
| |
| MAGAZINES With magazines an advertiser
can focus in on a specific target audience. As the Small Business
Administration pointed out in "Advertising Your Business":
"Audiences can be reached by placing ads in magazines which
have [a] well-defined geographic, demographic, or lifestyle
focus." An attractive option for many small businesses
may be placing an ad in the localized edition of a national
magazine. But magazine advertisements often have a lag time
of a couple months between the purchase of ad space and the
publication of the issue in question. Magazines, then, are sometimes
not the optimum option for businesses seeking to target fast-changing
market trends. |
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