During the last 50 years I have been a large user of classified press advertising. During this period most broadsheet newspapers have become tabloid [a much smaller size] the number of columns on each page have increased from 8 columns to 12 columns by reducing the font size and the column widths, and in many newspapers the classified sections have become small newspapers in their own right. The result being there are too many adverts on each page and your own trade advert cannot be seen or read. From 1985 onward's newspaper circulations have dropped 65%, yet the prices for lineage or box adverts have gone up and up. Even worse the number of pages per issue has increased from 32 pages to 48 pages, with some papers printing 64 pages on Thursdays and Fridays. Common sense should have told them that no reader was going to read 64 pages of newsprint and he/she was more concerned with watching TV or using a computer.
A huge problem for advertisers was readers interest in the classified adverts gradually vanished to zilch. They read the first 5 news pages then skipped the rest, whilst male readers took more interest in the sports pages. The quandary we all faced was obtaining leads and work enquiries. All I can say is its reached a point when we no longer use press advertising much and consider the prices they charge rediculous. For instance last week the Leeds Evening Post circulation 34 000 copies per day wanted a £100.00 per day for a small lineage advert and the sales person glibly suggested we book our advert for 10 days in order to get a good response! For all these reasons local paid for newspapers are closing down with some becoming weeklies. In Yorkshire by the end of the year just the Leeds Evening Post will be left. It was claimed on TV that The Hull Mail, the Sheffield Star, the Halifax Courier and the Huddersfield Telegraph newspapers are closing or becoming weeklies. In the USA the situation is even worse, they have lost 62 major titles in the last 3 years and my favourite The New York Times is in trouble.
What advice do you have on advertising on the internet and what are your views on press advertising and the results you obtained, and how do you view the future? PS: We spent £5500.00 on Yellow Pages for just one enquiry, this was for 12 months advertising in 6 citys / £5500.00? [ I am in Leeds and have worked in the Leeds and North East since 1964]
A huge problem for advertisers was readers interest in the classified adverts gradually vanished to zilch. They read the first 5 news pages then skipped the rest, whilst male readers took more interest in the sports pages. The quandary we all faced was obtaining leads and work enquiries. All I can say is its reached a point when we no longer use press advertising much and consider the prices they charge rediculous. For instance last week the Leeds Evening Post circulation 34 000 copies per day wanted a £100.00 per day for a small lineage advert and the sales person glibly suggested we book our advert for 10 days in order to get a good response! For all these reasons local paid for newspapers are closing down with some becoming weeklies. In Yorkshire by the end of the year just the Leeds Evening Post will be left. It was claimed on TV that The Hull Mail, the Sheffield Star, the Halifax Courier and the Huddersfield Telegraph newspapers are closing or becoming weeklies. In the USA the situation is even worse, they have lost 62 major titles in the last 3 years and my favourite The New York Times is in trouble.
What advice do you have on advertising on the internet and what are your views on press advertising and the results you obtained, and how do you view the future? PS: We spent £5500.00 on Yellow Pages for just one enquiry, this was for 12 months advertising in 6 citys / £5500.00? [ I am in Leeds and have worked in the Leeds and North East since 1964]
