Alternative newsweeklies have what it takes to attract online advertising. They're highly local. They have a young, tech-savvy readership. But the papers are still in the Dark Ages when it comes to Internet advertising, says ad sales consultant Mike Blinder (pictured), who will speak at the AAN convention in San Antonio in June. He and other experts urge the industry to follow the lead of some of the larger AAN papers and make their Web strategies more cutting-edge.
Creative Loafing Charlotte "is still waiting for some kind of clarification or retraction after a March 16 WCNC-TV report that had a Charlotte-Mecklenburg vice officer saying that CL is kind of a pimp for illegal 'spas,'" Shannon Reichley writes. No one on the broadcast accused the daily Charlotte Observer, which runs the same ads, of pimping, the alt-weekly's media columnist complains. Still, she's never liked the fact that the two papers earn cash from businesses she describes as legitimate but "sleazoids."
Potential advertisers in alternative newsweeklies want to know not only how many people their promotions will reach but what types of people. How old? How educated? How rich? To supply answers, publishers of AAN papers rely on firms that do market comparisons and readership surveys. But, sometimes, research techniques don't quite deliver what publishers are looking for.
Two of the main rep firms for alternative newsweeklies had significant gains in national advertising in 2003, E&P reports following an announcement by AAN today. The Ruxton Group, which represents 28 newsweeklies, experienced a 17 percent increase over 2002. Alternative Weekly Network, which represents more than 100 newsweeklies, had a 6 percent increase in national sales over 2002.
If the economy is reviving, many AAN papers are still waiting for the signs to show up in their ad revenues. Although national ad sales went up last year, papers reported mixed results in local advertising, their mainstay. Reasons to be hopeful in 2004 include increases in real estate and recruitment ads, diversification of ad categories, and the notion that merchants and the public have grown tired of brooding and want to feel optimistic about their economic prospects again. Sales staff need to "get the message out there" about what alternative newsweeklies have to offer, says Jim Wolf, Village Voice Media's vice president of national advertising.
"When you talk about holiday gift guides, it sounds very un-alternative," Baltimore City Paper Publisher Don Farley says. Maybe so, but while some AAN papers publish gift guides devoted solely to advertising, others season the ads with sex and satire and the kind of edgy content that would never make it past mainstream-media gatekeepeers.
Like many big-city alternative newspapers, sex ads fill the back pages of the New York Press, and. according to the paper's classified manager, "It's not a secret that most of the girls are prostitutes." Furthermore, police officials "in some cities" buy classifieds to set up sting operations and they also "pressure" classified managers to give up the names of their adult advertisers, Allan Wolper reports. "We know that almost every one of those ads involve sex for money ," says Sgt. Chris Bray of Phoenix vice, which places undercover ads in the Phoenix New Times as well as The Arizona Republic. "We make about 10 arrests a month from the ads and get about eight convictions."
How fast the market for local advertising is recovering — or even if it is recovering — has become a subject of intense speculation along Madison Avenue. For those arguing whether or not there is evidence of a comeback, the answer echoes that from the old Certs commercial: Stop, you're both right.
Breaking with the long tradition of producing separate versions of ads for the Hispanic and non-Hispanic U.S. markets, a number of top advertisers such as Coca-Cola Co. and Volkswagen are using a single Spanish-language ad for all markets.
Deutsche Bank publishing analyst Paul Ginocchio cut his retail advertising growth forecast for the newspaper industry while warning that department store spending is migrating to TV as stores focus on brand-building.
