Political Cartoonists and Advertising – what is the link?

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On face value the question would seem quite silly, but it is not.

Print Media advertising has a been a key part of the hire industry and rental industry advertising mix for decades!

But is print media advertising it still effective?

Traditional newspapers and serious print media are under serious threat. Not convinced, then consider this – In 2009 alone nearly 90 USA newspapers or magazines have closed or migrated to just web delivery.  Taking nearly 9000  jobs with them!   Erica Smith a journalist herself has been mapping the decline of the traditional media for years, her blog is universally regarded.

Update an article just published today, 1 Sep 09 on social mashable that Newspaper revenues have declined by 29% compared to the same quarter last year.  This is a dramatic drop.  To read the full article click here

Why the decline?

The traditional business model of Newspapers is advertising revenues fund quality journalism which attracts a readership demographic. The attracted readership demographic appeals to particular advertisers who in turn then pay for the newspaper advertising. However things are changing:

1. Increasingly people would rather go on line and read what they want from where they want when they want.
2. Secondly, user generated news content is replacing serious journalistic analysis and commentary.
3. Finally, as readership has declined companies etc have moved their advertising from print to digital.

So back to the Political Cartoonists

Political Cartoonists have become a barometer of the health and relevance of the Traditional Media.  As one USA political cartoonist during a NPR radio interview stated, a decade ago their were over 300 print media employed political cartoonists in the USA now their are less than 50. The reason is that the advertising revenues of newspapers has declined, forcing newspapers to cut back on staff, including the visual editorial staff such as cartoonists.

Cartoonists like journalists are critical in attracting or maintaining a readership. Each incremental loss of such staff, eg cartoonists, reduces the newspapers readership appeal or reach into a market demographic. It is this market demographic reach that appeals to the advertisers.

So if newspapers are cutting back on quality journalism, including political cartoonists then the effect could be a reduction in their readership. Therefore if readership declines (market demographic reach), then the effectiveness of advertising through such newspapers begins to become a consideration.

Print Advertising

The question then arising for all businesses (or our focus specifically Hire and Rental companies) becomes is newspaper advertising still an effective marketing channel?

Judging from anecdotal evidence many businesses,  hire and rental companies included,  have voted with their keyboards and have begun to spread their marketing budgets into on-line marketing and even social media. Evidence also exists in other industry sectors, eg in a recent article in Tire Business one owner cited that in 5 years his print advertising budget had been reduced from over 50% to 11%, (click on quote to access the full article – well worth reading)

..., who operates 15 stores across Michigan, said half his ad budget goes to direct mail and TV, but only 11 percent goes to newspaper advertising. Five years ago, more than half of Northwest Tire’s ad budget went towards newspaper ads.

The Answer

So the question was what have political cartoonists got to do with advertising trends? Well the answer is – as the number of employed political cartoonists in the traditional print media declines so does the business spend on traditional print media advertising.

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration.

Hire and rental management systems like HireEzy make the use of such on-line marketing easy to use and part of the natural hire and rental business process.  For more information contact us at sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

in Advertising, Newspaper, Web 2.0