Archive for March, 2011

Last week, George Affleck – General Manager of the British Columbia and Yukon Community Newspaper Association – was featured in the North Shore News and the Vancouver Courier. Mr. Affleck elaborated on the changing industry of community newspapers and how they continue to maintain their status as key sources of local news.

Since the internet became an integral part of Canadians’ lives, there have been a number of discussions about newspapers’ place in the media world with such competition. As the North Shore News article explains, “Those who said newspapers were finished are finding themselves back pedaling. The old model is irreversibly changed, it’s true, and no one knows exactly what the new one will look like, but print is still here and it’s still relevant.”

“There is no other medium in Canada that can reach people like community newspapers,” says Affleck.

The article also cites a recent ComBase study that found that often more than one person reads a printed newspaper and explained that two-thirds of readers look through all or most of their local community newspapers. Both these behaviours provide great advantages for advertisers in community papers.

Click here to read the full article from the North Shore News and click here to read the Vancouver Courier story.

With Canadians’ lives featuring more and more multimedia, it can often be difficult as an advertiser to decide which mediums to advertise with: TV, radio, online, or newspapers. Two of the most important considerations when choosing where to advertise are audience engagement and audience trust. These factors alone can significantly increase the effectiveness of your advert and potentially make the difference between a successful campaign and a wasted opportunity.

Newspapers have proven themselves as strong brands that can translate across media platforms: more than 75 percent of Canadians agree that newspapers are more than just printed products, but websites and mobile sources of news, too.

Yet while newspapers’ roles have changed, the level of consumer trust in them has not. 48 percent of Canadians trust ads appearing in newspapers more than those in other mediums such as TV, magazines or online. In addition, 42 percent of Canadians have said that seeing adverts in newspapers is most likely to inspire purchase of the featured products. Considering 58 percent also believe that adverts in newspapers will help them to find a bargain, this level of trust means that your advert will not only reach thousands of engaged readers, but that it is more likely to be viewed, studied, and acted upon.

The importance of consumer engagement in effective advertising cannot be emphasized enough. We need only look at PVR devices on television sets to see that many Canadians do not have patience or time for many types of advertising. That the inherent trust and reliance in newspapers also applies to the adverts in them is a great benefit to businesses that wish to expand their customer base.

For further information about how advertising in newspapers can help you, or to find out more about classified advertising and pricing, please speak to one of our representatives.

Data from www.newspaperscanada.ca, based on a random, balanced study by Totum Research on behalf of Newspapers Canada.