Many newspaper companies have conducted their own analysis of the markets they serve to determine coverage and cume against these important audience segments. The intent is to demonstrate how single newspaper properties alone far out-deliver broadcast, even when broadcast assets in a region are bundled. The results are powerful. What they don’t consider is the impact of time-shifted viewing.
Nielsen data clearly demonstrates that when it comes to live events like the Super Bowl ratings delivery is not an issue. The balance of most other programming falls outside of “must watch tonight TV”. This is where newspaper platforms shine. At local news gathering’s core is a sense of immediacy, whether the content is delivered traditionally or through digital platforms. Newspaper cumes directly support this. General programming found in newspaper platforms drives a baseline amount of traffic and engagement day to day. But it is news as it breaks locally where demand increases and same day consumption is active and engaged. All content including advertising benefits when this happens. The argument is both logical and intuitive -- something more and more major marketers are discovering each day.
Today, they are focused on tying media investments to results, and newspaper has responded with a portfolio of research products that deliver data in the moment. We can quickly report back to marketers and inform them in real time how their ads are performing across platform, in essence “optimizing” their messaging as it airs. Ironically the one request that marketers haven’t made is for a tracking tool that measures the impact of newspaper platforms three to seven days after a campaign has aired. Maybe that’s because they know that when they run an ad with newspaper on Friday sales will be impacted immediately -- as intended. They don’t need to ask this question as the answer is obvious: Newspapers deliver C1.
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