Why Does the Times Down-Sell Instead of Sell Itself? - Jerry Shereshewsky

Nat Ives reported a few days ago in Ad Age that the NY Times Digital edition39s Share of Newspaper Sites39 Traffic Hit a 12 Month Low Various spokespeople argued about the interpretation of the data and pointed out that the Times has only lost minimal traffic since the erection of the paywall Category definitionsamp8230blah blah blahWhat the article doesn39t talk about is the fact that the New York Times needs to sell themselves to their next generation of usersamp8230and hasn39t When the Times39 audience was metro New York they could count on the daily visibility of the Times on newsstands to reinforce the brand But with a nationalamp8230nay a global audience they need to sell the virtues and benefits of the Times and of being a Times reader to a new younger hipper but increasingly aspirational audienceThe New York Times owns one of the great brands in the world But they treat it shabbily finding ways to decrease the price buy the weekender and get the digital as a gift with purchase rather than increase the perceived value Getting the children of historic Times readers is not enough They need to increase their share in every market in America and globally and do it quickly And you can39t grow share by discounting your brand If they don39t I fear that the brutalities of economics will destroy this incredible institution and resource and all we39ll be left with is some version of a McPaperNPR has seemingly found a way to do thisamp8230they are at alltime highs for audience That entity which my kids used to call quotNational Parent Radioquot is now their critical source for news and insight And as they enter their mid 2039s they are increasingly interested in that more expansive view They have also come to love Garrison Keeler but that39s a different story altogether The Times has not reinvented their magic as a digital news sourceamp8230with far more and usually better coverageamp8230than anyoneTheir reporters and columnists have great credibility and gravitas using the printed word but they have not realized that we are irrevocably in an era where sight and sound counts for more than Times Roman 10 The Daily News Corp has begun to figure this out with a regular set of editorial voicesamp8230real voicesamp8230to complement their 39printed39 wordBroadcast journalism is largely constrained by the clock Internet journalism is neither clock nor space limited Internet journalism will offer the consumer ever deeper layers rather than a linear stream Stories will be created to explicate in increasingly tight concentric circles rather than along a straight line But even with this journalism of tomorrow or shouldn39t it be of today they have to tellsell their story to an audience that doesn39t come by the Times geneticallyEntering new markets with essentially new products has always been a job for real marketers Will the real marketers at the NY Times please step front and center and really sell that puppy so that it is there for us all for years and years to comeJerry Shereshewsky has formed a new marketing consultant firm GrownUpMarketing to help agencies and marketing companies strategically understand the 45 market and the relevance to their particular brands Jerry can be reached at jerrygrownupmarketingcomRead all Jerryamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Rants ampamp Raves from the Heart of AdvertisingCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors

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Why Does the Times Down-Sell Instead of Sell Itself? - Jerry Shereshewsky

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Why Does the Times Down-Sell Instead of Sell Itself? - Jerry Shereshewsky

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