Serving Media Buyers Better

Published: PRESSTIME, June 1, 2006

WINNING OVER AD agencies and media buyers long deemed highly resistant to print newspaper advertising is not a job for the fainthearted. For that reason, Jason E. Klein, president and chief executive officer of the Newspaper National Network LP in New York City, likens his tenacious sales team to America’s most elite fighting force.

“We’re like the Marines of the newspaper industry,” says Klein, who jokingly adds that the sales techniques required to win business from agencies and large companies can at times conjure images of trench warfare.

To combat a long-term decline in national advertising, NAAand a group of 23 newspapers launched NNN in 1994 and imme- diately directed this unique, for-profit marketing partnership to train its lens on carefully selected categories of advertisers that traditionally did not advertise in newspapers. Over the years, that focus has broadened to encompass all categories in which newspapers receive less than 10 percent of total media spending.

But simply winning the ground war–that is, reversing the decline in print national advertising–is no longer enough. Not when the air war–the battle to win control of cyberspace–is heating up, too.

Unfortunately, many ad agencies and media buyers approach each medium on entirely different fronts. Most of the online ad placement for Best Buy Co. in Minneapolis is managed through an agency, says Marsha Lawrence, senior print media strategist for Best Buy, noting that many large corpora- tions have separate ad budgets and buyers for each medium. Best Buy manages its free-standing insert buys internally, and uses an agency—separate from the one that handles handles the company’s online efforts—for its television ad buys.

“You will find someone who is an expert in one or an expert in another, but they are certainly not going to be experts in both,” she says.

Lawrence’s observations are “fairly typi- cal” of the majority of retail clients served by Newspaper Services of America, says Chief Executive Officer Bob Shamberg. The Chicago-based company places print ads for such accounts as The Home Depot, Safeway, Kmart, Toys “R” Us and Officemax.

“Most of our clients still separate newspaper print buying from online buying,” he says, adding that he believes the two mediums will become more integrated over time.

“I think it’s a smart thing to do, and speaking for our clients, they are smart people and they are in the process of figuring it out,” he says. Safeway, Kmart, Toys “R” Us and Officemax. “Most of our clients still separate newspaper print buying from online buying,” he says, adding that he believes the two mediums will become more integrated over time. “I think it’s a smart thing to do, and speaking for our clients, they are smart people and they are in the process of figuring it out,” he says. “It can bring them more effective and efficient buys, and, ultimately, a more effective return on investment.”

The challenge, Shamberg adds, will be in figuring out how to buy the Web effectively and efficiently. “You can go out and buy Yahoo! relatively easily, but it’s difficult to go out and buy 72 Web sites newspaper by newspaper.”

To that end, NNN announced a strategic alliance in May with Chicago-based Centro LLC, a local online media planning and ad-buying service that premiered last November. Centro, which works almost exclusively through ad agencies, acts as a central, one-stop online buying service.

The new alliance enables advertisers to more readily develop and place integrated campaigns across thousands of print and online newspapers, Klein says, noting that NNN had previously worked with PowerOne Media in East Greenbush, N.Y.

The new partnership will “accentuate the extensive reach and impact” that print and online newspapers provide, says Klein, whose group recently rolled out a “world-class presentation” that will hammer home the value of advertising on newspapers’ Web sites—which are the most visited local sites in most markets. “Centro has tremendous expertise in the marketplace. We’re very excited about this new relationship. We think there’s a ton of demand.”

Centro President Shawn Riegsecker shares his partner’s sentiment. “The newspaper industry is competing against the portals with one hand tied behind its back,” he says. “It’s time to catch up with the competition. The newspaper industry shouldn’t give clients a reason not to buy them.”

With nearly three out of every four U.S. online advertising dollars going into the pockets of Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL, Riegsecker sees the alliance with NNN as timely and symbiotic.

“The strength of NNN’s team talking to the traditional media planners and agencies, and the strength of our team talking to the digital media planners and interactive agencies, will help bring more business to the newspaper industry.” T.D.J