Listen to the Printer. Fix the ad sales process.

In my most recent column at PBS.Media Shift I said,

As journalism is going through fundamental changes, the system for selling print ads is mired in the past. For print ads to activate the presently under-served large market of small business, it means ad sales people will need to be accessible to small and micro-business people for a quick conversation to do the deal. Few small and micro-businesses have the time to focus to buy on the Internet.

Since that venue is mostly journalists, it didn't get much of a response. Then in a thread at PrintCEo.com, I said,

What’s broken about the advertising model is not the newspapers. It’s an ad sales process that is too expensive and too complicated for micro, small and medium business.

Since Print Ceo is a place for Printers, the discussion tends to be a little more down to earth. Andy McCourt, from Australia said,

MJ wrote: “What’s broken about the advertising model is not the newspapers. It’s an ad sales process that is too expensive and too complicated for micro, small and medium business.”
Hear,hear Michael. And you could add the guy with the “trusty but rusty” ‘98 Pontiac wanting to sell it using a colour picture too.
Here in Australia, we have a very strong network of localised free newspapers such as Cumberland Community Newspapers (owned by Mr Murdoch’s News Corp) and others: http://www.newsspace.com.au/?groupid=1
These titles look great on SC paper; even LWC - in full colour and guess what…I haven’t noticed any decline in advertising (incl. classifieds) during this recession. Why? Because these papers are free, localised and the advertising is targeted to regions and is affordable.

One, The Manly Daily (reference to a suburb, not Australian macho-ness!) is reportedly the highest paginated free daily in the world. They reach out to communities of around 30,000 households and don’t try to be mass-market ‘thunderers.’ Take this successful model further with digitally-printed, hyper-localised targeted titles and the advertising cost will be even more affordable, and wil deliver higher returns per-dollar-invested.

Having said that, I note Goss is now positioning its presses as able to do job-changes at 3,000 copies. So offset lives in this world too. As for paying for content; I’m a cynic. I don’t think people will do this in sufficient numbers for newspapers, on Kindles or on paper. Bring back the advertisers by hyper-localising, and blend DM with NP.

It's just one of the many reasons I'm so proud to be a Printer.