As a media buyer that specializes in print, I’m a little torn on this one!  

First of all, not all print newspapers are too high.  I specialize in classified advertising nationwide concentrating in newspapers.  For us, ads in print only are not a problem, the insanely high prices are an issue with the forced online buys that are associated with recruiting ads.  Most of the major dailies have either paired with Monster or Career Builder and they force advertisers to buy the ad in the print product along with an online posting.  The ones affiliated with Monster in particular are bad because they generally will not allow the client to opt out of the online portion of the buy and get a lower rate.  Many of our clients have their own online marketing contracts and do not need the newspaper’s additional online coverage.  In the end, the customers are forced to spend $400, $500 or more to buy the print product (and online) if they want to run in the newspaper.  Some of the worst offenders are daily papers like the Billings Gazette or the Idaho Statesman.  These aren’t large newspapers, but they cost more than larger papers in much larger cities!  We have truly have clients that have opted out of running in those papers altogether and elect to run with alternative print media like shoppers, employment guides, etc.  They are much more reasonable and generate leads at an affordable rate.  

It’s very frustrating for me.  I am a print person and love the print media options, but it sometimes feels like the publishers do their best to run off business and put themselves out of business. On the bright side, I often hear that the leads my clients receive from print are of a better quality than what they receive online.  Unfortunately, for some papers, the cost per lead still isn’t worth it.

I have to work very hard to make sure our customers are spending their ad budget as wisely as possible and sometimes that means we reach out to print products other than major dailies.