Newspapers Be Warned
If you’re a local newspaper or another outlet for classified ads, consider this photo to the left of the post a warning shot across your bow. With Facebook’s ability to target us by locality, and with a fairly inexpensive ad rate, why should I look for the younger generation in your print edition *or* your hard-to-navigate online version? Go where the market is, friends. That’s the word of the day.
And if you are a newspaper, looking to stay relevant, here’s a strange thought to consider: what if you atomized and started chasing down the eyeballs, instead of asking the eyeballs to come to you? What would that look like? What if my local paper started running articles in my Facebook news stream, or in my RSS reader, or somewhere else that I’m likely to visit? Hmmm.
Atomized media publications. Might be something.
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Comments
Chris, that brain of yours must run 24/7.
Certainly a creative idea for local news to consider. I wonder if anyone’s trying it yet?
I’ve certainly kept up with news online more easily than reading a newspaper or watching tv news. With the web, you can get the stories you are interested in, without reading or seeing the rest. It’s alot easier than buying a whole newspaper or watching all of a tv news broadcast. It’s sad but true, the old form is in it’s dying days, but then again if there’s a major computer virus; the old standby will work better.
Of course, by only selecting the stories “you are interested in” you do wind up missing a lot. One of the reasons I get a dead tree paper is to see what is going on that might not be on my radar (in politics, around the world, etc.). If my entire news intake were self-selected, I’m afraid I’d end up with a narrow view of things that just reinforces my current opinions, rather than challenging them with stories that force to me to examine those ideas.
I think this is the inevitable transition that print media networks will take. The news team becomes an “aggregation team” distributing their own stories via RSS and gathering other news that matches their audience’s interests. This is already happening on blogs like Techcrunch, Techdirt and Slashdot that present a faily wide swath of tech coverage that is relevant to a certain user base.
My local NPR station has a Facebook application for Newsfeeds. I came across it by accident but added right away.
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=23604741752&ref=s
[…] Newspapers Be Warned | chrisbrogan.com Locally targeting Facebook ads. (tags: social media facebook newspaper advertising) […]
Newspapers have at least 80 years to go before coming close to death. That being said, they WILL change drastically. To smaller runs, highly localized and integrated with the Web and mobile devices.
A key element to the newspaper is that it is an “experience product”, it will be a leisure-based activity, enjoyed with a cup of steaming hot Joe in the morning or on the bus. It is the experience of holding, touching, folding and engaging in a less active way. I think that is an experience people still want - which is why books still sell so well.
Nice post, Chris. The Facebook ad you’ve featured here even replicates another of the charms of local newspapers - typos! Seriously though, I can’t see our local paper doing this sort of thing when they’ve only just caught on to the fact that blogs exist. And judging from the way they give space in the paper exhorting people to blog, I think they’re only interested because they think that hosting blogs could somehow be another revenue stream for them *sigh* …
I suspect I might actually know some of the local news then. I’m all for atomized online news at all levels.
[…] I always read Chris’ blog, every darn day, but this, this makes me jump up and down, I love it… […]
[…] Chris Brogan shared an excellent thought the other day: In a time when Facebook and similar services can deliver targeting down to the very local audience, what are traditional mainstream media companies doing still insisting on people coming to their web properties? […]
Love the post Chris, though I’m a bit late to commenting on it :)
I don’t know how many major papers are doing this, but it’s something several college papers are doing, and something Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Hassell has been heading up in a big way at the New Jersey Star-Ledger (http://www.theexplodingnewsroom.com/).
Even the trade pub I work at has tentatively been dipping our toes into Facebook!
Then, again, wifi access isn’t practical for a doctor’s waiting room, right now; so printed media will be around for awhile.
[…] Jarvis said — and Chris Brogan seconded — media organizations should use software agents to let the news find the […]
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This is sort of thing that will take a piece out of ALL traditional media.
Our radio station had a $95 000 Wedding promo and bought some space on Facebook to promote it. We could target ads to people in Vancouver. We further targeted people who had “engaged” or “in a relationship” as their status. We further sorted it to hit the target female demo of the station. Cost us < $50.
Even WE couldnt replicate that sort of niche on the radio.