The plan for this edition of In the Know had been to continue with ideas,suggestions and observations that had emerged from several conferences and client discussions, but the situation warrants a change of pace. A RADICAL ONE...The time has come for the newspaper industry to stop being it's own worst enemy!

Here's what I mean...

In the last few weeks (i.e. since the April In the Know distribution on 4/14) I've read countless articles in newspapers predicting the demise of the newspaper industry. Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration - countless articles detailing the decline of the newspaper industry.

For those connected and very interested in the health of newspapers - policitians, other public figures, those within the industry ad certainly our competition - this might be very interesting reading. However, for 99% of the reading audience, there is somewhere between little and ZERO interest.

Belden asks about content interests all the time (we average ~ 40,000 telephone interviews annually!), and the financial strength of the newspaper industry is not in the Top Ten list. It's not even in the Top One Hundred list!

So excuse my language, but what the hell are we doing?

I defy anyone to cite a television news broadcast regularly pointing to the steady erosion of TV reach in the past two decades. Or, can you find a billboard saying, "Nobody ever reads Me"? And, I have never heard a radio station ad or promo pointing out the wonderfully low, single digit audience reach of the typical station, have you?

Of course not.

So, here's our BELDEN CHALLENGE - and, I hope recipients forward this to all Publishers and VPs of Marketing and Editors of the land -

If you feel compelled to publish an article about declining circulation or audience reach (for some insane reason), then I challenge you to publish AT LEAST five articles pointing out the opposite reality (we've got a long way to go, so maybe it should be 10!)

As an example...

• More adults read the nation's newspapers on Super Bowl Sunday than watched the Super Bowl
• Newspaper audience has actually increased as Publishers have leveraged their content expertise to create web sites and develop niche and new products (it's great to see them keep on coming!) and expanded their geographies to meet growing marketplaces.
• Newspapers are typically the #1 and #2 reach vehicles in any market with the core print product and the web site.
• Newspapers are back in the "Breaking News" business again. (Of course, this assumes you have embraced this notion - you HAVE, haven't you?!)
• In most markets, it will take approximately 10 radio stations to achieve the same reach as the leading daily newspaper!

The list is virtually endless. Start writing the articles. Go to your latest readership study and there will be columns and columns of data proving our value. Readers are tired of bad news, right? So, give 'em some good news about our industry and do it now. Stop the Madness and stop being the worst enemy we have. You should be ashamed.

I thought this was interesting. One of the Belden newsletter recipients is a friend in the microchip business. She reacted to the April In the Know by sending me an email. I've extracted a portion...

"...Small town people hold their breath every day until "the paper comes." Then they get local news, gossip, obituaries, Ann Landers, school news, weddings and the Crossword. They read those papers front to back and miss nary a Classified. I think I'm going to reinvent myself as a small town newspaper Publisher."

One could debate what the circulation size of a "small" town newspaper is...yet, there's NO disputing the fact that many newspaper audience segments devour the product. That's what advertisers need and want to know and there are plenty of times we don't effectively convey that message.

In addition to the several snippets of good news already listed here, we've decided to mine the Belden Comparative Database for good news. We keep two years worth of findings available for our clients to access so they can see "how they compare." Our plan is to include an item or two as long as there is interest, so let us know what you think.