To AJC Readers from SVP & CRO, W. Michael Clay: Advertising's Key Role (3/1/09)
By W. Michael Clay
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Last week, you heard from our publisher, Doug Franklin, about the challenges facing the AJC and the importance of advertising to our company's business model.
Today, I'd like to provide some additional perspective on the advertising environment and strategies we are pursuing at the AJC. We are operating in unprecedented economic times, as are our advertisers who provide approximately 75 percent of our revenue.
In addition to these current economic realities, our readers now get information in so many different ways. This fragments the spending on advertising, meaning advertisers are spending less on traditional media. These changes have required the AJC to evolve as a company.
In the world of advertising, it's all about the size, quality and engagement of the audience a particular medium, such as a newspaper, can deliver for businesses to reach consumers like you.
It's been well publicized that the newspaper industry is facing challenges and declining circulation, and the AJC is not immune to these challenges. However, circulation is only one measure. Another key measure is the total audience you reach, and the AJC is seeing growth in our combined print and online audiences. Research shows the weekly AJC print and online audience is nearly 2.3 million people, an increase of 3.4 percent compared with one year ago.
This means more than half of all adults in metro Atlanta read the newspaper or visit ajc.com every week, proving we remain the leading source, both in print and online, of news, information and advertising for metro Atlanta.
Digital, print and direct mail
Our primary challenge on the advertising side is one of perception, the perception that we are only a newspaper. And though our newspaper brings in the lion's share of advertising revenue, we are in fact a multimedia organization, offering advertisers solutions on three very powerful and distinct media platforms—digital, print and direct mail.
Since we are a multimedia company, we must position ourselves as such to the advertising community.
To help the business community better understand our capabilities, last month we introduced AJC Media Solutions and rebranded our advertising and marketing organization under this name. This is a complete reposition of the AJC's advertising and marketing proposition. AJC Media Solutions is a multimedia approach that houses our portfolio of digital, print and direct-mail products that advertisers can use to reach their customers.
AJC Media Solutions account executives now have responsibility for selling across this portfolio. In the past, they sold individual product groups such as print or digital or direct mail, creating a situation where multiple people from the AJC were visiting a single advertiser.
We talked extensively to our customers about this, and they vastly preferred the portfolio sales approach and a single point of contact. This makes it easier for them to buy media across our three platforms, and it drives better results for them. Ultimately, satisfying our advertisers' needs makes our organization financially sound.
Sophisticated ad targeting
To that end, we have invested aggressively in online and can provide our advertisers with digital solutions to nearly any marketing need, from interactive display ads and search-engine marketing to e-mail and mobile services.
Our partnerships with companies such as Yahoo allow us to offer advertisers the most sophisticated ad targeting available, to assure that consumers see messages most relevant to their needs.
The combination of local Yahoo and ajc.com enables our advertisers to reach an impressive 73 percent of Atlanta's online users. We're also able to help advertisers target their customers through enhanced direct-mail capabilities, connecting with consumers at specific ZIP code and household levels.
Upcoming AJC redesign
At the same time, we are talking with advertisers about exciting opportunities in our upcoming redesign of the AJC.
Research shows consumers highly value advertising content in the paper for planning and saving money. Now more than ever, we know this is important to you.
In May, we will introduce a redesign that makes the newspaper easier and more enjoyable to read, while enhancing color capabilities and creating innovative ad opportunities for our advertisers.
I am confident we are taking the right steps to meet advertisers' needs and to continue to remain Atlanta's premier advertising and audience provider.
Next Sunday in this spot, Editor Julia Wallace will explain more specifically the changes ahead in print content.
We know readers value the ads, coupons and savings inserts they find in the AJC as a way to stretch budgets. That's more important now than ever. I'm confident as you enjoy today's paper, you'll find many ways to save money and time, and I hope you will support these businesses who advertise with us.
Contact me at comments@ajcmediasolutions.com. Also, I invite you to learn more about AJC Media Solutions by taking a tour of our new advertiser-dedicated Web site—YourAudienceDelivered.com
.