NAA mediaXchange

NAA mediaXchange is the largest annual gathering of industry executives in North America, offering unprecedented networking opportunities that combine an exchange of information and ideas with programming designed to generate results. The conference is designed to provide valuable ideas and insights to help newspaper professionals grow audience and revenue for their print and digital products. Sessions highlight leading-edge thinking about media strategies, successes in product and revenue development, new ideas and innovation inside and outside the industry, and tactics and techniques to employ in print and digital.

Advertisers say print is not dead - #NAAmXc11

By Fernando Valdes

Advertisers urged newspapers not to lose focus on print in this digital age during the "Advertising Customer Perspectives" session.

Chris Daly, vice president media-ROP/inserts for Macy's, said that contrary to what was said in a previous session, print is not dead and will not go away in the next 10 years.

Newspapers should listen to consumers and let them be the ones to say what they want from newspaper products, said John Dennis, senior media operations manager at J.C. Penney.

Dennis said news consumption and readership in general have never been as high as they are today. There are so many different ways to get the news that readers have diversified and now expect more out of newspapers.

"We know that there is an audience we can tap into," he said. "The question is, what do they want?"

Many print consumers now go to tablets, mobile and other digital outlets for news. The challenge for newspapers is to find out where they went, figure out how to reach them and give them what they want.

Andrea Katishitas, vice president/associate account director for Zenith Media, said the key is customizing news to readers' preferences. Consumers today look for a newspaper-like experience on their mobile and tablet devices.

"A phone is a daily newspaper; an iPad is a Sunday newspaper. As an advertiser, this is the kind of experience we are trying to replicate," Katishitas said.

"Content is great," he added, "but it is the experience that the user has interacting with such devices that makes them so appealing."

If newspapers and advertisers can find where customers are going, Dennis said, then they will be able to create cost-effective ways to reach customers and grow together.

Newspapers and advertisers are in this together; the bottom line is that advertisers want newspapers to succeed, Dennis said. Newspaper success allows advertisers to succeed. Together, they can take newspapers to the next level.

Katishitas also emphasized that print is not dead. "There will be a print product in 10 years," he said. "What it will be or where it is going to go, I have no idea."

>> View and download speaker presentations from the Advertising Customer Perspectives session. (NAA Members Only)

Fernando Valdes is a student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Find out more about Fernando and other students reporting live from NAA's mediaXchange here

About Amanda Knowles

Amanda Knowles is Web & Social Media Manager at the Newspaper Association of America. Before coming to NAA, Amanda spent four years working in print journalism, both at the college and professional level. She has worked as a copy editor and news page designer for two daily newspapers in northwestern Pennsylvania, The Erie Times-News and The Meadville Tribune. Most recently, she collaborated on The American Observer, the online magazine edited and produced by graduate journalism students at American University in Washington, D.C. Amanda believes strongly in the secure future of the newspaper, and is excited to be a participant in the movement to integrate traditional print media into the burgeoning digital world.