ViewPoint
Volume 4 | Number 7 | July 2008

by Jennifer Armor

According to a recent study conducted by Ipsos MediaCT, senior executives, CEOs and C-suite American business executives are extremely receptive to media and advertising. The U.S. Business Elite Study found that the top business leaders were also media-savvy and gathered information from a variety of sources, including magazines, journals, the Internet, and digital and satellite TV.

America's 630,000 senior business executives are responsible for over $1.7 trillion in annual expenditures. They employ/oversee some 144 million people, or approximately two-thirds of the US workforce.

This highly desirable audience still relies on old media despite their increase of Internet use. They turn to national newspapers first for a deeper understanding of the issues, particularly financial and business news (18% of the projected C-suite universe), as they trust newspapers to have the best journalists (28%) and reliable reporting (23%).

For technology, this group prefers business magazines (22%), such as weeklies BusinessWeek (20%), bimonthly publications such as Fortune (18%) and Forbes (17%), and monthly publications like CFO (15%). Business magazines are also this group's primary resource for informative advertising (15%), general business help (32%), and information to manage their career development (29%).

Some other key findings are:

• 90% have read the last issue of a print medium.
• 70% have watched a network TV channel in the previous day.
• 60% have watched a cable TV channel in the previous day.
• Just over half went online in the previous day.
• 70% have received a daily email alert or newsletter in the last month.
• Nearly half have streamed or watched a broadband video from a computer in the last month.
• One-third have read a blog in the last month, but only 5% have actually written a post.

The survey also examined the typical business leader's way of life. On average, the individual annual income for this group was $400,000. On top of obvious business-related spending, the business elite aren't afraid to spend on their personal lives. Almost 43% take $3,000-plus per person vacations, and a quarter own vacation homes and jewelry in excess of $5,000. About 14% have a watch worth more than $3,000.

Hugh White, VP of Ipsos MediaCT said, "They are making decisions for their companies. At home they are buying what we expect: high-end cars, expensive vacations, LCD TVs."

The study found that 55% of top execs are willing to buy a product based on an Internet ad. TV ads are also influential as 43.2% of the 2,390 respondents said they made a purchase based on a TV spot. Magazines (41.7%), newspapers (36.9%), and radio (17.9%) followed. More than half (51.2%) visited a website because of an ad, 47.2% did so because of a magazine ad, and 43.3% because of television.

"They are drawn to high-quality and well-branded products and services, both for business and personal use," said White.

by Jennifer Armor

In addition to using an audit to sell more ads, you can sell your audit from another point of view—selling to your internal customers, your circulation staff, and your sales personnel. Your audit has tremendous value to your whole team. Increasing their awareness of the audit is a great way to increase the overall value of your audit.

When you sell your audit to your staff, you will see results from both your circulation and sales departments. Help your circulation and sales departments understand how the audit works, what it does, and how it helps them. Get their buy-in on its value.

Circulation Staff
Your circulation staff is a vital group of internal customers. A thorough audit requires complete and accurate records for the printing and distribution of every issue. The accuracy and accountability of these records means you and your circulation staff know exactly where your papers are distributed.

Accuracy and accountability in circulation means no wasted papers. Delivery must be efficient, on time, on target, and at the lowest possible cost in order to give you the best opportunity to connect with readers. The audit helps you deliver your advertisers' target audience cost-effectively.

Sell the audit to your circulation managers by presenting another value benefit, the fact that the audit acts like another manager in your company—another set of eyes so to speak. This allows measurement and evaluation, helping your managers recognize and reward achievement as well as find ways to improve efficiency.

Sales Staff
Another important group of internal customers is your sales staff. Sell the audit to your sales staff and they in turn will make it a part of the value they sell to advertisers.

The audit report provides more than just numbers. The front page gives the summary story, how many copies are being printed and distributed, where and how readers receive these copies, how many were printed, and some history of these numbers. The other pages illustrate where your readers live or work and who they are. Often your audit will include research that demonstrates the strength of your relationship with your readers, such as recall, readership, readers per copy, etc.

These stats give real credibility to other aspects of sales presentations. Match up these statistics and information with an understanding and comfort level with their audit and your sales staff will more easily integrate this valuable and persuasive information in their communications with your advertisers.

A new study from the World Newspaper Congress on the media habits of young people in three countries found that television continues to be their most important source of news and information for the young, despite the rise of the Internet.

In the United States, the Netherlands and Finland, 3,500 people between 15 and 29 years old said they get their news and information from a wide variety of sources, but that television continues to be their preferred medium.

Robert Barnard, Partner and Founder of Canada-based DECODE, observes that "Young people do not seem to understand the inherent value and difference in newspaper content versus other news media. TV still dominates even in perceptions of credibility and depth of coverage."

Nevertheless, the study showed that newspaper companies are well placed to attract young readers if newspapers are committed to the task. The study, to help publishers better understand and meet the needs of younger readers, found:

• Young people are interested in news and see the value of being informed.
• Loyal newspaper readers are more informed, engaged, and connected to community than nonreaders.
• Parents (especially mothers) and teachers have successfully influenced young people to become newspaper readers; peers are not influential.
• Newspapers must start earlier to establish how news emanating from newspapers is different from and superior to other media options.
• The study shows a significant drop in readership among young people leaving home at this life stage, at a time when interest in news is peaking.
• Newspaper editorial content, in general, is disconnected from youth interests, and when it is about youth, it is mostly negative, says the report. Music and film top the list of interests while politics ranked lower than 30th.
• Social network users are more supportive of all media, generally, but show a higher increase of support for newspapers than nonusers.

© 2008 MediaPost Communications

2008 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference
September 4 – 7, 2008
Atlanta, GA
www.spj.org

ABM/FIPP World Conference 2008 – B-to-B's Passport to Transformation
September 7, 2008
New York, NY
www.americanbusinessmedia.com

Consumer Marketing Goes Digital
September 10, 2008
New York, NY
www.magazine.org

Intelligent Selling of Online Advertising Level I
September 16, 2008
New York, NY
www.magazine.org

Advanced Techniques in Digital & Integrated Sales Level II
September 17, 2008
New York, NY
www.magazine.org

Retail Advertising Forum
September 21 – 23, 2008
Dallas, TX
www.naa.org

2nd Annual Multicultural Marketing: Why One Size Doesn't Fit All
September 24 – 25, 2008
Toronto, ON
www.opendialogueinc.com

Independent Free Papers of America
September 24 – 27, 2008
Seattle, WA
www.ifpa.com

National Newspaper Association 122nd Annual Convention and Trade Show
September 25 – 28, 2008
St. Paul, MN
www.nna.org

If you have an event that you would like to announce, please send your information
to e-newsletter@verifiedaudit.com.

Spanish-Language Ad Spend Sees Growth In 2007

Advertising revenue for Spanish-language media totaled $5.78 billion last year, representing a 3% increase over 2006, when it reached $5.63 billion, according to Nielsen Monitor Plus. While anemic compared to the 14.4% increase in Spanish-language ad spending from 2005–2006, the 3% figure looks positively healthy compared to the U.S. ad industry overall, where revenues crept up just 0.6% in 2007, also according to Nielsen.

Leading the pack was Spanish-language cable TV, up 76%—but that's due, at least in part, to the fact that Nielsen began measuring Fox Sports en Espanol and Telemundo's mun2 in 2007. Spanish TV networks, like Univision, experienced more modest growth of 2% to just over $3 billion. Also doing well were national Spanish-language magazines, which rose 13% to $163.4 million.

There's an important distinction between Spanish-language advertising and English-language ads that target Hispanics. For the most part, advertisers try to address Hispanic consumers in the language they're most comfortable speaking. However, there is also significant overlap, with a large proportion of Hispanics equally versed in both English and Spanish, meaning they can be reached via either one.

Broadcasting Media Partners, parent company of Univision Communications, was the largest advertiser across all Spanish-language media in 2007.

Some Spanish-language media seemed to parallel the mainstream media in 2007, although they fared somewhat better than their mainstream counterparts. For example, local newspaper ad spending showed no growth, at $110 million—but that looks rosy compared to newspapers at large, which tumbled 9.4% to $42.2 billion.

Spot radio dropped 20% to $609.2 million—but that was due, in part, to a change in Nielsen's coverage, not necessarily a reflection of actual revenue declines.

© 2008 MediaPost Communications

by Jennifer Armor

When it comes to media strategy, one of the most important considerations is geographic range. Media buyers prefer geographic information that can be provided quickly and clearly to help plan buys and confirm ROI. By using zoned reporting, advertisers don't have to add up ZIP/Postal Code totals. Zone reporting makes it easier and more user-friendly for advertisers because the information is presented in a straightforward and usable form.

While zones normally correspond to city, balance of county, and all other distribution areas, publications should customize zones to accommodate advertisers' needs. Zones allow advertisers to see penetration on a city or county level as well as a ZIP/Postal Code level.

ZIP/Postal Codes can be broken into three basic categories for your designated market area:

• City Zone – primary city/cities of distribution
• Retail Trade Zone (RTZ) – balance of the county/counties of distribution
• All Other – distribution outside the other two areas

Along with a circulation area map, zoned reporting helps show how your circulation reaches consumers better than other competing media.

You can learn more about the zone feature on the Wizard in the Information & Resource Guide on Verified's website. For further questions, please contact your account coordinator or call Verified at 415-461-6006.

Please send comments and story ideas to e-newsletter@verifiedaudit.com or contact us at:

Verified Audit Circulation
900 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite 295
Larkspur, CA 94939-1758
415.461.6006
415.461.6007 fax