In this excerpt from an article on Google Wave by the Newspaper Association of America, the NAA gives us just another example of how the organization continues to misunderstand how its members make the money they use to pay its dues. Google Wave does not offer any sustainable revenue stream for publications. If everyone would give away their content for free, a lot of people could come up with a cool way of displaying it too. But Wave does nothing for the publications who actually have to pay people to go out and write stories. Hard to believe that the NAA consistently misses this point, maybe they believe, as Google does, that as long as your motto says you intend to do no harm, it is ok to wrip off print publications.

Here is what they said. Full story here, if you have the stomach to read it.

As Google Wave ends its first year of existence, we have learned two things:

First, there’s no shortage of critics who are happy to argue that the Google product, which combines threaded conversations with collaborative document editing and a host of embedded interactive gadgets, may be a technology searching for a purpose.

Second, the term “beta” applied to a Google product means just that for a change—until a recent round of bug fixes, the service slowed to a crawl or crashed as soon as the number of visitors participating in a “wave” reached the kind of critical mass a media site would draw.

Does that mean newspapers should wait to begin experimenting with Wave? Not at all – especially given its potential to shape conversations both within and beyond news organizations, argue early industry dabblers in the technology.

“Think about how many newsrooms would have killed to be on top of a social media tool like Twitter four years ago, before it became as popular,” says Chris Taylor, online editor of TBO.com, who oversees converged Web operations for The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV. “We want to make sure our newsroom is familiar with Wave so if it becomes the next great tool for media consumption, we know how to be there for our audience.”

This survey shows some very positive numbers for response from newspaper advertising. Most of the vital stats are below. As we have said before, surveys showing that newspaper advertising works are pretty common. What is not common is the ability to show advertisers that it is working for them. At Mediabids.com, we do this by incorporating unique 800#s into many of the ads we place. This allows us to show the thousands of advertisers who use our website to buy print ads exactly how many responses (at least by phone) they have received. It isn't hard and much of the time the results we show validate the findings of surveys like this (this one from printinthemix.edu), which in the absense of hard data, can seem too good to be true:

July 15, 2009 -- Newspaper advertising remains the leading advertising medium cited by consumers in planning, shopping and making purchasing decisions, according to early data from a MORI Research survey of more than 3,000 adults, conducted on behalf of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).

This study, part of a series entitled “American Consumer Insights,” examined the impact newspaper advertising has on consumer shopping and spending patterns. Early results indicate:

• Nearly six in 10 adults (59%) identify newspapers as the medium they use to help plan shopping or make purchase decisions
• 82 % of those surveyed said they “took action” as a result of newspaper advertising, including:
  • Clipping a coupon (61%)
  • Buying something (50%)
  • Visiting websites to learn more (33%)
  • Trying something for the first time (27%)
• 73% of adults say they regularly or occasionally read newspaper inserts
• 82% have been spurred to action by a newspaper insert in the past month.

Late this afternoon I opened the latest "Growing Audience" alert from the Newspaper Association of America. I got excited when I saw the title to a posting on the NAA blog: "E-alert: Innovation Highlights from the Poynter McCormick Big Ideas Conference"

Any time there is something that mentions newspapers, magazines and a big idea, I have high hopes. Here at Mediabids, we believe that the time is perfect for big ideas which address some of the difficulties being faced by newspapers and magazines around the country. We constantly speak to publications and advertisers about our big idea - how to sell more print ads using an online marketplace -  so we are big idea people. We embrace big ideas.

I suppose calling a conference the "Poynter McCormick somewhat interesting and marginally relevant idea conference" isn't really that compelling but it would have been more accurate.

There are a few clever ideas but I expected more (a lot more) given the current state of the print industry and the projections for the future.

Here are a few of the allegedly "big ideas:"

7 to 7 Breaking News Blog -- The Providence Journal hosts a breaking news blog Monday through Friday with ads and creates a blog stylebook, best practices for linking, and a sets protocol for fast breaking news.

Reader Interactivity in Exactly Six Words -- The Times Union asked readers to submit what they thought was best about their region in exactly six words.

Today in Brevard -- Florida Today created a half-hour, live streamed daily newscast broadcast on floridatoday.com.

Buzz Style -- The Sun/Inland Valley Daily Tribune creates a no-nonsense news presentation for need-to-know news consumers.

Monday, Monday* -- How the Anniston Star set about to create a more lively Monday paper, jumpStart, and the lessons learned along the way.

Here is the only one I could find that had anything to do with sales:

Sales Force of the Future -- Morris Communications is mobilizing around strategic innovation with one focus around creating a best-in-class multimedia sales force.

This can't be the sum total of big ideas in the print industry, can it? Maybe it is just because we are focused on sales but isn't that what matters most right now? Wouldn't you think that innovative approaches to selling print inventory would be the most important thing to all the smart people in the print industry who were at this conference? I was disappointed at the almost complete lack of attention to the revenue stream. Isn't that what an organization like the NAA should be most worried about right now? Do you think that at some point one of the attendees at this conference said to another attendee: "these sure are some neat ideas, hope we can stay in business long enough to try them out."

Here are a couple good (non-revenue generating) ideas: 

The Reporter's Notebook* -- The Twin Cities Daily Planet encourages the audience to participate in the news gathering process by posting upcoming story outlines to their online Reporter's Notebook inciting readers to comment, upload documents and contribute to the process before publishing.

Curate Your Community -- The St.Louis Post-Dispatch created more than 300 microlocal news sites.

Interesting development for newspapers and magazines: take a look at this story from Bloomberg.com on who has taken the place of auto manufacturers in television advertising:

Across the U.S., the price of an average 30-second local TV commercial tumbled as much as 20 percent last year from 2007, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising, a New York- based trade organization. Auto ad revenue at local stations, down a fifth in 2008 from the year before, plunged another 52 percent in the first quarter, the TV Bureau said.

“A lot of local retailers, like the portrait shop or the pet store, haven’t advertised on TV before because they think they can’t afford it,” said Robert Prather, president of Atlanta-based Gray. “We’re out just beating bushes that we should have been doing a long time ago.”

The price of an average 30-second ad placed on a local TV station last year ranged from $6.66 per 1,000 viewer homes in the early morning to $27.29 in prime time, according to the TV Bureau. Prime hours, when stations usually have their largest audience, are generally 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. In 2007, the same rates were $8.09 and $34.12, the bureau said.

But don't worry, they got someone from the NAA to say that lower costs from TV stations, isn't impacting print publications.

“I haven’t seen anyone who says they’re losing local advertisers to local television,” Mort Goldstrom, the vice president of advertising for the Newspaper Association of America, said in an interview. “Our losses have come in other areas,” such as classified real estate and job ads, he said.

Somehow, I don't think that Mort spends much time trying to sell ads. 

The below survey from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) is interesting. This survey neatly fits into the NAA's world-view. Generally said, the NAA appears to have stopped worrying about how to make print work a while ago and now is primarily interested in telling its members they need nicer websites (I have been to their conferences and listened to one heartfelt forum in which the presenter debated the value of employing "hot or cold" colors on a homepage- "orange might be a little too aggressive.") One problem: advertisers don't appear to agree (perceived value of online newspaper ads - banner and otherwise - is still substantially less than print products) and since the overall value of online ads gets diluted by the enormous volume available, that is not likely to change anytime soon. Which is ok, if you only have a website but for a news gathering organization it makes paying the bills pretty tough.

Here is the survey info:

Update on the Print / Online Newspaper Audience
 Information seeking consumers, including newspaper readers, regularly use both print and online in their search for news and information.  A June release from The Media Audit states that people who are considered heavy print newspaper readers spend about as much time online as the typical U.S. adult.  People who spend at least one hour per day reading a newspaper also spend 3.7 hours per day online. As reported by Media Post   and NAA's OPU blog,  the research also revealed that the average U.S. adult has almost doubled their daily use of the Internet between 2006 to 2008 - from 2.1 hours per day online to 3.8 hours per day online. The Web now represents about one-third of a typical "media day" for U.S. adults.

This willingness to cross platforms on any given day also works to extend the effective print / online reach of newspapers.  According to The Media Audit report seven daily newspapers have achieved a net unduplicated reach of 80% or more when the past 30-day website visitor figure is combined with the past month print readership figure.

Source: The Media Audit, MediaPost, Scarborough Research and NAA

Yesterday the Newspaper Association of America announced that newspaper ad revenue fell almost $2 Billion dollars in the third quarter of 08. You can read all of the gory details here.

The speed of the decline is suprising but the trend is not. Everyone involved with print advertising has seen this coming.

However, what is amazing is the lack of originality that most publications employ in trying to stem the tide. Almost everyday we read about a publication implementing cost cutting measures - sometimes in the form of layoffs, sometimes in the form of a re-formatting of the product.

It should be obvious to everyone now - publications can not cost cut their way out of this problem. To survive they need to reinvent their sales philosophy.

Here are just a few of the problems that must be addressed industry-wide:

1. Buying an ad is a difficult process. Advertisers don't need a "relationship" with a salesperson, they need results.
2. Pricing is inconsistent and, in many cases, illogical.
3. Publications make no effort to show advertisers that their ads are working. Simple tracking mechanisms like unique 800 numbers are almost unheard of, unless an advertiser implements it themselves.
   

At Mediabids.com, we have been talking to publications about these issues for the past 9 years. We have more than 15,000 advertisers who use our site to buy ads in more than 5,500 publications registered on our site using our online selling tools. Yet, everyday, we speak to a newspaper who is reluctant to try something new. The problem is - ADVERTISERS want something new - remember them? They are the ones spending the money.

Many advertisers don't want to buy print ads the way they did 50 years ago, they don't want to have to get to know a salesperson in order to find out what an ad costs and then negotiate to find out what it really costs. Other industries have successfully adopted new ways of interacting with their customers - like travel, banking and retail - newspapers must do the same. Mediabids is just one solution. Granted, we are biased, but we think it is the best option for newspapers to change their fortunes. But in order to change, publications must embrace new ideas. Too many people working at newspapers are resistent to changing anything, which is a luxury the industry can no longer afford.

The third quarter numbers from the NAA are clear: Time is up. The ship is sinking. If the industry does not embrace change now, we are all going to be swimming. So what are YOU going to do about it?