Leadpile’s Blog

Seeking services (lead generation) online, communicating with others (social networking), and reading the top news stories, is now all being conducted through everything EXCEPT our nation’s newspapers. In recent years, many newspapers realized this need for immediate information, therefore created an online version of their newspaper. Unfortunately, this scrambling did not prevent the potential elimination of alot of the newspapers. It’s a sad day in the newspaper world when NPR reports the fact that our nation’s newspaper circulation has dropped 10%, just in the past 6 months. Newspaper’s loss of revenue is largely caused by a decline in advertising dollars.
What does this mean to all of us? In many ways, it takes away an old tradition that many of our parents and grandparents have experienced their whole lives. More importantly, it takes away a source for all of us looking for reading material, jobs, coupons, store ads, obituaries, local and national news. The question is, where on the internet can we go to now for this sort of resource? This is something very difficult for one “website” to be able to provide, so I am not sure how we are all going to potentially survive without the irreplaceable newspaper?

The days of newspaper and magazine advertising seems to be becoming more and more extinct as businesses turn to online direct response advertising. Online direct advertising incorporates lead generation, search and online directories into one category and then there is national and local digital media. Businesses seem to be turning more and more to generating clients through search and other more “targeted” media because of the better end result = more business. The costs to print newspapers and magazines has not become as profitable as in previous years because many are not turning to print to get their news, they are turning to a more instant “fix” like the internet. Knowing this, publishers and advertisers are also turning to the internet for customer’s attention. Lead generation companies, like Leadpile, have become more and more in demand as the cost to convert even things such as a television ad to a interested customer rise.
Biz report points out that, “Besides online search, the forecast predicts that online direct response marketing, a new category in 2009, will increase by 2.9%.” Other reports show that by 2014 this sort of advertising is set to increase by 10%. This is great news for lead generation companies and our search engines. However, the picture does not seem as good for national digital media (rich media, online video, email, display and mobile) which is set to decrease by 11%, and local digital media (ie: television, radio and newspapers) to decrease by 5%. The good news is the report also points out that both are set to rebound in future years.
My question is how are other advertising sources, besides online media, going to adapt to increase their revenue? This has to be something that is very challenging for many companies who have built empires by using these non-online media companies (ie- newspapers and magazines). I can’t imagine how people survived in earlier years without the internet, and the capabilities it has to reach so many people in such a little place (computer). This reminds me of growing up and parents stating they did not have televisions or things like calculators in their daily life. I could never understand how they survived, which I know now sounds silly. What will be the next innovative creation that will change our world???????? Who will discover it?

It is with sadness that I write about another major newspaper ceasing publication.  Tuesday, March 17th will be the final printed edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.  Just like the Rocky Mountain News, this comes as no surprise as the Hearst Corporation was attempting to sell the newspaper with no success.  The company will retain a small staff to continue with an online-only news venture.

Seattle becomes another major city with just one daily printed major newspaper.  The Seattle Times for the moment remains in operation, but is bleeding debt.  The Times is a family-owned newspaper, and will benefit some by the closing of the competition.  There is an outside chance that Seattle could become the first major city with NO printed major newspapers if the family cannot, or chooses not to, withstand the challenging time ahead.

Sadly, there will be more newspapers closing in the near future, and the San Francisco Chronicle is likely to be next.

Is it possible that an age old tradition is going to go extinct? Looks like there might be some truth to this.
According to NBC Nightly News and MSNBC.com, the internet age is/has been taking over the print media world. Is that why there was a large reduction in staff at The Boston Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, and some other major newspaper recently? Yes, it is true, that our nation’s major newspapers are having to make some changes. These changes involve laying off staff, but also reorganizing the employees that still work there. For instance, reporters are now becoming online reporters and having to adjust how they report their stories, and how this story is presented online VS seeing it in print.
Believe it or not, this media change is also affecting the sports world and the real estate world for places like Chicago, IL. The Chicago Tribune has already put The Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field up for sale! Yep, America’s favorite pastime is also being affected by this internet craze. Maybe that means the next stadium is going to be called “Google Field”? So what really happened in newspaper world?
Some feel that when they will read something in a newspaper it is not “real-time”. Most Americans have a laptop or personal computer at their fingertips all day long. This makes it easy for someone to just do a search online to find out the latest news. Whereas the newspaper from this morning might have contained some HOT news, but it was HOT 8 hours ago.
Is that how everyone feels? Is everyone addicted to “googling” everything, and putting aside those daily newspapers that Fido chases from the newspaper boy? It appears there really is not much choice. News is keeping with the times, and getting more accessible to consumers is where it HAS to be.
Online media- what has it become? We all eat, drink and sleep the internet. Everything from our banking, purchasing products, searching directions, applying for loans, corresponding with peers at work, to rolling out of bed and opening up the laptop to see what the latest news is. Unfortunately, this brilliant world of the internet has caused some hardships in the newspaper world, however places like Ebay, Leadpile Lead Exchange, auto dealers, advertisers, Craigslist, and news websites have become a major part of the world’s new national pastime (and maybe Fido the dog can enjoy it with us too)!