For the Advertiser, Are the Total Number of Eyes Looking at the Product the Most Important Gauge At Getting Your Money’s Worth, Or Does “Quality” of the Beholder Count, Too?

Philip Stone April 25, 2005

As newspaper circulation drops, and as some web sites struggle to get the number of unique visitors that advertisers demand, a question being asked more and more of advertisers is whether they are after “quantity” or “quality”. The natural answer is that they want both, but it appears “quality” does have its place.

Even such giants as the New York Times, which is seeing an increase in its national circulation but a drop in New York proper, is pushing the quality of readership angle and that type of thinking is beginning to take added emphasis within the industry. Publisher Janet L. Robinson says, “It’s very important for us to convert to a readership model as opposed to pure circulation numbers, which we are certainly in the process of doing.”

In a Wall Street Journal article, Dow Jones itself said that the newspaper has always emphasized the quality of its circulation to its advertising customers. And in the same article came the basic response from the advertising side.

Brenda White, a media director at Publicis’ Starcom Worldwide, said, “My perspective is that it is about quality circulation. We want to make sure we’re talking not only to a lot of people, we want to make sure we are talking to the right people.”

And that brings up the same type of situation for fledgling web sites such as followthemedia.com. This media trade site, started in August, has seen its readership more than double with April forecast to be yet another record. Yet, the total number of unique readers is below the number that would attract advertisers using the basic cpm model.

But the quality of the readership is such that one would think it would be an advertiser’s dream target if one were trying to get a message across to media and government entities, principally in Europe and the United States.

Among our readership are newspapers, broadcasters, advertising agencies, service suppliers to the media, and national and international government bodies.

And we have good reason to believe our service is appreciated.

We recently wrote a few stories promoting a major broadcasting conference to be held in Brussels. The organizers told us that a dozen European Parliamentarians signed up to attend having read about the conference on followthemedia.com.

So we know the right type of readership is there, and readers like what they see, but how to attract the advertisers who want to target the media and government entities that we attract? We’d welcome the suggestions of our readers at info@followthemedia.com

Caught between a rock and hard place, sites like followthemedia, that cater to particular niches, have to wonder whether the advertising model is in fact the right way to go. Perhaps such sites should convert to subscriptions?

As we have written in many stories, no one really wants to pay for news and information on the Internet. Those few examples of where subscriptions are successful, such as the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, have a particular business niche allowing success in drawing subscriptions.

Sites such as followthemedia.com also serve a particular niche, so again the question becomes whether one should be willing to give up some 90% of one’s readership to serve just those who are willing to pay for the privilege. As journalists we want as many people as possible to read our material; as businessmen we need to pay the rent!

Market research doesn’t help much. Ask someone if they are willing to pay for what they now get for free and the answer will invariably be “no”. It’s not until you do the deed that the real truth comes out. Again we would be very grateful for your views on this. Contact us at info@followthemedia.com

We have written many times that newspapers in particular should “talk” with their readers to find out what they want, how to make the product more appealing. Since we have recommended that so often to our readers, it’s only natural we take the same medicine. All comments and viewpoints are welcome to info@followthemedia.com.