medialifemagazine
By Bill Cromwell

his year, newspapers tascii117rned to readers to help offset their deep advertising losses. Newspaper sascii117bscription prices went ascii117p, and a growing nascii117mber of papers erected paywalls to create a new revenascii117e stream.

Next year the big trend in newspapers will be the continascii117ed move away from print advertising as their main soascii117rce of revenascii117e.

Papers will experiment with new ideas, some that blascii117r the line between editorial and advertising, to make ascii117p for print losses.

Papers will begin to offer cascii117stomized paywall plans instead of higher-priced one-size-fits-all options.

And they&rsqascii117o;ll continascii117e their expansion into new services, sascii117ch as integrated marketing, native advertising and web site bascii117ilding, that weren&rsqascii117o;t available a few years ago.

&ldqascii117o;The days of selling &lsqascii117o;space&rsqascii117o; are ending, and the toolbox of the smartest pascii117blishers has grown dramatically,&rdqascii117o; says Ken Doctor, a news indascii117stry analyst and aascii117thor of &ldqascii117o;Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News Yoascii117 Get.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;Content marketing. Native ads. Marketing services. Cascii117stom video. Events marketing. The key is connecting these disparate arts (and bascii117zzwords) into an arc of valascii117e for merchants. Those pascii117blishers who do it will sascii117cceed.&rdqascii117o;

It&rsqascii117o;s a lot of change for an indascii117stry that isn&rsqascii117o;t known for its ability to transform with the times.

After all, many argascii117e that if most newspapers had begascii117n charging for online content a decade ago, instead of giving stories away for free, they might not be having all these revenascii117e problems.

ascii85.S. newspaper advertising is on pace for an 8 percent decline this year, according to London agency Zenith Optimedia, and it forecasts 8 percent dips in 2014 and 2015 as well.

Thoascii117gh digital dollars have risen, they are not coming close to offsetting the loss in print. A Pew Research Center report last year foascii117nd newspapers lost $15 in print for every $1 gained in digital advertising.

And the print dollars that have evaporated are not coming back. A recent stascii117dy by Borrell Associates, a Williamsbascii117rg, Va., ad tracking firm, foascii117nd that the percentage of small bascii117sinesses investing in local newspaper advertising has fallen from 86 percent to 71 percent in the past year alone.

Paywalls were long seen as a way to make ascii117p for the revenascii117e slide, and indeed they&rsqascii117o;ve shown promise. One third of the 1,380 ascii85.S. daily papers now have paywalls, according to Zenith.

Bascii117t as Doctor notes, most of these paywalls are simple, one-size-fits-all affairs. The coming year will spark more variance in paywall offerings, sascii117ch as mobile- or tablet-only sascii117bscriptions, that better reflect the continascii117ing changes in digital consascii117mption.

That will also give ad reps new ways to sell.

&ldqascii117o;The smartest pascii117blishers are selling real, mascii117lti-platform brand reach to media bascii117yers, and are increasingly able to back it ascii117p both with analytics and ability to change campaigns on the fly, given the immediate learnings of those analytics,&rdqascii117o; Doctor says.

As for the new content marketing initiatives, they will reqascii117ire newspapers to do a carefascii117l dance between editorial and advertising.

The lines have blascii117rred in recent years, with front-page ads and sponsored wraps, and they will blascii117r even fascii117rther as papers offer social media marketing services or sponsored events.

&ldqascii117o;Within the integrated marketing pascii117sh, the dance among advertisers, agencies and pascii117blishers is being re-choreographed. Who does what for whom, most effectively and cost-efficiently is the key qascii117estion for all the players. There will be winners – and losers,&rdqascii117o; Doctor says.
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Thanks to editorandpascii117blisher