21 Sep 5 Reasons Newspapers Aren’t Dead

This is the digital age. Print is dead. Newspapers are long gone. Get with the program.

We disagree.

Sure, we specialize in websites, effective social media campaigns and eMedia. But that doesn’t mean we’ve abandoned our roots – it’s not that black and white. There are lots of reasons to balance traditional and new media in your marketing plan; here are 5 reasons you shouldn’t necessarily cut newspapers from your budget:

Content isn’t always free. The popular consensus is that you shouldn’t have to buy a paper when you can read everything online. Here’s what you don’t realize – many online newspaper sites give you a teaser excerpt to an article and then make you pay a subscription to read the rest.

If a newspaper’s website isn’t mobile-friendly, forget it. Many people today access email and websites through their Smartphone. If you think it’s hard to scroll down 10 pages to read an article from a monitor, try reading top news from your blackberry or iPhone. Do you have the patience?

You can still read a newspaper in more places than you can your laptop. Think about how many places you can tuck a newspaper and tote it along for convenient reading. ‘Nuff said.

Reading the Sunday paper over coffee isn’t the same digitally. It’s Sunday morning. There’s a fresh pot of coffee brewing and you decide to enjoy the Fall weather on your back porch. Do you bring your laptop and log on to your favorite newspaper’s website? That doesn’t exactly paint the serene scene you first envisioned.

Digital coupons haven’t quite caught up. We know there are some of you out there that still like to spread out the pages of coupons from the paper and clip away. There are some establishments that are now accepting mobile coupons, but it’s going to be a while before it is widely accepted and stores and restaurants have the capability to go 100% digital like that.

Do you think newspapers are obsolete? Do you still read them?

Sibet B Freides
socialmedia@ideaassociates.com