College newspapers are often overlooked as part of the local eco-system. Local newspapers in college towns such as Lawrence, Kan., and Austin, TX vie with college papers (a little) for advertising. And classified vendors such as LiveDeal and Ad2Ad have begun working with various college paper networks. College communities are an excellent target for used goods, right? But otherwise, there isn’t much action — especially considering that there are 1.9 million users of college papers registered online .
A recent survey of college newspaper readers by Y2M Youth Media and Marketing Network, however, suggests that the college papers ought to rev it up – especially at the local level.
Y2M’s survey, with 7,500 respondents, including 2,925 undergrads, suggests that college papers’ focus on national and world events as “practice journalism” doesn’t sit well with their readers. Ninety percent of the readers, in fact, rely on the college papers for local and campus news.
The respondents are also clamoring for more local advertising. Sixty-four percent want more local restaurant ads, 57 percent want more recruitment ads, 51 percent want more local entertainment ads, and 50 percent want more local store ads.
One of the oddities of the Internet’s impact on college papers is that on campus/near campus readership has actually been dwarfed by national readers such as alumni and others. The percentage of “local” readers compared to “national” readers, in fact, has fallen from 43 percent to 35 percent between 2005 and 2006.
But “local” readers still make up the most regular readership, both in print and online. Seventy-seven percent say they look at either the print or online edition of the college paper at least once a month, with almost half saying they look at the paper at least twice a week.
The online edition is increasingly popular, especially among undergrads. Twenty-four percent of undergrads look at the online edition at least twice per week, and 33 percent look at it at least once a month.
One area that has fallen, however, has been the use of classified ads in the papers’ print and online editions. Y2M suggests these markets are beginning to fall sway to Craig’s List and other free listings. Perhaps this is something that the deals with LiveDeal and Ad2Ad will begin to alleviate.
Thought some data points might be interesting.
42 college newspapers use the AD2AD Classified system, including Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Duke, LSU, Florida State.
In case you want to make this info public, Peter, let me describe the system: AD2AD is designed so newspapers manage classified print ads using an internet database. So print ads also appear on the newspaper’s website in real time (no uploading, in searchable format, formatted as they appear in print, but with web enhancements such as photos, weblinks, etc., etc.). Through the newspaper’s website, customers use the same database to place self-serve ads. Customers can choose higher cost print-formatting options (what newspapers call ‘upsells’), WYSIWYG in real time.
The system design reflects my personal view that the PRINT product is where the value lies, and that the newspaper should simply display ads online at no extra cost.
We’ve discussed this, and our viewpoints differ. In fact, I think we disagree almost completely on the point. So I’m happy to provide some some statistics about our college customers that prove that my viewpoint is right. (OK, maybe not “prove”…but certainly “suggest”.)
Colleges saw an average increase in ad revenue of 34% within 6 full months of use. Customer self-serve ad entry averaged 67% (up from 0 to 5% before AD2AD). Remember, these were college-community customers, web-savvy, PAYING for these print ads when they could have placed exactly the same ads for free on LiveDeal or Craigslist. But and there were more ads and more revenue per ad. Also consider this: 27% of theses self-serve customers bought PRINT upsells. (When internal staff placed the ads for customers print upsells averaged about 7%)
How does this behavior compare to our non-college newpapers?
Non-college newspapers saw an average 41% increase within 6 months (vs 34% college — in most cases, however, colleges told us, this YOY increase reversed several years of revenue DECREASE).
Non-college newspapers have an average 62% self-serve within 6 months (vs 67% college — practically identical).
Non-college newspapers have an average 12% print upsells (vs 27% college — college customers are MORE ready to pay more for print).
Not saying that this couldn’t all change in an instant — but for now, newspaper classifieds online and in-print work to create synergy (and I’m using the word ACCURATELY — you could look it up).
J
The credit card companies are already forefront of this movement, they are teargeting college student for their credit card and expecting parents to pay the bill.