Laura Pozo
Aside from informing readers of the most recent, influent and important news happening in their community and/or worldwide, newspapers also let their large audience know about many companies offering goods, services and jobs that might be of their interest. Advertisements are found from the beginning to the end of each newspaper in almost every shape, color and size which could cover a small portion or even a full page of it. To advertise what needs to be sold; companies use their most effective advertising methods and techniques to persuade the audience to consume all their “provocative sales, of products and services”. As far as the classified section of newspapers, this have many jobs’ positions available for the public in different business, properties for rent or sale, pets, professional services, career training schools, car and phone companies, etc. Advertisings and especially the classified section in newspapers are to offer opportunities to the readers on the daily basis and at an affordable cost.
Newspaper advertising seem to be very effective since these can surprisingly turn luxuries into necessities with their well designed, colorful, easy to understand and engaging messages and designs. Noticeably, most of the ads do not say everything that the reader wants to know, but just enough to attract them and have them want to know more about what is trying to be sold. Readers usually look forward to ads in newspapers because of the convenient shopping information provided in this very common type of media. Ads provide them with detailed information, high contrast images, provocative offers, and of course convincing descriptions that may lead people to think that they must take advantage right away before the “unbeatable sales are gone”.
Ads found in The Daily News and El Dario newspapers are all about cars’ dealers, TV shows, homes, pets, medical and legal services, clothing, and phone stores, spiritual services, travel agencies, cab companies, the lottery, colleges, beauty school and downloadable apps for smart devices, basically a combination of small and . It is interesting how these ads are spread out and also organized depending on the topic discussed throughout all and each of its pages. Articles are of great support to the ads. Both of these, ads and articles, are somehow related to each other. As for example, in the immigration section of El Diario newspaper; there was this article about immigrants’ vote specifically Latino/Hispanic vote and their calling for an immigration reform and surprisingly there was also an ad about immigration lawyers in New York offering their services at the bottom of the same page. Another example was in the Digital section of the same newspaper, where there was an article about the things that should be taken in consideration to choose the right and most convenient digital reader and underneath there was an advertising article about the “great deals” that amazon.com has to offer. As proven with the provided examples, ads and articles in each section of the newspapers try to manipulate the readers enticing consumerism.
On the other hand, The Chief newspapers has fewer, but more interesting ads than The Daily News and El Diario newspapers. This does not advertise for retail stores, supermarkets, phone or car companies, and miscellaneous, but instead the small-sized ads found in The Chief newspaper are about universities, educational training institutions, legal services, investments, and real state. It seems to be a more educated and/or professional newspaper that advertises with its main purpose of benefiting readers by providing them economic and educational opportunities that can improve their status in our community. Its content in general is about relevant and well-explained business, economy and social related news instead of gossips or irrelevant information.
By comparing these three newspapers, The Chief, Daily News and El Dario, I have noticed that all three have a wide array of advertisements offering many diverse services and goods from stores like Macy’s, AT&T, T-Mobile, Direct TV, Verizon, supermarkets such as Associated, Bravo, Fine&Fare, CTownTown, jewelry stores etc. Except for Macy’s, I did not find any big or well-known company advertising their goods in any of these newspapers. In my perception, The Daily News and El Diario newspapers’ ads are purposely to aim urban communities offering them every day or common needed services and products. These two advertise goods and services of small business, provide discount coupons inside the newspaper as a “gift” to their customers for the purchase of products and/or services in businesses such as supermarkets, and also these newspapers’ prices are lower compared to The Chief which could be because of their common and less informative local and dramatic news and gossips. Based on this analysis, I came to the conclusion that the ads in these two newspapers are to satisfy the urban lifestyle of our community and not to help them to improve intellectually, professionally and economically.
The classified section of not only these but every newspaper is a brief but very descriptive section where people can search for jobs, investments, real state, and selling and buying opportunities in their area and in which there is different choices to choose from. In all of these three newspapers, the tracking information in every classified post is very valuable and specific since it is the only way to follow up with the different businesses. The requirements and contact information provided make it easy for the readers to know immediately whether or not they can be considered for the job position they are interested in, or rent/buy a place where they would like to live and or do business, and even tell them the prices so that the ones interested can analyze prices and see if it is affordable to them before inquiring. Based on my findings, the Daily News and El Diario have a larger classified section compared to The Chief newspaper. I did noticed that the jobs opportunities in El Diario and The Daily News are basic jobs positions as for example; cookers, bakery attendants, barbers, home attendants, cab drivers, receptionist for travel agencies, warehouse helper, delivery personnel, etc. In comparison to the Chief newspaper, the jobs are for people with an advanced education and a certain time of experience, as for example; investigators, truck drivers, bus and trains mechanical supervisors, retirement benefit examiner, paramedic, etc. Also, it is worth mentioning that even though the pay is not mention in any of these post, it is obvious that the jobs offers in The Chief newspaper will be better paid.
In the Spanish newspaper, ads and the classified sections are all written in Spanish unlike the English newspaper where some of these are written in English and some few in Spanish. Certainly, there is a mix of languages in these two offering and engaging sections. Something that caught my attention was the fact that some of the job positions in the classified section of the Hispanic newspaper did not required or preferred being bilingual. I believe that if it is a Hispanic newspaper, it must be necessary that the job seeker knows English and Spanish, but not only English. But also, each type of newspaper have its own audience and are the ones who better know them, therefore I assume they know what to advertise and also what to add in the classified section according to their readers’ needs and wants. The classified section is well organized with small tittles that let the reader know which column is for jobs, investments, real state, professional services, etc., so that readers can easily find what is of their interest.
According to Betancourt, “The idea of advertising is to attract people to the site or store and when you get them there, make it really easy to do business. It is like any good commerce.” Ads have their own purpose, which is to persuade customers and entice or convince them to consume their products and/or services. Professional like Betancourt know how to approach, and convince their thousands of readers with their “popping ads” to consume and get a rapid response. Also newspaper advertising seems to be more affordable, of less cost, than TV or radio advertising, and also more accessible to people who spend most of their time outside of their homes. Also I, as a customer, would trust more a newspaper ad than the ones seen in TV or in the radio because usually in these other two forms of advertising the customers are not told everything about the sale or will show them but in very small letter that are impossible to be read in those flashy commercials.
I personally believe that ads are very attracting and manipulative that sometimes can get people to think that they need what these are trying to sell, and therefore we end up buying. Also coupons for certain stores are very attracting since is always great to save some dollar when purchasing. The classified section is very interesting and well organized, but I personally believe that the more expensive the newspaper is, the more chances of finding better paid jobs and business opportunities. It is always great to invest in an informative and full of good opportunities newspaper.
Bibliography:
(2014, September 9). Daily News, New York’s Hometown Newspaper, pp. 1-64.
(2014, September 9). El Diario, El Campion De Los Hispanos, pp. 1-40.
Betancourt, L. (2014). Transforming Classified Ads. Editor & Publisher, 147(8), 38-45.
The Chief Civil Service Leader The Civil Employees’ Weekly [New York, New York] 12 Sept. 2014:1-22. Print.
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