Everyone talks about the technological advances and its contribution to media. But there are few comments about advertising and how it manages the world’s economy. “Advertising, is the activity of attracting public attention to a product or business by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media- it is marketing goods or services for sale through impersonal media, such as radio or television.’’ Since its advent, advertising has grown in an impacting way, resulting in incalculable profits for many corporations, which are market’s leaders. TV. Networks, newspapers and corporations began to unite in order to allure buyers and / or demographic audiences through ads. For example, Law Firms, Doctors, AT&T, corporations such as P&G, Target and Macy’s have built their empire through advertising either in printing press, newspaper or television. For this, I decided to analyze three different newspapers; Diario de Mexico The Jersey Journal and The New York Post– three newspapers that advertise for corporations’ goods through an ongoing process of different languages according to the intended audience. These newspapers also share common characteristics in the advertising format through classifieds. This essay will provide a brief analysis of classifieds and advertising in printing press.
Since its beginning, advertising grew rapidly in America, and the new medium of communication, the radio (around the1920s) boosted the strategy that would handle the worldwide economy-marketing through advertising. Since then, advertising has surpassed different eras by innovating its marketing technique, resulting in a billionaire business for the largest corporations that handle the advertising industry worldwide. It was first used as a cultural medium for advertiser between national and foreign newspapers such as The American Association of Foreign Newspapers. Since then, it has traveled for decades through different evolutional processes; for example, advertising went from newspapers to the radio; from the radio to the television and different effect-models of advertising, and then it went from TV to online advertising. Therefore, the combination between marketing and behavioral psychology plays an important role in identifying what the consumer will love, hate or even fear about any good or product. The fact that advertising convinces customers about “the best products or services’’ create a need into its consumers for new products or services. But also, it creates a need to reinforce the sales and to hold existing customers.
It is very interesting how it all began as a medium of communication among different cultures through newspapers (by then, there was nothing more effective to inform than the printing press– newspapers). Newspapers have been the source of information that masses trust the most, even television news still relies on breaking news from early newspapers. In fact, the majority of newspapers are still on business because of advertising. Therefore, newspapers will be one of the targets to advertise no matter how advanced the technology may be in the future. And this is a reason why turning a newspaper page can seem like if someone is looking at any store booklet of offers. The Jersey Journal is one of those newspapers. The Journal is a tabloid newspaper published Monday to Saturday in Jersey City. It is a very compressed edition, but very complete, it informs the audience that it serves through its different sessions such as politics news, entertainment, sport and classifieds. It is noteworthy that this newspaper provide the reader with plenty ads and offer booklets.
The New Jersey Journal is a newspaper published to a specific audience-the English speakers. The paper does not provide any ads or classified in other language than English. Its classifieds advertise schools, lawyer firms and job positions, but it does not have real state ads in the classifieds or among its pages. However, the edition contains more than 10 booklets from corporations and stores, which advertise its products in a different format through newspapers-brand saver monthly magazines; P&G, P.C. Richardson, Direct TV, BJ’s, Cohen’s fashion optical, Dell, Harbor Freight and others. It is arguable that those advertisers grease the wheels of the newspaper company.
In contrast, Diario de Mexico is another (small) newspaper targeted to the Mexican population of the U.S.A. But, like the Jersey Journal (excluding the variety of corporate advertising the Journal advertises), the Diario is very demographic on its publications. The Diario only advertises for its demographic audience at least on printing press, it can be say that it is a very nationalist edition. In fact, the classified session only advertises for its audience interest, except from some ads of lawyers or medical centers. For example, the newspaper advertises events, Hispanic employment agencies and two ads of lawyers, Gorayeb and Jason Camilo. But the classifieds session does not have any corporations’ ads or publication that accommodates the audience or translate from English to Spanish. The fact that Diario de Mexico is a demographic small newspaper may be the result of the limited information in advertising and the classifieds session.
In the other hands, in the U.S.A exist hundreds of newspapers published to different demographics, tastes and languages. The diversity that conglomerates neighborhoods and cities around the nation makes the printing press be more varied. The New York Post is another tabloid newspaper that has served the American community for more than two centuries and is still on business. The post has a weekly circulation of more than one million of newspapers including Saturdays and Sundays; its style and content make the newspaper be the choice of many readers. In comparison with the two newspapers above mentioned, the post has a wider edition with more information and ads in its classifieds and more advertisement. The post’s classifieds has plenty information about different interests for the reader. For example, its classifieds include career training information, business opportunity, financial services, real state, merchandise for sales, pets, automotive and legal and public notice. Its detailed edition helps the reader to find what they are looking for from this particular session. Furthermore, it provides the people to advertise for the people instead of corporation to the people. But, corporations have their part too in the newspaper by paying an all page announcement or a column to advertise its products; department store, cars manufactures, jewelry companies and others are the one who paid for ad spaces in order to advertise and sell their products in the New York Post.
The ongoing process of advertising andmarketing and its strategies to sell and to keep the exiting customer is a set of investments in time, demographic edition and money. Newspaper advertising can cost thousands of dollars to be posted several times a week; newspaper ads are sold by inches, by columns, by full pages or spread among its pages. This may be a reason why these three newspapers, The Jersey Journal, Diario de Mexico and The New York Post, differ with one another classifieds and advertising. Their classifieds have the same format, but different amount of information and advertising to allure the classifieds’ readers. Their distribution of information is also different, although it fulfills the readers’ community that it serves. However, the three shares the same editorial style, tabloids, and that they inform the demographic audience with a different approach through classifieds and advertising.
Now, the activity to attract the attention of the readers in order to sell a product or a business not always works. The readers’ reaction will depend on the demographic audience. For example, if there is an advertisement about an Irish or a Brazilian product in a Mexican or Russian newspaper, the ad will not fulfill its function; a minority would try it but a majority will ignore it. And the reason is because consumers are loyal to the products they consume and to the store they buy their goods. They may explore new products, but most of the time they stick to a particular brand at least for a long period of time. It will be less effective to advertise a Peruvian food product in an American newspaper than advertise it in a Peruvian edition. Advertising companies and newspaper executives know this information. That is why a market study into a demographic area is done to determine how effective would be the announcement or the advertising.
The truth is that The Jersey Journal, The New York Post and Diario de Mexico, know their readers’ community. Therefore, its classifieds and advertising fulfill the purpose to inform, to persuade and to keep the reader buying their newspapers and the advertise services and products.
Sources
voiceseducation.org/content/sensationalism-inflammatory-words-and-history-tabloid-journalism#translate-es
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/advertising
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/ads/amadv.html
http://www.nj.com/jjournal/
http://www.diariodemexicousa.com/
http://nypost.com/
Broadcasting, Cable, The Internet and Beyond: An Introduction to Modern Electronic Media” 7th Edition By: Joseph R. Dominick, Fritz Messere
1 comment
Great analysis of the different newspapers! I liked how you gave a brief history of advertising through the various forms of media. It was also interesting to classify a newspaper as a tabloid newspaper.