Newspapers provide strong reach as large numbers of adults access news either in print or online.
Many have written newspapers off. It’s not considered to be a viable advertising medium by some. Newspaper advertising revenues, down 45% in the last four years, seem to support this.
However, Scarborough’s latest Integrated Newspaper Audience study revealed that 74% of American adults either read a newspaper or visit a newspaper Web site at least once a week. Even though the Audit Bureau of Circulations shows a 14% decline in audience of the 125 largest newspapers since 2004, newspapers still reach 171 million Americans.
Erik Sass reported in the November 17th issue of MediaPost that newspapers deliver even higher readership among the well-heeled and well-educated. He cites that the Scarborough study indicates that 79% of white-collar workers, 82% of adults with household incomes over $100,000 and 84% of college graduates have read a newspaper in the past week.
It must be noted that a growing number of adults access the print medium online. A Nielson Online study for the Newspaper Association of America indicates that unique monthly visits to newspaper websites have increased from 41.1 million in 2004 to 71.8 million in 2009.
So even though there is much written about the death of American newspapers, they still provide a great reach opportunity. With the combination of space advertising and online advertising, newspapers can still be effective at reaching a large audience, especially among the more affluent and well-educated. And in smaller markets, community newspapers can even provide stronger audiences. Newspapers still have a place in the media plans of local hospitals.
Americans receive their news in new and various ways. Certainly this affects media strategies. But newspapers can’t be written off. Either in print or on the web, it’s still “read all over”.
I live in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, and according to Google Maps there are 10 hospitals in my metro area. I don’t recall seeing ads for any of them in places other than the newspaper, newspaper’s website, or the occasional billboard. I worked for one them for almost a year and I would have noticed their ads more than any other during that time.
I think it is a tough sell. I don’t know if I’m like other people but there is only one hospital I’m going to go to if I need immediate emergency treatment and that is the one that is the closest. Barring that I’m going to go to the one my doctor works with or my health insurance covers.
Don’t doctors usually have agreements with one or two hospitals and those are the only ones they work with?
Research proves that you are correct. The number 1 factor in choosing a hospital is proximity. However there are other factors that also rank high….quality of doctors, perceived quality of the hospital, services offered, quality of nurses and staff, technology and other factors. So there are reasons to change hospitals. Most hospitals use a variety of advertising mediums in addition to print to promote their brand. And hospitals that do marketing well can certainly grow market share.