Unifying the Print Advertising Industry
PrintAdvertising.com has been around for a little more than a year and a half now. Over that period it has often seemed we were a lone voice in the promotion of a unified platform to serve the print media and advertising industry.The way we see it, newspapers have their associations, magazines have their associations and advertisers have their associations but no one has brought the three together in a simple, comprehensive platform for the good of the industry. As a consequence, advertisers wanting to promote in newspapers and magazines are forced to follow an antiquated system analogous to that of finding and buying a book prior to Amazon.com's arrival.
The benefit Amazon brought to the book publishing industry was that it closed the loops, gave buyers a central, easy to use platform for finding and buying books, gave publishers a simple and easy to use platform for bringing books to market and overall strengthened the industry. For Amazon it wasn't about protecting territories, a vendor’s market share or pricing, the old way of thinking. Rather, it was about giving consumers the broadest possible choice, for the best possible price, in a central location that was easy to understand and easy to use.
The print media and advertising industry would do well to take notice today. Just try to run an advertising campaign that uses magazines and newspapers. Either you or your underpaid media buyer will find it isn't easy. I work in the print media and advertising industry. But if I want to promote my business where do I look? I look at options like Google and Overture. Why? Because they're comprehensive, affordable, easy to use, centralized... need I go on? Where's the print media industry's answer to Google or Craig's List? They don't exist. Not that the print media industry has done nothing. To be sure many publishers are joining hands to develop resources like CareerBuilders.com and other centralized marketing products. This is to be commended. But still the comprehensiveness is lacking.
Today, more than ever we need a unified platform that brings publishers, big and small, together with advertisers, big and small, into a marketplace where they can grow their businesses. It's a big goal; a year and a half of going it alone has shown us that. But it's also a good goal and one that would dramatically change the future and shape of the industry. All in all one thing is for sure, the industry will never accomplish as much separately as it can by joining together. Together is where it will be strong and together is where it will regain some of its lost luster.
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