Monday, February 07, 2005

Fine print

A few days ago, the NYTimes ran an article on Conde Nast's campaign to promote the power of print advertising. The publisher is spending millions to convince ad buyers that people really do read -- or as they say "engage with" -- magazines. The article quotes a "senior vice president and managing director for print and convergence" (is that title for real and does it fit on a card?) as saying, "When marketers buy media, ultimately it's about the quality of the engagement with consumers." But when it comes to print, it's measuring that quality that is so problematic. Especially now that newspapers have been caught inflating circulation numbers.

Ad buys in magazines are dropping because they can't measure readers and behavior the way other media can. Newsosaur makes the point about newspapers but it applies to magazines too: publications seem unable to meet the new needs of their advertisers. Glitzy PR and freebie golf tournaments can't hide that.

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