Content Marketing Today

Your Local Newspaper Wants to Help You Market to Moms

Whether out of inspiration or desperation, struggling newspapers are trying to find ways to develop targeted content that, in turn, attracts targeted advertising dollars.

We all know that our local newspapers are suffering grievous losses of advertising revenue that is translating into fewer editorial pages and less coverage of important topics. Typically, that also means fewer dedicated sections that are conducive to focused advertising aimed at business owners or moms, for example.

Most local newspapers have virtual monopolies in their markets and have therefore been cash cows, sucking in ad dollars from local small businesses. When those businesses could also place their ads inside a section that had a strong probability of being read by their target buyers, local newspaper advertising made good sense. And, besides, there were rarely any other good choices.

In the past, advertisers would hope to be included in a section that was relevant to their buyers.  Frequently, however, they had no choice because it was the luck of the draw.  Today with fewer editorial pages, the likelihood of being in the right spot is even less probable. What is a small business to do?

Small businesses now have the Internet as a primary and highly effective alternative to print advertising in their local paper.  Using websites, blogs, and eNewsletters they can have absolute control over the content provided to their customers.  Even better, they face no competition.  Even better than that, once they have made an investment in their web presence, the ongoing costs is a fraction of what they would have been spending in the newspaper.

Can special online ‘Mom’ microsites save newspapers and serve both mothers and advertisers?

I had noticed a new GulfCoast Moms section in our local News-Press, a Gannett- owned paper, but wasn’t aware that this was part of a nationwide trend.  But a June 19, 2008 article in the Wall Street Journal that shines a light on the why of it.  As indicated above, local newspapers are losing local advertisers.  They believe that if they can craft targeted, community-like content, they will lure back both readers and advertisers.  Gannett has been a pioneer in the concept of niche, community sites, particularly those aimed at moms.  According to the Journal:

The mom sites are far too small to solve newspapers’ financial woes, which include a drop in local ad revenue. But the sites are an important test case of the plan by some newspaper chains to gradually move from being a mass-market product to being a bunch of niche offerings, both online and in print, aimed at slices of consumers, like pet owners or baby boomers.

The Journal also notes of the Gannett mom-centric efforts, “All the sites are heavy on community forums and light on editorial content or news.” Razor thin content may turn out to be a fundamental flaw. Essentially, they are counting on the moms to provide most of the content, presumably because they have no staff to provide it.  The role of newspapers, and of all serious content providers for that matter has been to deliver information that is meaningful and relevant to its readers, listeners or viewers.  Editors and reporters did the hard work to elicit and convey that information through an understanding of what was important.  Now it seems that they are advocating that role in the hopes that the community–in this case moms–will do their work for them.

Certainly there is a need for this kind of focused content, but my bet is that it will come from content providers who are really serious about generating content relevant rather than aggregating the fruits of community participation.  As the Journal notes, there are already plenty of existing alternatives without the newspaper baggage, such as BabyCenter.com and CaféMom.com.  For what it’s worth, there are no mom-related ads today on the homepage of Gulfcoast Moms. In fact, what I’m looking at now is an ad for the Ford F-150 pickup truck. That might be just the ticket for some moms, but probably not most moms.

I need your input here

Of course, I’m a guy.  So that makes me potentially clueless in this arena.  So, I’d like to know, if you’re a mom, what do you think?  Do you have the time and inclination to participate in any of these newspaper related sites or any of the independent mom sites?