Selling a bigger and better audience still differentiates newspaper versus radio, TV and cable

I've had a subscription to Netflix for a couple years now. This monthly service has been used primarily by my wife and son, but even I've become a binge watcher this summer. The TV show Lost has been off the air since 2010, but it has been must see TV in my home this summer.

Binge watching, according to a quick internet search, is when you watch two or three episodes of a TV show in one sitting. To watch Lost as it first appeared on the ABC Network would have been a weekly investment of 60 minutes. With the magic of Netflix, I can do two full episodes in less than 90 minutes. Ahh, the magic of no commercial interruptions.

Commercial interruptions are a reality of TV, cable and radio outlets. Just the very name of it shows that the community perceives advertising as a nuisance -- interruptions. No one likes being interrupted. I've become a fan of watching TV on Netflix due to that lack of interruption.

Yet newspapers advertising by contrast, is welcome and in many respects demanded by our readers. Advertising content in newspapers are welcomed, encouraged and in fact demanded by readership. Need proof of this?  Talk to the circulation department about calls they receive because of missing inserts from the local grocery store. People can get passionate about the need for advertising in their newspaper.

Newspaper readers actively use the advertising content. According to the Newspaper Association of America's recent survey, 57% of people used advertising in newspapers to plan shopping or make a purchase decision in the past seven days. People buy newspapers for lots of reasons, including the advertising within it. That is why so many newspapers publish on page one of their weekend edition the value of the coupons available from the inserts.

Those commercial interruptions continue to take money from advertisers. People buy radio, TV or cable for a number of reasons. Ego is a big reason, as I believe many of those advertisers love seeing their face on TV or voice on the radio. Relationships are another reason, as those account executives have done a great job of developing a great rapport with the customer that translates to ad dollars out of loyalty.

Selling against those interruptions swings back in favor to the newspaper when you discuss audience. The newspaper audience is bigger and of better quality. Newspaper readers are consumers with more money to spend. The audience a newspaper delivers is also much larger than the typical TV or radio station and cable outlet can deliver.

Thetop five cable networks for 2015 according to Nielsen were:

ESPN                   2.12 average rating

FOX News           1.84 average rating

USA Network      1.80 average rating

TBS                      1.79 average rating

Disney                   1.72 average rating

To compare audiences locally, use these ratings to estimate a local audience. How does that compare with readership of your newspaper? In the case of the market I'm in, ESPN's average audience reaches only 4% of our Sunday readership.

Thesame exercise can be done for broadcast TV. The top rated network show last season was NCIS, with a 16.6 rating. While a much bigger audience than cable networks, it is still likely to be less than the readership within your market. Newspapers still provide a bigger and better audience for commercial messages. Advertisements are welcomed by newspaper readers, and avoided by TV, cable and radio audiences.

And for the record, I'm not quite done watching Lost yet. So don't spoil the ending, please!