Most Americans are paying for their news, which translates to good news for publishers

I've always found statistics to be fascinating, which is probably an outgrowth of my love of baseball. Baseball is a sport that is nearly obsessed with stats, from batting averages to consecutive games played total number of home runs hit.

When the stats were in their favor, the newspaper industry use to have a similar fascination with statistics and numbers. As the media landscape has changed and the swagger has faded, the industry relies less on those raw numbers than in the past. But a recent study from the AP NORC Center and American Press Institute sheds some positive light on the industry that can quickly be used in the marketplace.

The study found that most Americans in fact pay for their news. In fact, 53% responded affirmatively to the question of paying for news in the survey. Of those that responded, 54% currently subscribe to a newspaper, either print or digital. This is information that is good for both the circulation and the advertising departments of a newspaper.

The advertising department needs positive information about the industry when talking to perspective customers. As an industry, we've run too many articles about our own demise and our customers have picked up on that. Plus our competitors are also out there telling the world of our eminent failure as a business, casting doubt in our customer's heads.

In a world where social media and digital are dominating marketing budgets, the reliable newspaper still has an important role to play. And that role is not just for older readers, either.

The desire for reliable and paid for content is strong across all demographics. The older the person, the more likely their subscription is to a print product but the habit of reading newspaper content runs throughout the ages of 18 to 65 and beyond.

For circulation departments, this is good news because of some other key takeaways from the study. Only 10% of those surveyed felt their subscription cost was too high for what they were getting.  I don't view this as open season wildly high hikes in pricing but if you were concerned about whether you can raise prices or not it adds more to the discussion. You probably can charge a little more.

Newspapers will never likely every again enjoy the domination of a by-gone era of amazingly high market penetrations. That has, and will continue to change the strategy we as an industry have to employ. But relevance has not diminished nearly as much as we've reported and this is just one more survey that proves that point.

You can find full details of the study by visiting:  https://www.axios.com/who-pays-for-news-2389759186.html

What media companies can learn from the marketing approach of Vera Bradley

It isn't everyday that you get to spend the day at a Hoosier icon's house. And while officially it wasn't the actual house of Barbara Bradley Baekgaard or Patricia Miller, I did get to spend the day at the corporate headquarters of Vera Bradley near Fort Wayne and learn about their legendary business.

Founded in 1982 by the ladies with a $250 loan, the women's handbag and accessories company now rakes in over $500 million in sales annually. In their 35 years of business, these ladies have learned a thing or two about how to run a successful business. Some of those key points are quickly translatable to media companies, who can learn from today for a better tomorrow.

Vera Bradley had a very simple beginning. The two founders were neighbors and struck up a friendship and business partnership based on a simple housewarming gift. Later, the two were traveling and noticed the selection of women's handbags was limited to black and brown. They introduced fun patterns and bright colors, revolutionizing the handbag and backpack market.

Turning a good product into a sustainable business is not easy. They lean heavily on research, design and customer feedback to keep their brand fresh and growing. Vera Bradley doesn't look at their internal goals and then try to create a product that works at achieving their goals. They are interacting with their core customers and potential customers, and determining what they can create to excite that target and score sales.

Too many times, the newspaper company does just the opposite.

The challenge is to be different enough to customers to be fresh, but not so radically different that they are turned off. So the challenge for media professionals is to do the same; with special sections, product roll outs and sales initiatives.

It is May now, and Christmas feels forever away. But it's not. At the event I attended, Vera Bradley gave us a sneak peak of their back to school and fall / holiday TV commercials. They've planned their marketing that far out. Within our organizations, we need to take the bull by the horns and plan ahead for the remainder of the year. Now, or at least in the next few weeks.

If sales specials, kick offs, sales rep incentives and special sections are thought out six months ahead instead of thrown together at the last minute, you have the chance to research, innovate and refine the plan. Remember, Vera Bradley's success comes from interacting with their customers and prospects to find out what their goals were, and then building the product line with that in mind.

Vera Bradley identifies their target very specifically, and they have named her "The Day Maker". A part of their philosophy is to have empathy towards this target. "Design with a deep understanding of our consumer, not a focus on ourselves."

  

Every special section and sales initiative should be thought of as a new product roll out the way they would at Vera Bradley. Find the needs in the marketplace, the desires of the target audience and then carefully determine the strategy you can implement to satisfy those needs and desires in a effective and profitable way for your organization. If we took that same approach with our special sections and sales initiatives, the results would be better; better received by our customers and better performing financially. And that's a goal we can all take to the bank.