Social Media beats the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel newspaper

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Grand Junction, Colorado, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) October 1, 2010 -- Briefly, the reader will have to pay the same hard copy subscription rate to access most of the Sentinel’s content online.

The editor of this article makes a compelling case for charging subscription fees. The argument for print advertising is mostly faulty though. What is unsaid here is an unintended argument and proof for social media. I’d bet the author knows that.

I write my blog for two reasons: publication and press for my community, and an example of efficient social media.

Social Media in general and social media management is not intended as advertising or selling as we know it. The purpose is to establish a trust relationship with the reader and as an information source.

The fault is obvious. The typical reader opens the paper, takes out all the color print ads, and reads all the information they desire and can find. Google is way more efficient than that and the population knows it. If the reader wants a pair of shoes, they are unlikely to go through the book of ads to find a pretty picture and price. Easier to go shopping or to Google. It has been proved over and over again that advertising on a newspaper’s website is a losing proposition. The author acknowledges it without admitting it.

Researchers know that increasingly, the general public surfs the internet with the television on in the background. By far, most of the eyeball time is on the computer screen, not the television screen. Multitasking are us.

It has been proved over and over again (nationally outside our little valley) that newspaper, yellow pages, radio, and television advertising is all far less effective (read: ROI) than Social Media (and Mobile Media in the imminent future).

On the other hand, what will happen if the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel still does not make a profit? I don’t miss or seek out the New York Times, but I sure would miss that one article per week that I read from top to bottom in the local Daily Sentinel.

colorado     Grand Junction     print advertising     Print media     social media management