The writers strike that has shut down production of scripted programs on TV may benefit other media that have been having a tough time recently.
Advertisers and media buyers are searching for ways to reach large audiences, especially as the critical season approaches for retailers, Hollywood films and makers of just about anything that can be marketed as a Christmas gift. For some, it's a do-or-die situation where they absolutely MUST reach the masses with their sales messages.
In his new blog The Media Age, media guru Gene DeWitt says newspapers and radio -- the long-suffering "other" mass media -- should be getting a closer look by advertisers who are faced with higher ad prices, fewer ad positions available and greater difficulty in reaching a broad spectrum of customers with TV sales messages.
Newspapers and radio, he says, offer relatively low production costs and quick turnaround. Newspapers, especially, can offer attractive ad rates in order to get the business.
Is the internet also an option for TV-deficient advertisers, Gene asks. Yes, but big reach on the internet is costly and not always easy to get, he notes. Radio and newspapers, on the other hand, offer an opportunity to reach half or more of America in a morning. That's a fact that too often gets overlooked in the midst of all the gloom & doom talk about newspapers.