It’s been an interesting week for Coast Reporter.
Last Saturday, April 26, our paper received silver in the general excellence category at the provincial newspaper awards — a firm testament that our weekly efforts stack up well against other papers in the province and Yukon. Considering the difference between first and second was 0.33 per cent, it was a little like placing in an Olympic race, ironic considering first went to our sister paper, Whistler Question.
The classifieds silver award is a reflection of the diligent work of a department Shelley Alleyne has headed up on our behalf since 2000. In a rapidly changing world that has seen many papers’ classified section decimated, I’m thrilled with the loyalty of our customers and Shelley’s hard work.
On Wednesday we brought digital advertising guru Mike Blinder to the Coast. Mike’s presentation put me in mind of another media maven’s maxim.
“Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise,” was Ted Turner’s secret to success.
These words came to mind more than once during the presentation. One of the factoids I found most interesting was the difference advertising made in the success of businesses that continued to get their message out during tough times. Companies that advertised were almost 400 per cent more successful than those that chose not to.
The other time I remembered the Turner truism was when the subject of the multitude of digital forms of advertising came up. In our rapidly changing world, we need to be marketing where our clients are.
On a completely different note, one of the points of the presentation that fascinated me was on the subject of frugality. Mike spoke of the new reality that seized America and subsequently the rest of North America in 2008 when a sudden recession meant losses of jobs, changes in employment and a generally poorer population.
Suddenly, he said, his wife became capital “F” frugal. That meant hours on Sunday cutting out coupons, scouring the flyers and checking the paper carefully for bargains. For many of us who had let red become the new black in our personal finances, that was the new norm.
However, for older adults, saving was nothing new. Mike contrasted his wife’s new commitment to frugality with the life-long parsimony of his father, 91, who lived through the Great Depression. The senior Blinder reamed out his son for being extravagant for buying an $11 bottle of wine.
For him, black was always black.
The difference in the generations is mainly what we’ll do to save money. The need and the thrift must jive. We’re not willing to drive the length of the Coast to save 50 cents on a $90 item — an exaggeration, but you get the point.
My biggest take away from the workshop? On average, Canadians are a couple of years behind advertising trends in the States. There are 7.4 billion mobile devices in the world utilized by a seven billion population. If our message is not being seen on one of these devices, we’re missing the boat.
Newspapers will never go out of style. As long as we have literate people interested in what’s happening around them, there will always be a market for the only medium that demands undivided attention from its user. While awards and workshops are important, without readers, nothing we do would have any meaning. We keep that top of mind every day. You are our silver lining.
