How long til Australia’s last newspaper ad?
There’s a sad sign of the times (if you work in newspapers) in the Australian Financial Review today.
Page 10 includes an advertisement from Australia’s International Air Services Commission – which allocates the country’s air services capacity – headed “Proposal to cease newspaper advertising”.
In the ad, not the finest endorsement for the medium in which it appears, the copy says:”Over time, print advertising has come to play little or no role in interested parties’ engagement with the Commission’s work.” It adds:
“The Commission’s experience suggests that notification of applications via email and on its website is the most cost effective way of reaching the Commission’s target audience.”
Another case of “If you notice this notice you’ll notice this notice is not worth noticing” … trouble is, if they get a good response to the ad from stakeholders, will they have to publish a “Proposal to Carry On Newspaper Advertising Like We Did Before” notice?!
I love it – such irony. They should have waited about a week before running this ad – surely it almost qualifies as an April Fool’s prank? Why the hell would you run a newspaper ad to point out that your newspaper advertising is ineffective??? Bizarre.
But seriously, print advertising will bounce back – either that, or I’ll get out of publishing, dust off the suit and get back into PR. If companies aren’t using advertising to reach their audience, they’ll have to find some alternative – PR/marketing immediately spring to mind.