Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

The clamor for information rages on, but where will we get it? Traditional media are dying a slow death – an AP article last Sunday said newspapers are now in survival mode. Staff cuts are hitting hard at the Hartford Courant, the Baltimore Sun, and the Daytona Beach-Journal. The venerable Tribune Co. is looking to sell Newsday. Closer to home, the News & Observer announced last Friday that its Business section would be integrated into the same section as local news, a reflection of cutbacks. McClatchy Co., N&O’s parent, said more staff cuts are coming.

So what’s going to take the place of newspapers? Will it be a new breed of media company? At Web Content 2008, Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 declared that online content marketing is the future of media and expressed his condolences to anyone working in traditional media. Pointing to shrinking media company budgets and the myriad technologies that allow the smallest companies to deliver targeted content, Pulizzi and Junta42 are banking on custom publishing. This company helps match marketers with branded content providers, content advertising agencies, direct marketing and PR firms, integrated marketing firms and post-advertising agencies — at no charge.

And content delivery goes beyond blogs and e-newsletters. Junta42 lists – you guessed it – 42 ways to deliver your content, including virtual tradeshows, online games, e-books, vodcasts, and digital magazines.

What's missing here is any type of objective reporting. I understand the power of customized content, but I’m not sure it will totally replace the role of the fourth estate – or if it should. Maybe instead of journalism empires like the Tribune or McClatchy, we’ll just have journalists for hire, building personal brands as trusted, impartial sources of news. Or maybe product marketers will draw crowds by providing news articles even if it doesn't tie into their products.

Sure, the line has blurred between news and entertainment, and I'm all for online content marketing. But shouldn't news and marketing still be separate?

Newspapers can’t get a break. Circulation declines, display ad declines and now a report from the Conference Board that help-wanted ads are at their lowest level since 1958.

Part of this decline is said to be attributable to business concerns about the economy and future hiring. The other part of the story is the migration of recruitment and job searching to online channels. Even when hiring picks up, don’t expect significant rebounds in newspaper help-wanted ads in the future. This is one more challenge for an industry struggling to define its future.

Recruitment advertisers are getting smarter about how they find job candidates. The days of running a few ads in the industry trades or the local newspapers to find your next hire are behind us. Online talent acquisition presents many new ways to source candidates from a global talent pool.

We are fortunate to be in a growing market with companies that are hiring. As we make recommendations to our clients we need to be mindful of this shift.

More Trouble for Newspaper Industry: In the Shadow of Services like Craigslist, June Help-Wanted Ad Placements Dip to 49-Year Low

The number of help-wanted ads in U.S. newspapers fell in June to a 49-year low, a private research group said on Thursday. The Conference Board said its gauge measuring help-wanted ad volume was 26 in June, the lowest reading since July 1958, Reuters reports. It was 32 a year earlier.

"There are signs that job advertising volume is edging a little lower, with very slight decreases in each of the past two months," said Ken Goldstein, labor economist at the Conference Board, in a statement. "Business caution about near-term prospects for the economy, and perhaps for their own businesses, may lead to a little less hiring this autumn. Plus, the online business is mature enough in that this is where help wanted ads originate and may never appear in newspapers."

Total online job ads fell 2 percent in June, the Conference Board said. Goldstein suggested an already-tight labor market and worries about where the economy is headed contributed.

Newspaper help-wanted ads were down in all nine of the board's regions in the last three months, with the largest fall, 24.6 percent, in the Pacific, the Conference Board said.

The research firm surveys help-wanted ad volume at 51 newspapers across the country each month.