The future of print recruitment advertising
Accountancy Age announced this week that they’ve decided to end their print edition, becoming a digital only publication. This follows a number of other industry specialist journals such as Personnel Today, and clearly there will be many more established names moving away from print in the near future.
Newspapers carry fewer and fewer job ad's. For the Guardian it's their job board that pays for the print version. Last time I picked up their Saturday edition I counted 14 job ad's - clearly not a healthy indication.
So what now for the future? How long can the industry survive?
The first thing to consider is demand from advertisers? These publications earn revenue through advertising and subscriptions/purchases. Print advertising could be sustained during the boom years - there was enough cash flowing and plenty of old fashioned attitudes. This has changed. Clients need to justify all expenditure with a return on investment (ROI). Compared to the cheaper, more effective digital approach, it’s almost impossible to advocate a print strategy.
Another part of the equation to look at is circulation and the actual effectiveness of advertising. Readers of industry specific journals will tend to be professionals keeping up-to-date with issues and trends affecting their businesses. They're a much sought after demographic. However, they're often savvy with technology, smart with their finances and short on time – the perfect digital customer.
There's often been an argument that print can be effective for advertising senior level positions. At the moment this just about holds true, but it's simply a matter of time before that market evaporates. If anything you'd expect high calibre forward thinking executives would be the champions of digital communication methods and be dabbling with new technology. At the very least they should be aware of the market trends and have assessed the impact on their business.
Of course other factors should be considered on whether to pursue a print strategy – the cost of printing and distribution, the customer demand for news from three weeks ago, the impact on the environment, even the type-setting, editing and production work take longer.It's all add's up, but not to a credible advertising channel.
The business model is not looking good, how much longer can the print recruitment advertising market realistically survive?
Newspapers carry fewer and fewer job ad's. For the Guardian it's their job board that pays for the print version. Last time I picked up their Saturday edition I counted 14 job ad's - clearly not a healthy indication.
So what now for the future? How long can the industry survive?
The first thing to consider is demand from advertisers? These publications earn revenue through advertising and subscriptions/purchases. Print advertising could be sustained during the boom years - there was enough cash flowing and plenty of old fashioned attitudes. This has changed. Clients need to justify all expenditure with a return on investment (ROI). Compared to the cheaper, more effective digital approach, it’s almost impossible to advocate a print strategy.
Another part of the equation to look at is circulation and the actual effectiveness of advertising. Readers of industry specific journals will tend to be professionals keeping up-to-date with issues and trends affecting their businesses. They're a much sought after demographic. However, they're often savvy with technology, smart with their finances and short on time – the perfect digital customer.
There's often been an argument that print can be effective for advertising senior level positions. At the moment this just about holds true, but it's simply a matter of time before that market evaporates. If anything you'd expect high calibre forward thinking executives would be the champions of digital communication methods and be dabbling with new technology. At the very least they should be aware of the market trends and have assessed the impact on their business.
Of course other factors should be considered on whether to pursue a print strategy – the cost of printing and distribution, the customer demand for news from three weeks ago, the impact on the environment, even the type-setting, editing and production work take longer.It's all add's up, but not to a credible advertising channel.
The business model is not looking good, how much longer can the print recruitment advertising market realistically survive?
Labels: accountancy age, Digital, job adverts, journals, print, recruitment advertising
posted by Jon
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