Newspapers remain (somewhat) dead

I have written about the ineffectiveness of print media time and time and time and time again.

Roberta wrote a nice post today about newspapers’ similarities to dead horses. Perhaps my favorite line:

I also agree with John’s premise that newspaper advertising is more about promotion of the real estate agent than bringing qualified buyers to see the home. Imagine the absurdity of telling a home seller, “I am going to advertise your home in our local newspaper with a grainy photo and five column lines of type.”

The story is particularly serendipitous, as next week I will be advertising in the local print media for the first time in well over a year, at the behest of a client and out of my own curiosity, to find out a simple question does it work? I’ll use a special email address to track the email leads as well as track the phone call I receive because of the ad, and, naturally, report the results here.

More than 80% of home buyers are using the web; it is far more efficient, cost effective and trackable to use internet marketing. Should one use print media, which is none of the above, to maybe reach that remaining ~20%?

And, my favorite comment from the 3Oceans article she referenced:

It’s sad to think that the second largest group of persons needing to read this won’t see it. Of the largest group – sellers – many will see it because savvy real estate agents like you, Kevin and other web 2.0 agents will show it to them.

The second largest group – traditional real estate.