12 Newspaper Marketing Ideas

The newspaper is ultra-competitive today and the margins are incredibly low for many communities. Your ability to succeed depends on two things: the amount of circulation that you have and the amount of advertisers that are willing to work with you. These proven marketing ideas will help any newspaper create a stronger presence in their community, build up revenues, and create a foundation for a sustainable future.

It all begins with your ability to provide useful content. Information comes from dozens of sources today and people are flooded to a point of being overwhelmed. You can set yourself apart by digging deeper into critical stories, pulling out the fine details that matter most to your readership, while focusing on local interests that keep people connected. If your newspaper is a network for your community, you’ll be able to implement these additional ideas.

Great Newspaper Marketing Ideas that Work

1. Take Advantage of Your Space
You have a lot of extra space for content and advertising that is undoubtedly underutilized. If your delivery personnel are using bags, then you’ve got a chance to offer a guerrilla marketing campaign to others. Rack space, front page pull-offs, specific inserts, and even sample add-ons can all be part of the sales pitch to maximize your space.

2. Make Your Website Interactive
Having a quality website that lets your community network and interact will help to bring in additional advertising revenues for you. It also gives you a place where you and your advertisers can look at community trends to plan future content and marketing efforts. Some websites are utilizing a subscription model, which may bring in some revenues, but most newspapers will benefit more from the marketing value.

3. Review Local Artists
Make an effort to get to know local artists and writers and review their work. Everyone loves to be in print and all of their family and friends will purchase papers that their loved one appears within. You may also find that some of your review quotes could be used for their own marketing efforts and that just adds to the level of local influence that you’ll have.

4. Offer Commissioned Articles
Instead of selling blocks of advertising space, try selling full articles that are commissioned so that you get content and the purchaser gets advertising. It’s like having a guest column, but you get paid for the space instead of paying a columnist. This can be extended to any field, including wedding stories, extended end of life celebratory stories, or just a piece about a local artist who wants some additional exposure.

5. Have a Daily Deal
Could Groupon for newspapers really work? You can’t offer deep discounts on extended newspaper subscriptions, but there are other deals you could offer to your community at a good discount. Fringe advertising space is a good place to start, or you could offer someone the chance to be a columnist/reporter for a day, or maybe become a staff photographer.

6. Run a Contest
The only thing better than seeing your own work in print is being able to win something for free because of that work. Contests that involve writing and photography are a natural fit for a newspaper. You can run monthly contests for cute kids, great Christmas lighting, or the best essay about local politics. You might even be able to have paid entries for better prizes or you could work with your advertisers for products.

7. Go Digital First
Newspapers are struggling in this digital age because people want information now instead of later. Being a digital first medium with your website and publish breaking news as it happens. Get people to sign up for your RSS feeds to get local updates and provide them for free. Use your actual print media to follow-up on breaking stories with in-depth reporting. So often newspapers do this in reverse and that’s often why newspapers fail.

8. Offer Direct Transactions For Merchandise
Are you struggling with revenues for your products? Thanks to digital credit card processors like Square or even PayPal, you can offer direct transactions for merchandise that people will want. With declining revenues, you’ve got to do something different. Trade up by partnering with or even starting a secondary business that coordinates with your current business, such as a thrift store that offers consignments that are advertised in your classifieds.

9. Provide Local Search Options
Newspaper websites are often one of the first glimpses that someone outside of the community has. It’s also a great place for local businesses to be found in an easier way than using geo-targeted Google search SEO to be found. Coupons can be offered, archived news stories can be found, and your local listings might just get ranked highly in search engines too!

10. Develop a Calendar
Print calenders have been a staple of newspapers for years, but what about digital calendars that are specifically tailored to individual needs? You have access to community events, upcoming concerts, exclusive movie premieres, and a lot of other cool stuff. Not only will this digital calendar presence help people plan, but with direct transactions you’ll be able to offer fast access to events and get a commission on the sale.

11. Use Social Media Differently
Instead of promoting yourself on social media, try promoting local businesses so you can become a networking hub. This will also give you the chance to offer better ads to local businesses because your posts can become individually targeted, show up in local news feeds, and be noticed at a time when people are more sensitized to the value your advertisers can provide.

12. Have a Good Mobile App
Let your customers make their own spec ads by having a useful mobile app that will let them design their own ad based on your specifications. The app is another place where advertising can be sold and it can be structured for news alerts or even your local blogging network. You’ll save a lot of time, business owners will feel creative, and you’ll have a new marketing source.