How do you think to change the current phenomenon that newspapers rely too much on and are subject to advertisers?

Please refer to the following information

In the first half of 2005, the advertising revenue of newspapers in China generally declined, which led to a decline in profits or even losses of newspaper groups. Many newspapers bemoan the tiredness of thick newspapers, and are forced to reduce the number of editions to reduce costs, advocate increasing revenue and reducing expenses, and re-examine effective distribution. At the same time, the rumors of the state's rectification of medical drug advertisements have made many newspapers feel on the verge of bankruptcy. Faced with this embarrassing situation of newspaper business, Wu Haimin, president of Jinghua Times, said frankly: "The winter of metropolis daily has arrived ahead of schedule." This senior media person who initiated the "media bucket" theory and predicted that the metropolis daily would eventually "dominate one family" once again made a surprising speech this time. But when we carefully judge the operation of the newspaper industry, we find that it is only a cold snap, not to mention the coming of winter.

Not winter. winter

This year's newspaper advertisements have stagnated or even declined sharply after years of rapid growth. Let's take Beijing for example. The newspaper competition in Beijing has always been a barometer of the national newspaper prosperity index. This year, the profits of two old newspapers in Beijing have fallen sharply. Once ambitious new newspapers failed to get what they wanted, and some newspapers failed to recover after several blood transfusions, so that some newspapers were reduced to the dilemma of relying on wishful delivery until readers' mailboxes were full. In the first half of the year, the regulation of the real estate market and the rectification of medical advertisements directly affected the placement of newspaper advertisements. According to the survey data of HC Network, in May alone, the advertising volume of the eight major print media in Beijing decreased by 29.92% compared with April, with a net decrease of 654.38+75 billion. Among them, the original booming real estate advertisements decreased by 18. 13% compared with April, and decreased by 38. 10% compared with the same period of last year. Home appliance advertising decreased by 69.50% compared with April. In the first four months, the national newspaper advertising volume only increased by 5.77%, which was the lowest growth in the past years and was lower than GDP growth for the first time in many years. This figure is calculated according to the publishing prices of various media, and if calculated according to the actual income, it should decline. By June, advertisements in many newspapers had decreased compared with the same period last year. Due to the overall decline of advertisements in real estate, automobile, communication, medicine, computer and other media advertising pillar industries, and the fact that advertisers are more rational and pragmatic, the advertising revenue of metropolis newspapers has shrunk dramatically. Industry veterans estimate that only one or two urban newspapers in Beijing can make a profit in the first half of the year.

There are many reasons for the decline of advertising. The regulation of national macroeconomic policies has greatly affected the real estate advertisements, especially for newspapers with a high proportion of real estate advertisements. The intensification of industry competition and the decline of industry profit level have also affected the advertising investment of some industries, such as home appliances and communication products. There are fewer advertisements than last year due to the decline in profits of the automobile industry. The state's regulation of medical drug advertisements has also affected the advertising revenue of many newspapers.

The advertising revenue of newspapers has decreased, while the price of newsprint has increased, the printing cost has increased, and the management expenses have also increased year by year, which has caused many newspaper groups to lose profits or even lose money. This makes many newspaper bosses sigh that newspaper competition has entered the era of meager profit from the era of profiteering!

Newspaper advertisements have entered a new adjustment period, and there is still much room for improvement.

After years of growth, newspaper advertisements have entered a new adjustment stage due to the adjustment of national economic policies, the intensification of newspaper competition and the unreasonable advertising structure.

Nowadays, the newspaper business is extensive and the source of income is very single. It is uncomfortable when it comes to changes in external factors. Now the problem facing enterprises is:

1, the newspaper industry constantly competes with other emerging media. In recent years, with the rapid development of the Internet, the advertising revenue of many websites has greatly increased and started to make profits. New outdoor media and other new electronic media are dividing up the market share of traditional media, such as focus media and mass media. Due to the change of lifestyle, the relationship between customers and consumers is also changing, and the communication mode and information transmission channel between customers and consumers are also changing, which is no longer a simple advertising means, which also has an impact on traditional media.

2. The homogenization competition of the media in the same city has intensified. Urban newspapers generally compete for readers at the same level, resulting in many categories, low reading rate and low advertising effect, which makes advertisements scattered. The vicious competition between the media has intensified, slandering each other in front of customers, and even threatening customers with exposure, letting prices down or competing to lower prices.

3. The advertising content lacks honesty. There are too many compliments and exaggerations in advertisements, some of which seriously mislead the market and consumers, especially some medical advertisements even damage the rights and interests of consumers. These advertisements are at the expense of damaging the credibility of the media. A few newspapers rely too much on and are subject to customers, and can only report good news to customers who advertise instead of bad news. The final result is the loss of credibility and readers.

4. The activities around the advertising business are lack of novelty. From the beginning to the present, there are few advertising promotions, and there is nothing new. Consumers are not fresh, and their enthusiasm for participation is greatly reduced. There are also media who blindly imitate competitors and follow suit, resulting in many activities only receiving the effect of losing money and earning money. Planners have basically not done strategic and forward-looking research on market trends.

5. The advertising structure is seriously unbalanced, and the newspaper's ability to resist risks is weak. For example, Beiqing Daily, which has a high proportion of real estate advertisements, will be more affected this year. Newspapers focusing on medical drug advertisements should speed up the adjustment of advertising composition, prevent the serious crisis caused by the imbalance of business structure, and take corresponding countermeasures and measures in time to ensure that the business performance of media advertisements will not decline as a whole because of problems in one industry and one type of advertisements.

The decline of newspaper advertisements makes us have to face up to the existing problems. Newspaper advertisements in China are different from those in foreign countries. The newspaper industry in China is still on the rise, and our difficulties are temporary. Through adjustment, there is still much room for improvement. First of all, we should adjust the composition of advertising revenue to make it more reasonable. Secondly, through institutional innovation, advertisers are stimulated to innovate their business, and new schemes are constantly introduced to improve the service level to customers. At the same time, we must have an accurate understanding of customers' needs and market conditions, and make detailed analysis and judgment, strive to find and grasp the needs and excitement of media audiences, and formulate scientific and reasonable business strategies. In addition, we should learn from the newspaper business experience of developed countries, think, analyze and judge complex problems from a higher starting point and different angles, so that our newspaper industry can run to a higher level.

Due to the decline in advertising and profits, many newspapers lament the tiredness of thick newspapers and propose effective distribution.

From the management point of view, there is nothing wrong with effective distribution. The problem is how to control the circulation and readers. Foreign newspapers can grasp the readers' situation and provide personalized services for readers. For example, readers can subscribe to newspapers according to their own needs, and in case of business trip, they can cancel the reservation and extend the scheduled period. Our distribution management is extensive. As long as we can order, everything is fine. Many newspapers are distributed by government administrative means. The main distribution channel of most newspapers is the post office, and newspapers have no information about readers. Many newspapers filter readers by raising their quotations.

However, the crux of the problem lies in whether you have the capital to raise prices in today's homogeneous content. Since there are several urban media in a city, and the content is more than 60% homogeneous, why should readers spend more money on your newspaper! Some newspapers tried to raise prices, which led to a sharp decline in circulation. So what kind of content a newspaper does directly determines the level of readers. Content serving the orientation of the newspaper will ultimately determine the market value of the newspaper.

The decline of this advertisement has caused difficulties for many newspapers. Many newspapers have reduced the number of editions, and some newspapers have increased their prices, all in order to reduce the loss of distribution. Taking the Shanghai market as an example, the price of the morning paper rose from 0.5 yuan to 0.7 yuan in July to make up for the huge deficit in circulation; Another Oriental Morning Post, which can represent the news height of Shanghai, has recently started to reduce the number of editions, from the normal 48 edition to 36 edition, with a reduction rate of 25%. The financial news department suddenly laid off staff 10 people. In the first half of this year, newspapers in other places were in a state of stagflation, and they also adopted measures to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. The purpose of newspaper from thin to thick is to increase the amount of information to attract readers and attract more customers to advertise. Now that there are fewer advertisements, it is normal to reduce the layout. But there is nothing wrong with taking the road of thick newspaper. The key is to see if the content of our thick newspaper is recognized. The reader's reaction to the thick newspaper is that the reading time is shorter than before. Why? Because readers have read your content in advance from the internet and other channels. This is not the fatigue of thick newspaper, but the fatigue of content. The original content interviewed by the reporter is too little. Many manuscripts come from Xinhua News Agency and the Internet, and newspapers are too substitutable. When the advertisement is booming, the newspaper can barely support it. What does advertising depend on? Only reduce the edition, otherwise the profit will drop.

Homogeneous competition will lead to winner-take-all

In the 1990s, the media was called the last profiteering industry. Journalists and investors are eager to try and spend a lot of money betting on the seemingly huge cornucopia of metropolis daily, which leads to several similar newspapers appearing in a city at the same time. However, how many newspapers a city can hold is determined by the relationship between market supply and demand, and it will never expand by subjective imagination or by a large amount of investment. The competition between metropolis newspapers will not be brilliant. The law of newspaper competition is only the first and second, not the third and fourth. They face different problems: first, live well; second, live; third, fourth, how long can they live.

Due to the homogenization of content, the substitutability of metropolis daily is obvious. "The definition of the market is the sum of all kinds of alternative products. Because of the substitutability, the market is full of vitality. Because of the substitutability, the life and death of enterprises are ups and downs. " Many metropolis newspapers in a city have the same audience, almost the same content, layout and even columns, the same distribution method, and the same types and layouts of advertisements. Because newspapers are spiritual products, and the consumption cycle is extremely short, readers who read you today may buy something else tomorrow. Therefore, it must do well (and always do well) to survive. The early arrival of metropolis daily in winter is fatal to those newspapers that are poorly managed and weak. Advertising resources must be concentrated in superior media. If the newspaper has no funds to face the increasingly fierce competition, it will inevitably become weaker and weaker, and eventually withdraw from the market or transform to find other ways out.

When the Metropolis Daily flourished a few years ago, many people thought it was a cash cow to solve the big newspaper economy, but few people reflected on its structural and institutional problems. It should be noted that informal medical and drug advertisements support the operation of many weak media. Some time ago, it was widely rumored that the country would ban medical advertisements, which made many weak media feel that the end was coming. These advertisements will eventually be regulated, and then the weak media will have to close down without finding a living space. Strong media must also adjust the advertising structure as soon as possible to enhance their resilience. Homogeneous competition in newspaper industry will lead to only one or two powerful media in a city. Except for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other megacities, it is difficult for other large and medium-sized cities to form a niche market that supports small media, and the pattern of newspaper competition is ultimately winner-take-all.

There is a saying in the advertising industry: "Gold, Five Silver and Ten Silver", which means that the peak of advertising is after May 1 day and 1 October1day, but there was no gold drop in May this year, and1October was an unexpected cold snap for almost all newspapers.

Damen Company's monitoring results of 2 1 national economic newspapers show that the number of advertisements in each newspaper has been declining almost week by week since 10, with the highest decline in one week (from 10 to16,5438+4) reaching19. At the same time, according to HC International's monitoring of six metropolitan newspapers in Beijing, the advertising volume this month has shrunk by an average of 33% compared with September. Advertising is a barometer of economic changes. Is this an accidental phenomenon or indicates the coming of advertising winter? In order to find out the reasons behind it and make a more accurate prediction of the advertising situation next year, the reporter of China Business News visited a group of senior people in the advertising industry.

The global economy has dragged down China.

The most consistent view of almost all professionals interviewed is that the most direct reason is the accelerated recession of the global economic environment after the "9. 1 1" incident, and China, which is gradually integrating into the global economy, will inevitably be negatively affected. Zewei Tan, the research director of Power Media Strategy, affirmed that from September 1 1 to June, a large American newspaper group 18% ~ 18% declined, and the newspaper industry has been in a state of sharp decline. The background behind this accident is the weakness of the global economy. She predicted that this year's advertising growth rate will drop from about 65,438+05% in previous years to below 9%, and then gradually pick up. Chen Gong, CEO and chief analyst of Anbang Group, believes that it is inevitable that China's economic growth will be weak due to the international situation, because the export-oriented characteristics of China's economy have become more and more obvious, which is reflected in micro-industries. Market demand is bound by the overall economic demand. If enterprises feel the difficulties in production and operation, the advertising industry will show a decrease in demand, so this is an inevitable result. Earlier, the boss of a well-known clothing company in Shanghai revealed to reporters the impact of the "9. 1 1" incident on China's textile exports: "After September, the company's orders in the United States were all gone."

At the same time, Huang, vice president of Beijing Broadcasting Institute, Ma, vice president of HC International and editor-in-chief of China Advertising Network, also believe that this is the main reason for the huge decline in advertising in June 5438+ 10. Yao Lin specifically mentioned that China's economic growth has changed from the expected 7.9% to 7.5% this year. In his view, this actually indicates that China's economy will enter an adjustment period according to the economic cycle law after 20 years of sustained growth. According to his estimation, this number will get smaller next year. Chen Gong has predicted that it will be 7% next year. Lin Yao said: "As a barometer of economic changes, advertising may be ahead, behind or synchronous in different economic backgrounds. For example, in the 1980s and 1990s, China's advertising industry experienced two super-high-speed growth, with the growth rate exceeding 60% in the 1980s and 100% in the 1990s. Interestingly, the second year was the year with the highest inflation. This shows that there is an internal relationship between the changes in advertising and economic changes. The current situation is that the advertisements of large enterprises are decreasing, some are temporary adjustments of marketing strategies, and some are unable to advertise. We can see that in the United States, Japan and Europe, almost all well-known large enterprises are laying off employees. "

More specifically, Huang pointed out that the decline of IT industry after the Internet has a great influence on print media, because computers, communications, real estate and financial insurance are the main advertisers of print media.

Computer advertising takes the lead in diving.

Damen's statistics show that in the 44th week, the published amount of 2 1 410/0000 yuan of national economic media decreased compared with that in the 43rd week, computer advertising accounted for 6 10000 yuan, and communication industry accounted for 590000 yuan. Compared with the 44th week, computers continued to drop by 640,000 yuan, and real estate dropped by 360,000 yuan. HC's monitoring data of six major metropolitan newspapers in Beijing showed that compared with September, real estate advertisements decreased by 35.2%, computer advertisements decreased by 10%, communication products decreased by 43% and financial insurance decreased by 68%. In terms of advertising quota, IT and communication companies such as Intel, Motorola and Lenovo have greatly reduced their advertising. It is easy to see from the statistics of HC Network that in the fields of computers and communications, only South Korea's Samsung and LG have significantly increased their advertising this year compared with last year.

In an interview with China Business News, the marketing manager of a well-known monitor manufacturer in South Korea analyzed that due to the depression of the whole industry, many companies found that they could not complete the sales plan formulated at the beginning of the year in the second half of the year, so they had to adjust their plans and cut their advertising budgets accordingly. For example, her enterprise cut off nearly 1/4 of the planned quantity. The data provided by HC International proves this point. Take Lenovo as an example. In August, the total advertising (excluding TV and street signs) was more than 8 million yuan for home computers, nearly 8 million yuan for commercial computers and 6.5438+0.7 million yuan for servers, while in September, the total advertising was only 9 million yuan. The sudden reduction of advertising investment, like the sudden reduction of personnel, will not happen in the boom of the industry, and the IT industry will endure a winter.

It is reported that several exhibitions scheduled to be held in Beijing in June+10, 5438 have been cancelled one after another. Beijing, which once had the hottest housing market, has a high vacancy rate and is quietly lowering its price. Real estate advertising will further decline in the future, because although statistics show that the reduced real estate advertising still increases by more than 10% year-on-year, advertisers may face a serious cash shortage at present, and some advertisers have begun to reduce the advertising volume of some newspapers to zero.

Although the number of medical advertisements without print media decreased on June 5438+00, people in the industry are expected to rebound. This can be seen from the strong proportion of Chinese medicine advertisements in CCTV bidding. The reason must be related to several bans on "disappearing within a time limit" recently issued by the State Administration of Pharmaceutical Products, and the time left for them is really running out. It is well known that advertising expenses have been spent in these short months. Too many things have happened this year.

This year, a series of events that are very important to most people have taken place in China. There are some good things, such as China's accession to the WTO, its successful bid for the Olympic Games and its qualification for the World Cup. There are also some bad things, such as the introduction of various advertising bans and restrictions, the overall loss of the home appliance industry, the near collapse and continuous downturn of the securities market, and the decline in exports; There are still things that can't tell the good from the bad, such as telecom splitting and exchange rate adjustment. "There are many uncertainties in the market this year, and enterprises need to wait and see, so during the adjustment period, enterprises will reduce advertising." Chen Gong believes that after China's entry into WTO, enterprises will be confused and at a loss as to the changes in the competitive situation, whether the fund-raising function of the securities market can be maintained normally, the changes and influences of national policies, and how the favorable factors such as the Olympic Games can be embodied concretely. Without a good aide to help them analyze, it is difficult for enterprises to see the situation clearly, and naturally they will hold their pockets tight and wait and see for the time being.

Lin Yao analyzed that after China's entry into the WTO, China is facing a major adjustment of the overall economic structure, including the adjustment of industrial structure, organizational structure, market structure and government functions, which is all-round and multifaceted. In this adjustment, some enterprises will inevitably be eliminated and go bankrupt. The recession of the world economy has intensified and promoted this adjustment, and the days of sitting and making money have passed. At the same time, China's media has entered a period of integration. After the funds entered from 65438 to 0999, the stable pattern in the past began to be broken. In 2000, the competition of 200 1 was gradually intensified. This adjustment period will not be short, but it will be a good thing if it reaches a new beginning in three to five years. It takes longer to really reach a good state.

Obviously, the holidays in May 1 day and 1 1 day have a negative impact on advertising. Because of the impetuous mood for some time, people have no mind to read newspapers and care about advertisements, and customers' investment in print media will naturally decrease accordingly.

Newspapers have become meager profit media.

The reporter found a phenomenon in the interview, that is, apart from the Internet, it seems that only the print media have felt the hardships of survival. CCTV made a lot of money this year, with a year-on-year increase of 2 1%. Zewei Tan is quite optimistic about outdoor advertising. She said: "Nowadays, traffic is more and more common, people travel more and more, and outdoor advertisements have accounted for 16% of all media advertisements, which is unprecedented. The difficulty now is how to measure the effect. Once this difficulty is broken, outdoor advertising will develop. " At the same time, she believes that although online advertising is a failure at present, it will make a difference in the future. Geng Feng, public relations and marketing manager of Power Media, said that due to the rapid expansion of print media in recent years, especially the rapid growth and fierce competition of financial media, the noise level has increased and the cost per thousand people has also increased. Advertisers are at a loss and will inevitably be decentralized.

According to the monitoring data provided by Lin Yao, the advertisements of more than 1,000 kinds of print media nationwide increased by 11%compared with the same period of last year, and last year increased by 30% compared with the previous year. This is the statistical result after many media increased the layout and adjusted the advertising price. In addition, this year, many media have more flexible advertising strategies and many discounts, with an increase of 65,438+0,600. Real growth may be zero or negative. He said: "Before this year, everyone said that newspapers were the last profiteering industry. In fact, this industry has long been a profiteering industry. The fact is that many newspapers are operating in debt or losing money, and few of them have a good life. Only a few newspapers are profitable. " Chen Gong said that Anbang had predicted the bidding result for CCTV and it was very accurate. He believes that the competition between financial newspapers and other media will reach its peak at 200 1, which will dilute the advertising share. Compared with monopoly TV stations such as CCTV, newspapers can't compete with them.

Will it pick up next year?

Although the advertising business of print media has been difficult this year, Lin Yao told reporters that according to their statistics, newspapers such as China Business News still have a 60% growth this year, and several other newspapers with a small share have also opened up a small advertising market. It seems that it is not the time to complain about poverty. However, the economic recession that came this autumn sounded the alarm for everyone. Newspaper advertisements are also micro-markets. Due to the restriction of macroeconomic growth, the overall economic environment is declining, and no one can be immune. So, how long will it take to reverse this slowdown in economic growth? How will the curve of the advertising industry be affected? The next answer is a matter of opinion.

Zewei Tan thinks that the growth of advertising industry should rebound to 10% next year, and it is reasonable to continue to grow in 2003. According to her years of experience in advertising strategy research in the United States, she said that during the economic depression, customers' advertising strategies will be divided into two completely different types. One is cutting people and advertising, which is the most intuitive response. The other is to increase advertising investment, because people will spend their money more carefully at this time, and competitors are also reducing their publicity campaigns to make themselves more heroic in the depression. This is a good promotion opportunity. In her view, those durable consumer goods that cost more will reduce advertising, such as real estate and cars, because consumers will not buy them if they are not in urgent need, and even if they want to buy them, they will wait for the price reduction. Many customers think that the marketing method at this time should be price reduction rather than advertising. But fast-moving consumer goods and daily necessities usually continue to advertise. On the other hand, this also explains why in this winter when the macroeconomic situation is not good, TV advertisements mainly focusing on medicine and consumer goods are increasing, while print media mainly focusing on real estate and computers are declining. Huang believes that the success of this year's CCTV tender shows that China enterprises can now treat the harsh economic environment with a positive attitude, which is a benign development trend.

However, Lin Yao and Chen Gong are not optimistic. Chen Gong thinks it is difficult to predict the reversal time. "The media that can't turn around will die in a benign market economy like other enterprises that don't adapt to this competitive environment." Regarding the first decline of print media in May 438+10, Lin Yao said that it can only be regarded as the first frost, and whether it can come out depends on two months at the end of the year. These two months should be the climax. If we don't step out of the obvious positive line, it indicates that the advertising industry in China will usher in the harshest winter in more than ten years. However, he is very optimistic about the prospects of several financial media, including China Business News, and thinks that with the entry of WTO, there will be a China Wall Street Journal in the next five to 10 years.