Why advertising in "alternative" newsweeklies isn't wasting money

Advertisers may be ignoring print versions of their local papers in favor of online versions but ignoring newspapers altogether could be a mis-step. According to one report, advertising in alternative newspapers could result in a gold mine for many advertisers. That is because readership in the nation's top dailies is down but readership in the nation's alternative weekly newspapers is up.

by Kristina Knight

Which indicates that more advertisers should take a second look at these smaller papers as a good revenue source.

Researchers with The Media Audit found that nearly 44 million adults in the US have read an alternative paper or visited the paper's website in the past month. On average, alternatives are reached nearly 375,000 readers in 2007, a 3% increase over 2006 numbers. Website visits increased 7% during the same reporting period. 2008 is set to increase the readership again, making alternatives a good advertising investment.

"[O]ne of the benefits for alternative newsweeklies is the opportunity to reach outside the city where papers are not as readily available," said Bob Jordan, President of International Demographics. "There are a lot of people who come into the city from the suburbs for entertainment and these alternative newspaper websites are positioned as one of the best choices for restaurant, live music, and concert recommendations."

For market penetration, the Austin Chronicle leads with 11% penetration followed by Carolina's Charleston City Paper (10% penetration). Other cities with readers increasingly turning to alternative papers include Madison, Wisconsin, New Haven, Connecticut, New York, New York and Los Angeles, California.