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The Oregonian Newspaper is changing

by In the news Monday, September 7. 2009

oregonian cover ad The Oregonian Newspaper is changingGuest Opinion,

The Oregonian, with daily circulation of over 700,000, now has an advertising sleeve that takes up half the front page. Even when you visit the Oregonian online you will sometimes see the new type of ads. This follows on the heels of the paper raising their newsstand price from $.75 to $1.00.

These appear to be smart moves for the Oregonian as they try to beat the times. The latest numbers show that nationwide the average newspaper circulation is down 7%, Sunday newspapers are down 5.3% and newspaper ad revenue is down an incredible 29.5%.

Watching the Oregonian make these changes is watching them at their most aggressive salesmanship. This will pay off in the end, but not before this recession and internet have fully run their media-changing course.

The Oregonian seems to think this is the future of print advertising. Here are two probable difficulties with this belief:
1. It’s annoying. Seriously, who wants to pull of an insert to see the full front page?
2. It’s eye-catching, for now. One year from now it will be just as old as regular newspaper ads.

Their promotion piece for the new advertising venue declares;

Available 7 days a week, this innovative new package gives a one-two punch that will jump-start customer demand regardless of what business you’re in. Spadea combines impossible-to-miss, front-page positioning with full-page merchandising.

What’s your thought, is this the future of print news advertising?
OreggonianBackCover The Oregonian Newspaper is changing

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Posted by at 04:00 | Posted in Measure 37 | 28 Comments |Email This Post Email This Post |Print This Post Print This Post
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  • wnd

    Meanwhile, thank goodness, Oregon Catalyst.com keeps the spirit of The Oregon Journal alive and well for US.

  • Conscience of a Moonbat

    Whole Foods is going down! And now the boycott of Standard TV & Appliance is on!! Check in with SEIU Local 503 or your neighborhood ACORN chapter for more details.

    • Anonymous

      Buzz off you left wing, hate mongering, free speech hating wacko.

      • snkbyt

        LOL…I think that was sarcastic…??

    • TAX PAYER

      I see DEAN is posting here again.

  • devietro

    I think these things look like crap and I wrote a letter to the big O explaining my thought. Maybe they should work on getting subscribers through good journalism instead.

  • Bob Clark

    To bad the opinions and reporting in the Oregonian remain basically the same – unbalanced in favor of the socialist/communal side of the ledger and against individual freedom and self-reliance. I did find one interesting article in the Sunday Oregonian yesterday, though, on ‘Preppers’ (gun-toting survivalists), and the reporting seemed downright balanced.

    P.S It might be just my computer but the Watchdog website seems to be loading up significantly slower than in the recent past.

  • Voter

    I hope the Oregonian goes out of business.

  • Joe

    I don’t know who guest opinion is, but if they think the Oregonian is going to succeed by raising the newstand price to $1.00 and running some stupid ads on the front page they probably learned their economics at U of O.

    • Scottiebill

      The big Zero raised their newsstand price from 50 cents to 75 cents about a year and a half ago. Then they went to $1.00 in the last 6 months or so. Not one word of these price increases was ever printed in their bird cage liner prior to those price increases. When we wnt to pick up our paper on the day the increase went int effect, is was a bit of a surprise. I believe that a bit of common courtesy was due here. But for a libberal rag, it was typicla. And the Columbian did the same thing when they wen from 50 cents to 75 cents.

  • snkbyt

    I always thought the Media was just in it for the money…The Statesman and Orgonian have proved a newbie wrong..If they were in it for the money they would be running more to the right conservative ideas and publishing them..MAN.. look at FOX news, O’Reiley, Beck Greta…all kick’n it up and making them the most watched news channel..Tells me the Silent Majoritiy is finally sayin ENOUGH!!! Sure hope the Oregonian wakes up before they’re bankrupt..Capitolism is where it’s at…in it to make some money and keep people employed…How many jobs will be lost when the Oregonian goes under??

    • reality check

      Obama got more votes in the last election than anyone who ever ran for president. Portland, the main customer of the Oregonian, is probably 80% Democratic. Oregon has elected Democrats to every statewide office, 4 governors in a row, and both state houses. There is one single Republican Congressman from Oregon, and only because of a district drawn to be a safe seat. So the Oregonian becoming the print version of Fox news is going to be a good business strategy for them? Hello. This is Oregon. Not Alabama.

      But the new ad sleeve is tawdry and smacks of desperation to replace lost ad revenue. Print news is in trouble, and it will be our loss no matter our personal politics.

      • Max

        Yes, we will all feel lost without the Oregonian to tell us what to do.
        What will I do without the voter guide if they go under???

  • Rupert in Springfield

    The loss of the print media, especially papers like the Oregonian, is something that can’t happen soon enough. Whatever the cause, there is little doubt that in recent years media in general, print in particular, has taken an absurd tilt of such a nature even those beneficiaries on the left agree it is there.

    Newspapers now almost universally represent little but a cheering section for one side of almost any given issue. The spin on any candidate, the hang time of any scandal, the outrage of the editorial board can all be predicted with virtually 100% accuracy in terms of the reporting even before the event occurs. All that needs to be known is the party affiliation of the scandalous politician and the life span and emphasis of the story are determined. On major ongoing issues should the newspaper actually do a balanced reporting job it becomes an event, something that is talked about. Should gun ownership, for example, be treated in any way fairly, it would be so notable people would talk, the NRA would make special mention of a newspaper actually reporting the event, not editorializing it. On an issue where the vast majority of Americans and courts agree, newspapers continue to push a contrary agenda. Editorial boards universally decried expansion of shall issue concealed carry laws in the past two decades. None of their dire predictions came true and in fact the opposite of what they almost universally predicted would happen, falling crime rates, occurred. Did any of them change their stance? Of course not.

    A newspaper with obvious bias, even if it simply is catering to the political tilt of an area, does no one any favors. Reinforcing of political views is the job of editorial content, not news organizations and that’s what newspapers long ago had become. In that regard the death of these organizations as news outlets happened some time ago. The disappearance of the actual print version of the sham that they purport to represent, an actual news organization, represents a mere formality.

  • Tim Lyman

    We are witnessing the death throes of a dying media format accelerated by the O’s horrifficly incompetent management and its catering to a demographic that doesn’t read newpapers.

    If the O is goiing to survive it needs to migrate to the internet, possibly keeping the Sunday print edition, shift back to the center and go back to reporting local news instenad of just reprinting wire stories.

    • David Appell

      It has already been well-established that these steps will not support journalism, or investigative journalism, in the manner to which we are accustomed.

      It would, however, be good for corporations out-of-control legislators who by off or who are bought off by business interests, labor interests, or special interests of many types.

      Who will unearth and cover these corruptions? Your local neighborhood blogger?

      • Anonymous

        “It has already been well-established that these steps will not support journalism, or investigative journalism, in the manner to which we are accustomed.”

        You are correct. It would require actual reporting, not just the parroting of Democrat talking points and reprinting wire service and syndicated content.

        • David Appell

          And not just the parroting of Republican talking points, of which Oregon Catalyst blogs see
          far too much.

          Frankly, I see very little evidence that any of you here engage in independent thought, and not just what Fox News tells you to think.

    • Anonymous

      Apart from “moving to the center,” isn’t that the Willamette Week model? Seems to be working for them.

  • Anonymous

    Oooohhhh man, the evil corporations.

  • Anonymous

    David,
    There’s something wrong with you, really.

    The Oregonian doesn’t uncover corruption. It obscures it and defends it.
    Just like I’m sure you want them to on a vriety of issues,

    As for independent thinking, if what you do is a demonstration of independent thought (your label)you better try and cut the AGW parasite tenacles from your mind.

    Do you have a Keith Olberman calendar.

  • Robert Canfield

    Front page ad wraps? I tear ‘em off. Annoying does not quite describe how I feel about the ad wraps. But still far less annoying than their left wing news and editorial slant. Much far less annoying than their “How We Live” section and its condescending carbon dioxide is evil/peak oil/ global warming activists are better than the rest of us non-Gore admirers point of view. Don’t take it out on me and make me read this garbage just because you feel guilty about not recycling your baby’s buffalo chip diapers one more time. That’s how YOU live, not me. I recycle because it makes for a tiny garbage bill, not because I’m trying to make a political statement and impress my local cadre leader.

    And that, in a nutshell, is why the Oregonian is failing. They’re trying to get the PDX enviro crowd to buy their product when those readers are all on Oregon Live, Facebook, Twitter, Daily Kos, Keith Olbermann etc and may never have or ever will hold a print newspaper in their hands. That’s not your demographic, O! I am your demographic. I’ve subscribed for years. I read your rag because reading the newspaper every day is in my blood. I guess the O hasn’t heard that it takes ten times more money to attract a new customer than keep an existing customer.

    I actually PAY to have your paper delivered daily to my door (and sometimes under my car, which is annoying as hell at 5am and it’s raining.) I sometimes even look at the ads in your paper. Your adwrap doesn’t impress me. It makes me want to call that advertiser and tell them I will never ever shop at their store because the adwrap is a pain in the early morning riser.

    But I’ve just about had enough of you, O. Your lack of objectivity (big cheer story today in the O about 200 or so single payer plan fans at Pioneer Courthouse Square, but only condescending sniping disguised as a news story by Rick Mapes earlier this week about the 1000+ who attended the Tea Party Tax Fairness rally on Monday), your abandonment of east county news coverage, your higher prices, and your marketing ad wrap gimmick, maybe it’s time for this newspaper junkie to go cold turkey and kick a bad O habit.

    Is there a Schick Center for old paperboys?

  • Conscience of a Moonbat

    The world becomes a much better place when you cancel your subscription to the leftwing MSM reality distortion machine including, but not limited to, The Oregonian. You already know how they try to anger you fresh, every day, so why bother? Instead, use the internet to get the news writers and commentators who interest you instead of having the leftwing evildoers edit, write and deliver it to you. They are not doing it for you. They are doing it to you. Because they will spike all news that they perceive may upset the status quo and thus cost their advertiser revenue budget one thin dime. That’s why you’ll feel even better once you stop buying from those advertisers who make it all possible, like Standard TV & Appliance : The Oregonian. Clench left fist. Raise in air. Every dollar you spend is a political act. The boycott is on!

    • v person

      Really, the best strategy is to just cover your ears and close your eyes and yell real loud so that there is no possibility of recieving any information that might contradict your assumptions and breech your comfort zone. Boycott reality. That will show them.

    • David Appell

      > The world becomes a much better place when you cancel your subscription
      > to the leftwing MSM reality distortion machine

      Please. the right-wing distortion machine is no less egregious than the left’s, no less extreme, and no less committed to stirring up controversy and manipulating emotions for political gain. That you think it’s the left who is somehow more guilty than the right just shows on which side you’ve been brainwashed. Learn to think for yourself.

  • Rog

    They sound like the post office.  No one is using our product anymore, so……let’s raise the price.

  • Clairefrasier

    I received my bill today and was shocked at the 62% increase for the Oregonian paper. I’ve been calling them today and either the Oregonian is refusing calls, or there are a lot of angry people trying to call to cancel their subscription. I’m canceling mine for sure.

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