Decline of Print Advertising is no Laughing Matter

Political Cartoonists have long been a key element of any quality newspaper.

Effectively they gave the visual daily editorial in a simple often humorous way.

Their charactures of politicians often stuck in the public mind, especially any accentuated traits or features.

But Political Cartoonists are in decline.

However I heard on a recent news interview that there are now less than 50 full time political cartoonists employed by the major papers in the USA. Down from over 300 a decade ago.

The reason is that print media, especially the classifieds are no longer "rivers of gold". The revenue generated from print advertising funded the cartoonists and the quality journalistic content. Which in turn attracted an audience ( ie the circulation), the size of the circulation and its demographic then influenced the advertising revenues.

Print Media Business Model is Threatened

However newspapers and serious print media are under serious threat to their continued existence. Why because the very basics of their business model are being challenged by the new media models.

Not convinced, then consider this - In 2009 alone nearly 90 USA newspapers or magazines have closed or migrated to just web delivery. Taking nearly 9000 jobs with them! Erica Smith a journalist herself has been mapping the decline of the traditional media for years, her blog is universally regarded as being a quality information source.

Why the decline?

1. Increasingly people would rather go on line and read what they want from where they want when they want.
2. Secondly, user generated news content is replacing serious journalistic analysis and commentary. Hubpages is an example of this.
   
3. Finally, as readership has declined companies etc have moved their advertising from print to digital.

So back to the Political Cartoonists. Political Cartoonists have become a barometer of the health and relevance of the Traditional Media. The decline of political cartoonists employed by USA papers from 300 to 50 in a decade, a decline over 80%, reflects the decline of the print media. Which in turn is reflective of the decline in the effectiveness of print advertising.

Advertising Mix

Print advertising still has a role to play in your marketing mix, but it is less substantial. The thousands of dollars, depending on the size of your marketing budget, are now more effectively spent on SEO and Social Media Marketing and other traffic lead generation techniques. Many well explained in other hubs by other hubbers.

Sad Loss

Irrespective of where you stand on the new advertising mixes, the decline of political cartoonists is sad. They really gave wonderful and lasting visual editorials that captured so many of the great political incidents of our time.

If you are interested in this topic, read my other hub on the decline of traditonal media.