The Wall Street Journal is about to launch a New York City Metro section to fill a need for local news and pull advertising dollars away from other NYC papers. As the New York Times has dedicated more ink to national news this left an opening. The fledgling New York Sun covered local news well, but closed after 7 years in late 2008 as ad dollars dried up.
Forbes Online covers this well: http://blogs.forbes.com/bizblog/2010/01/29/wsjs-metro-section-its-the-advertising-stupid/
Two online insights:
1) Local content attracts local advertisers.
As content on the Web has gone local, the advertising dollars have followed and will increasingly do so. There is a natural lag time in advertiser behavior (as we are all creatures of habit), but recent studies highlighted in our blog note the shift in dollars.
2) As newspapers continue to battle each other, the most efficient way to target local consumers is through local search on Google.
Google has 71% market share in search and offers an unprecedented ability to target messages locally around your retail store. With more consumers using online search every day (and less reading the newspaper) this is the first place SMB’s should spend their advertising budget. As an Authorized Google AdWords Reseller, we can help your primary suppliers craft a brand-approved program for you so it can be co-op approved. This will stretch your advertising dollars even further as a win-win.