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Author Topic: Cost Of Newspaper Advertising Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 12-10-2007 09:30 AM                     What do you independents spend on your local newspaper ad? Is it worth what it costs? Our one column by one inch ad on the entertainment page of the Richmond Times Dispatch every day costs $3300. every month. This paper is the only daily in the area and has the second highest ad rates in the country, higher than newspapers with circulations several times larger. We're seriously considering discontinuing the ad. The what's playing page of our web site gets 200 to 300+ hits every day and the automated movie line never stops ringing. Considering the age range movie goers and reaching an ever decreasing readership the ad seems to be costing more than it's worth. We'll probably drop the ad and see what happens. Any thoughts?  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-10-2007 09:39 AM                        Good question. A few years ago both Regal and Cinemark cut their regular newspaper showtime listings here down to just a very small box with their logo and a url and phone numbers. That didn't last very long -- They went back to full listings. Eugene also has a popular free weekly newspaper "Eugene Weekly" which has an entertainment section and movie reviews written by a local reviewer, not one of the big-time syndicated reviewers like Roger Ebert. Both Regal and Cinemark run large prominent ads in "Eugene Weekly". One column by one inch for $3300/mo seems very high to me but hey, what do I know. Do you run onscreen advertising? Maybe you can barter with the newspaper for a lower rate on the ad by giving them some ad time on your screen(s).  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 12-10-2007 10:52 AM                     We have a very popular free weekly here too. "Style Weekly" has a large readership and would be the perfect alternative except that their deadline is I believe Sunday for the magazine that hits the street after 10 Tuesday night, our films are booked Monday or Tuesday so it wouldn't do us much good. Regal, Consolidated, and Carmike here only list the main number for each theatre complex and display ads are only on Friday for new releases. Space in this paper is so expensive that previous releases never get display ads.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-10-2007 11:05 AM                        How about doing a survey? As people come into the theatre, just have your ticket seller ask: How do you find out about movies? Newspaper, website, marquee or some combination? It would slow down your line, but if you took this survey on a couple of week nights you would get a good representative sample of real moviegoers without inconveniencing people too much. That ad is costing you $110 a day. Is it bringing in that many customers? How about going to a weekly ad, or weekends-only?  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-10-2007 01:15 PM                        Now that I think about it, when Regal and Cinemark cut back their ads, it was like Monday through Thursday. They still ran their regular ads Friday thru Sunday. This is just a guess, I have no data to back it up, but I wonder if the type of crowd movie theaters tend to get during weekdays (Monday thru Thursday) skews older and is more likely to use the newspaper to get their showtimes.  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-10-2007 01:56 PM                        We "were" advertsing in the big Nashville newspaper via the studio co-op ads, and they actually did work very well for us. However, in the spring of 2007, it seems all of the studios went to some generic "See Local Listings for a Theatre Near You" tag line at the bottom of the ads as opposed to listing the individual theatres showing that particular movie. We liked the co-op ads. It costs us 1 1/2% - 2% of the box office gross. If the movie did well for us, we paid more, if it tanked, we paid hardly anything, but the consistancy of being in the display ads was well worth more than anything we ever paid for. Being a drive-in, we're a little different than your typical indoor theatre. Alot of times people will come to our place to catch the "Drive-in experience" and don't really care what we're playing... not always but sometimes. The local daily newspaper here in town doesn't really reach alot of folks via subscribers, but they have a "super Tuesday" edition which gets mailed to every household and business in the county. We always advertise on Tuesday for the coming Friday's schedule, and usually on Friday and Saturdays as well. In 2008, we're probably going only with the Tuesday edition of the local paper, cutting out a few of the small weekly's, running a standard genric ad in the Nashville paper, and buying a highway billboard for the months of April thru August. The best advertising dollars we spend are on our website and our weekly movie email list.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-10-2007 04:09 PM                     Our local paper, The SAGINAW NEWS, offers a weekly tabloid section called "Hot Ticket". (Not the stolen kind!) There are listings for every type of entertainment as well as dinner offerings. Very often there are reviews of our films and the deadline is Tuesday for the Thursday issue. The downtown large theatre does classics and Art film while the neighborhood is a single screen second run house. Both theatres have good web sites and very active Email subscription lists. The downtown venue also has a very classy newsletter sent to an extensive mailing list. Booking films in a series makes it practical to advertise in these types of printed material. Week to week booking would not be served by this type of publication as the distribution takes way too long. As a non-profit venue, you should be able to get better rates for your advertising. A small ad with good identity and the title of the current feature should not cost anything like $100.00 per day. You could do better with RADIO at that rate. Find the station for your audience demographic and see what you can do. Just mentioning radio to the newspaper salesperson should get that pencil sharpened. KEN  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-10-2007 05:05 PM                        What do radio ads cost? Wouldn't the production cost of a weekly radio ad be a killer, though, even if the airtime is cheap? A recording studio and an announcer could easily be $100-200/hour. Or would this be for live copy to be read by the announcer instead of a pre-recorded spot?  |  IP: Logged Jonathan M. Crist Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 531 From: Hershey, PA, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 12-10-2007 06:37 PM                     Why not simply cut the amount of advertising down especially on weekdays? You might want to consider Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun. Does your paper charge a higher rate on Sundays (many do) then maybe drop Sundays too. Or prehaps just on Fridays alone. I don't think it should be all or nothing at all for newspaper advertising. It would seem more advisable to keep some presence in the paper even if only one day per week.  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 12-10-2007 08:46 PM                     We run a full ad (forget what size) on Friday, Saturday, Sundays and Holidays. We used to run ads Mon-Thurs and didn't notice any significant decrease in attendance; if any. We also have times posted on moviefone.com and of course the our in-house information recording.  |  IP: Logged Phil Blake Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 558 From: esperance western australia Registered: Nov 2003 posted 12-10-2007 11:33 PM                        We only have a local paper twice per week so we run a 2 column x 3 inch add in each edition. This costs about $1200 per month and I have pondered over the value of this . However when we make a mistake in the ad with a time it shows up at the booking office , which proves people are reading them.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-11-2007 01:38 AM                     even one column, one inch ads can get on the spendy side if one does a 7 day run with it..  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-11-2007 06:39 AM                     So, let me make an analogy here. There is a woods with deer, rabbits and turkeys living in it. You are interested in turkey for dinner so you decide to go hunting. With a shotgun (newspaper) you stand near the woods and blast, perhaps hitting a turkey but also pelleting the trees and deer and maybe even a rabbit. With a rifle (radio) you can single out the target and avoid the trees and other objects. With a scope on the rifle and a filter that only sees turkeys,(demographic of audience for that station) you are ready to go after your dinner (customers).  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-11-2007 08:35 AM                        Good analogy...but if you go hunting with a shotgun(advertising in the newspaper) only once a week, and while you intended to shoot for the turkey (target a specific audience), also happened to pellet the trees, deer and maybe the rabbit (also reached other demographics), the result might be that the trees, deer and rabbit now realize you're in the woods and will start to be on the lookout for you. Just an idea....  |  IP: Logged Wayne Keyser Master Film Handler Posts: 272 From: Arlington, Virginia, USA Registered: May 2004 posted 12-11-2007 11:52 AM                     "Is the ad bringing you that much money?" (#100+ / day) Yeah, I'd say that was pretty certain. We're talking about a major metropolitan area, one of the major markets in the nation measured either by population or commerce. And people look in the newspaper for showtimes. As the use of the internet as a directory stands today, I'd guess that it takes a regular and dedicated user to depend solely on the web for such information. People don't just want showtimes, they want COMPARATIVE showtimes (2, 4:30 and 7 here, 3, 5:15 and 7:30 there, matched with how far they have to go and what their other plans are...) as well as COMPARATIVE listings (the times here for one feature don't work for me, so what else is playing here?). That's a newspaper entertainment ad section in a nutshell ... unless there's an equally-useful multi-theater listing online (and guess where those kinds of online listings live? Right ... newspaper websites.) Where I live (Washington DC area) the Washington Post is the "500 pound gorilla". There are alternative publications, but I don't even know whether showtimes are advertised in them. As a heavy internat user, I get my showtimes from the Post because both types of comparative searches are available on the Post website, but I don't know if the guy down the street knows about that way of looking, or if those listings would still be there for theaters that didn't pay for print ads. I'm quite sure that online listings of such efficacy are, at the moment, exclusively found at newspapers with fairly sophisticated web presences (what's going to be true tomorrow may be different). For that reason, I think you'll still find it necessary to pay for the ad. Moreover, I still sometimes find myself looking around a street for a newspaper box, because I have no idea of trying to access that sort of information from my cel phone or whatever. And don't even mention trying to find all the information you want from the annoying 5-minute-long telephone recording ("times for Debbie Does Dallas in theater 15 are...") - I never could stand listening to those at any time.  |  IP: Logged

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