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Author Topic: Newspaper Movie Listings Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-06-2010 10:39 PM                        Regal Theatres has discontinued it's directory listings in the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the paper reported today. At one time, Regal used to list their movie listings in all of the local print media but in time stopped doing it except the two large papers, The Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Now that the two papers has merged and the city now has only one major newspaper, you would think there would be no problem because there is now one less newspaper advertising bill to pay but when more people get their news from the internet, why continue with newspaper advertising? Personally, I prefer using the newspaper for movie information and show times but I guess I will now have to get it off the internet. Is dropping newspaper theatre directory listing in Honolulu only a local thing or is Regal doing it nation wide? -Claude  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 09-06-2010 11:06 PM                     This is a trend of things to come. Years ago I used to read through newspaper listings faithfully for showtimes as well as check major city newspapers, such as the NY Times or LA Times, for the various details they had in their movie listings. I stopped doing that more than 10 years ago. I have not subscribed to our local paper (the Lawton Constitution) in nearly a decade. The Internet is simply a far more convenient resource. I can pull up theater listings on my notebook PC at home, office PC at work or even my Android phone. Depending on the theater I can purchase tickets online with any of those devices (although I usually don't do that). Newspaper subscription numbers are in steep decline while ad prices are rising. Ad customers are shouting "WTF?" Our local ABC affiliate in Lawton is going to put itself out of business with all the insane weather cut ins interrupting ABC network programming whenever any sort of thunderstorm is present in the area. And the ABC network programming is often unwatchable shit anyway with all the would-be reality TV porn being broadcast. The Internet and mobile phones are positioned to take over as information sources telling people what is happening in their respective city or town.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-07-2010 12:45 AM                        Carmike recently stopped advertising in the Billings Gazette. I'm not sure if that's a chain-wide trend or not. We were in Fargo, ND over the weekend and all the theatres there (Marcus, mostly) had ads in the Fargo Forum paper. Newspapers may be on the way out. It's sad -- the internet, while great, shouldn't be the only way to read the news in my opinion. You can't take the internet with you to the bathroom or spread it out on the table while you eat lunch.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 09-07-2010 01:06 AM                        AMC no longer advertise in newspapers. As for taking newspapers into the bathroom, I don't see why anyone would want to do this. I usually go into the bathroom to accomplish one of two tasks (or sometimes both simultaneously) involving evacuation of various items that I have no longer have any use for. I am quick and efficient at accomplishing these tasks and do not like to hang around and "enjoy" the notable odors that may result from such evacuations. In short, people who read while on the pot are very strange to me. What makes a person think "Boy, I could sure use some reading material in here"? If it takes that long, you are doing it wrong. Or perhaps you have major medical issues. See your doctor. But yes, you CAN take the internet into the bathroom via the mobile phone.  |  IP: Logged Richard P. May Expert Film Handler Posts: 243 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Jan 2006 posted 09-07-2010 09:44 AM                     AMC is still advertising in the Los Angeles Times. There is a full page of listings today.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-07-2010 11:00 AM                        quote: Joe Redifer As for taking newspapers into the bathroom, I don't see why anyone would want to do this. Joe: Just wait about 30 years, you'll understand.  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 09-07-2010 12:09 PM                        Newspaper listings suffer from two critical problems: They cost money - something theaters are very averse to Have lead times which can create problems for last-minute showtimes changes Newspapers have depended upon advertisers for their primary funding, and when things started getting tight for them, they raised their rates, causing many movie theaters to question their value with the rapid adoption of the Internet by their customers as an information source. The attitude that I've heard from many theaters is that if the newspaper wants to publish their showtimes for free as a service to their readers, they can, but it wasn't something they were willing to pay hundreds/thousands of dollars each month for. I have to agree with that stance, but I am biased! Newspapers have done a lousy job of staying relevant and if they want to retain their relevance, they ought to be discounting the theater listings heavily to keep them there, as well as running promotions with the theaters to help them stay visible to a rapidly dwindling audience. We only get the Sunday paper, and most of the times, only the Sunday store ads and coupons get used. The rest might be seen and read, but not often. Every year when they want me to renew, I fight them on price, and usually get about a 50% discount off the standard renewal rate. That's the only thing that keeps me subscribing.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-07-2010 12:25 PM                        What I have seen with our local newspapers is a continual decline in quality (largely marked by a shift from articles written by intelligent reporters to badly edited wire-service reports), along with a continual increase in prices. I am not a business and don't advertise, but I have no doubt that ad rates have risen as well. This will do nothing but accelerate the decline of readership, and the decline of advertising sales. I would just love to have been in the meetings where these changes were discussed. I can imagine that it would have gone something like this: Newspaper exec #1: Circulation is down because people have found other ways to get news. What should we do? Newspaper exec #2: I know! We should raise the price and reduce the quality of our primary product, raise advertising rates, and then give away our articles online. Newspaper exec #3: Great idea! You get a bonus! (five years later) Newspaper exec #1: Circulation is down even more, and advertisers are dropping like flies. What went wrong? Newspaper exec #2: We need to fire some more writers and editors and raise prices even more. Quality be damned. Newspaper exec #3: Great idea! Let's do it.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-07-2010 01:41 PM                        When Honolulu still had two major daily nespapers, both Reading Internationals Consolidated Theatres and Regal Theatres used to advertise in both but Consolidated only gave film and show time listings for only three of their major theatre complex and only provided phone numbers to their other theatres on Oahu on weekdays and all of their theatres on weekends Regal listed all of their theatres in a two column by six inch advertisement everyday. When the two papers merged recently, Consolidated started to list all of their theatres everyday in a much larger and elaborate ad in color. Now that Regal no longer list their theatre listings in the Honolulu Star Advertiser, I wonder how long it would be before Consolidated does the same. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-07-2010 05:01 PM                        quote: Scott Norwood Quality be damned. The sad fact is, if newspapers started embracing "high quality" and hired only the best writers/editors/photographers, and raised ad rates and subscription rates to cover them, and stopped giving the stuff away for free online, subscriptions would still be down because: 1. People don't really care about quality in their news, and 2. The content would be stolen and posted on the internet for free anyway.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 09-07-2010 07:48 PM                        quote: Mike Blakesley Joe: Just wait about 30 years, you'll understand. Nah, that's what prunes are for. Every old person loves prunes. Or is it a marriage thing... the only time you have to yourself? quote: Mike Blakesley People don't really care about quality in their news No kidding. I see tons of typos in internet news as well as bad grammar and punctuation. Being competent at writing seems to becoming a thing of the past.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-07-2010 08:46 PM                        quote: Joe Redifer Or is it a marriage thing... the only time you have to yourself? Actually with me it's a 'reading' thing. I just like to be reading. Even if it only takes me a few seconds to do nature's work, I can still scan the headlines. I suppose there'll be a day when there's a news browser wall-mounted across from the toilet in new houses. Back on topic: Last week, we played "Dinner For Schmucks." But the newspaper for some reason ran a two-week-old ad from when we played Inception. NOT ONE person came in expecting to see Inception. To be fair, Inception had been playing for 2 weeks and was pretty well played out when it left...but I still was expecting at least some questions! So now I'm rethinking our newspaper advertising. If not for the fact that they've been very generous with us in running articles about various projects we've done, we'd probably just stop the ads altogether.  |  IP: Logged David E. Nedrow Master Film Handler Posts: 368 From: Columbus, OH, USA Registered: Oct 2008 posted 09-07-2010 09:10 PM                        Claude, We're looking forward to being able to drop our ads, once our contract is fulfilled. We pay about $1200/mo for the privilege of having virtually no-one refer to our ads for showtimes. Using a suggestion that I believe came from this forum, I deliberately printed incorrect showtimes for a really popular show. I did the times in such a way that no one would miss the show if they used the published ones. Not a single person showed up too early (meaning they got the showtimes from the paper). And the cost above is for a 1 column by 1" ad on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Oh, and a 3.25"x3.5" ad in a Thursday weekly from the same publishing group. The weekly is the only thing people actually mention re: our print advertising. For $500 a month, I can run 200 30-second TV spots every month on cable. For the cost of our monthly print ads, I can blanket both local cable systems with ads. I'm thinking we'll drop the print ads, and do individual ads whenever we have a film targeted at the over 50 crowd. I jokingly told our sales rep that they should combine the movie listings with the obits, that way the elderly can get their daily read done in a couple of pages. -David  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-07-2010 09:33 PM                        David, As a professional photographer who had operated a store front studio for thirty three years before closing it in 1998 and working out of my house now, I used to do some newspaper advertising early in my career. As it turned out, the ads were terribly expensive with almost zero return so eventually I stopped. I think theatres are wising up and many are refusing to play the game with newspapers anymore and I do not blame them. The only question I have is what is going to happen to a lot of old people who do not have or do not know how to use a computer and rely on newspapers to give them movie theatre information? Thank God, I am old but I am grateful I know how to use a computer when I do post production photographic work.. -Claude -Claude  |  IP: Logged David Zylstra Master Film Handler Posts: 432 From: Novi, MI, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 09-07-2010 11:00 PM                     Last December we ran a survey and less than 9% of our customers reported that they got their showtimes from a newspaper (the survey was done through our POS system so every sale popped up with a reminder for the cashier to ask the question - 7% did not answer).  |  IP: Logged

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