The true power of print advertising is undiminished by a fall in spend

"We were told repeatedly print is dead - plus it's expensive. Digital natives want stuff for free, so print is always going to be and seem a lot more expensive than a digital alternative. Digital can produce cheap, quick results. However... we're coming to a tipping point where mistrust and familiarity with digital is starting to blunt its effectiveness."

"We're not spending in print as we need to justify budget on a year-by-year"

Print products attract and delight audiences, and newspapers and high-quality magazines retain captive, lucrative readerships. Printed formats avoid some unsafe advertising environments that affect digital channels. Brands and advertisers increasingly allocate the vast majority of ad budgets to digital formats because digital offers scale, easy access to audiences, and cheaper, quicker results. Short-term budget cycles and the need to justify spend annually drive continued reductions in print investment. Growing mistrust and audience familiarity with digital advertising may reduce digital effectiveness, suggesting print could stabilize but ad spend decline will likely continue, albeit possibly more slowly.

Read at The Drum