I wonder if other industries are as driven by whims of iron as our own. Hunches quickly become contagious. One man’s stroke of luck turns into an epidemic. Two years ago it was tabloiditis. Now it seems that nobody ever said a word against free dailies.

Today’s big thing is quickly forgotten tomorrow when a new infection takes over.

When we all leapt into the new media space, mistakenly convinced that the Internet was ours for the taking, we immediately realized our people were so steeped in their traditions that few wanted to adopt the new world alongside our own.

The result? Virtually every media business established a new parallel division to handle new media developments. We largely blamed our old media people for their inflexibility, which, of course, was directly proportionate to our overestimation of the potential of our strategy.

Zillions of pounds/euros/dollars/yen later, our confidence in the Internet is recovering in line with profitability, and suddenly integration is the fad du jour.

Everywhere you look, geeks and hacks are being encouraged to commune. Subscription is a multichannel offer. Workflow is a distributed network.

Every advertiser is being sold a few page impressions and an SMS response mechanism. And why not? We’re an integrated multimedia business!

Sorry state

There’s no doubt that newspapers that do not adopt multimedia strategies will be in a sorry state within the next few years.

Too many of the services that newspapers traditionally offered are now morphing into digital genres. What is more, concepts such as communities of interest, social inclusion, and the oxymoronic citizen journalism, are presenting new opportunities that newspapers are uniquely placed to exploit.

The argument for integrated content services is irrefutable. Media consumers expect their content to be available across a range of channels, formats, time and place.

But the case for integrated advertising sales is far more complex.

The fact that we can offer print and digital solutions does not imply that advertisers are seeking to buy them jointly.

Advertisers seek different solutions from their different marketing channels. TV and outdoor advertising build brands. Newspapers confirm detail, and convert purchasing desire into action. The Internet is ideal for creating interactive and transactive relationships and for providing routes to solutions based on detailed definition.

Works differently

Digital works differently, with search being the biggest value of revenue, and referrals being the fastest growing.

Even as newspapers expand the range of media across which they operate, they must also be aware that the roster of rivals that will compete within these new ranges are very different.

And this needs to be reflected not only in the structure of the sales organization, but also in the way that ad reps sell.

Detailed analysis of effective newspaper ad sales reveals that advertisers’ needs are more reflected by size, and spending patterns, than by category.

A very large bank, for example, has similar needs to an automobile manufacturer. The sales approach should reflect the potential and loyalty of the advertiser.

But in the online environment, things are poles apart. A bank’s use of the Internet will be very different from a car manufacturer, reflected primarily in the use of its own Web site and how it attracts people to it. What the bank expects from us will necessarily also differ greatly.

The bank and carmaker will also have distinct communications strategies. There is little point in trying to persuade an advertiser to spend less in a competitor’s newspaper and more in your own digital services.

Must change

The bottom line is this: The traditional approach of selling our medium comparatively against our competitors has to be replaced by the ability to present each of our print and digital offerings in a manner that not only complement each other, but also mesh with the advertiser’s need to exploit both print and digital media.

The challenge is exacerbated for clients that use media buying agencies, where different people are tasked with buying different media channels.

Inevitably, the solution is not an easy one, and it will vary from one newspaper to another and from one market to another.

The key is to understand each advertiser’s needs and to adapt to each advertiser’s methods and options.

Integration may be the whim of the moment, but its universal application in advertising sales has yet to be proven.

Jim Chisholm is joint principal of iMedia, the joint venture consulting service with Ifra. He can be reached at Jim.Chisholm@futureofthenewspaper.com.