October 14, 2008
(Baldwin, N.Y.) – Print & Digital Media Appraiser and Analyst Kevin B. Kamen, President/CEO of Kamen & Co. Group Services of Baldwin, NY, a leading media financial valuation and brokerage firm in the publishing trade, believes newspaper companies will need to fully integrate their online and broad channel efforts to fend off weak print advertising sales for the fourth quarter of 2008 or they will inevitably be forced to either consolidate their operations with local competitors or perhaps have to face the reality of closing.
“Publishers have no choice but to embrace all potential channels of reaching their market, whether it be generating video, building sustainable blogs, incorporating cell phone downloads, optimizing search engine capabilities by linkage and more domains or organically reconstructuring websites that effectively meet the daily needs of their readers and ad buyers,” stated Kamen, who appraises publications nationally and internationally. He continued, “Publishers must wake up, invest in industry technology, focus on e-newsletters and webinar series, use editorial content that does not make the cut in their newsprint products online and make the rationale that times are bleak in the industry and cost-savings measures must be put into effect across the board.” Kamen added,” If change is not made at most weekly and daily newspapers over the next 12 months, then change will come in the way of closings and this will have a tremendous impact on the local economy.
We do not want to see this happen but now it is all about scalable website platforms, both readers and ad buyers receiving the information they require within a click or two and making everything reachable in seconds. In order to do this, publishers need to spend less on printing and production and more on their websites, where the forum is greater and the marketability of the product is essentially 24/7. As 2008’s final quarter progresses and this economic downturn continues, smart publishers who offer their investors streamlined profit margins and greater mass coverage will be the select group that see the value of their publishing enterprises increase.”