Advertisers, who are increasingly moving away from print newspaper spending, are having no such second thoughts about college papers. Retailers, movie studios and others are buying ad space in college newspapers more and more in an effort to reach an audience while they are still developing brand habits and are highly influential with friends.
When you think about it, college newspapers offer an almost unparalleled level of targeting. You know what the age range is. You know, based on the college primarily, what the income level of the student population is. And if the story is correct in saying that 95% of student actually read the friggin' thing then you know that your ad is being viewed. What other medium offers that kind of almost pinpoint demographic specificity? The main problem for non-college newspapers is that these readers obviously aren't continuing the habit post-graduation.
1. I must say, this makes total sense. Here at the University of Waterloo, we have some pretty high-powered advertisers: Google, Microsoft, IBM, RIM (though, since everybody walks by their buildings when coming to campus anyway, RIM is always on everyone's mind).
What I tend to find troubling (especially here at UW) is how friggn' terrible the content in student newspapers is. Students are the next generation of scienetists and businessmen. Does the newspaper report on topics that actually have some social or economical importance? No. But they will publish that how-to you wrote on hotboxing your kitchen, and how that's sooo smart because, like, the munchies are readily available.
Ok, ok. That was a funny article, and college is a fun time, so yes, humour has it's place. But maybe some real, mentally stimulating stuff could be put in as well?
Posted at 4:51PM on Nov 30th 2005 by Michael Cicconi