Report reveals print and online ads suffered big in 2007

The impending doom of print newspaper ads seems to have been predicted for quite some time. So even though national print advertising revenue dropped an insulting 6.7% in 2007, which marked the most severe decline since the beginning of advertising, this figure probably doesn't shock many people.

What may be more worrisome is the Newspaper Association of America's numbers for online revenue which show its growth slowing significantly from the impressive 30% growth rates of 2005 and 2006 to only 18.8% in 2007.

Editor&Publisher.com, who originally reported this story did not seem upset about this growth stunt, but instead explained it saying, "As newspaper Web sites generate more advertising revenue, the growth rate naturally slows. "

I would argue that most of the online environment still has a lot to learn about the best ways to grab reader attention and capitalize on online advertising. Big newspaper sites may think they have it all figured out, but many of the "innovative advertising methods" I've come across lately are either intrusive or just annoying.

HTML the clear winner in the e-newsletter format debate

For almost a decade, experts have been debating which format is best suited for sending out e-newsletters. Web-standards gurus, media professionals and the like have written countless articles and given lecture after lecture to discuss this topic. Originally, the debate focused on html vs pdf.

In the last few years, the general consensus is that html should be the standard. There are still some minor debates regarding the ability of all email programs to process and correctly display html newsletters, which has sparked some defenders of the boring text-only format.

As a CMC student, an experienced email user, and a newsletter coordinator, the choice seems very clear to me.

Below is a short list of the benefits of html newsletters:

• Businesses can track reader click-through rates on the newsletter in general, as well as each individual story
• The colors and graphics entice users to read the email
  
• Allows for branding reinforcement through logos and images
• Graphical layouts encourage scanning and are less intimidating to readers
  
• Readers can be easily directed to take a specific action such as make a donation or redeem a coupon
  
• Story teasers entice readers to continue on to the company web site to find out more
  

Pop-ups rear their ugly head

While surfing some popular media sites recently, I came across mediaweek.com, a site that reports the latest media news. But before I had a chance to dive deeper into one of their juicy stories, I was stopped in my tracks by a pop-up.

Although the abundance of pop-up ads have greatly diminished since the 1990s, I do occasionally still run across them. The standard pop-up barely causes me to pause because I know exactly how to get rid of it and continue my web surfing. This, however, was no ordinary pop-up.

This particular pop-up was an "invitation" from Nielsen//NetRatings to take a survey about the usability of the website (mediaweek.com). This was not your typical pop-up either. There was no convenient red "x" to close the window in the corner. In fact, the window was designed to look like part of the web site and you couldn't move it or get rid of it before answering yes or no to the "invitation".

This use of the pop-up angered me because it seemed to be a manipulation of the system. Not only did I become frustrated as I read over the ad to make sure I successfully clicked out of it without being subjected to any other annoying ads, but I also lost my interest in reading Mediaweek's stories.

While I understand the importance of gathering data about usability, this pop-up strategy is certainly not the way to go about it.