Now a veteran of 86 years in business, the O-Jib-Wa Vitamin Co. had this advertising contract with The Journal in 1918.

Newspapers get creative in high-tech times

By Jamie Kelly
Journal Advertising Writer

The American genius for advertising was coming into full swing when The Flint Journal was founded 125 years ago.

In the earliest copy of The Journal known to be in existence, advertising takes up much of the front page � a practice The Journal has long since abandoned.

In those early days, a changing economy was expanding the realm of advertising.

Jamie Kelly

According to a 1990 history of American advertising, the need to mass-produce uniforms and shoes drew women out of the home to work in factories. Their income created a whole new market of consumers who had never bought ready-made goods. Women began buying bread from grocers and clothing off the rack without feeling like inadequate homemakers, said authors Charles Goodrum and Helen Dalrymple in �Advertising in America: The First 200 Years.�

Post-Civil War advertising played a huge role in the introduction of new products such as the electric light bulb, radio and, eventually, television.

In most cases, advertising sold products consumers were getting along just fine without. Advertising helped justify spending money to make life easier and more entertaining. As is the case today, it was necessary for companies to spend a great deal on advertising in order to profit from mass production.

Today, contrary to many predictions, newspapers are surviving the Internet age � not that it�s easy going.

Wendy Brimley, Journal retail advertising manager, said the world of advertising is vastly changed from even 10-20 years ago. Then, she said, �the first thing a business did (when it opened) was to call the local newspaper. ... Now, it may be on their mind, but there are so many other selections.�

She said cable television, targeted mailings � by ZIP code and even delivery route � and a proliferation of telephone directories have narrowed The Journal�s slice of the advertising pie. The Internet, too, takes a bite, although The Journal also offers online ads through its Michigan Live affiliate.

�That takes a lot of dollars from in our market,� she said of the competition. �We have to be sharper; we have to hone our skills.�

But newspapers can gain, too, from high-tech advertisers. In December 1999, Editor and Publisher reported, IBM spent an estimated $2.8 million for a 32-page insert in some newspapers nationwide, geared toward e-business owners and executives.

The magazine quoted Steve Hayden, an advertising executive at Ogilvey and Mather:

�The irony is that the Internet, which was supposed to kill off all traditional media, has proven to be the biggest boon for traditional media advertising.�

Technology also allows The Journal to provide retailers with marketing demographics data and household counts that would be nearly impossible to compile without today�s technology.

Computer software makes it easier to arm sales representatives with easy-to-read information on population, income, age and other characteristics about local people and businesses.

�Today, we can tell a client not only how many people live in an area, we can tell them the income and age breakdowns and much more,� said Pat L. Goss, a sales representative in the classified department.

He started working at The Journal in 1952, and said changing technology through the years has meant new jobs and new ways of doing jobs.

�Our credibility skyrocketed as we could tell clients so much more about their market,� he said.

Projects such as one in April 1995 helped an advertiser, Carl Appliances, find potential customers by profiling his current customers. The marketing staff analyzed his customer mailing list to learn who was behind the addresses and predicted who could be likely customers.

The Journal advertising department sees itself as not just a sales force, but as a partner in business with advertisers. Retailers count on ad staffers to educate them on how to communicate with customers.

Flint-area businesses also have recognized dual benefits of advertising. They realize they must position themselves in the mind of the consumer, whether for profit or image.

For example, many local business ad dollars are supporting an �advertorial,� or advertising-based, special section in May about Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties, a social service agency.

John S. Suhler, president and co-chief executive officer of Veronis Suhler, a media merchant bank, has analyzed media for more than three decades and advises many of the world�s leading media companies.

He calls newspaper advertising �a business that has got good, solid, dependable growth in its future.�

Journal New Media Manager Mary Ann Chick Whiteside contributed to this report. Advertising writer Jamie Kelly started at The Journal in 1983. She can be reached at (810) 766-6289 or jkelly@flintjournal.com.