HELP WANTED: THE ADOPTION OF
PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENTS BY THE DAILY PRESS
Debra L. Merskin, School of Journalism & Communication, University of
Oregon
(503-346-4189) Email: [log in to unmask]
Thomas J. Herling, S.I. Newhouse School of Communications, Syracuse
University
Submitted to the annual meeting of the Association for Education in
Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington, DC, 1995
Running head: HELP WANTED
HELP WANTED: THE ADOPTION OF
PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENTS BY THE DAILY PRESS
Abstract:: This study reports the findings of a national telephone survey
conducted to explore the adoption of personal advertisements by
the daily
press. The findings show widespread adoption of these ads, with
a reported
277 percent increase from 1987 to 1993. Most of the newspapers made use
of voice mail technology with the ads becoming an increasingly
important
source of revenue. Newspapers are facing questions concerning
the changing
role of the newspaper in a changing society.
HELP WANTED: THE ADOPTION OF
PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENTS BY THE DAILY PRESS
Individuals and organizations constantly confront new ideas, products,
behaviors and technologies. These innovations have been formally
defined
as "ideas, practices or objects that are perceived as new by an
individual
or another unit of adoption."[1] Adoption is defined as "a
decision to make
full use of an innovation as the best course of action available"
to solve
problems.[2] In the case of daily newspapers, the problem is
ensuring
continuing revenue. Audiotex technology is an innovation which
newspapers
are adopting in growing numbers to improve classified advertising
revenue
with services such as personal advertisements.
There is little empirical research available regarding newspaper
classified advertising.[3] This study contributes to this limited body
of
literature as well as to the literature on the adoption of
innovations.
The information provided in this study is useful not only to
researchers,
but also to newspapers that are interested in the extent of the
adoption of
voice technology.
Newspapers and the Adoption of Innovations
Newspaper organizations have historically been innovation adopters. In
the early nineteenth century several innovations made the modern
newspaper
possible. Developments in the printing process, cheap paper,
typography,
plate-making, the telegraph, along with the social innovation of
a rise in
literacy, made the mass circulation press possible.[4]
Along with innovations in the physical production of the newspaper and
the ability to produce large numbers of copies, another powerful
innovation was the adoption of advertising in the daily press. Since
1833
when Benjamin Day found he could no longer sell his New York Sun
for six
cents a copy, newspapers have relied on advertising support.[5]
This
support comes from outside commercial enterprises and individuals in
the
form of retail and classified advertising.
The newspaper business evolved, changing from a time when newspapers had
been driven by a strong editorial personality toward becoming the
market-driven mass medium it is today. In 1879, American newspapers and
periodicals received 56 percent of their revenue from circulation
and 44
percent from advertising.[6] By 1889, the split was
approximately 50-50.
Just ten years later, ad dollars made up a majority of newspaper
income;
45.5 percent of revenue came from circulation while over 54
percent came
from advertising by 1899.
Since World War II, the dollar volume of the newspaper industry has grown,
from $2.1 billion in 1950 to $32.2 billion in 1990. Despite the decline
in the actual number of daily newspapers during the same period,
newspaper
ad revenue grew steadily.[7]
However, newspapers have faced an increasingly competitive market for
audiences and advertisers, particularly with the rise of electronic
media.
Newspapers' share of advertising expenditures has declined in the last
thirty years. The Newspaper Advertising Bureau reported that
although
newspapers enjoyed more than a thirty percent share of total
advertising
expenditures in 1960, the figure has steadily dropped to 29.4
percent in
1970, 27.6 percent in 1980 and 24.9 percent in 1990.[8] This
trend is
likely to continue as new advertising vehicles, such as interactive
media,
enter the market.
Classifieds in a Competitive Market
Classified advertising is considered to be "the backbone of the
newspaper."[9] Pejoratively referred to by some as the "want ads,"
classifieds have long been a major source of newspaper ad revenue.
Seventy-million adults across the United States read one or more
classified
advertisements per week, and of that number, 12 million follow up with an
inquiry.[10] According to the Newspaper Association of America,
classified
advertising made up 35 percent of newspapers' $30.7 billion in ad
revenue
in 1986.
During the recent recession, however, newspapers suffered losses due to a
decline in the three major classified advertising categories:
automotive,
employment and real estate. New strategies were sought to defend
the $10.8
billion classified advertising base.[11] According to Newspaper Association
of America President Cathleen Black
We are at the beginning of a time when the newspaper as it is
historically viewed, will take on a broader role. It doesn't only
have to be a traditional newspaper as we know it.[12]
The adoption of new technologies may allow daily newspapers to remain
competitive with other media such as television and cable.
According to
Deppa, the appearance of "phone, fax, modem and audiotex are
waking papers
up. Without audiotex, newspapers will be the odd man out."[13]
Audiotext has
been hailed by Editor and Publisher as "the lifeline that could
pull
newspapers out of the swamp of lost revenue."[14] Nearly
one-third of all
newspapers now supply audiotext services to their readers.
Callers can
select items of interest from a menu printed in the newspaper.
Once the
item of interest is selected, callers use a touch-tone phone
enter the
advertisement's access code and to receive information or leave a
voice
message for the advertiser. In some cases these are free 1-800
number
calls. In others, the 1-900 number access is billable by the
minute,
with prices ranging from $1 to $2 per minute.
According to Piirto, the biggest use of newspaper-based 900 numbers has
been for classified advertising categories such as real estate,
automotive,
help wanted and personals.[15] The Baltimore Sun has a service where readers
can respond to employment advertisements by leaving a voice resume.
Callers can dial up not only the news and weather but classified
advertisements "read" by a computerized voice providing stock-market
information, housing loan rates, lottery results, pizza places,
jokes, soap
opera updates or to respond to personal (dating) advertisements.
Adoption of Voice Personals
Although personal ads have been around for many years, the numbers
increased substantially in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly in alternative
papers such as the Village Voice and the Boston Phoenix. In the
late 1980s
and 1990s there was an explosion of personal ads in the daily press.
Newspapers such as the Washington Post, the Green Bay Gazette,
the San
Francisco Examiner and the Syracuse Post -Standard now feature
these ads.
Many of these large daily newspapers have begun using voice mail for the
personals. The addition of voice mail personal advertisements to
the
repertoire of classified ads suggests an important change in sources
of
revenue for the daily press.
Promoted as a solution to changing lifestyles, audio enhanced personal
advertisements also represent the adoption of a technological
innovation
for the newspaper industry. According to Webb:
We are seeing audiotex as an evolution out of people's basic need for
information. They don't necessarily take time to sit down
with the
newspaper in the morning. If you look at the way society is
going,
audiotex is simply the medium which is going to be more
attractive to
their lifestyle and fit right into their lifestyle.[16]
Few have addressed the importance of the addition of voice personal
advertisements to the repertoire of products offered by the daily
newspaper
and what this represents in terms of image, function, and financial
success. Rogers' model proposes that adoption of innovations in
modern
society offers choices that help solve the problems of daily life
for
individuals and organizations. Ideas, practices or objects which
are
perceived as new are selected and used as the best option
available.[17]
Previous studies have shown that the adoption of an innovation
follows an
S-shaped cumulative curve. The reason for the normal S-shaped
curve is
based upon the role of information and uncertainty reduction.
Adopter
categories can be set forth as ideal types on an innovativeness
continuum.
The types are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority,
and laggards. In all of these categories, opinion leadership
plays an
important role. Although discussion of the adoption of innovations
tends
to focus primarily on the individual, organizations also adopt.
Examples
include computerization of government offices, computerized
photographic
feeds of newspapers, and technology in schools.
The growing adoption of personal ads implies that a transition is also
taking place in dating behavior. Previous studies of this
phenomenon have
been primarily conducted by researchers in the disciplines of family
studies, sociology and to a lesser extent, marketing. For example,
Hirschman analyzed the personals from a marketing perspective,
noting the
phenomenon as a "complex, heterogeneous marketing exchange."[18]
Other
studies have addressed the issue of physical appearance,[19]
aging,[20] deviance,[21]
relationship development,[22] gender differences[23] and differences based on
sexual orientation.[24]
Mate-seeking through similar electronic media has been explored in
articles recounting the experiences of popular communication patterns.
Users of the French Minitel system have been found to post
messages
soliciting romantic adventures to a community bulletin board, often
withholding their identity or using a pseudonym.[25] It has been
suggested
that this activity is seen as "the emotional equivalent of safe
sex in an
age when physical contact is often associated with
contamination."[26] Adelman
and Ahuvia reviewed the growth of "marriage market intermediaries" by
discussing various formats from video-dating services to personal
advertisements.[27] These researchers argued that these artificial
partner-seeking environments foster inappropriate disclosures that
actually
hinder the process rather than facilitating it .
Method
This study was conducted to gauge the extent of adoption of voice mail
personal advertisements. Additional information was sought about
the
reasons newspapers have added the ads, methods of responding to the
ads,
and the physical characteristics of this section of the
newspaper. This is
a descriptive study. No formal hypotheses were tested.
A telephone survey was conducted to measure the extent of the adoption of
personal advertisements by daily newspapers. The sampling frame
consisted
of 268 newspapers with circulations of 50,000 or more as listed
in Editor &
Publisher Yearbook, 1991. A random sample of 67 newspapers was drawn
using the systematic skip interval method.
From November 1992 to May 1993, interviews were conducted with classified
managers at each of the 67 newspapers. A 100 percent response rate was
achieved. The newspaper managers were called during regular
business
hours, typically in mid-afternoon when deadline pressure was less
likely to
interfere. Occasionally, reaching the right person to interview was
difficult. At one California paper, the interviewer was connected
with
seven different people before finally reaching the appropriate
person.
Approximately two to three calls were necessary to complete each
interview.
Two newspapers refused to answer the questions by phone but did reply via
fax.
These representatives were asked if the newspaper was running voice
personals, and if so, the year of adoption. Additional questions
addressed
any criteria used in accepting or rejecting ads, such as those from
gays/lesbians or "alternative lifestyle" ads, such as those seeking
multiple partners or more exotic variations. Other questions
concerned the
mechanics of the ads, the days of the week the ads ran, how responses were
made to the ads, and what costs were involved. A sample page (tear sheet)
was requested from each paper to verify these replies.
Findings
Nearly four out of five (55) of the newspapers reported carrying personal
advertisements, as Table 1 shows. An additional 11 percent of
the dailies
said they had plans to add the personals within the next few
months. Five
newspapers were not carrying dating ads, nor did they indicate
having any
plans for doing so.
Table 1
NEWSPAPER ADOPTION OF THE PERSONALS
Frequency
Percent
Carries
55
82.1
Plans to add
7
10.4
No plans to carry
5
7.5
67
100.0
Table 2 shows nearly two-thirds of the newspapers began running the ads
between 1991 and May of 1993.
Table 2
YEAR OF ADOPTION OF THE PERSONALS
Year Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
1993
6
10.9
100
1992
21
38.1
89.1
1991
17
30.9
50.9
1990
6
10.9
20.0
1989
1
1.8
9.1
1988
1
1.8
7.3
1987
3
5.5
5.5
Total
55
100
Figure 1 shows that the cumulative diffusion curve follows a classic
S-shaped pattern.
Figure 1
CUMULATIVE ADOPTION OF
PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENTS BY NEWSPAPERS
1987 - 1993
More than one third of personal ads sections (36 percent) occupied
one-half to one page of space. Another third of the papers filled 1
to 2
pages. Two newspapers (3 percent) had personal ads sections of
three pages
or larger while the remainder of the papers had sections of one-half a
page or less. Nearly two-thirds of the newspapers ran the
personals in a
full-sized section of the newspaper while a smaller percentage
presented
the personals in tabloid inserts.
More than a third of the dailies (36 percent) ran the ads on Fridays,
Saturdays and/or Sundays. Approximately 27 percent of the papers
ran the
ads on some combination of weekdays and about a quarter of the
papers ran
the ads seven days per week. A few papers had other
arrangements.
Newspapers also varied in the types of advertisements they would accept.
As Table 3 reveals, half (50.9 percent) would not accept gay
ads. Most
(76.4 percent) would not accept "alternative lifestyle" ads.
More than
two-thirds of the newspapers applied their own criteria to
screening the
language of the ads while 22 percent relied on a voice mail
service to
perform this task.
Table 3
ACCEPTANCE POLICY
Frequency
Percent
Accepts gay ads
27
49.1*
Does not accept gay ads
28
50.9
Frequency
Percent
Accepts alternative lifestyle ads
13
23.6
Does not accept alternative lifestyle ads
42
76.4
* Newspapers may have a combination of these policies, totals therefore do not
equal
100%.
Voice mail was found to be the most common method of responding to
personals (79 percent). Only nine papers offered the more traditional
way
of responding, which is by letter only (13.4 percent).
Frequently, the
daily newspaper was not the only local publication carrying the
personals.
Two-thirds of the papers surveyed had competition from another local paper
for personal advertisers (66 percent).
Although most of the newspapers surveyed would not reveal detailed
financial information, almost half of the papers indicated that the
ads had
been a financial success. According to one manager, the paper received
approximately 300 ads per month and that the average time spent
responding
is 3 minutes at a cost of $1.95 per minute. Even if the
advertiser's ad is
free, each ad generates approximately $108. This would result in revenues
of over $30,000 per month or roughly $400,000 per year. Another paper
indicated that their take was over $500,000 during the past year.
Many papers have invested in their own voice mail hardware. Others rely
on vendors. The financial success of the personals has been a
selling
point for the many voice mail vendors involved in the personal ads
business. Although this study did not specifically investigate the
involvement of vendors, many representatives mentioned that the work
load
(and the revenue) are shared with a vendor. Often, these
companies manage
the advertising placement, response retrieval, and reply process.
Most
vendors represent more than one newspaper. Compensation
arrangements vary.
For example, one newspaper representative indicated her paper takes 90
percent of the revenue generated from the ads and the vendor
retains 10
percent.
Discussion
The findings suggest that daily newspapers have adopted voice mail
personals as a course of action available to solve three problems:
revenue,
readership and service.
Revenue. A newspaper is primarily a business and in the midst of the
recent economic recession many papers sought ways to replace lost
revenue.
In many cases, the organizational decision was made to pursue a solution
through the adoption of a new technology--voice mail--which has
provided a
means of generating revenue through charges for access to
advertisers and
respondents.
Readership. The addition of personal ads suggests that newspapers are
looking to (1) increase readership of the newspaper by attracting
non-subscribers in general, (2) increase readership of the newspaper
by
the lucrative but shrinking younger audience and, (3) draw
readers into
the classified section of the newspaper in hopes that they would
read and
respond to other classified advertisements.
Service. Many of the newspapers cited the altruistic duty of the
newspaper to serve the public. One way of doing this was by helping
people
meet people. Representatives suggested that the dating community
is
changing because people are particularly busy, many of whom are
caring for
children. Women's involvement in the labor force was also cited.
These
characteristics of modern life therefore limit the options of
people
seeking to meet others.
It is important to note that this was a study of daily newspapers, rather
than of the alternative press. Those dailies that had not adopted the
personals cited reasons such as conflicts with the "family image"
of the
newspaper, not being a "proper role" for the daily newspaper and
attracting
unsavory advertisers to the paper. All of these reasons are part of
traditional perceptions surrounding personal advertisements. In
addition,
there is stigma associated with running an ad for a date. A
common
perception has been that a person must be desperate and dateless to do
so.
The widespread adoption of personal advertisements by the daily press
suggests that perceptions are changing on part of the public and
the
newspaper community.
Newspaper personal ads imply a changing role for the daily newspaper in
contemporary society. The mating trade is now worth millions of
dollars
and takes a variety of forms, from 1-900 telephone numbers to
introduction
services. The importance of this to newspapers is multi-fold. A
financial
problem for newspapers is the diminishing numbers of subscribers. This
translates into reduced audiences for advertising. As a result,
newspapers
have narrowly targeted sections in hopes of attracting more readers.
Efforts to capture the elusive younger audience has motivated many
newspapers to add personal advertisements to its repertoire of
services.
The personal ads section serves a need for users and viewers--a
dating and
entertainment function. These uses translate into hundreds of
thousands of
dollars a year in revenue. The amount of revenue generated is likely to
vary with market size, promotional efforts, and amount of repeat
business.
Newspapers also need to compete with other media for these audiences. To
do so, they must remain competitive technologically as well as in
terms of
their content. Newspapers have a variety of tools to serve
readers that go
far beyond the confines of the printed page. Fax information, on-line
data retrieval, and telephone news lines are now available to
provide
readers with a tremendous amount of information that the paper
simply does
not have room to print.
Some critics might suggest that providing access to dates for members of
the community is not a suitable role for the press. These
critics may feel
that using precious space to advertise call-in services for dates, jokes
and other seemingly frivolous items, trivializes the newspaper.
This may
lower the reputation of newspapers in the eyes of an increasingly
skeptical
readership.
In addition, personal advertisements and the voice technology used by them
may only be a fad--a passing fancy of readers soon to be replaced by some
other preoccupation. Newspapers are spending a considerable
amount of
money to carry these ads. Adopting voice personals requires that
the
newspaper pay for expensive voice mail equipment or to share the
revenue
with vendors. The opportunity for vendors to make a tremendous
amount of
money through the newspapers could be a problem. For example, a
newspaper
may unable to ascertain whether the vendor is operating in an
ethical
manner. For example, an unscrupulous vendor may seek to increase
responses
by planting intriguing yet phony ads. These are questions the newspapers
need to address when considering adoption of the personals,
summarized in
Table 4 (next page).
Table 4
Implications for Newspapers
of Carrying Personal Advertisements
Advantages
y Revenue producer.
y Attracts readers and potential subscribers.
y Provides a service to the community.
y Creates another use for the newspaper.
y Keeps the newspaper competitive with other media.
y Encourages relationships with outside vendors.
Disadvantages
y Requires the newspaper pay for expensive equipment or share revenue
with suppliers.
y A source of potential liability to the newspaper.
y A loss to the community of service as detracting from the proper role
of a
daily newspaper.
y Questionable nature of vendors.
The findings of this study suggest several areas of future research. For
example, the adoption of voice mail services in general, and
personal ads
specifically, suggests a fundamental change in the newspaper as
it has
traditionally been known. Future studies could exam this
changing role of
the newspaper. Another area of research is the phenomenon of the
organizational adoption of innovations by the newspaper. Also, factors
of
resistance to innovations on the part of newspapers. The
personal advertis
ements themselves represent a wealth of information on the users
and
readers of the daily paper. In addition, the availability of a
technology
that facilitates the dating and meeting process suggests a change
in
popular perceptions of securing a partner.
As well as being a possible source of new revenue and a sign of changing
lifestyles, voice mail personal advertisements also suggest a new
function
for the daily press, evolving out of people's basic information
needs.
That information can also include the availability of people
within the
community who are looking for some type of personal relationship.
Just as
one can order up information on how IBM stock is trading, so too
can people
call up to get more information about a "single white male, 32, looking
for good times." As the adoption of personal advertisements adds
to the
repertoire of products featured in an evolving daily press,
newspapers have
to face questions about the changing role of the newspaper in a changing
society. As individuals in a mass society come to rely on the
media for
information, the media respond by redefining themselves through
the
adoption of new communications technologies.
[1] Notes and References
Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovation
, 3rd Ed. (New York: The Free
Press, 1983), 11.
[2] Rogers, Diffusi
on, 15.
[3] J.L. Zagorsky, "Understanding the Economic Factors Aff
ecting
Help-Wanted Advertising," Journal of Advertising
(September, 1994): 75-85.
[4] W.D.Sloan, J.G. Stovall, and J.D. Start
t, The Media in America
(Worthington, Ohio: Publishin
g Horizons, 1989),88.
[5] Melvin L. DeFleur and Everette E. Dennis,
Understanding Mass
Communication, 5th ed. (Boston: Hough
ton Mifflin, 1994), 82.
[6] Sloan, Stovall and Startt, The Media in Am
erica, 121.
[7] DeFleur and Dennis, Understanding Mass Communication.
, 90-91.
[8] R. R. Szathmary, "Newspapers fight back: Innovations in
marketing,"
Sales and Marketing Management 44 (May 1992
): 57.
[9] D. Gersh, "The Latest on Classifieds," Editor & Publisher
, 12 July,
1986: 17.
[10] Gersh, "Classifieds," 17.
[11] C.
Fisher, "Help-Wanted: Newspapers Call to Arms in Fight Over
Classifieds," Advertising Age, 26 April 1993: S-1.
[12] W. Glab
erson, "Newspapers Redefining Themselves," New York Times,
26 April 1993.
[13] J. Deppa, "Will the Newspaper be the Dinosaur
of the 21st Century?"
presented at The S.I. Newhouse Sch
ool of Public Communication, Syracuse
University, Syracu
se, New York, 1993.
[14] Editor & Publisher, 3 March, 1993, 14.
[15]
R. Piirto, "Electronic News," American Demographics, 6 January,
1993, 6.
[16] Piirto, "Electronic, News," 6.
[17] Ro
gers, Diffusion, 135.
[18]
E.C. Hirschman, "People as Products: Anal
ysis of a Complex Marketing
Exchange," Journal of Market
ing 51 (January 1987): 98-108.
[19] J.E. Smith, V. A. Waldorf, an
d D.L. Trembath, "Single White Male
Looking for Thin, Ve
ry Attractive...," Sex Roles 23 (1993): 675-685.
[20] K.V. Irey, "
Interpersonal Communication Through the Mass Media:
Cha
racteristics of Personal Advertisers," Ph.D. dissertation, University
of Oklahoma, 1983.
[21] D.K.Darden and P.R. Koski, "Usi
ng the Personal Ads: A Deviant
Activity?" Deviant Beha
vior 9 (1988): 383-400.
[22] T. Montini and B. Ovrebro, "Personal Re
lationships Ads: An
Informal Balancing Act," Sociologic
al Perspectives 33 (1990): 333-334.
[23] S. Sitton and E.T. Rippee
, "Women Still Want Marriage: Sex
Differences in Lonely
Hearts Advertisements," Psychological Reports 58
(1986
): 257-258; S. Davis, S. "Men as Success Objects and Women as Sex
Objects: A Study of Personal Advertisements," Sex Roles 23 (
1990):
43-50.
[24] K. Deaux and R. Hanna, "Courts
hip in the Personals Column: The
Influence of Gender an
d Sexual Orientation," Sex Roles 11, (1984):
363-375.;
A.G. Davidson, "Looking for Love in the Age of AIDS: The
Language of Gay Personals, 1978-1988," The Journal of Sex Research 28
(1991):125-137.
[25] R.A. Palmquist, "The Impact o
f Information Technology on the
Individual," Annual Revi
ew of Information Science and Technology 27
(1992): 9
.
[26] J. Delacy, The Sexy Computer (1989). Quoted in Palmquist, R.
A.
"The Impact of Information Technology on the Individu
al," Annual Review of
Information Science and Technology
27 (1992): 9.
[27] M.B.Adelman and A.C.Ahuvia, "Mediated Channels
for Mate Seeking: A
Solution to Involuntary Singlehood," Critical Studie
s in Mass
Communication 8 (1991): 273-289.
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