What’s wrong with this picture?
Well, the obvious is that the cat is eating the dog’s food. That is nothing earth shattering. I suppose cats across America this morning are feasting on someone else’s kibble. Given the whole picture, however, you would see that the dog’s food is located on an ugly and tattered forest green towel on the floor of the family room. Now, this is criminal! Heads should roll.
Let’s play again. What’s wrong with this picture, courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribune?
As we continue to evaluate the best use of our resourcesin a challenging environment, the Personal Technology section that has been a fixture in the Monday newspaper is being eliminated.
Well, from the first line, “resources” and “in” should be their own stand-alone words. Given the source, a professional purveyor of the written word, that is too obvious. On closer inspection, the decision to eliminate any coverage of that which is primarily responsible for declining readership and will arguably prove the ultimate demise of the paper seems just so out of context given the bigger picture. Heads should roll.
Be assured, we will continue to cover personal technology in the Business section and other sections of the newspaper.
The weekly video game reviews and the Macintosh and Windows question-and-answer columns will continue to appear in the newspaper and on SignOnSanDiego.com.
Where’s Waldo?
Last week, they nuked the stock quotes from the business section. This one makes sense. The Local section, however, has been retooled to look like a high school newspaper (no offense to high schools intended), with Page One articles on potholes and overgrown street trees dominating the “news”. Job classifieds have been relocated from the Business section to the regular Classifieds section. This is not because someone suddenly discovered that “jobs” and “business” are unrelated, but because the Classifieds section has been wasting away on life-support for awhile.
In August, they proudly announced, in what was described as a “bold move”, the following:
In an attempt to maintain readership of its classified advertising in the face of competition from growing Web sites, The San Diego Union-Tribune will begin offering free classified ads to individuals.
Wow! That will work! The biggest source of advertising revenue from classified ads continues to be in the real estate category, but even that segment has just seen its first declining quarter since 2000. Blame it on the market, but I wouldn’t expect this cash cow to hear the dinner bell and return home any time soon. Our dollars have migrated to the Internet. You can read about it in the Personal Technology section. Oh, wait…
The punch line is that at a time when they need the real estate agent and their advertising dollar most, they have done everything possible to alienate the industry. In the face of our thundering out-migration, they penalized the few remaining loyal advertisers by raising the ad rates. At the same time, they launched a veritable assault on the image of the profession through column after column misrepresenting and denouncing the agent’s income, belittling the agent’s worth, and then, when the market turned, celebrating the fact that so many were being forced out of their livelihood. As for the real estate market news, even not-so-negative numbers were buried in a wall of fine-print words with a headline screaming Armageddon.
I could have forgiven all of this, but the reality is that my ads no longer generate inquiries or interest. None. Zip. Crickets.
According to the Union Tribune’s Director of Advertising, Scott Whitley:
“This is not a move out of desperation. It really is about growing readership with content – and advertising is content.”
Paid advertising is even better content, I bet. What’s wrong with this picture?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kris Berg is Co-Owner and Designated Broker of San Diego Castles Realty. If not-so static web sites are your thing, go here at once where you will find loads of real estate information including homes for sale, market trends, floor plans and more. Kris's hobbies include fencing and spot welding. She likes kittens. 
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds like Mr. Whitley needs to pull his head out of … the sand … and get a clue.
It just can’t be much fun to be in the newsprint bidness these days.
Almost feel sorry for these folks. Being in the newspaper business these days has got to be a bit like being in the horse-’n-buggy business back in, say, 1910.
Realogy (formerly Cendant, formerly something else), who owns Coldwell Banker, C-21, ERA, et al, announced that they would be curtailing something like 70% of their print ad budget recently.
And, Lyon Real Estate, in Sacramento, announced that they would eliminate ALL print media advertising soon.
I haven’t run a print ad in the past 7 years because it doesn’t work.
C-B says they will advertise your home every day until it is sold, but try to read the 2pt Times Roman ads!
Print real estate ads consist of itty bitty heads with itty bitty houses, saying “Hurry ~ this one won’t last!”.
Followed by “Price Just Reduced”, thereby proving it did!
Someone needs to stick a fork in these guys ~ they done!
Thank you gentlemen. Even I, the one who in the past has strongly promoted “Open House” and other real estate advertising in the SD UT, have finally reached my breaking point. Actually I reached it several months ago and have been trying to convince Kris to stop wasting our marketing $$. I think she is finally ready to agree with me.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. These guys, in their abundant wisdom, devoured one of their top revenue sources. Sick.
If I have to read one more article about how terrible the market is and how horrible realtors are while they have their hand out to take my money I will go crazy! The worst part is that now that I am looking for other places to spend my marketing dollars, I am finding that the our main local paper owns or manages many of the smaller publications also – they are everywhere I want to be!
Print ads have been the tool of big spending Realtors for a long time. It’s a tool that’s used not for buyers but to show sellers how important their home is. Agent say’s to seller, “Look your ad here” and the sellers and the Realtors ego are both inflated. Let newspaper die. They long ago stopped being a lofty profession of written truth. Good Morning America and the others give us the headlines, “Will Britney lose her children” and the print follows.
We are doomed.
Agents have known for awhile that the print classified ads no longer work. They have hung in there for as long as they have because the sellers are still expecting to see their homes there. That’s changing.
My daughter and I had a long discussion about this last night. She is the aspiring journalist, and insists that if done properly, the newspaper will continue to have a place. I don’t entirely disagree, as I don’t get the same reading experience when curled up with my laptop. Her proposition: Instead of trying to “break news” and beat the online publications to the scoop (which they can’t), they should focus more on analysis and reporting the sublayers of the story, contemporary topics but in a more news magazine format.
In any event, if the papers are to survive, it is going to take more than free classifieds and a token, difficult to navigate, visually obnoxious online mirror of the print content (in our case, SignOnSanDiego). It is going to take more than beating your main revenue source bloody in a desperate attempt to generate headlines and readership. It is going to require a complete retooling.
On the subject of SignOnSanDiego, here’s a fun fact. I can’t advertise my open homes there without first buying the print ad, and I can’t buy the print ad without paying to advertise on SignOnSanDiego. The tail is wagging the dog.
That’s funny. It is ironic that the San Diego realtor community is turning against the local newspaper for “unfair” coverage. It is what it is; most people know the reality. It sure was a cozy relationship on the ride to the top. Then all the stories you heard was about real estate being a great “investment”. Meanwhile the NAR was lobbying Congress to encourage the idiotic loan programs that fueled the bubble while all along justifying the dramatic price increases with bogus arguments (now it’s the evil mortgage brokers, realtors had nothing to do with it). The justice department is also suing the NAR for their unfair MLS monopolistic practices on the MLS. No offense, but Realtors really need to take a fresh look at things instead of the constant blame game that is getting so old.
The articles seem well written to me; especially Dean Calbreath who is a breath of fresh air in the San Diego real estate community. Real analysis and great insight. Most realtors would call him an “alarmist” or worse.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/calbreath/index.html
As far as rate cuts go…….Although they may slow the process down for a few quarters, the rate cuts will neither prevent the recession nor keep house prices from collapsing. But they will cost us dearly. The dollar’s fall, which had been held somewhat in check by the possibility of a hawkish Fed, has accelerated in earnest now that the curtain has been pulled back.
Unlike previous bouts of Fed easing, this time any additional liquidity will not artificially pump up the economy or the housing market, but merely accelerate the rise in consumer prices and eventually push up long-term interest rates as well. If Americans are having problems making mortgage payments now, think of how much more difficult the task will become when food and energy prices double. If you think mortgage rates are high now, wait to you see how much higher they rise after a few rate cuts. After all, with the dollar in free-fall, will foreign savers really want to buy our mortgage backed securities, or lend us any more money at single digit interest rates?
For some reason everyone seems to think the Fed can bail out homeowners and mortgage lenders without anyone picking up the tab. There is no such thing as free lunch, especially if served by the Fed. If Congress does not raise taxes to fund a legitimate, although ill-advised bailout, then the Fed can not perform the same task for nothing. As the additional dollars the Fed creates reduce the value of all other dollars already in circulation, the cost for the “bailout” is simply borne by all holders of U.S. dollars.
Joey from LA – That’s a pretty good diatribe overall. A few clarifcations are in order, though, if I may. Let me first go on record to dispute that the San Diego realtor community is turning against the local newspaper for unfair coverage. Actually that part is true. However, it was not a cozy relationship on the way to the top as you suggest. At that time (pre-Dean Calbreath) the San Diego UT had regular articles condemning Realtors for all the money they were making. Now that they’re not (making gobs of money) you see not one word of mercy. It’s okay. It is what it is, as you say. I guess the fact that demand was far outstripping supply and that many homeowners were granted an unexpected nest egg just wasn’t that important…even though it was fairly unprecedented, even considering the previous up cycles in the ’70’s and 80’s.
I agree that Dean Calbreath is a decent writer. Certainly more insightful that his predecessors and peers.
Regarding the Fed, I also happen to agree with you (although it’s a stretch to suggest that food and energy prices will double from their current levels any time soon). Otherwise, good comment. Thanks!