Mention city newsstands and the first thought to flash by might well be a scene from an old "Law & Order," where detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green are interviewing some stubby-chinned news dealer about the reading habits of a recently departed customer.
That's old New York, where the streets were crime-ridden and newsstands great ugly boxes cluttered with newspapers, magazines and candy and of course stubby-chinned old men with cigars dangling from their lips.
The new look is quite different, and it’s popping up in cities around the country. These newsstands are essentially brilliant street signage, large and eye-arresting and often backlit, so they are visible at night as well.
They're urban fashion statements that happen to sell newspapers and magazines.
To find out how to get your client’s message on urban newsstands, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Advertising on the sides of newsstands on the streets of major cities.
Who
For this article, Media Life looked at Cemusa North America and JC Decaux North America, but media buyers are advised to do a thorough search in their markets. Availability varies widely from city to city.
How it works
If the old look of newsstands was that of jumbled shacks, the new look is that of a permanent structure designed to fit in with the neighborhood and other structures, such as shelters, benches and street lamps, that make up a city’s street furniture.
While designs vary from city to city, typically the back of the stand has a large ad panel that faces the street, with smaller panels facing the sidewalk in either direction.
In some cases, as in San Francisco, the newsstands are circular structures and the display panel wraps around them.
The ads are printed on paper and displayed within a tempered glass frame. The panels are illuminated from behind.
Newsstand advertising offers the same benefits as ads on bus shelters. They create a strong presence on the street, catching the attention of people walking on the sidewalk as well as people on buses and in cars riding past.
Newsstand advertising is often used for branding but it can also be particularly effective for products sold at the stand. When Time Out launched its Chicago edition in 2004 it purchased ad space on all of the city’s newsstands.
Newsstand advertising is often used in conjunction with bus shelters as part of a larger citywide campaign.
Markets
The new high-impact newsstand displays are available in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and more cities are expected to be added to that list.
 |
The Newsstand Association of Philadelphia, made up of the majority of the city’s newsstand owners, is working with city agencies to introduce newsstand advertising in that city.
Numbers
There's little research on the effectiveness of newsstand advertising because it is relatively new but one study in New York found that 65 percent of respondents noticed the ads on newsstands and bus shelters and 52 percent said the ads made them want to buy the products advertised.
The survey was commissioned by Cemusa and conducted by research firm Market Probe International to assess people’s reactions to New York's coordinated street furniture project, which was commissioned by the city and awarded to Cemusa in 2006.
How it is measured
Impressions can be estimated using Traffic Audit Bureau data on foot and vehicular traffic.
What product categories do well
Frequent newsstand advertisers include movies and entertainment, airlines, fashion and autos.
Demographics
Newsstand ads are a mass medium designed to be seen by a wide range of people yet some targeting can by done by location -- for example New York's Upper East Side to reach affluent consumers and Wall Street to reach the investment community.
Making the buy
Cemusa North America offers advertising at 130 newsstands in four New York boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, each with two panels.
Sizes vary but on one particular stand the rear panel is 69 inches high and 121 inches wide while the side panel is 68 inches high and 47 inches wide. Cemusa will install a total of 330 newsstands in New York City by 2026.
JC Decaux North America offers newsstand advertising in Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. They are sold in conjunction with bus shelter advertising.
 |
In Chicago's downtown, there are 12 newsstands, with three more being installed by the summer. These newsstands have three ad panels measuring 47 inches wide and 69 inches high. In San Francisco, the company has 69 cylindrical newsstand kiosks, each with two ad panels 11.4 feet high. In Los Angeles, JC Decaux has six newsstands, each with one back panel for advertising.
Who’s already using newsstand advertising
Recent or current newsstand advertisers include Time Out Chicago, HBO, HSBC, Bebe, Delta Airlines, Jaguar and Disney.
Web site info
Cemusa
http://www.cemusany.com
JC Decaux
http://www.jcdecauxna.com
