Buying ethnic papers becomes a lot easier

'The
traditional advertisers are mainly interested in the first tiers of the ethnic media, which tend to be concentrated in the densely populated, urban ethnic communities. But there’s a far greater number of second- and third-tier publications.'

Buying ethnic papers
becomes a lot easier

Networks emerging to offer one-stop service

By Gabriel Spitzer

    For advertisers seeking to reach America's increasingly diverse ethnic communities through their local papers, the hurdles may seem insurmountable.
    Ethnic newspapers can be hard to find, at least for those outside their communities, and it can be even harder to place advertising if you don't speak the language, never mind pronouncing the publication's name.
    Little can be done about this last point, but thanks to a few pioneering associations, taking advantage of the unique reach of these papers is getting easier.
    Associations are springing up to help advertisers locate papers and place ads.
    One is New California Media, or NCM, which represents some 400 ethnic publications statewide. It bills itself as a "one-order, one-bill ad placement service," and its model is being replicated elsewhere in the country.
   The timing could not be better for advertisers and the papers.
    "They are beginning to attract mainstream advertisers. U.S. advertisers are obviously aware of what’s happened with the census," says John Kimball, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the Newspaper Association of America.
    "To be relevant as businesses, advertisers need to reach into all parts of the population. Whether these papers are Latin, Korean, Chinese, Japanese or anything else, the advertisers are realizing that that’s their customer base as well."
    Groups like NCM represent a breakthrough for advertisers because they allow them for the first time to reach beyond the first tier of ethnic media, the Univisions and Telemundos that now take the greatest share of ethnic advertising.
    Situated in the nation’s most ethnically diverse state, NCM has member publications representing readers from China, Japan, Greece, Iran, Armenia, Cambodia, Brazil, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Korea, Russia, Pakistan, Romania and Hungary, as well as many well-established newspapers catering to California’s African-American and Latino communities.
    "The traditional advertisers are mainly interested in the first tiers of the ethnic media, which tend to be concentrated in the densely populated, urban ethnic communities. But there’s a far greater number of second- and third-tier publications," says Julian Do, business development manager for the nonprofit NCM.
    With services like NCM available, agency buyers no longer have to worry about language barriers, time-consuming readership research and, most importantly, finding the papers themselves.
    NCM coordinates the buy across many publications at once.
     "We tailor the ad buy to the advertiser. If they want to reach Cambodian communities, we’d know which media would be the best and also the cost," says Do.
    "It’s not economical for traditional advertisers to try to reach out to every one of these communities. We try to break down these economic barriers by developing a network that includes all of these groups. Advertisers can go through our systems, and we do the media placements for them," says Do.
     On the other coast, New York City is home to some 200 ethnic publications—a number that has grown by over 30 percent in the last decade alone.
    There the Independent Press Association is busily working to streamline the ad sales process for its constituents.
    "Our members felt that their market niches weren’t being taken seriously, and it took a lot more for them to get seen because they’re not attached to big companies," says Abby Scher, director of the Independent Press Association-New York.
    In response to its members’ concerns, the IPA is forming an advertising cooperative, set to launch early next month.
    "It can be difficult to form an association for publications that are not part of other newspaper associations in the U.S. You have to sell the material benefits of cooperation. But just this month we began coordinating our rate sheets to produce a standard ad packet," says Scher.
    The cooperative already has 35 members, weighted heavily towards the IPA’s more news-driven member publications. Scher hopes to eventually recruit up to one-half of New York City’s 200 ethnic publications for the ad cooperative.
    Scher recently met with a representative from BBDO to figure out how to fashion advertiser-friendly packages. The advertising cooperative will create suggested bundles, but advertisers will be free to mix and match at will.
    The IPA is also working closely with the Audit Bureau of Circulations to make it easier for ethnic publications to have audits done.
    As it turns out, this is not as easy as it seems.
    "There’s a very serious question as to whether the cost of an audit is worth the delivery of the advertisers that they need," says Scher.
    "One of the things that makes the audit so costly is when your bookkeeping and records haven't been done according to the habits of U.S. publishing. So we realized that a way to help our members is to change their records so that the audits become affordable."
    As America’s ethnic communities continue to grow and their publications multiply, professional associations like NCM and IPA will become more important to advertisers.
    "I think you’ll see the continuation of associations that speak to those specific needs. The NAA is also a natural conduit for those papers to reach into that mainstream advertising audience as well," says the NAA’s Kimball.
   The NAA already lays claim to several of the nation’s largest ethnic dailies, such as the Miami Herald’s widely read Spanish language edition, El Nuevo Herald.
   "We may be wise to start thinking about more outreach services for ethnic newspapers as well."

-Gabriel Spitzer is a staff writer for Media Life.

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