Holiday Ad Increase

Ad Increase Predicted During Holidays

      With holiday sales lagging, retailers are slashing prices and filling newspapers with ads announcing price cuts.
        Moreover, some retailers are expected to race back to newspapers to buy last-minute run-of-press (ROP) ads announcing additional price cuts as they occur.
        Newspapers are having it both ways: they benefit from retailers who fixed their ad schedules before they realized the extent of pre-holiday sales sluggishness, and now the papers are picking up last minute ads announcing price cuts.
        A department store executive said newspaper ad executives must now prove whether or not they are retailers’ friends.
       "The best way they [newspapers] can be helpful is to understand the current dilemma of the big retailers," said the department store executive. "Help them with position, help them with price and help them with reaction – ability to make last-minute changes to ads if necessary."
        Newspapers "are likely to do modestly well," said Kurt Barnard, president of "Barnard’s Retail Trend Report" in Upper Montclair, N.J. "We see this holiday season as being more promotional than a year ago. He said some retailers may buy additional newspaper ads to promote sales, but that "a lot of retailers are going to go into television."

– from Editor & Publisher