Advertising Then & Now

24th February, 2010

On April 24, 1704 John Campbell was the first editor for the first newspaper in the United States of America. The Boston News-Letter published its first issue on this day. It was this same year in this publication that the first advertisement was printed; an announcement seeking a buyer for an Oyster Bay, Long Island, estate.

Fast forward two hundred years. The Associated Advertising Clubs of America, a group of agencies, advertisers and media representatives, is formed. In 1906 The AD Club launches a series of talks at NYU that becomes the first formal teaching about advertising to be offered by an educational institution. W.K. Kellogg places his first ads for Corn Flakes in six midwestern newspapers. By 1915, he is spending $1 million on national advertising.

In 1936 Life publishes its first edition. It later becomes the first magazine to carry $100 million annually in advertising. In 1953 The Advertising Research Foundation is established. 1976 The Supreme Court grants advertising First Amendment protection.

And now the internet …

In 1993 The Internet becomes a reality as 5 million users worldwide get online. By the end of 1998, Google had an index of about 60 million pages. Internet advertising breaks the $2 billion mark and heads toward $3 billion as the industry, under prodding from Procter & Gamble, moves to standardize all facets of the industry. In 2000, Google began selling ads, keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and click-throughs, with bidding starting at $.05 per click.

February 23, 2008 The Albuquerque Tribune closes after 86 years of print. October of that year the Christian Science Monitor announces their transfer from print to web only. The Tribune Co. files bankruptcy a month later, they own 12 newspapers including The Chicago Tribune, LA Times, and the Baltimore Sun. January 15, 2009 the Star Tribune Co. files for bankruptcy. They are the owner of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The following month, the Journal Register Co., which owns 20 daily newspapers including the New Haven Register and 160 non-daily newspapers across six states filed for bankruptcy. That day, Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. files for bankruptcy. Rocky Mountain News, 150 year old newspaper lost $16 million in 2008 forcing to close, announcing plans for an internet only news site. March of 2009 Hearst Corp. halts print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligence and goes online only. With a weekday circulation of over 261,000 (23rd largest newspaper), the San Diego Union-Tribune sells. The same month the Christian Science Monitor publishes its last print edition after 100 years moving to an online version. March 30 the Tribune Co. announces its combining operations of The Harford Courant newspaper along with television stations. The Detroit News and the Detroit Press cut delivery to three days only. The following day (March 31, 2009) the Sun Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun Times, files for bankruptcy. The beginning of April brought the New York Times Co. to force The Boston Globe to agree to $20 million in concessions.

I end this post with Bob Dylan’s song; Times They Are A Changin’

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

Stay tuned for the next post which will be discussing how the internet effects the buyer and what that means for the website and proper development.

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