Reminding local businesses that your newspaper is ready to help

Local newspapers and local businesses can strengthen each other

AS LOCAL BUSINESSES REOPEN after being shuttered for months, they understandably feel as if they are starting from nothing and with just about nothing. A free-to-use marketing campaign from America’s Newspapers reminds local businesses that their local newspaper stands ready to help them thrive again with the resources to bring customers in the door and get registers ringing again. These print- and digital-ready ads continue the “Newspapers have your back” theme that America’s Newspapers launched with ads urging people to support their local newspaper by subscribing in print or online. “Local newspapers have the print and digital advertising solutions to help businesses bring customers back and quickly regain lost revenue,” the text reads. “Local newspapers’ reach across products has never been higher. And with special packages tailored to local businesses, there are options for any size business with any budget.” The print ads include space for the name or logo of the newspaper publishing them. To access these ads, free of charge for your print or digital product, register at http://newspapers.org/ marketing-local-businesses/ or contact America’s Newspapers Chief Marketing Officer Greg Watson at gwatson@newspapers.org. Individual newspapers should consider augmenting the ads with editorial that notes the marketing power of publications that have been embraced by their audiences as invaluable — and trusted — sources of news and information during the coronavirus pandemic. Local businesses must reassure their customers that they are reopening safely — and advertising in the local trusted newspaper is the best way to communicate that message. And local newspapers can truly feel the pain of long-shuttered local business, because they are a struggling local business themselves. While they stayed open during lockdowns — continuing coverage that was free to everyone and printing and distributing papers as essential services on the dangerous front lines of COVID-19 — newspapers were forced to cut wages, furlough and even lay off longtime employees because of the cataclysmic collapse of their revenue sources. Though businesses stopped doing business with their local newspapers, the newspapers have not been idle. They have been designing advertising and marketing messages, platforms and pricing appropriate for any size business in the community. In this unprecedented time, local newspapers and local businesses can strengthen each other as they rebuild their community as pillars of information and enterprise. During this journey into unchartered territory, send the strong message to local businesses that NEWSPAPERS HAVE YOUR BACK.