By Sarah Billingsley, AWN Communications Director

This is a tough call.   Is this just another sign of the times, or have daily newspapers finally realized this may be the only way to gain some of the lost display ad revenue that has diminished so rapidly over the past decade?

According to Editor & Publisher last week, National Newspaper Network, the so-called marketing arm of the newspaper industry in this country, is offering a guaranteed “last ad free” to national advertisers if ad campaigns in their newspapers fail to reach 10% increase in sales volume.   Is this a throw-down challenge, or desperate attempt to gain any advertising using a more radical sales approach, and making it a public marketing initiative at the same time?

In my opinion, we devalue our products and our industry when we extend ourselves too far. There’s always a time and place for negotiation, but this seems to be a case of lowering expectations. Are newspapers taking too big a gamble?

Read more about this topic on E&P here.