Yesterday I received an email newsletter from For Rent Media Solutions. I enjoy receiving these email newsletters from my vendors as they generally have good industry information, new data, or just information I need to know.In yesterday's message there was a post titled "Magazine Ads Increase Web Traffic By More Than 40%." Just after reading that title I had to dig further. WOW, that's a big number, and I'm curious. As I read, the article pointed out the data was from the MPA (or Magazine Publishers of America), and they provided a link to the full report for the data.
Now they really had my attention. I love juicy data, and I was looking for a convincing reason for print to have a resurrection. As I began digesting the full report I quickly became disappointed. While the study they share is interesting and the analysis of the conclusions are explained well, I struggled with three issues in how the study was relevant to For Rent.
1. I have never considered For Rent Magazine a "magazine". It's not one of those publications I see on coffee tables or in rest rooms, and people do not read it for entertainment purposes or subscribe to it (that I know of). It is a book of listings.
2. The data generated for this study was from non-real estate related businesses, and I could not understand how the products they studied could relate to apartment homes.
3. The studies used for the data were run from 2003-2007. It's 2009, and so much has changed.
That being said, I challenge For Rent to help us all understand more about this study and how it relates to our industry in 2009. The summary For Rent made from the full report did not make it clear for me, and I'd like for them to expand on the findings. I would also enjoy anyone's thoughts on the topic, or statistics you can share from your own experiences with print driving Internet traffic.
Thanks and enjoy your day!
