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[/responsive]In an industry where huge agencies direct massive amounts of advertising spend, one man or woman’s opinion can have dramatic implications. So we were pleasantly surprised to read this comment from Martin Sorrell, head at media-buying behemoth WWP.
“There is an argument at the moment going on about the effectiveness of newspapers and magazines, even in their traditional form, and maybe they are more effective than people give them credit [for],” Sorrell said to a group of broadcasters at a UK event in last month.
Sorrell’s comments were noted in this article by Michael Sebastian in AdAge titled “Martin Sorrell: Magazines, Newspapers Deserve More Credit for Effectiveness.”
What’s striking about this is that Sorrell, in his work with WPP, has diverted massive amounts of money away from print ads and toward digital in the last few years. Among the company’s favorites have been Google (benefitting from almost $3 billion dollars in media investment from WPP), Facebook and Twitter.
So if the man behind much of the push to spend dollars on digital is now saying print deserves more credit, the publishing world is bound to pay attention.
What amazes me is how much this industry can be driven by powerful and influential people, irrespective of results. Maybe people are realizing they drank a little too much of that Kool-Aid?
Regardless of the reason for Sorrell’s turnabout, it’s welcome (and sensible) news for the print publishing industry.