It’s no surprise these days that newspapers have been one of the heaviest hit by consumers’ usage of online content to get their news updates. Subscriptions to newspapers are down nationwide and significant media budgets allocated to newspaper ads in the past have moved to other mediums. So what is the Union Tribune doing to recapture this loss? Well, a few years ago the paper conducted a major overhaul of the layout of the newspaper with mixed reviews. It also changed its name to UT San Diego. One of my former gripes with the paper was that they weren’t willing to negotiate with media buyers even as readers were dropping like proverbial flies. It appears the downturn has forced them into, finally, getting on board with new media in a way readers and advertisers can respond to.
I recently met with my sales rep for the UT to get updates on their new offerings.
Now, they still have traditional newspaper ads and email lists and they’ve come out with a couple of new magazines, Healthy Living Magazine and Coastal Living Magazine. That’s not what I’m excited about though. What I’m excited about is their new UT-TV that airs on Cox Cable channel 114 and AT&T U-Verse channel 17 (and soon to add Time Warner Cable). The shows also stream live 24/7 on utsandiego.com.
The UT Live streaming demographic is primarily 52 year old adults who are college graduates, are married and own a home and make an annual income of $102,000 a year. Television ratings are yet to be reported. One of the benefits of advertising on their stations is that if you’re an advertiser that doesn’t have an ad produced, they’ll make an ad for you at no extra charge depending on the number of ads you’re ordering. This will help smaller advertisers get onto television in an affordable way.Their shows are Front Page with Scott & Amber from 6 to 10 a.m. featuring local and national news and entertainment, Wonderland with Noah Tafolla from 10-11 a.m. 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. covering the history, places and people of San Diego Neighborhoods, The Roger Hedgecock Show from 11 a.m. to Noon and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., The Sports Page with Acee and Annie from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., Night & Day with Chris Cantore and Michelle Guerin from 2 to 3 p.m., 7 to 8 p.m. and 11p.m. to 12 a.m., Prime Time with Taylor Baldwin from 3 to 6 p.m. covering breaking news stories, and a few other shows on the weekend.
