I spent the last few years knee-deep in strategy in media. In 2006, I began a consulting project that culminated in the rebirth and relaunch of NashvillePost.com, an online-only business and public affairs journal in Nashville that had gone dormant in late 2005 and was resurrected after an outcry from its community of paid subscribers. I joined The Nashville Post Company full-time in 2007, and by 2008, they had been acquired by SouthComm, which is trying to grow a portfolio of local niche publications.

Despite my years in the industry, I’m left with a nagging question: What is the value of print display advertising? If you’re an advertiser, what is the return on your investment? How do you measure it? Even more importantly, are you getting found? How do you know?

In IT, everything generates data: web servers, database servers, operating systems. Growing up in the industry on the side close to the machine, I was encouraged by the Web’s adherence to the importance of data. The same trends that could be visualized with regard to server performance could be visualized with regard to website performance. And all of this data could be converted to information used to improve IT systems.

When Google Analytics became freely available, the ability to convert website data to business intelligence became widespread. And it has only improved with services like Ominture (recently acquired by Adobe and demonstrating that this space is still very competitive) and Clicky, which is offering real-time analytics. And with the built-in ability to link AdWords to Google Analytics, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and search engine marketing (SEM) can be measured seamlessly with overall site performance and goals.

Print advertising is incredibly expensive. Interactive advertising is much cheaper by comparison. You can cover more media outlets, do much more sophisticated targeting, and much more easily measure both impressions and conversions.

I’m not suggesting total abandonment of print display because I recognize its utility in some contexts. I know that some print advertising goes beyond mere display and offers opportunities for some basic metrics, e.g., coupons. And sometimes for events or other time-sensitive campaigns, blanket media coverage can be advantageous.

But for retail and restaurants, for venues and value-adds, I’m interested in the efficiency of print display campaigns. If you’re a print display advertiser or media buyer, I’d love to hear your thoughts about how you decide on a budget for print display advertising versus online advertising in the comments. If you’re a sales rep who pitches print display, what’s your pitch?

And if you need to advertise and you’d like to lower your costs, measure and improve your success, and get found, I encourage you to contact us. And if part of the issue is that your website isn’t serving your business as well as it should, then we can help with web design, too.