I don't think anyone would seriously try to argue a direct correlation between ads and sales (other than marginally). The big splash ads are particularly easy to debunk financially. There are however those who insist that there is "value" for branding purposes. I have also heard it said that ad buys in the Times are in the nature of a donation to keep the coverage at current (albeit much depleted from "remember when" days) levels. And that has quite a bit of appeal. One would think that, were these donations to the paper to dry up, we could reasonably expect to see a further reduction.
It's worth noting that all of this will be moot in fairly short order. With the increase of video ads, interactive ads, and targeted ads, the value of a flat piece of paper, no matter how artful, seems to recede into absurdity. |
