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Newspapers Courting Moms, Families

Advertisers looking to reach the hot “new” demographic - America’s moms - may do well to designate some ad dollars to the most traditional of advertising: newspapers.

Newspapers across the country are focusing on doing a better job of offering mothers better content, according to Media Life. The trend follows the rise of the Examiner chain, which offers free dailies in San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and which has made a point to reach young mothers by offering home delivery in targeted neighborhoods.

Mothers have always been readers of newspapers, but publishers are only beginning, in recent years, to do a better job of targeting to them. The Charleston, S. C., Post and Courier, for example, realized that mothers have most of the purchase power in families, and began shifting focus to mothers three years ago.

The paper’s advertising and circ departments collaborated to target 16 zip codes where they believed they could add new families of readers. Then they began to filter everything, from marketing to news coverage, through the eyes of mothers and families.

Newspapers are a good way to reach mothers because they are a difficult demo to pinpoint by other traditional mass media; mothers are busier than ever, and are less likely to watch television or even to be at home.

With that in mind, some newspapers such as the Indianapolis Star are beginning to offer niche websites for moms.

Others, such as The Atlanta Journal Constitution, are reaching out to mothers by offering special subscription prices to families.