Steve Crosbie, Managing Director of Job Board Operator SupplyChainRecruit.com considers the shift from print to online advertising in the job and recruitment sectors.
In the world of job and recruitment advertising there can be few that would challenge an assertion that the market is now “Online”.
Statistics speak for themselves in terms of general Internet usage and candidate job searching via Internet job boards. More candidates than ever before now rely upon the Internet as their primary source for new job leads, and to submit applications, and this trend continues unabated.
So, given this scenario, why are a small minority of advertisers still committing significant sums to print advertising of jobs, and what does the future hold for job and recruitment advertising in print?
There are three factors that account for some of the lingering attachment to print job and recruitment advertising. The first is regulatory requirements to advertise some public sector positions in the printed media, in order to comply with access and exposure rules and standards. It would seem a bit strange in the modern Internet world to suggest that advertising in printed media will actually ensure broad general access and exposure, but it keeps somebody in a job that may otherwise not exist! The second factor is poorly informed HR departments. This is perhaps a combined effect resulting from experiencing a warm comforting feeling on seeing their logo in print in their favourite broadsheet, and HR staff from the Jurassic period that are holding on for the Internet fad to pass. Mmmm! Finally we have to recognise that some media advisors and buying organisations are reluctant or failing to fully research the markets that they operate within, and are wilfully or mistakenly misleading clients in order to get the recruitment advertising budget spent.
In our own market we occasionally come across an employer that has committed the bulk of a recruitment advertising campaign budget to print inventory, and then comes to us asking if we can “do a deal” with the bit of budget remaining. The logic we face here is that the client has spent on print inventory perhaps ten times the amount that they want to spend on online inventory, and now wants a discounted deal as they think that the online campaign is just “mopping up”, even though the online inventory readership is twenty times greater than the print readership. You have to ask, why would the online media publisher do a deal in this scenario?
As a prolific reader myself I fully support the printed media world and I would hate to see its demise any further. However, the printed media industry has to accept that job and recruitment advertising is no longer the remit of printed media, and the sooner the printed media organisations adjust their strategies to reflect this, the sooner they will re-establish a viable commercial business proposition.
For employers and recruiters still clinging to the “Old” times, the drifting coffee aroma is getting stronger, and sooner or later it will become impossible to ignore the smell!
At the turn of the 20th Century John Wanamaker famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Had he been around today I think John would have been able to answer his own dilemma!
Supply Chain Management International Ltd, is the leading online advertiser of purchasing, procurement, logistics and supply chain job advertising. We are the only UK business dedicated exclusively to online purchasing, logistics, and supply chain job advertising, and support most leading employers.
