Print ads see resurgence as hiring source?

Posted on March 28, 2007
Filed Under Online Recruiting, Advertising Mistakes, Employment Websites, Best Practices |

There was an article in Workforce Management magazine the other day that touted the fact that print ads are on the rebound. They called it a “resurgence.”

At first I got excited. Maybe print is on the way back, I thought. I used to be a print publisher. This would be good news.

Then reality hit.

Heck - I read the newspaper each and every day, but am the first to say that it just ‘doesn’t work’ like it used to. The Internet has taken over the delivery of our news, and in this case, the recruitment advertising space. Over 90% of jobseekers ’start’ their jobsearch online. They can find exactly what they are looking for in minutes using simple search queries. No need to wait till Sunday to pick up a newspaper. No need to scan multiple sections. No need to wonder what the company culture is because the small classified ad just does not present it.

So what was the increase in prints response? The study conducted by Career-Xroads, Mark Mehler’s group, stated that now 7% of hires are made from print. This is up from 4.6%, reported in the 2005 study. It did not really differentiate what type of print. Is this daily newspaper? Suburbans? Trade journals? Not sure.

So how does this finding compare to the Internet? Many studies have shown that nearly 51% of all hires are made from the Internet.

Hmmmm - 7% v. 51%.

Unfortunately the majority of advertising dollars are still being spent in print. Make sense?

I don’t think so.

If you had the opportunity to fill your gas tank with a new, high-efficiency fuel that costs 20% less than normal gasoline and got you seven times the distance, would you continue to fill your tank with regular gas and use the justification of “Well, this is I have always done it.”