SaaS verdict on print: Dead, getting deader

Last year The Simpson's television show declared that print "is dying." (Ha-Ha.) While many, if not all, commentators believe the world will be a lesser place without print journalism, they admit its demise is inevitable. And there's also the funereal Newspaper Death Watch to prove the point.

If you think it's been rough in the print world lately, you won't like what's coming. The business pressures on print are about to accelerate. That's because the data marketers use to determine where to spend their promotion dollars will increasingly show that in-store purchases are driven by online marketing campaigns.

According to Joe Davis, CEO of Coremetrics, a San Mateo, Calif., provider of SaaS business intelligence tools, data is beginning to show that basic online Marketing 101--buying keywords on search engines to get people to visit a website--is getting people to drive cars to stores and buy products.

What's more, Davis says, savvy marketers are learning that if they spend more online it "will drive more traffic into stores."

If they spend more there, marketers will spend less elsewhere.

Davis is not relating anecdotal evidence. It's data from companies like REI, Costco and Williams-Sonoma, who've been able to marry information about those who surf their websites and then buy in a store. The numbers vary, but he says for every dollar marketers get through promoting their online business, it also can create between $5-8 of increased in-store sales.

Unlike the harsh assessment of Nelson Muntz, Davis never proclaimed that print was dead. But if those figures translate similarly for more retailers, expect fewer and thinner newspapers and magazines sooner than even the most pessimistic among us believe.