Different Strokes for Different Folks

Newspapers Are a Joke But They Can Teach You Marketing
By Michael Port

You may have seen this “joke” before. It’s a good one – because there is truth in it.
There’s also a marketing lesson in it. See if you can find it. I’ll reveal it at the end of the joke.

1.The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2.The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

3.The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.

4.USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.

5.The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country — if they could find the time — and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.

6.The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a poor job of it, thank you very much.

7.The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8.The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9.The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.

10.The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country, or galaxy.

11.The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.

12.The Minneapolis Star Tribune is read by people who have recently caught a walleye ice fishing and need something in which to wrap it.

Think about it. Each paper speaks to the world view of a particular “group” of people. If you are part of the group that reads that Wall Street Journal and you see someone else reading The Journal you feel connected to them. You are part of the same group, or as Seth Godin would say, tribe.

This is the job of the marketer – to make you feel like you’re part of something, that your world view is right and is shared by others who are also right.