I have to admit, I rather enjoyed this story from the Miami Herald website. Basically it reports that the parent company of the Miami Herald, McClatchy Co., reported a 9.5 percent decline in their second-quarter profits and they have attributed the loss to a “sharp falloff in real estate advertising…”.
For the past two years the Herald has reported on, and seemed to hope for the meltdown of the South Florida real estate market. Now while I’m all for transparency in real estate, it felt and read as if the Miami Herald went out of its way to CREATE the real estate downturn.
As a real estate professional, I know that the only people who look at the real estate section of the newspaper are the sellers, NOT the buyers. It is common knowledge that over 70% of the BUYERS of real estate start their search on the net. It would seem that the Miami Herald asked for, AND got, what they deserved.
Categories: Miami Real Estate
19 Responses to “Miami Herald’s coverage of real estate market creates self-fulfilling prophecy”
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July 19th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
OOOhhhh…You tell them!
(finger nails schreeching down the blackboard!)
July 19th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Caroline,
It wasn’t meant as a post to “get” them, it was more to highlight that the reality of the market was never as bad as the Herald portrayed it. The consequences of their slanted view affects us all.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
It really isn’t their job to make us happy.
All I would ask for would be balanced and ACCURATE reporting of the story not their perception of it.
July 21st, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Couldn’t agree with you more. Sellers are the only ones looking to see their ads. It will be interesting to what the big media companies end up doing.
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:09 am
I heard that the Miami Herald is starting some initiative to get the real estate industry to advertise on-line. Think it’s a bit too late.
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:27 pm
The media….sometimes our biggest enemy.
July 30th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I’ve been wondering why agents who say the only reason they spend money on traditional advertising is to appease and placate sellers, also say their fees are high due to advertising costs?
August 1st, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Kevin,
I agree that the Herald went out of its way to portray a disastrous South Florida real estate market. However, we must remember that all markets have cycles. For the past 5 years we’ve had an “unreal market” that was overheated, on overdrive, …whatever you want to call it.
Today, the market is correcting itself, in other words, the prices are adjusting. To make matters worse, our extremely high insurance rates and real estate taxes are driving second and third home buyers away from Florida. So….it is more than just the Herald gloom and doom projections. We’ve got to stop whining and ride it out. We realtors have to adjust!
August 3rd, 2007 at 12:21 am
I have to agree with Josephine. The media is just portraying things as they are. Their stories make headlines but they are reporting an accurate portrayal of our current market condition. The media wrote stories about how “red hot” the market was a few years back which helped our cause. Now, our market has slowed down and they are writing articles about how things are today.
We need to educate sellers about the true market condition in order for transactions to once again occur. The media has nothing to do with our business affairs. They are just reporting things as they are.
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Both my blog and website rank higher than any local or large publications in my area. I flew a $500 per month banner on the top of the local papers website for 3 months to test if it would attract worthwhile local traffic. Had a hits to the banner, no contacts. The classified ads go to their website automatically, the larger, higher priced ads do not. Their site does not garner the traffic that my own does.
So why should I donate money to them?
And explain to me, when I have other viable options for transmitting information directly to buyers and sellers, why I would utilize an industry that is contributing to the denigration of mine?
August 4th, 2007 at 3:06 am
Lucas
The media is reporting on the “bubble bursting” in Miami. The problems Miami will have are in the future. Most of the buildings are not yet finished. It is like measuring a baby who hasn’t been born yet.
I get calls from reporters on the market all the time. When they call, they already have the story “scripted” in their head. If I make a contradictory quote—it NEVER gets printed.
August 4th, 2007 at 3:09 am
Laurie
I think that using the newspaper as a vehicle for real estate advertising is not effective anymore—considering that almost 80% of the people start their real estate search on the net.
The newspapers can’t compete with micro-sites like ours because they don’t and won’t have the content to get AND keep eyeballs.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:03 am
You’re shooting the messenger. The Herald is one of the best papers in the United States.
Supply exceeds demand and as more condos come on the market,the oversupply will be higher.
August 5th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Hi again Kevin,
Got here via that link in Collen’s AR post. Glad we did. There’s always great information coming from you for your market… and we’ll be back.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Woody
Supply exceeds demand in the whole United States, hello!
August 5th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Richard
Thanks for the support. I’ve heard great things about Lake Tahoe blog.
August 6th, 2007 at 2:38 am
Kevin,
Touche…what goes around comes around sooner or later! It only makes sense that it would drop off since 80+% of the Buyers come from the Internet. You would have to be a fool to invest in print ads, now.
Great piece.
-Gena Riede
August 7th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
It seems that you cannot go online or read a major media source without a gloom & doom story popping up, but some market area have reamined stable or had appropriate appreciation. The media thrives on bad news scenarios and I refuse to support them with my advertising dollars - I haven’t ran any print advertising in our local newspapers in over 12 months and I still manage to sell houses.
I have the documented stats available to my agents, but many potential buyers still don’t get it - real estate is local! You cannot make a significantly low offer in a stqable and appreciating market and expect to be favorably received.